Desert Gold by Pamela Kent

Author:Pamela Kent [Pamela Kent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: F
ISBN: 9788726564945
Publisher: Saga Egmont International
Published: 2021-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter eight

But they saw nothing at all of Martin Dahl at the Maghreb, and the dinner was a great success and the evening went off very peacefully and pleasantly.

For the next few days Judith contented herself with exploring Sidi Salem, and familiarizing herself with its network of narrow streets and great central square where there was certainly sufficient in the way of diversion to enable her to while away a whole morning without feeling the urge to move on.

She was fascinated by the colour and strangeness of Sidi Salem, and she was particularly fascinated by the apparent changelessness that looked like remaining unchanged for decades ahead. It was true, as her uncle pointed out to her, that if she had been paying her visit to that part of Africa fifty years before it would not have worn the same air of integration with the west that it wore as she strolled the slightly sinister byways and didn’t hesitate to plunge into dark doorways without having the least idea what lay beyond. Fifty years before, for one thing, a white woman would have been ill-advised to take such risks. And a young white woman who looked as she did and dressed in a mildly provocative way with her short skirts and exposed areas of fair skin and delicate but enchanting make-up would very likely have run head-on into serious trouble.

But apart from a few lascivious glances and a certain amount of unnecessary jostling when she was caught up in a crowd Judith experienced nothing in the way of actual unpleasantness. One or two of the shopkeepers, too, were on very good terms with her uncle, and after seeing her with him once they recognized her immediately whenever she passed by, and beamed and smiled at her and tried frankly to entice her into their shops with the object of getting her to make some purchases.

The silversmith whose wares were displayed in an extremely dark little room below her uncle’s flat sold her a necklace and a charm bracelet on the day after her return from Bou Kairouan, and she bought sandals and a handbag from his next-door neighbour, who threw in a bottle of perfume for good measure, and invited her to look in as often as she pleased. Others tried to persuade her to partake of coffee in their back rooms, and brought forth the most tempting silks and other materials; and she drank three small glasses of mint tea with a very old man who said he could tell her her fortune in addition to mending her watch. She allowed him to tell her a few things which he indicated were all in the future, and then was slightly startled because he told her one or two things about her past which not even her uncle had been informed of.

He brought back to her vividly a broken engagement which she realized later was a most fortunate escape from marriage with the wrong man; and he described the details of

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