Singing in the Wilderness Read Free

thought about it before.’ He considered the matter carefully, smiling down at her. ‘I’ve always had pretty catholic tastes when it comes to the fair sex, but you’ll do for me. Indeed you will!’
    She didn’t know how to answer that. It would have been trite to remind him that he didn’t know anything about her. She knew nothing about him either, but she wanted to. She wanted it more badly than she had wanted anything for ages.
    ‘But I’m not pretty,’ she told him.
    ‘Aren’t you?’ He was quite definitely amused now. ‘Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Haven’t you ever heard that?’
    ‘But one knows about things like that,’ she stammered. ‘I’d know if I were pretty!’
    ‘If you say so.’ He hugged her closer to him. ‘I’ll see you home if you really have to go, then I’ll know where to pick you up later on. But first, how do you feel about acting as my photographic model for a few minutes ? The sun’s just right now for a view of the domes at this end of the Maidan and I want a figure in the foreground. Will you stand over there ? ’
    ‘Me?’ She was enormously flattered. ‘You won’t really be able to see me, will you ? Not if you stand far enough away to get in the whole of the outside of the mosque.’
    ‘I’ll know it’s you,’ he said.
    She did exactly as he told her, standing in the portal of the mosque and looking up at the splendid tile-mosaics that side of the doorway. Each colour had been fired separately for the exact length of time that suited it best and made to fit the next-door piece until the whole intricate pattern was complete. It was a lengthy process, too lengthy for the impatient Shah Abbas who had ordered the mosque to be built, and on the other side of the portal the haft-rangi (‘seven-colour’) tiles had been used to speed up the work. These tiles were square and made up of several colours which were all fired at the same time. They served their purpose of covering the walls with colour quickly and economically, but they lacked the brilliance of the mosaic and their colours had faded a little over the years, not enough to matter, but enough to be noticed by a discerning eye.
    ‘Are you ready?’ Cas Ruddock asked her.
    He was closer than she had expected and his camera was one of the most impressive she had ever seen, with more dials and changes of lens than she would ever have been able to cope with. She smiled across the space between them and he held up his hand to signal her to stand still and began to take a series of about a dozen photos almost before she had time to draw breath.
    ‘Now, we’d better see about getting you home,’ he said. ‘Can we get a taxi from here?’
    ‘Yes, but the buses are more fun. They stop almost outside where I live and they only cost two rials. You have to buy the tickets before you get on from one of those little grey kiosks. Do you mind ? ’
    ‘Not if that’s the way you want to travel.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘I’ll see you home and pick you up again at about seven-thirty. Will that do you? I have a yen to see the inside of the mosque today. I guess it must be one of the best known buildings in the world and once I’ve started work I won’t have as much time as I’d like to see the sights.’
    Now that the moment had come, she didn’t want to leave either. If he wanted to see the mosque, why shouldn’t she go inside with him? Her father wasn’t expecting her back yet, though she would have to be back in time to see him off at the airport. Meanwhile, why shouldn’t she enjoy herself while she could ?
    ‘I’d like to see it too,’ she murmured. She stole a look at him and looked hastily away again from the amused admiration in his eyes. Was it possible that he really did find her pretty?
    ‘Now?’ he mocked her.
    She was tongue-tied in the face of his assured acceptance of the fact that she would much rather be with him than packing for her father. He saw too much, she thought. If she