Fiction Friday - Down By The River

I read the Bible every year, and often think about backstories to characters that are not told. Why did Rebekah favor Jacob over Esau? What was Adam and Eve's relationship like before the fall into sin? How awful/exciting would it have been to live on the ark for all those months? I'm currently in the "Ten Commandments" part...

The King sighed when he saw who had just walked in.

"Dismiss the court!" he told his vizier. In minutes, all the courtiers and petitioners were gone save the newly-arrived gentleman.

"Pharaoh," he said as he bowed deeply. The lord of all Egypt walked down from his throne and took the man's arm, raising him to his feet.

"None of that, my friend. We will be family soon." Pharaoh's daughter was betrothed to his son. It was a fine match, giving the king more leverage in the south, and bringing this southern lord closer into the king's court.

Pharaoh was given a sideways glance as the newcomer into the court asked, "Will we?" The engagement had been prolonged repeatedly, always at the whim of Pharaoh's daughter.

The two men walked a circuit around the large, pillared room, looking out through archways and over parapets at the city spreading around them. Pharaoh stopped walking and looked up toward the heavens. "What can I do?" he asked as if to an unseen, un-named god above. "She is so willful. Teenagers, you know? 'not that date - it's the wrong moon,' or 'my friend must stay with her ill grandmother and I won't set a date until I know she can be here' or 'the harvest of figs is poor - it's a bad omen'. She talks of children and family, but not of marriage. I know she likes your son, but I have no sway over her."

"Then you must set the date for her."

"I know, my friend. I will. I will." As their path returned to the front of the room, the king invited his friend, "You may join me in my chambers for lunch if you wish," and turned to re-ascend the throne as his friend left and other courtiers were allowed to enter.

The sun was high, nearing the lunch hour, when a lovely teen-aged girl dressed in flowing silks that were wet to the knee rushed in, interrupting a dispute. "Father! I must talk to you!"

Pharaoh silenced her with a stern look and finished mediating the point at hand. Then he motioned to his daughter to approach. She climbed the dais to the throne, knelt and kissed his ring, and spoke softly. "Father, I found a child and I want to keep it!"

Again, with talk of children but no talk of marriage. "Even as my daughter, you cannot just take a child that is not yours." Surely this conversation could wait, but he knew that if he suggested that here, she would become loud and insistent. Patience was the best way to deal with her.

"No-no! But father -" she clung to his hand with both of her dainty ones. " - this child was abandoned! Oh, my lord, tossed aside!" she never called him "lord" unless she really wanted something. "A tiny baby and someone left him by the river! Please, let me take care of him."

The hint of a smile grew on the king's face. An idea formed. He turned a kind eye to his daughter and began, "You must do something for me, my daughter." Her eyes looked up into his, wide and accepting. "If you want to keep this baby, you must be married."

She took a breath, weighing the situation as a princess who is used to getting her way. One slow nod, but she also asked, "but until the wedding, the baby -"

"Find another to care for it in infancy, understanding that the child will be yours to raise." She nodded, kissed his hand, and rose, but he gripped her hand to prevent her leaving. He added, "Next month. You will be wed. I have said it," and he nodded to his scribe to write it into law.

The princess looked to the scribe, back to her father, and as soon as he released her hand, turned to run from the throne room. She raced all the way back to where her friends were waiting by the river, playing with the gurgling infant. "Yes! I can have him!" she called out as she neared them. Taking her turn to pick up the baby, she said, "I'm going to call him 'Moses' because he came from the river."

Reference: Pharaoh's daughter is mentioned once, in Exodus 2:5-10, when she finds the basket carrying Moses in the river, and his sister offers to find a Hebrew woman to nurse him.  There is no mention of whether she had other children, was or wasn't married, what age she was at the time, or whether she was living at Pharaoh's palace or in some other part of Egypt. The story above is pure conjecture.