Singing in the Wilderness Read Free Page A

weren’t careful he would know about the fountain of joy he had inspired within her, a sensation that was still too new for her to do anything about but wonder at. He might have guessed at it already, but she didn’t think he had. She stiffened her backbone and managed a quick, light smile.
    ‘Why not now?’
    ‘Why not indeed! Your father will have to make the best of his own ham-fisted efforts to get everything into his grip!’
    And a fine mess he’d make of it, but somehow Stephanie found she didn’t care as much as she should. She didn’t even feel a trace of guilt at the thought of him struggling alone with his possessions. He had said he wanted it that way and although she hadn’t believed him at the time, why should he have said it if he hadn’t meant it ?
    It was fun showing the mosque to Cas Ruddock. He listened to everything she told him with a concentration that made her think she was a better guide than she had previously known. She pointed out the relief of heraldic peacocks above the central door; the two minarets, both a hundred and ten feet high; the pool, the colours of which echoed the surrounding tiles; and the great doors themselves which Shah Safi had had covered with beautifully fashioned silver plates.
    Then, inside the mosque itself, passing through the half-right turn that led into the courtyard and was made necessary so that the alignment of the court and the mihrab pointed towards Mecca, the direction which all faithful Moslems face when they make their prayer five times each day, she allowed him to digest the beauty of the court in silence for a few minutes.
    ‘It’s typical of the Persian four- i w an mosque,’ she told him when he seemed ready to go on. ‘An iwan is one of those open-sided, semi-domed verandah things. It isn’t a very good description, but you can see them for yourself. And look, if you stand here, you can see the huge turquoise dome that you can see when you first come into Isfahan. It’s a symbol of the whole city—the glory of the Safavid monarchs who dominated the building of the city. Shah Abbas was the one who really built Isfahan and made it what it is. But the best mosque of them all, much more exciting than this one, is the Friday Mosque, and he had nothing to do with it at all. It’s one of the most glorious buildings I’ve ever seen!’
    He smiled at her enthusiasm. ‘I’ll get you to take me there one day—when I’ve found out the worst about how late we are delivering the goods on this contract. Telecommunications are the very devil to put straight when they’ve been allowed to get out of hand.’
    Stephanie felt as though the ground had gone soft beneath her feet. ‘But it’s a British company that won the telecommunications contract,’ she said.
    ‘We’re an international company. The British division is doing most of the work out here because we’re using two of the most modern British techniques in our installations. We’re using their inter-city land cables that can carry eight hundred and twenty-five circuits and more, and also trying out the Post Office fifty millimetre diameter copper waveguide. But I don’t want to bore you with my work. What does your father do ? ’
    ‘Telecommunications.’
    ‘I see.’ He could hardly help but see it all, she thought. He had to know exactly why her father was at that very moment packing his bags and going back to England. He probably knew more about it than she did herself. Would he like her less because of it ? He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Well, I don’t start work until tomorrow, so we’ll leave it till then, shall we?’
    ‘Can we?’ she said doubtfully.
    He didn’t pretend not to know what she meant. “I think so. Unless I mistake the situation from tomorrow onwards you are going to be my secretary, as you were your father’s before me, but for today you’re just a girl I met in Isfahan and I’m no more than someone who’s determined to make you notice him in the short time