“Well, it’s early yet,” he muttered, trying to remember what a brother’s role was supposed to be in all this. “You’re still very young.” But that was his year in France talking, he knew. Here in al-Remal, their father might choose a husband for Amira tomorrow.

“I don’t want to marry,” said Amira, “but I must. I don’t want to leave this house, but I do. I want to go to school in Europe, but I can’t.” In her voice, Malik heard the rebellious girl who had disguised herself in order to drive a car, but in the moonlight, silver-bright now, tears glinted on her cheeks. “I won’t marry someone I don’t want,” she said. ‘‘I won’t be like Mother. I won’t be like Laila. I won’t!”

“Of course not, Little Sister,” he comforted her, though the mention of Laila cut deep. “God willing, when the time comes, there’ll be someone wonderful, and you’ll have a wonderful life together.” He felt like a fool saying it, but what else was there to say?

Amira was silent for a moment. Then, as if they had been chatting about old times all along, she said, “Did I tell you that I see Um Salih often these days? She helped with Yusef ’s birth. Of course, that was my doing. But now Um Yusef worships her. She’ll be on the list for Ramadan money from now on.”

“In other words,” said Malik, glad that the subject had changed, “Father’s paying her, and I’m paying her. That old woman will own al-Remal before she’s through.”

“It’s possible. I’ve never known anyone like her. She’s a force of nature.” Now she was smiling.

The quickness with which a woman’s mood could change, Malik told himself, was a thing he would never understand.

“Listen,” Amira went on. “Farid’s plan is a good one. Are you going to do it?”

“I’m going to talk with Mahir Najjar, but Farid says the man won’t agree to it.”

“I think he will. Um Salih says they both want children more than anything. She also thinks that whatever the problem is, it can be fixed. ‘A cracked pitcher, not a broken one,’ as she puts it. Of course, that’s pure intuition, not a shred of medical science in it. But she has a way of being right in these matters.”

“As I said, I’ll talk with Mahir. If he does agree, it shouldn’t take me more than a few days to arrange the papers. We employ hundreds of foreign workers, and Onassis makes sure that the bureaucrats are well oiled.” Amira said quietly, “So little Laila will grow up in France, lnshallah.” “Inshallah.”

“I wonder, Brother—it’s something I’ve meant to ask: Do you plan to raise her in the faith?”