No one communicates with the outcast for fear of being cast out as well. On the street, one turns away. At the home, doors are not opened. Telephone calls are not returned. Post is sent back unacknowledged."
"Like being dead?"
"Completely unlike. The dead are remembered, mourned, and revered. The outcast never existed in the first place."
"Rough," Barbara acknowledged. "But would this have been a problem for Querashi?
Isn't his family in Pakistan? He wouldn't have been seeing them anyway, right?"
"It would have been Haytham's intention to bring his family to England as soon as he had the money to do so. Sahlah's dowry would have provided him that money." Azhar looked back to the french doors. Hadiyyah was hopping across the lawn, bouncing the beach ball on her head. He smiled at the sight and kept his gaze on her as he continued. "Thus, Barbara, I think it unlikely that he was attempting to back out of marriage to Sahlah."
"But what if he'd fallen in love with someone else? I can understand the whole arranged marriage business, and I can see how someone might agree to do his duty and all that -
hell, look at the flaming monarchy and the mess they've made of their lives in the name of duty - but what if someone else came along and he fell in love with her before he really knew what was happening?
People do that, you know."
"Quite true," he said.
"Right. So, what if he was set to meet a lover the night he died? And what if the family found out about it?" When Azhar frowned, looking doubtful, she said, "He had three condoms in his pocket, Azhar. What does that suggest to you?"
"A preparation for intercourse."
"Not a love affair? A love affair significant enough to cause Querashi to want to call off his wedding plans?"
"It might be that Haytham had fallen in love with someone else," Azhar replied. "But love and duty are often mutually exclusive ideas to my people, Barbara. Westerners think of marriage as the logical consequence of love. Most Asians do not. Thus Haytham may have fallen in love with another woman - and possession of the condoms suggests he went to the Nez for purposes of sex if not for purposes of love, I will agree - but it does not follow that he would wish to abrogate his agreement to marry my cousin."
"Okay. I'll accept that for the moment." Barbara dropped a square of toast onto her plate and forked it about in the remaining yolk of her egg.
She knifed it up with some bacon and chewed thoughtfully, considering alternative scenarios.
When she had one, she spoke, aware of the fact that Azhar was frowning. No doubt he was assessing her table manners, which at breakfast left something to be desired. She was used to eating on the run and had never got out of the habit of bolting down her breakfast as if pursued by Mafia hitmen. "Then what if he'd got some woman pregnant? Condoms don't always work the way one would like. They leak, they break, they're not put on in time."
"If she was pregnant, why did he have condoms with him that night? They'd've hardly been necessary."
"Right. Closing the barn door too late," Barbara agreed. "But he might not have known she was in the club. He went prepared to do the dirty as usual, and she broke the news to him when he got there. So she's pregnant and he's engaged to someone else. What then?"
Azhar stubbed out his cigarette. He lit another before answering. "That would be unfortunate."
"Okay. Good. So let's imagine it happened.
Wouldn't the Maliks - "
"But Haytham would still consider himself contracted to Sahlah," he said patiently. "And the family would consider the pregnancy to be the responsibility of the woman. Since she'd likely be English - "
"Hang on," Barbara cut in, her dander up at this blithe assumption. "Why would she likely be anything? How would he know any English women, anyway?"
"This is your conjecture, Barbara, not mine."
It was clear that he read her vexation. It was also clear that he wasn't bothered by it.
"She'd likely be English because young Asian women are careful about their virginity in ways that young English women are not. English girls are easy and available, and Asian men seeking sexual experience will seek it from them, not from another Asian."
"How nice of them," Barbara commented acidly.
Azhar shrugged. "The community's values predominate when it comes to sex. The community values virginity in women