Chapter FiveApart from attending to her household affairs, Zainab’s mother now spent most of her time by her daughter’s side. She kept her husband informed and sometimes he went himself to see how she was, but Zainab could not look at him without an expression of pained reproach that struck his heart and which he almost understood. Ummu Jaziyya devoted herself to looking after Zainab, leaving her only at the obligatory times of prayer when she would go to pray in her room. At night Hassan stayed with his wife and she had no need of anyone else.
A cloud of sadness hung over the house and the faces of all who came or went showed signs of grief. Even the dust-coloured sun which sent a pool of rays round the bed where Zainab lay, seemed sad as if it were aware of the anxious hearts that its l
