Chapter XCIX
It took us three days to reach my father's tents, for finding a path over the hills and avoiding all people was not easy and in any case we stopped early each afternoon as soon as we found a suitable cave, one large enough to hide two horses, three donkeys and ourselves. It was still cold but at least it was dry and both Trudy and I slept in our undergarments, but I must admit that each night we spent longer and longer caressing and kissing one another and my hunger for her grew.
By the time we came to the tents both waterskins were empty of water, which worried me considerably, for if we should meet anyone there was no way to hide the fact that the skins contained something else. My brothers and my father came out to meet us and my mother came when she heard Trudy's voice. She led Trudy into the women's part of the tent and a short while later both women emerged veiled and laughing with each other.
"Have you come to stay?" my father asked when I explained why we had left Gibran.
I jerked my chin. "No. I am charged to take es-Sitt to her family in the land of the Franks."
"By God," my father said. "That is a long journey. It will take you at least three months."
"At least," I said, smiling to myself, for although I did not know how far it was to such places, I knew that pilgrims who came frequently spoke of spending six months or even a year on the journey.
"And you will travel on horseback?" my father asked. "Do not these Franks come here in boats?"
I raised my finger to my lips and hushed him. "Do not speak of boats," I told him. "I have been in a boat and by God, the djinn of the sea made me sick; I have never been so sick in my life. I will not go in a boat."
"So you will go on horseback," my father concluded.
I jerked my chin again. "Those who come by land speak of many robbers along the way," I told him. "The pilgrims band together in large companies for protection, but we are only two and one of us a woman. If we travel on horseback we will surely be robbed. You take the horses - you can sell them in al-Quds - and give us five or six sheep as a wedding gift. We will travel as beduin herding sheep and who will stop to rob a poor bedu?"
My father laughed. "Inshallah you will pass safely - you and your waterskins." By which I knew that his eyes had noted that the waterskins were not empty.
"Where is Sayyid Pir Mohammed?" I asked a little later.
"He is in Khirbet Nafileh," my father replied.
"Let him be sent for," I said. "I wish to get married."
"By God!" my father exclaimed in astonishment. "And is your own father to say nothing in this matter?"
"Abi," I said, "what can you say? The girl's father is dead, she has no brothers, and more than that, she is in my care."
My father's eyes widened and he leaned towards me.
"Are you speaking of es-Sitt?" he hissed.
I tilted my head sideways, grinning at him.
"Does she know your plans?" he asked.
"She does," I replied.
"And is she agreeable?"
"She is," I said.
My father sat back, tugging at his beard. "By God!" he said after a while. "That a son of mine should marry a Nasrani woman!"
"The daughter of a Frankish lord," I reminded him.
"True, true," my father said. "A wealthy man, no doubt."
He sat in silence for a moment and then he frowned. "But now that the Sultan rules in al-Quds, a Frankish wife could be harmful to you instead of an advantage."
"You have forgotten the waterskins," I told him. "Whose do you think they are? Remember, I am only a squire; she is the daughter and the only child of this Frankish lord."
"Hah!" my father exclaimed. "I will send at once for Sayyid Pir Mohammed."
Two days later, therefore, the Qura'an was read over us and Trudy and I became man and wife. My mother wanted to give us the guest tent which she had only just finished weaving, but I insisted that we receive the oldest tent, a piece of cloth that was full of holes and on the point of being cut up for bags. I wanted us to appear as poor - very poor - beduin. My mother and Trudy set it up some distance from the tents of my tribe - for all the Bani Ibrim came together for an event such as a wedding - and that night, after we had feasted on the camel my father killed and the women had finished the scraps, Trudy and I slept in our own tent and my hunger was fully satisfied.
Furthermore, I discovered that Frankish women also take pleasure without shame and though I had never heard of such a thing, Trudy was as urgent and as active as I myself. Truly Allah alone is wise and all-knowing and has made all peoples different so that the ways of the Franks are different from our ways - but who knows? Perhaps they are better ways? I certainly had no fault to find.
