Chapter Six: The Poisoned News

The week after Malam Isa had given his final, crushing refusal, Balarabe worked like a man possessed. He threw himself into the fields, attacking the stubble left by the harvest, trying to silence the rising tide of fear that his obedience had cost him Rukayya. He told himself, as his father had commanded, that if she was meant to be his, she would wait. He repeated the ancient wisdom like a prayer: Patience is the farmer’s greatest tool.

But the seed of doubt that A’isha had planted, the land is about to be. . .