Excerpt of Queenmaker : a Novel of King David's Queen by India Edghill

There are many who say that David loved me because
I resembled my brother Jonathan. That is not true; David
loved no woman, though he lay with many. Women loved
him.

Even I loved him once. When I was young, my very bones
melted for love of David.

Although I was a king's daughter, I did not think he
would ever look at me. David was a hero. A hero should
receive great beauty as his prize, and I was not
beautiful. When I was young I was thin and dun-colored,
like the summer hills.

But I looked at him. When he and my brother Jonathan
came riding their chariots through the streets in the
pride of their triumphs, I was one of those who waved
palms and threw flowers and cried his name. I had no
eyes for my brother, it was all for David -- David, who
glowed hot as the sun, and was as far from my reach.

All the world knows David's story now -- he always had a
master's way with words, and always could tell a tale so
that men repeated it to his credit. When I was a child I
would sit at my brother Jonathan's knee and listen while
David sang his songs. My favorite was the tale of the
death of the Philistine champion Goliath. David had to
be coaxed to sing that, but he would always laugh and
give in, in the end. ""What, that old tune again? Oh,
very well -- to please you, Michal.""

"Five smooth stones," he would sing then, smiling down at
me. "Five smooth stones did Yahweh put into my hand...."

He always gave the credit to Yahweh, but I knew better.
In those days, the god I worshipped was David.