She stood on tip-toe and gave him a kiss. “OK. I guess I’ll have to,” was her soft answer.
Fatima held up an outfit of deep royal blue for Sara’s inspection. “This would be suitable for riding.” she informed Sara in her halting English.
Sara was glad she had been able to convince Rashid not to send Fatima away. The poor girl hadn’t meant any harm, she had been used by that Laila, and Abdulah. Since ‘the incident’, Sara had had a long talk with Fatima and learned that Laila had been encouraging the girl for years to fall in love with Rashid, so of course she thought she was.
“Thank you, Fatima.” she said, taking the garment. “It’s beautiful.”
Sara slipped into the satin harem pants and pulled the matching blouse over her head. Fatima wrapped the sash, a lighter blue, around Sara’s tiny waist, then fixed the matching headdress so that it covered her golden hair. Over all that went the traditional black aba.
There were butterflies in Sara’s stomach as she stood with Fatima fussing over her. She felt like she was getting ready to go to her first prom. The feeling was exhilarating, and she felt more alive than she ever had. On impulse, she asked Fatima to pack the gown with the golden bird design, the one she had worn the night they first met. She pushed the reasons for that first meeting to the back of her mind. Not tonight. Tonight she would allow herself no bad thoughts. She had a feeling tonight was going to be something special. There would be time enough later to think about ... other things.
After much coaxing and reassuring on Rashid’s part, Sara finally mounted the light gray mare Rashid had chosen for her, and once in the saddle, she found it wasn’t so bad after all. Rashid led the gentle mare carrying its precious cargo around the corral a few turns until Sara grew accustomed to the feel of the beast, then handed her the reins.
“Now what do I do?” she asked in a sudden panic.
“Do you drive a car?”
“Of course I drive a car, but this is not the same.” she assured him.
“Use the reins as you would a steering wheel. Try it. Please.”
She was skeptical but did as he said, and before long, she got the hang of it.