1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

25
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
“See that m y leggings have their ties well sewn on,” her father said as
he came in. “I saw a nice kind when I was in Kabul. I wonder if you
could make me a pair like them. Instead of being a strip of barak to
wind round and round the leg like ours, these were cut to the shape of
the leg and buttoned down the outer side.”
“What new-fangled notion is this?” asked his wife.
“A good notion, I think,” he said quietly. “Come, Gul Begum, see if
you could manage a pair for me.”
The girl looked thoughtful. “I could in leather,” she said, “but not in
barak, at least I think not I think they would crease and rumple; it
seems to me it would have to be something stiffer.”
“Then make me one pair in leather and one in barak, that’s much the
best. Then we are sure to be right.”
“And when is all this to be done, and who’s to do it?” asked his wife.
“I leave the day after to-morrow,” he said, “at dawn, and as to who’s to
do it, that’s no affair of mine. I have a wife, three daughters, and a
servant; that should be plenty, and Shereen will help too, I know.”
“I daresa y, but what about these new shirts and trousers? Who’s to
make them?”
“There, that again is no affair of mine. I want them, you have to
provide them; you should keep these things read y, made in case of
emergenc y; then when they were wanted there would be no hurry and
bustle.”
“Yes, I daresay, for you to give to the first vagrant who chooses to call
himself a Mullah or a Sayad. I’m not quite as foolish as that.”
“There – it is for you to choose. I don’t lay down strict rules, I have no
laws in m y own house; you do as you choose, of course, but if your
plan gives you extra work, don’t blame me. Gul Begum can make the
leggings. The new shirts and trousers ought to be ready in the store; if
they are not, arrange as best you can, but see that the y are read y at
daybreak the day after to-morrow.”
There was nothing harsh in the way he spoke, simply an absence of all
affection. He gave his orders. This woman was his life. He provided
her with a good house, the most luxurious and plentifully supplied in
the country side. She had borne him five children, two sons and three
daughters, of whom Gul Begum, then fifteen, was the eldest, so he was
fairly satisfied with her. He did his duty by her, in providing her with
plent y of clothes and food , and he expected her to do her duty by him.
Had she been sick he would have secured the services of the best
herbalist in the neighbourhood for her, and given her the best that his