by Isobel Chace
“There will be you,” she said.
“Is that enough for you?”
“It’s everything!” she told him frankly. “That and the opportunity to work with you.”
He kissed her again.
“I will make you very happy,” he promised her. “As happy as you are beautiful,” he added, running his hands through her long fair hair. “Beloved,” he whispered.
Sidi Behn Ahmed was en fete. The whole oasis turned out to watch as the German priest arrived from the nearby mission to marry Dr. Kreistler and the nurse from England whom they had come to love.
Lala sat in the courtyard of Katherine’s house unashamedly suckling her young son.
“Why has no one put up the marriage tent for you?” she asked.
It took time for Katherine to understand the question, and when she did she was very little wiser.
“Is it usual?” she asked.
Lala nodded her head positively.
“For the first week of marriage it is good to be alone,” she said. “People come to congratulate the bride during the day, but at night there is no one but you and your husband.”
Katherine put the finishing touches to her dress.
“Dr. Kreistler is coming here,” she said. “It’s nicer than his house and there’s more room.”
Lala thought about this information for a few minutes and
then smiled with approval.
“I go now,” she said. “We are all feasting tonight.”
For Katherine the ceremony came and went in a dream. She exchanged her vows with Peter as though it was the most natural thing in the world to do, and then she sat opposite him at the table as they entertained the priest to dinner. Ali had cooked the dinner to perfection and the priest had brought a bottle of wine from the cellars of his Order to grace the occasion.
But at last that too was over and they went to see him off in his ancient jeep that had been bought from the American army after the war, and they were alone.
A ring of fires showed through the date-palms of the oasis and there was a general air of expectancy all about them. Katherine led the way into the house and turned into her husband’s arms.
“Are you happy?” she asked him.
He kissed her for answer, and she knew she had no need to ask again. There was a new note that had been sounded between them and they were no longer two people but only one.
“Shall we light the candle?” he asked in her ear.
She nodded, and together they lit the five wicks of the marriage-candle he had given her. She took it to the window and placed it in the silver candlestick that waited for it there. Outside, the people looked up and saw it. It is well, they said, and went back to their own affairs.