Instead, That Wicked Woman hurried to her own wing of the palace and called some of her personal guard of soldiers, then marched them up to the large nursery where the young princes had been gathered.  This time she wasn’t going to allow a surviving son to foil her plans!

Meanwhile, the servants obediently gathered all of the princes together, making sure that they were all dressed in fine clothes ready for the anticipated funeral.

But one young woman was suspicious: Jehosheba, a sister of the dead king.  She was elegantly dressed in a royal robe which, with her hairdo, announced her to be a married woman, and on her hip she carried her youngest son.  Her face wore a thoughtful expression as she stood with the princes’ carers.  Her nephew, Joash, a year old and only just starting to walk, attracted her attention as he staggered unsteadily towards her.  Of all the princes, she loved him the most, and he was closest in age to the child who swung on her hip.

Maybe she had seen the glint of evil in Athaliah’s eyes when she gave her orders, or maybe she knew the queen mother well enough to guess what her intentions might be.  When I asked her recently, she couldn’t tell me why she was doubtful, just that her suspicions had been strong enough to cause her to suddenly resolve to leave the nursery and secretly take with her the child who stood clutching her legs and smiling so innocently up at her.

Quickly, she crouched down and picked up the little prince Joash, sitting him awkwardly on her other hip.  She was about to stand up when two things happened.  Firstly, one of the older princes began to complain about a toy which he claimed another of the princes had taken from him.  Jehosheba had had enough experience with the princes to know that this latest outbreak of wrangling was likely to get much worse before it got better.  This was the perfect cover for her plan to sneak Joash out of the room, except for the second event: the arrival of Joash’s nurse, Abital, who had been out of the room when Athaliah had given her instructions, but had now returned and was crossing the room towards Jehosheba and her little charge.

The argument between the two princes was growing in both intensity and volume as Abital approached, and Jehosheba made another lightning decision.  She must trust someone, and Abital had always seemed trustworthy.  There was no time to waste, and no time to come up with a proper plan.  She rose and stood with a child on each hip, then held out her own son towards Abital.  Abital looked a little surprised, but took the proffered child as Jehosheba swung her cloak carefully around Joash, covering him almost completely and hiding the distinctive outfit that the princes wore.

“Come with me,” she commanded in a quiet voice, just loud enough to be heard by Abital over the heated princely argument that was still developing and attracting the attention of all the others in the room.  Her words were accompanied by a look that said, “…and don’t ask questions!”

She began to move towards the doorway and Abital followed.  A guard stood at the door and Jehosheba knew that she had to ensure that he had absolutely no suspicions whatever.  After all, if she was right about Athaliah and was caught trying to take Joash away, then she could expect no mercy.

“I need to feed my son,” she said over her shoulder to Abital as they approached the guard, “and he always gets distracted if there is too much noise or too many people around, so carry him to the bedroom for me.”  At the same time, she moved her cloak so that little Joash was invisible beneath it, and did her best to stand in a way that gave no hint that she carried a child on her hip beneath the loosely-hanging cloak.

The guard looked closely at them both and only allowed them to pass once he had satisfied himself that the child Abital carried was not dressed in princely robes.  He obviously knew more about Athaliah’s plans than the princes’ carers did.

They made their way out into the hallway and looked carefully to left and right.  As a princess and sister to the king, Jehosheba still had a bedroom of her own in the palace.  She often used it for convenience during the day, as she was a frequent visitor to the palace, but she had not spent the nights there since her marriage to Jehoiada, the High Priest, several years before.   Turning to the left, they hurried along the hallway.  Reaching the end of the hall, Jehosheba was about to turn right into the passageway that led toward her bedroom when she saw a grim-faced soldier coming towards her, a spear in his left hand and a drawn sword in his right.  Other soldiers followed closely behind him, so she hurriedly turned left, accompanied by Abital.

She had taken only two steps when she caught sight of Athaliah walking purposefully towards her along the lamplit corridor, followed by more soldiers.  Had she jumped from imminent danger to immediate disaster?  Trying to keep the fear from showing in her face, Jehosheba took two more steps forward and then stepped quickly aside into an open doorway.  Abital followed her, but Jehosheba stood in the middle of the doorway so that Abital was forced to stand between her and the rapidly-approaching Athaliah.

Shadows filled the doorway and Jehosheba hoped fervently that the darkness would help to hide the shape of the prince on her hip.  Above all, she hoped that Joash would not start to complain about being wrapped up in a cloak.

