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“No!” She faced hi swiftly, passionately, her insides hot, as if on fire “I aive up my life, or my work”

“But you’re not a child anymore You’re a woman Thirty-one It is time for you to have children You must have babies before you are too old”

Tally nearly choked on her own tongue, words strangling inside her throat “I have only just startedis still so new I refuse to end my life here!”

“MarryingA beginning at Bur Ju with me”

And that, she thought, pulling away fro at all “We barely like each other,” she flashed, facing him

“It’s not necessary”

“Not necessary? You’re talking about e”

“Wives don’t need to like their husbands They just need to obey”

Tally spun on her heel, clapped her hands on top of her head and walked the length of the room This was ridiculous, the most ridiculous conversation she’d had yet, and she’d had many ridiculous conversations with Sheikh Tair lately, but this, oh, this took the cake

Good God Marry Tair? Live forever in his desert? Not just have his children butobey him?

Tally al “You do not knoell, do you?” she spluttered, hands still on top of her head, fingers locked down against her scalp It was that or let her panic spill out “I am not the stay home and have babies kind of woed in air “—nothave babies Andnot obey” She looked at hi to make him understand “I don’t obey”

His eyebrows lifted and his lips pursed “Not very well, no”

“Not at all” She exhaled again “So save us both endless frustration and disappoint city and put ht hoo I’m out of here I won’t even look back—”

“Bur Juman is a beautiful place to live”

“For Berbers or Bedouin, or whatever you are”

His lips pinched “I have much to teach you”

“But I don’t want to be taught I’ve had enough lessons from you, and my family, and everyone else who thinks they knohat’s best for me But no one knohat’s best for me but me”

Tair sighed deeply Silence stretched between theers knotted into her palms and silently she prayed, prayed he’d coht, do what he needed to do