exactly.” What had possessed him to give his vow to Alif? “Ladies, in general, do not sit on the floor.”
He read the question building, and dragged a crate to her. “They sit on benches and furnishings.”
Now Bahir frowned and stepped forward. “No cushions?”
How long would this voyage take? “Let us start at the beginning.”
Newt slunk closer, leaned against the mast, and smirked. A little help from that quarter might not go amiss, but Newt looked to be enjoying Henry flounder too much.
“Where we live—”
“Angle land?” Bahir said.
“Well, aye, but nobody has called it that for years, hundreds of years. Now we say England.”
“England.” Alya rolled the word slowly over her tongue.
The Good Lord knew how she did it, but somehow, she made it sound seductive.
“England is colder,” Henry said. “We built our castles…homes…first of wood, and then we replaced it with stone because of the winter.”
Bahir snorted. “Stone is cold.”
“Aye.” Henry shivered at the memory of his breath icing on the air through midwinter. “But it also keeps the worst of the chill out. And it’s safer against attack. Easier to defend.
Narrowing his eyes, Bahir appeared to think that over. Then he nodded. “Better against fire.”
“Exactly.” Henry saw his first glimmer of hope. “Anyway, as Bahir pointed out, stone is cold, so we do not sit on the floor.” Now came the part that made him cringe after all these years in Egypt. “Also, the floor is covered in rushes and dirty.”
Sucking in a soft breath, Alya wrinkled her nose. “Dirty?”
“From things people drop.” Henry waved an airy hand, not wanting to delve too deeply into that. “Animals.”
“You allow animals in your homes?” Bahir’s chest swelled. “To live where you eat?”
Alya looked a little sickened, but she said, “I am sure you bathe them before you allow them within.”
Newt threw back his head and guffawed loud enough a gull startled from the mast.
Mother and Nurse had always insisted on bathing within Anglesea, but some did not see the value in it. Indeed, most believed it to invite illness into the body. In Egypt, even the slaves bathed daily. Perhaps the Genovese had a different custom. He hoped for Alya that they did. “We do not bathe the animals.”
Her face fell.
“But the bigger ones are not allowed within the keep. The horses, the cows, and the sheep all live outside in barns and pens. Mainly we keep the dogs within the keep.”
“Dogs?” Bahir spat. “You allow filthy creatures who eat their own waste in your homes?”
“They do not eat their own waste,” Newt said. “But they do eat the waste of everything else.”
Alya pressed her hand to her mouth as if she might be ill. “I do not think I will like England.”
“Which is fine.” Henry put some cheer into his voice. “Because you will be living in Genoa, and I am sure it is very, very different.”
“Actually—” Newt straightened from his slouch.
“Very different.” Henry glared his point home and held out his hand to Alya. “Now, if you will stand.”
Bahir growled.
“It is custom for a man to assist a woman to stand.” Henry kept his hand outstretched. “Skirts hamper the women’s movement.”
She stared at his hand. “Then why do they wear them?”
“Modesty,” Henry said. “Just as you wear your hijab for modesty, so they wear skirts.”
Nodding, Alya took his hand. Her small, soft palm fit his as if crafted just for him. Henry resisted the strong urge to curl his fingers about hers and hold on.
She gasped, glanced at their joined hands and then up at him.
Henry felt the jolt down to his toes. Their gazes locked and Henry lost himself in the sweet heat in her eyes.
Bahir cleared his throat.
With a blush, Alya dropped his hand and fell on the crate.
“Knees.” His voice rasped and he cleared his throat. “Keep your knees and ankles together. Also, when you have skirts you will sweep them to one side to make room on the bench.”
She shifted, looking up at him, a silent question on her face.
“Exactly.” His smile, rusty from disuse, creaked across his face. “Now, back straight, chin up, shoulders back.”
With a slight toss of her head, she complied. She peered at him from between her thick, dark lashes, a glint of mischief in her eyes.
And Henry laughed.
Chapter 7
The lessons with Henry enlivened her days and helped push back the heavy press of her father’s fate. He taught her many things, most of them strange, but he did not seem to mind her questions. Or even her laughter when she found something absurd.
When Henry laughed, which he did not do often, the skin around his eyes crinkled and deep grooves formed on either side of his mouth. When he laughed, his eyes lit from within like the heart of a sapphire held up to the sun.
He spoke little of his family. From what she had gathered, he had two sisters, Faye being the older and Beatrice the younger. Both sisters were married and had borne children. He also had two brothers near his age: Roger and William, and a much younger brother named Mathew. When he spoke of his mother, his harsh expression gentled in a way that made her sad for the mother she had never known.
Bahir relented enough to walk about the boat during their lessons, but his gaze returned always to them. Some days Newt joined their lessons, and he and Henry spoke only in French for her. When they spoke to each other, they reverted to their mother tongue. It fell strange and harsh on her ear, as they clipped the words at a rapid rate. She dearly wanted to know of what they spoke. Especially when Henry would get that distant, cold look on his face, as if he held more secrets and regrets than one man could contain.
She wanted to smooth the frown from his brow, soothe away the sorrow and make him smile again.
Newt, she liked. He made her laugh by teaching her silly words in English. Henry glowered at him when he did, and said something in English, which Newt ignored. She had the feeling Newt did what Newt wanted most of the time anyway.
As they entered the port of Genoa, she stood at the railing between Henry and Newt. To their right and surely high enough
