The second summer both dragged and rushed toward an end. Amira was nearly eight now, and if she were going to Victoria, this was the time.

Jihan sighed. “No, beauty, you’re not.” The sadness in her voice left no room for doubt.

“But I want to.”

“I know. But I’ve told you—anyone can tell you—girls don’t go to schools like Victoria.”

“Why not? I’ve learned things from Malik. He gives me his old books. I can do the lessons he did when he first went, almost as well as he could.” Jihan looked at her in wonder. “Are you serious, darling? I knew you looked at his books, but I didn’t know that you were actually studying them.” Then her mouth tightened. “I’m proud of you, Amira. You’re a very intelligent girl. But get Victoria College out of your head. You simply can’t go.”

“But I want to! I want to!”

It ended in the nearest thing to a temper tantrum that Amira had ever had— enough, eventually, to bring Omar storming into the women’s country.

“What’s all this uproar?” he demanded of Jihan. “We can hear you out there! Does the peace of this house mean nothing?”

“My apologies, husband. It’s my fault.” “What troubles the little one?”

“A girlish fantasy, nothing more,” Jihan explained briefly, passing so lightly over Amira’s dream as to make it seem a joke.

Omar softened. “Listen, little princess, you don’t want to go off to dirty, ugly old Cairo and leave all your cousins and friends. Think of all the fun you’ll have here. Don’t you have a birthday coming up? It seems to me that we’ll have to plan something special for you.”

“But Malik doesn’t mind Cairo, Father, and I’d be with him.”

Her father frowned. Amira was not exactly contradicting him, but close enough. “Listen, Daughter, and listen well. Your brother will be a man and needs education for a man’s tasks. You are a girl, and the only thing you need to learn is to be a modest and obedient wife for the husband you will have someday, God willing. Now let there be no more of this.”

He turned on his heel and walked out. Amira knew better than to say another word. That night, she cried herself to sleep in Jihan’s comforting arms, all her hopes come to nothing.