1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

112
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
There’s always some row or other going on. Never mind, they’ll have
the master home soon, and then the y’ll have something to do to keep
him quiet, and that’ll do them all good. Women are never so
troublesome as when they have nothing to do.”
The Hazaras sat listening to his retreating footsteps, and then turned
and looked at one another. They heard a footstep on the stairs leading
to their room. Gul Begum signed to the others to lie down, and feign to
be asleep; the y did so, and presently the door opened softly, and some
one peeped cautiously in, stood for several seconds without moving or
speaking, then quietly closed the door again and retired. It was the
Bibi, but still the Hazaras lay still. No one dared move or speak,
though they knew not what they feared, and at last they fell asleep.
With the morning brighter thoughts came to them. The great event of
the proceeding night seemed like a dream. “I daresa y it was nothing,”
Halima said.
“Do you think it was in any wa y connected with that slave girl?”
Shereen asked anxiously. “I shall never forget that scene, shall you,
Gul Begum?”
“Hush,” her cousin answered, with some irritation, “do, for God’s sake,
keep that tongue of yours still. What’s the use of talking about things
that don’t concern you?”
“But they do concern me,” Shereen went on. “I can’t forget that girl,
and I can’t forget poor Nookra. The y are both slaves, and they call us
slaves too, you know, Gul Begum, and what happened to them ma y
some day happen to one of us. We’ve always heard the most awful tales
of Ferad Shah, but it would seem that cruelt y and injust ice are b y no
means confined to the master of this house.”
“Look here,” Gul Begum said crossly, “if you want to sa y these things,
please go and say them to some one else. In a house of this sort the
very walls can hear, and what you are saying now may be repeated to
the Bibi when she wakes. You will get not only yourself but every one
of us into trouble b y your chattering. I will not have you talk of what
you see and hear in this house to me.”
“You seem very nervous and anxious, more so even than I am, who
never pretend to be brave,” Shereen went on, almost cr ying, “what do
you think can happen to us?”
“I know no more than you do,” Gul Begum answered again severely. “I
only know that if you want to bring misfortune and trouble on us all
you will go on gossiping as you have been doing, and if you wish to
avoid both you will keep absolutely silent. Do you remember what that
slave girl said to you the other day? It is not only I who tell you of this