Bellamy's chest puffed slightly at the implication that he wouldn't recognize arabic, particularly such a basic phrase as salam alaikum. Not that he knew what it meant, since he'd never bothered to learn more than a dozen words in any of the local languages in any of the places they'd stayed, but it was the way everyone greeted each other in a wide section of the world so it was hardly the sort of phrase he would have forgotten.
"Wa alaikum salam," he responded, obviously annoyed. Had he been less insulted by the way she'd presumed he was ignorant of her culture, he might have thought to wonder at a girl in an English boarding school being able to greet him in Arabic, but at the moment it hadn't occurred to him to be curious. "And I didn't, Hermia daughter of Anselm."
"Wa alaikum salam," he responded, obviously annoyed. Had he been less insulted by the way she'd presumed he was ignorant of her culture, he might have thought to wonder at a girl in an English boarding school being able to greet him in Arabic, but at the moment it hadn't occurred to him to be curious. "And I didn't, Hermia daughter of Anselm."
