Unmarriageable(49)
Kaleen was admiring the fortune the Shehs must have spent to create this plucked paradise. That the Binats were invited to this VIP to-do had duly raised Barkat ‘Bark’ Binat in his esteem. This was proof that Pinkie’s family were not absolute nobodies, and Kaleen shed any doubts over his upcoming nuptials to Alysba Binat. He glanced at Alys. His bride-to-be looked like a rosebud tonight, one he could not wait to have and to hold. She was a little on the dusky side, but no matter; secretly he thought wheatish women equally as attractive as whitish ones. He wished he hadn’t promised Pinkie Binat to keep his betrothal to Alys a secret, for he wanted this illustrious gathering to know that she belonged to him. He wondered what sweet nothings Alys was whispering into her friend’s ear – what was her name?
Alys noticed Farhat Kaleen giving her another syrupy smile. The thought alone that he may have a crush on her was disturbing, and she focused on the stage. It was fashioned like a bower, on which Nadir and Fiede sat enthroned as if they were Shakespeare’s fairy royalty, King Oberon and Queen Titania, greeting their florally smitten guests. Alys looked around for other characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. There were Bottoms galore, wearing ass heads, a category into which she dropped Kaleen. Pucks abounded too, looking for mischief to spread between married couples, be they happy or unhappy, simply for their own amusement. Alys was sure she spied a couple of Helenas, the plain young girl who longs for love but can’t find anyone to woo her. She pointed them out to Sherry, who was quick to remark that she was a Helena and she was sure Qitty felt like one too.
‘I wonder,’ Alys sighed, ‘how many Emma Bovarys are here, sick of their rash marriages, and how many of Wharton’s May Wellands, guarding their “property”. And how many girls here are tomboys like Jo March in Little Women and what will happen to make them realise they are only women in a man’s world. And how many of those women will then seek justice for that unfairness in the occult, like the mother in Zora Neale Hurston’s story “Black Death”.’
Alys pointed to the gathering of Daisy Buchanans, that spoilt little rich girl from The Great Gatsby. How many Myrtle Wilsons were here, nursing the wounds left from a Daisy Buchanan’s emotional hit-and-run? Alys remarked that too many of the men in this room were Tom Buchanans and Meyer Wolfsheims, who believed they owned the women and most of the men, and ruled the world.
‘As for Jay Gatsby,’ Alys said, ‘he’s obviously a Wickaam.’
‘Jay Gatsby is a crook,’ Sherry said.
‘He is a man turned crooked by society.’
‘And who are you?’ Sherry asked as they made their way on the red-carpet-covered lawn to congratulate the bride and the groom.
‘I’m the omniscient narrator and observer in Austen’s novels.’
‘I think,’ Sherry said, smiling mischievously, ‘you’re that character who says no but ends up falling into a yes despite herself: you are Elizabeth Bennet.’
‘Elizabeth Bennet,’ Alys said, ‘had to marry Fitzwilliam Darcy, and he her, because Jane Austen, their creator-god, orchestrated it so. And there would be no Charlotte Lucas today because marrying for financial security is no longer the only choice she’d have. Thankfully we don’t live in a novel, and in real life if I met someone as stuck-up as Mr Darcy, I’d tell him to pack his bags, because there would be nothing that could endear me to such a snob, least of all the size of his estate. My views would frighten away a man like Mr Darcy, who ultimately wants a feisty wife but also one who knows her place—’
‘Excuse me—’
Alys stilled at the voice. Turning, she came face-to-face with Valentine Darsee. She reddened. Had he heard her? Not that she cared.
‘May I help you?’ she asked.
‘You certainly may,’ Darsee said, nodding a polite hello at Sherry. ‘I wanted to give you this,’ and Alys, momentarily flustered, accepted the book he handed her, his fingertips brushing hers.
‘Sunlight on a Broken Column,’ he was saying. ‘You said you hadn’t read it, remember?’
‘I don’t remember,’ Alys said, though she remembered very well.
‘I’d like to know what you think about it,’ Darsee said.
‘I don’t know when I’ll be able to get to it,’ Alys said, and then added stiffly, ‘Thank you.’
The girls walked on and, as soon as they were out of earshot, Sherry propelled Alys towards a secluded spot under a lantern fashioned of flowers.
‘That man is definitely interested in you,’ Sherry said.
‘Oh please.’ Alys was thankful Sherry hadn’t caught their accidental touch. ‘Who cares.’
‘If you play your cards right, and he marries you, that would be the greatest coup.’
‘I wouldn’t marry him. He’s unmarriageable.’
‘You’d become the owner of the British School Group, and instead of Mrs Naheed hauling you into her office, you’d get to tell her to behave.’
‘Even vengeance could not entice me to marry that man. Were Darsee to suddenly declare I was the most attractive woman in the world and not stupid, I would still not marry him.’
‘You’ve really got to get over that. He’s a real catch and Jena is right, you weren’t meant to hear what he said about you. Had you not heard it, you’d be delirious with joy that a fish like him is swimming towards your hook.’