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Trusted Bond

Trusted Bond

Titel: Trusted Bond Kostenlos Bücher Online Lesen
Autoren: Mary Calmes
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curious; you just need to find her a tutor who will answer
    questions instead of lecturing. Let her decide what she wants to learn.‖
    Her eyes softened for the first time. ―I agree.‖
    I bowed my head slightly, and she mirrored my movement.
    After lunch, I walked with the little girl through the gardens,
    pointing out statues of pharaohs and priests, explaining more history, not
    enough to bore her, hitting the high points. My student hung on my every
    word, and it was nice, and novel, to be listened to.

    WALKING the marketplace, it was obvious that the shopkeepers were
    ready to receive visitors for the feast. Every store and restaurant was open,
    the streets alive, even so early in the day, with raucous laughter, thick
    crowds, and drinking. I heard music both familiar and exotic and asked
    and learned the names of instruments like the bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, and
    oud. Femi decided, after inhaling the intoxicating scents of different foods
    cooking and blending together, that she needed something more to eat.
    Street vendors sold sweet cakes and roasted meat on wooden
    Trusted Bond

    139

    skewers. There was mint tea, iced and hot, bread that had been fried crisp
    and then dipped in honey, and vegetables roasted on skewers. We stopped
    and watched a woman pound bread out flat and then throw it into a large
    pan filled with sweet oil to cook. Between Femi‘s mesmerized attention
    and mine, we were irresistible. We both thanked the woman profusely
    when she gifted us each with a fried dough pouch filled with lamb.
    We ducked into one of the tents to watch some wrestling and boxing,
    but I didn‘t think it was the place for a little girl and dragged her out
    minutes later. The fencing tent was more agreeable, as the sword points
    were covered for safety. Later, we stopped to watch a play, but since I was
    not in the mood for a tragedy, we moved on. The puppet tent was fun, and
    I spent more time enjoying Femi‘s reactions than anything else.
    ―Let‘s go,‖ Femi ordered when she got bored, grabbing my hand and
    tugging me after her. ―I‘m hungry.‖
    More rich aromas drew her to yet another street cart that sold dried
    meat and soft glazed dough filled with jellied fruit. It turned out the scamp
    had money, passing it over so the two of us could both have a snack.
    ―You should have money too,‖ Femi observed, and I agreed. I
    should have had a lot of things—my mate and my freedom, for starters.
    As we made our way down streets that narrowed and narrowed,
    twisting and turning back on themselves, the going proved difficult
    without running into jugglers, strolling musicians, and tumblers, all
    begging and performing for coin.
    ―Femi!‖
    We both turned to see her father stalking toward us. He looked
    angry, and I was confused, though I stood my ground even when he closed
    the distance between us and backhanded me sharply across the face.
    I absorbed the blow for Femi, not crying out, bracing my legs apart
    to remain on my feet.
    ―How dare you take my child without my per—‖
    ―No!‖ Femi shrieked, hurling herself at my side, clutching tight, her
    face buried in my abdomen. ―Mama said Jin could be with me!‖
    ―Ammon!‖
    We all turned to Ebere as she stalked across the street, stepping
    between me and her husband, shielding her daughter from her husband
    and, inadvertently, me as well.
    ―Are you mad?‖
    140

    Mary Calmes

    His head jerked up as he looked at her face. ―How dare—‖
    ―You cannot strike another semel‘s mate. Only the priest may cross
    that boundary.‖
    ―I thought he had taken Femi to try and make me change my mind
    about him being returned to his mate. I was terrified for my child.‖
    I was aware of a crowd slowly gathering to see the display of the
    semel-aten and his yareah having a scene in the street.
    ―You wanted only an excuse to exercise your control over the reah,‖
    she spat back, grabbing her daughter‘s hand and snapping at me, ―Come,
    we will all return to the villa before we create more of a spectacle.‖
    Having been struck through the cloth of the keffiyeh, the blow didn‘t
    sting, as it had not made contact with my skin, but it hurt nonetheless.
    Femi was sobbing, and as I listened, Ebere comforted her daughter,
    assuring her that it was not her fault, finally stopping and sinking to her
    knees before her in the street. I had misjudged Ebere. I thought she was a
    cold, distant woman, and that was not the case at all.
    ―You know,

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