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Part 23: A Step Between

Sat, 06/04/2022 - 6:00am
"Embroidery for Fire Screen" (early 1800s, Cleveland Museum of Art)

Trifles Light as Air

A collection of one-shots based on Northanger Abbey: drabbles, flash fiction, missing scenes, and more. Title from Shakespeare's Othello, as quoted by Jane Austen in Chapter One. Now available as an eBook via Draft2Digital.

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Scripture clearly taught Jonathan was in the right to disregard perverse authority. There was some comfort.

"Jonathan cried after the lad, and said, Is not the arrow beyond thee? ... Make speed, haste, stay not."

In warning David of danger, the king's son was guilty of both disobedience and treason. Scripture clearly taught he was in the right to disregard perverse authority. There was some comfort.

Yet Henry could not help noting how Jonathan never fully abandoned his home: he did not run away to join his friend's band of Merry Men but remained a vassal, fighting for rather than against the crown. And perhaps unwilling to abandon a sister to their father's mercurial temper?

The silence from Northanger Abbey since the family's return was as convicting as the text before him: there had been no change of heart, no summons sent or overture made.

Somehow, Henry would need to best the biblical examples before him: suing for peace without full submission, pride checked and principles firm.

Quote and title from First Samuel Chapter 20: "... but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death."