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unseen eye on the dusty haze in the stable yard. It turned golden as the sun sank over the walls. Flies darted in and out of the doorway, and someone walked Rahim’s stallion past on its way to the stable. Birds twittered in the trees.
    Amina and Leyla had trapped Ibne. Shabanu saw it as clearly as if she were watching the plot of a movie unfold. Amina had arranged the incident to cast suspicion on Shabanu.
    Amina set the tone for the other women’s attitude toward Shabanu. She enlisted the servants, her daughters, and the other wives to wage war against this unwanted member of the household. If Amina was the general, Leyla was her field commander.
    Amina and Leyla said she manipulated Rahim. They believed he protected her while she seduced him into misappropriating property and possessions that rightfully would be theirs when he died. They would be shocked to know what Shabanu really wanted was to be gone from them, away from this place, rid of everything that would remind her of it, and alone, when Rahim was gone.
    Shabanu stood and crossed to the rough wooden cupboard, where she moved stacks of bright-colored tunics and saris until she found a silver shot-silk
kameez
and a tight-fitting
churidar
pajama in the same silver, striped with black. She flicked the tiny silver bells embroidered into the pattern on the bodice, and her heart lifted with their delicate rings.
    She wouldn’t let them cast their shadow over her life. She would show Rahim exactly what had happened. She would shine a light so bright over herself and Mumtaz that there would be no darkness in the world.

chapter 5
    R ahim questioned Shabanu about Ibne that night almost as if he didn’t want to know, so anxious was he that she not be hurt by the accusations he’d heard. She told him the simple truth, and he nodded while he listened.
    “He never entered your room?” he asked when she had finished. “Could you have been too sound asleep to know?”
    “Ibne would never come into my room alone, even if he knocked first. Not even if I asked him to! It was a lie planned to make you distrust me.”
    “Ibne said the cook sent him with a message. And the cook said he sent no message. The cook has been with me for twenty-five years.”
    “And so has Ibne,” said Shabanu. “And his father before him.”
    Rahim rubbed his chin with his forefinger and tightened his lips over his teeth.
    “You don’t think he’d risk everything—his job, hisdignity, your respect—by trying to hurt me? It doesn’t make sense.” She spoke calmly, keeping all urgency from her voice.
    “You’re a beautiful woman, Shabanu. Never underestimate a man with desire in his heart.”
    She threw up her hands and let out her breath in an exasperated puff. Forgive me, Ibne, she thought. I can’t let him think I’m trying to convince him. He must decide on the truth in his own heart.
    “Will you let your most trusted servant go because of a foolish screaming woman?”
    “Leyla is not—”
    “Ha!” Shabanu said, and folded her arms. “So it was Leyla!” He stiffened at the coldness in her voice. “And you believe her?”
    “I know you think Leyla and her mother have tried to hurt you, but they’re good women, Shabanu. You’re too sensitive about your background …”
    “I’m proud of my background! I wouldn’t trade my family or growing up in the desert for a
crore
of rupees!” she said. But she allowed him to soothe her and tell her how honorable her father was.
    Shabanu spent the night with Rahim, and although she was very tired, she took special care to please him, giving him jasmine tea and rubbing scented oil into his skin until he fell asleep.
    The next morning she was up early. In the low-lying haze she and Mumtaz walked beside the canal, the fawn following behind, ducking her head andthrowing out her feet in delicate kicks. A bell jangled from the red braided collar around the animal’s neck, and Mumtaz stopped for a moment and watched her