“Oh, horses, armour, bows and arrows, games, and things like that.”
“And what other things?”
Aryenis reflected again, contemplating the distant hills and the snow.
“How they speak to women sometimes. Most of all, how they treat a woman and how they look at her.”
“And how do you think they ought to treat women?”
“Well, like you all treated me when I first came to you. I wasn’t exactly got up for a party.” She blushed a little. “And you all treated me just as if I had been wearing my most ordinary frocks, and then you turned out of your tent and lived in the cold wind outside, and gave me your best clothes—rather ragged ones they were.
“And after that you spoke to me always as if I were a princess, and got up when I came to meals, and generally danced attendance on me hand and foot, and your men did just what you do, and servants can’t change quickly. They do what they have been accustomed to see their masters doing for a long time.
“So I was sure none of you had grown up. I knew that when you were untying me behind the rock while Payindah was shooting. I was very frightened, but a woman has to think awfully quickly sometimes, and I knew before even you’d got my arms free that you hadn’t grown up, anyway.”
“You must judge very quickly, Shahzadi. How do you do it?”
“Every woman does, and perhaps I am quicker than most. You see I could tell from your eyes that, although you were trying to be very businesslike, you were really feeling even shyer than I was, so I knew it was all right.”