Unmarriageable(85)

Why couldn’t she go? Lady screamed. Was Alys the only one in the family who deserved holidays? She’d barely returned from Sherry’s in Islamabad and was now packing for Nona’s and the Northern Areas. Alys hadn’t even had to ask for permission, so why should she? Hijab had made plans for every day. Her family belonged to the Marina Club, and they were going to go sailing and crabbing and have bonfires on the beach! Her ticket was free! There was no force on earth that was going to stop Lady from going!

Alys did not even bother to appeal to her mother, who was already beginning to make a list of things Lady must pack. Instead, she marched to her father. Mr Binat was in the garden, picking tomatoes off the vines. He smiled when he saw Alys and straightened up and stretched his lower back.

‘These will make the best red salan yet,’ he said, pointing to the jute basket full of ruby fruit, which would be used to make one of the Binats’ favourite dishes: tomatoes stewed in oil and spiced with turmeric, salt, and red chillies and topped off with hard-boiled eggs.

‘Daddy,’ Alys said, ‘Lady’s friend who moved to Karachi has invited her to stay with them for the rest of the summer. I don’t think she should go.’

‘Here.’ Mr Binat handed Alys a pair of gardening gloves. ‘Help me bag some for the few neighbours who remain in your mother’s good graces.’

‘Daddy, did you hear me?’ Alys slipped on the gloves and stepped into the vegetable patch.

‘I heard you,’ Mr Binat said, ‘and I’ve been hearing Lady’s shouting all the way out here. Why can’t she go? You know she’ll make our lives miserable if she doesn’t and, frankly, your mother is enough to make life miserable already.’

‘Daddy, please be serious for a second,’ Alys said. She couldn’t help think of Darsee’s letter, which she never stopped thinking about anyway: Your father seems unable, or unwilling, to discipline anyone.

‘I am being serious.’ Mr Binat plucked another tomato. ‘I could not be any more serious if I was being paid.’

‘I don’t think Lady should be sent anywhere by herself,’ Alys said. ‘I’m sorry to say this to you, Daddy, but she makes you-you eyes at everyone. I think the only man she’s not made you-you eyes at is Farhat Kaleen.’

Mr Binat looked discomfited, as would any ghairatmand – principled – Pakistani father, but he was not one to pretend that girls did not go through puberty or did not have feelings for the opposite sex; his wife had made sure he was most comfortable around them while they discussed bra sizes and menstruation and, as a result, as far as he was concerned, making you-you eyes was just another thing women did.

‘Princess Alysba,’ Mr Binat said, lifting a green tomato to check its colour on the other side, ‘let Lady have her fun and get it out of her system. She’s just like your mother, a bit propriety-challenged, but neither means any harm.’

‘But harm is already done,’ Alys said.

Mr Binat handed Alys a tomato for the basket. ‘Don’t tell me Lady frightened away some suitor of yours? None of you girls need men like that in your lives. You’ve been given a lot of liberties in this home, which most Pakistani girls can only dream of, and a controlling man will suffocate you. Even Mari, though she may not think so, will not be happy with anyone who expects his to be the final word.’

‘I’m afraid for Lady,’ Alys said. She thought of Lady at the New Year’s party, blissfully sandwiched between Moolee and his geriatric friend, and mocking Qitty in front of them. ‘I admire her high spirits, but she has no self-control over her actions, or her tongue.’

‘Alys, you’re surprising me, beta. You are the last person on earth I expect to worry about log kya kahenge.’

‘I don’t care what people say,’ Alys said. ‘But I do care that Lady’s carelessness could put her in a situation she can’t handle. Please listen to me, Daddy – Lady is impulsive, too trusting, and lacks all sense of consequences.’

‘With such fine qualities, I think being away from us all will be excellent practice for Lady to learn self-discipline instead of always relying on us to provide it.’

‘She needs us.’

‘And we need some respite from her, especially Qitty, who could do with two weeks of no one making fun of her being fat.’ Mr Binat stepped out of the tomato bed. ‘I think we’re getting a bargain, Alys, with someone else paying for Lady’s ticket to Karachi, which, may I remind you, is not cheap. Hijab comes from a good family. Hijab’s mother will make sure that everyone behaves. In fact, if she reprimands Lady, it may have more of an effect than our doing so.’

‘Perhaps,’ Alys said, even as she shook her head, unconvinced.

‘Perhaps we should have Wickaam keep an eye on her?’ Mr Binat said. ‘Now that he has moved to Kar—’

‘No!’ Alys stared at her father in horror. Wickaam had telephoned them a week ago and spoken to her. He’d left Musarrat Sr. & Sons Advocates and was instead planning to remain in Karachi and seek new prospects. Frankly, he told her, law wasn’t for him after all. Furthermore, he and Miss Jahanara Ana Aan had decided to break their engagement. He’d realised that she wasn’t for him either. Her family had sent the distraught girl to Cairo, where she had relatives, in order to recover from a broken engagement.