Free A Sahib's Daughter by Nina Harkness Page A

great excitement.
    “The Pathans are here! Mum, where are you? The Pathans are here.”
    Samira and Ramona ran to the verandah. The Pathans travelled all the way from Kashmir selling hand-loomed carpets, embroidered linens and furs. The children regarded them with a mixture of fear and curiosity. Their stature was further enhanced by their enormous puggaries that crisscrossed on their heads and were finished off with tails at the back. They wore intricately woven shirts and soft, embroidered shoes that ended in a curved point. Mark sniggered when he saw the shoes that were like the ones worn by the Air India Maharaja mascot. Ramona glared at him and called for Jetha to bring nimboo pani for the visitors.
    She tried to tell them that she really wasn’t interested in a carpet or a fur, but they persisted in unrolling carpet after carpet across the verandah, deaf to her protests. They unfolded dozens of tablecloths, cushion covers and napkins. Then they started to unpack the furs: gorgeous coats, hats and stoles in mink, fox and rabbit.
    “You please try,” Ramona was encouraged to try on a mink coat.
    “Oh, my,” she said. It was soft and luxurious and much too warm for the climate.
    “Mummy, you look beautiful!” cried Samira. “Buy it, buy it.”
    “Gracious, no. It’s much too expensive.”
    “Not expensive, madam,” insisted the Pathan. “I make very good price.”
    It was no coincidence that they had timed their visit for just before the Burra Sahib came home. Charles arrived right on cue and came up the steps.
    “Goodness, what’s going on?”
    “Daddy, it’s the Pathans,” explained Mark, as though Charles hadn’t guessed already.
    “What a lot of stuff,” he commented. “What’s the guess we’re going to have to buy something?”
    “Sahib, we come very far from Kashmir. You please buy?”
    “I feel it would be only right,” agreed Ramona. She had her eye on a luscious, brown fox stole that did wonders for her coloring. And Charles who never showed any interest in household matters suddenly took a fancy to a large carpet. Much heated haggling and drama followed as Ramona bargained with the vendors. There would have been no pleasure in the purchase unless she felt an unbelievable bargain had been struck.
    “We have made absolutely no profit, Sahib. No profit,” the Pathans lied as they reloaded their van.
    The Clarke household excitedly unrolled their new, blue wool carpet in the drawing room. And much later, Ramona posed provocatively for Charles in their bedroom in her fabulous new fox fur and nothing else.

    Every time Samira returned home from boarding school, she seemed to withdraw further into herself. She read voraciously, lying in her room, or on the swing bed in the verandah. It was not that she didn’t like school. She thrived in the company of her contemporaries. It was adjusting to life in the real world that she had problems with. She, rather than Mark, took part in all the school plays, sang in the choir and was among the top students in her class. Mark escaped the pressure to perform and excel that landed on Samira’s shoulders. His winning ways allowed him to evade responsibility and get away with things that she was punished for.
    While she was sensitive to any form of criticism, comments made by her mother seemed to affect her most. She started to distance herself almost as a means of self-protection. She felt socially inept, always saying the wrong thing. She became distrustful of her ability to express herself, especially in the company of adults. Ironically, her insecurity was interpreted as aloofness.
    “Samira doesn’t know how to talk,” Ramona told people, which was essentially true. But those remarks were humiliating and caused her to retreat further into her shell.
    “Is that what you’re going to wear, Sammy?” Ramona said when she showed up in a pair of stylish new slacks, ready to go to the club one Saturday. “You should see yourself from