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.