“Jehosheba, my dear,” said Athaliah as she drew level with the doorway.  The underlying harshness in her voice was even more marked than usual, but so was the sweet smile that she always assumed.  “You are taking Zechariah to your room for a rest, are you?”

“Yes, for a feed and some rest.  Abital has come to help me.”

“You must be sad about the death of your brother.  Poor Ahaziah.  And no brothers to take over from him, either.  Such a pity.”  Athaliah shook her head as if to display grief, but no hint of sadness touched her eyes.  Having expressed her token sorrow, she continued harshly: “I must move quickly to prevent anything destabilising the kingdom, so… don’t go back to the nursery for a while, Jehosheba.”

“I won’t,” said Jehosheba.  “I must care for Zechariah.”

Satisfied, Athaliah moved on and the soldiers followed her.  She was bent on mass murder, happily unaware that she had just allowed one of her intended victims to slip through her fingers.

Jehosheba, convinced by Athaliah’s words that her terrible suspicions were correct, uttered a silent prayer of thanks then retraced her steps to the place where she had turned to avoid the soldiers and hurried with Abital to her bedroom.  Once the door was closed and locked behind them, she gave a sigh of relief.  Little Joash was glad to be freed from the enveloping cloak.  Jehosheba marvelled that he had stayed silent during such a critical time.

Jehosheba took her son Zechariah from Abital and gave her the young prince, then quickly explained her suspicions.  The nurse listened with wide open eyes, but didn’t dispute Jehosheba’s interpretation of events.  She closed her eyes in horror for a few moments and cuddled the infant closely.

“What a horrible family you come from, my prince!” she said, and then looked up at Jehosheba apologetically, “Except for you of course, my lady!”

 Suddenly, muffled screams and shouts were heard, and the ageing nurse put her head on the child’s shoulder and began to cry softly.

“Thank you for saving him, lady,” she sobbed.  After she controlled her emotions, she continued, “So far, at least.  But what do we do now?”

“At the moment, we must wait,” said Jehosheba.  “Baby Zechariah is the one who can help us to get Joash out of the palace alive, so I must feed him now.  We are all in deadly danger from That Wicked Woman.”

Two terrified women and two helpless children stayed in that room for several hours.  From time to time, sounds of strife could be heard outside, and once there was a banging on the door accompanied by a man’s voice calling, “Open the door.”

Jehosheba signalled to Abital to remain silent and called out, “I am resting and my son is asleep.  I cannot open the door now.”

“Oh, is that you, princess Jehosheba?  That’s alright then.  Don’t worry about opening the door.”  The sound of footsteps disappeared down the hallway and the two women looked at each other in relief.

The two babies continued to sleep peacefully.

Eventually, the disturbances ceased, and after waiting for another hour, Jehosheba was ready to make the attempt to smuggle prince Joash out of the palace.  She had already decided that the temple would be the safest place to hide him.  She knew that Jehoiada would be willing to protect the lad, and having a young child of their own of the same age would remove the need to explain any noises the prince might make.  Nevertheless, without God’s help, she was sure that their chances of success were very small.  Still, God had protected baby Moses so long ago in Egypt, and he had grown up to lead his people to safety.  Surely God would care for this little baby too so that he could grow up and lead Judah away from the dangers of Athaliah!  Already she was convinced that God was caring for them: Zechariah and Joash never normally slept for as long as they had that afternoon.

Jehosheba carefully picked up the sleeping Joash and wrapped her cloak around her to cover him as much as possible.  Then she instructed Abital to take several folded blankets from a chest and place them on top of him, making sure that they hid him but did not cover his face or make it difficult for him to breathe.  Anyone who met them must be convinced that she was carrying a pile of blankets, while Abital carried the still-sleeping Zechariah.

Before slipping out of the room, Jehosheba breathed a silent prayer and blew out the lamps near the door.

Abital tried to unlock the door, but the sleeping child in her arms made the simple action awkward.  In her struggles, she disturbed baby Zechariah, who stirred and opened his eyes.

Jehosheba drew in a sharp breath and wondered what to do.  Should they wait longer, or was it best to leave immediately?  Quickly, she made up her mind and stepped out into the corridor, followed by Abital carrying a little boy who was quickly waking up and growing unhappy with lying down.  The decision was made: in just a short while, they would either have escaped with the prince, or their precious burden would have been found.

The future of the kingdom was hanging in the balance.