Chapter 5
IT TOOK THE KING a couple of days before he came to the Mothers’ House to look at his new plaything.
Lana spent those two days checking out the library, talking to women in the house and looking at the garden, which was the only place that Mothers were allowed to go without reason and without escort. She discovered nothing terribly interesting in the library and, besides Selwa, who called the shots, she found only a few of the women mildly interesting; most were there only to be pampered and lead vacuous lives.
Most of the garden was on the front and sides of the house, and it contained little waterfalls, quiet ponds, clipped hedges and many flowering plants. It was lush, tropical and wonderful.
The biggest pond was at the front of the house, hemmed in by the patio and glass
