Angeline by Karleen Bradford

was being treated. Somehow, she would have to make Zahra understand. She was just about to speak when Samah appeared in the doorway. Before Angeline could say anything, Zahra motioned to her to follow the servant woman. Angeline hesitated, but Samah snatched at her arm, and with a vicious pinch, hurried her out the door. There was nothing for it but to follow.
    Samah led Angeline down the passageway to a different part of the house. They went through an opening covered with a hanging tapestry and Angeline found herself walking along a balconythat ran around the upper floor. It surrounded an inner courtyard that was open to the sky. Angeline was instantly alert. This was the first time she had been in any part of the house other than the women’s quarters.
    The courtyard was filled with flowers and lush bushes. A vine starred with white flowers climbed up to the balcony and encircled around it. The blossoms gave off a heady, heavy sweet perfume. A fountain stood in the centre; water cascaded down from it into a pool. Cobbled walks spread out from the fountain to each corner where fringe-leaved trees gave shade to benches set beneath them. Small, brilliantly coloured birds flashed in and out of the trees like living jewels. A cat lay draped on one of the benches, watching them idly and soaking up the sun. An old man dug in a flower bed; a boy worked beside him. Angeline glanced at them, then drew in her breath with a gasp. Surely that boy … Yes! It … was!
    “Stephen!” she cried.
    Stephen looked up, startled. Samah hissed in anger. She grabbed Angeline and wrenched her away from the balcony railing. At the same time she gave Angeline a slap that sent her head reeling. Before Angeline could recover her senses, she had been pulled through another doorway that led off the balcony and down yet anotherstaircase. At the bottom of this, Angeline saw the door through which they had been brought into the house. A slave sprang to open it. Samah pulled her through and Angeline found herself back in the street. She had time for no more than one anguished backward glance before Samah tugged her on.
    But she had seen him. That old man must have been the gardener Zeid had said Stephen was to work with. She had seen Stephen! And she would again, she vowed. In her mind she retraced the path they had taken from the women’s quarters to that balcony. One way or another, she would find the means to get back there.
    When the door shut behind them they were immediately plunged back into the noisy chaos of the city. Angeline ducked as a cart rumbled past. She had no idea where they were going. She picked her way carefully through the filth as Samah led her along narrow streets paved with stones. However resentful she was at being forced into slavery, she had grown fond of her bright red slippers and did not want to soil them.
    There was no thought of escape here. Where would she go? She was already so confused that she would not even have been able to find her way back to the Emir’s house. Dwellings crowded on either side of the street, many with balconies that overhung the roadway. Shedodged donkeys pulling carts and bell-laden camels carrying water up from the river. Samah forged ahead, oblivious to the people she elbowed out of her way. She made a turn and they were in a market. The streets were wider here, lined on both sides with stalls. Vendors shouted out their wares; customers shouted back. At the far end Angeline could see the minarets of another mosque rising up to the sky.
    Angeline was overwhelmed at first and confused, then she began to realize that there was order around her in spite of the noise. Each street was assigned a different trade. They passed through alleys full of fresh fruits and vegetables, then through a passageway lined with leather-makers’ stalls. There were booths offering spices, bolts of cloth, even jewels that blazed and sparkled in the sunlight. A carpet maker had spread some of his fine samples out on