Read Online The Bride Box by Michael Pearce - Free Book Online

clerk’s brother. Jobs in Egypt were best kept in the family. The brother was buoyant about it, the clerk less so.
    Owen continued to sit by the well. It was about midway through the morning that a boy who introduced himself as Selim came up to him. He was holding a scarf in his hands.
    â€˜This was Soraya’s,’ he said simply.
    He had found it, he said, out beyond the doum trees, beyond the temple, towards the river. There were other things there, too. He had left them there that Owen might see them.
    â€˜Let us go, then,’ said Owen.
    The things were lying on the sand, apparently thrown out casually, as if the box had simply been tipped out; as if the box was what was wanted and the contents of no more importance than the girl who had owned them. They were humble things – a shawl, slippers, a cotton dress. But the shawl and the dress had been lovingly embroidered. Even the beads on the slippers had been carefully sewn on. He looked at them carefully. They were glass beads; not
trocchee
shells.
    The boy was still holding the scarf. ‘This I gave to Soraya,’ he said quietly.
    â€˜You gave it to her? As a present?’
    The boy nodded.
    â€˜Was there an understanding between you?’
    The boy hesitated. ‘An understanding only. And no one knew. There could not be an agreement. We were too young. And her father, we knew, would not have it. He wanted someone who was older and in a position to give more. But she said she would wait.’
    â€˜So you were surprised when you learned that she had not waited?’
    â€˜I could not believe it! To do it without a word! But then her father told me she had taken her bride box with her and I saw that it was so. And I went off by myself into the desert and said that she was faithless. But, Effendi …’
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜I do not believe that. I have gone over it in my mind again and again, and still I do not believe it. It was a trick, a trick of her greedy father. But, Effendi, even if what he had said was true, and she had gone to another, I would not have minded as much as I do
this
. That she should have gone and not just from me but from …
life
…’
    The tears were streaming down his face.
    â€˜Effendi, if ever I find out who did this terrible thing, I will kill him!’
    The women had finished, for the moment, their filling of buckets and the little square of the town had reverted to its normal doze. In the doum palms the doves, too, had subsided. Only a steady gurgling, almost a purr, emerged from their throats.
    The omda came out of one of the houses, followed by a group of men. The men scattered, but not so far that they could not watch proceedings, leaving the omda alone to come across to Owen.
    â€˜Effendi …’
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜We have spoken with Mustapha.’
    â€˜Good!’
    â€˜He is willing to confess all.’
    â€˜You have done well.’
    â€˜It is not so much our doing but his wife’s. She could not sleep, she said, for thinking about the consequences of his foolishness. And to persist with it! There was no standing out against the mighty, she insisted. The police, especially around here, are nothing – but the Khedive is another matter. In the end he will have what he wills, and he has strong arms. Not for nothing does the Mamur Zapt come down to Denderah. His eye is on all things, even on what we do with our daughters. It is useless to try to deceive him. Or to deny him. Either you answer his questions here, she told him, or you answer them in jail.’
    â€˜Those are words of wisdom,’ said Owen.
    â€˜Mustapha did not think so at first. He said: “I shall not answer even though they put me in jail.” And his wife said: “Not at first, perhaps; but as the years go by? I don’t want to see you rot in jail while I wait outside the door. You have done wrong. Admit it, and take your punishment. And then it will be all