Читать книгу Deadline Yemen (The Elizabeth Darcy Series) - Peggy Hanson - Страница 28

CHAPTER 24

“Allah will protect us,” was all that one could say.

Freya Stark, A Winter in Arabia

Halima and Zuheyla sat in the mufraj, which smelled faintly of lavender, hookah smoke, and incense. The usual scents of hospitality had faded since they no longer had the problem of chatty women neighbors crowding in to have tea with them. No one came to see them these days. In becoming an outcast himself, Ali had brought virtual imprisonment to the family.

Halima couldn’t believe Ali would do those things. Killing civilians, even if they were non-believers? Un-Muslim. She hated the sheikh from Sa’da, whose charisma had managed to penetrate a young man’s adolescence, even though he had a solid and respectable family behind him.

Yes, she should have paid more attention when Ali became so religious a few months ago. For a while, he seemed to spend all his time at the Great Mosque a few streets away. Then he began staying away from home at night. That’s when she said something to Zuheyla, Ali’s intended bride and also their cousin.

“But I will find Ali! I will save him!” Zuheyla would never give up on her beloved, no matter what he was accused of doing.

From the window came the call to prayer, and Halima performed her ritual wash and spread her prayer rug. Placing her forehead on the carpet over and over, she prayed with all her heart that Ali would come to his senses. That he would do so in time. That he would come home.