"I thought you would be here." He nuzzled me.
"Of course."
He kissed me again. "I was confident we would be able to have this sort of opportunity. That is why I suggested we leave the boys behind."
"Aren't you the sly one?" I teased.
He laughed softly.
Wrapped in our embrace, the two of us watched as the pyramids and sphinx came into view. Their brilliant facades glowed against the sky, which was darkening into the ethereal blues and violets of twilight.
Joseph turned to me. In the waning light, I saw a look about his face.
It was a look he reserved only for me.
We needed no words.
His lips were soon upon my neck. He placed a trail of tiny kisses around it, then travelled downwards.
A searing, rapturous, glorious heat came over me. I pressed eagerly to him, offering all of myself to him. My fingers dug into his muscled back. I gasped and writhed as his firm warm body quivered against me.
Then when we retreated to our cabin, we came together with much want, much need and much fervour. As I gave myself to him, I received just as much in return. Deep into the night, deep inside our secret mysterious realm, we found each other in the shadows of our dreams, in the whispers of the night sky and in the echoes of the ancient river.
Later, I rested my head against his moist bare chest. I listened to the beating of his heart. It was ever so rapid.
I looked up at him. He placed a tender hand to my cheek.
"Are you crying, my love?" he whispered.
"Yes, but these are tears of happiness. If only you knew how you complete me."
"My love." Joseph gently brushed some strands of hair from my face and kissed me full on the mouth. "No words can ever give justice to the depths of my love for you."
He kissed me again. "I am yours forever, Asenath."
"As I am yours forever, Joseph."
Message from the Author
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed my take on the life of Asenath.
The story of Joseph is one of my favourites in the Bible. Sometime ago, I came to wonder why so much is known about him, while hardly anything is known about the woman he married. As a matter of fact, whenever I tell people I have written about Asenath, the most common remark I get is, "I didn't even know Joseph had a wife!" So if you thought that, you are not alone. Even I did not know of Asenath's existence until later on in my life.
Curiosity about Joseph's Egyptian spouse drove me to research. The results were scarce. Probably the most exhaustive source I came across was the first century Greek text Joseph and Asenath which, by the way, was the inspiration for the garden scene. But like this novel, it is fiction.
I then began to imagine what this mysterious priestess might have been like. I desired to give a voice to this tiny, obscure name from the pages of Genesis. I envisioned what kind of life she must have lived. How her personality was like. And how she must have felt upon her marriage to Joseph. After all, one of the few things we know about her is that she was given in marriage to Joseph as his reward for interpreting Pharaoh's dreams. And because so little is known of Asenath, I felt at ease to stretch my imagination as far as possible.
I invite you to visit my blog at www.annapatricio.blogspot.com. Feel free to contact me. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thank you for being a part of my debut novelist adventure.
Ankh, weneb, sedjet—life, health and prosperity!
Sincerely,
Anna Patricio
About the Author
Anna Patricio is a lover of ancient history, with a particular interest in Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome. She is also intrigued by the Ancient Near East, though she has not delved too much into it but hopes to one day.
She undertook formal studies in Ancient History at Macquarie University. She focused mostly on Egyptology and Jewish-Christian Studies, alongside a couple of Greco-Roman units, and one on Archaeology. Though she knew there were very limited job openings for ancient history graduates, she pursued her degree anyway as it was something she had always been passionate about.
Then, about a year after her graduation, the idea to tackle historical fiction appeared in her head, and she began happily pounding away on her laptop. Asenath is her first novel.
Recently, she travelled to Cairo, Israel, and Jordan. She plans to return to Egypt soon, and see more of it. In the past, she has also been to Athens and Rome.
Anna is currently working on a second novel which still takes place in Ancient Egypt, but hundreds of years after Asenath.
She maintains a blog at http://annapatricio.blogspot.com
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