Desert Nights. Penny Jordan

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      His words shocked Felicia into momentary silence, and then colour stormed her pale face as she contemplated their significance. Her fingers clenched into small, impotent fists. How dared he insinuate that she had deliberately and calculatedly persuaded Faisal to wait because she was motivated by greed? If Faisal’s uncle thought like this man she would have no hope of persuading him to accept her. The thought made her reckless.

      ‘I would have married Faisal without his uncle’s sanction,’ she stormed, ‘but he didn’t want to cause a rift in his family. His money means nothing to me. It’s him that I love!’

      ‘And that is why he has sent you to persuade Raschid? You with your red-gold hair and sea-green eyes? Did he tell you that you bear an unmistakable resemblance to Raschid’s grandmother?’

      Felicia’s colour betrayed her, and he surveyed her in silent contempt, his eyes cold.

      ‘You have come on a fool’s errand, Miss Gordon. Faisal knows that Raschid will not give his consent to any betrothal. Indeed I suspect this is merely another of his attempts to persuade Raschid to release to him the control of his inheritance. How much is he paying you to come here and….’

      ‘It’s not like that!’ Felicia stormed. ‘I love Faisal and he loves me….’

      ‘How very touching!’ he mocked, ignoring her distress. ‘But Raschid will never give his consent.’

      His arrogance infuriated her.

      ‘How do you know?’ she demanded incautiously. ‘Who are you to speak for him?’

      ‘Who am I?’ he repeated softly, his eyes narrowed and watching. ‘Why, Miss Gordon, I thought you must have guessed. I am Faisal’s uncle, Sheikh Raschid al Hamid Al Sabah.’ Mocking irony informed the words, and Felicia was glad of the encroaching dusk to mask her confusion. She supposed she ought to have guessed, she thought tiredly, but somehow she had it firmly fixed in her mind that Raschid would be a much older man. He had deliberately deceived her, she thought angrily, aware of the merciless scrutiny of cold grey eyes that told her how much he was enjoying her embarrassment.

      You can’t be Raschid, she wanted to protest. She had expected a man of middle age, with a greying beard and the traditional flowing white robes; this man with his expensive European clothes and elegantly groomed appearance bore no resemblance at all to the Raschid of her imaginings.

      He had tricked her into a trap, and she had foolishly helped him, but there was one point at least that she could make clear.

      ‘I do love Faisal,’ she told him shakily. ‘And I loved him before I knew he was your nephew.’

      Green eyes clashed with grey, but it was Felicia’s that dropped first.

      ‘And what, I wonder, is that supposed to mean?’

      At his side Felicia fumed silently. He had already trapped her into enough indiscretion; she was not going to compound her folly by admitting that she suspected he believed her interest in Faisal stemmed from avarice.

      They were driving through the heart of the city and she roused herself sufficiently to stare interestedly out of the car window, ignoring the silent disparagement of the man at her side. Faisal had told her that his family lived on the coast between Kuwait and the town of Al Jahrah, although apparently his uncle had a villa at the oasis which had been the original home of their tribe.

      ‘This is Arabian Gulf Street,’ Raschid informed her dryly. ‘It runs along the coast. If you look carefully you will see the Sief Palace.’

      Mutinously Felicia ignored him, staring resolutely through the window. As the car swept down the road a shattering wail broke the silence, jerking her upright to stare wide-eyed out of the car.

      ‘The muezzin,’ her companion said sardonically. ‘This is the hour of sunset when the faithful must face Mecca and pray, but if you expect to see them do so in the streets as they once did, you will be disappointed, Miss Gordon. Nowadays our lives are ruled by more mundane needs than prayer.’

      ‘But you’re a Christian,’ Felicia began impulsively, remembering what Faisal had told her, and falling silent when she saw the anger tightening his face.

      ‘By baptism, yes,’ he agreed curtly. ‘But make no mistake, I live my life according to the laws of my family, laws which Faisal’s wife will have to obey as implicitly as he does himself. Make no mistake, Miss Gordon, my English blood will not incline me to look favourably upon you, no matter what Faisal might have told you.’

      Felicia snatched a look at the forbidding line of his mouth, and knew that he meant what he said. Despair filled her. She had promised Faisal that she would do her best to impress his uncle, and yet already she had aroused his anger and, worse, his contempt. Crossly she bit her lip, fuming in silence until they were clear of the town, the powerful car carrying them swiftly through the suburbs, where houses of all shapes and designs jostled one another, the scent of lime trees heavy on the evening air, when Raschid pressed the button to wind down his window and throw out the stub of the thin cigar he had been smoking.

      ‘Still sulking?’ he drawled when Felicia remained silent. ‘And yet I am sure Faisal impressed upon you the importance of gaining my goodwill.’

      ‘Which we both know will never be forthcoming,’ Felicia shot back unwisely. ‘I know why you suggested this visit. You wanted to part us, to prove to Faisal that I will not make him a good wife, to make him have second thoughts….’ To her horror her voice wavered and weak tears blurred her vision. ‘Well, you won’t succeed!’ she stormed at him. ‘We love each other, and I would still love him even if he were a beggar!’

      Her companion’s mouth twisted sardonically.

      ‘Woman’s eternal cry when she knows there is little chance of it coming to pass. Faisal could no more live in poverty than you could yourself.’ He looked at the expensive linen suit she had bought for travelling, his eyes mocking. ‘Look at yourself, Miss Gordon. From the top of your undeniably lovely head to the tips of your feet, you evidence expensive grooming. Do you honestly expect me to believe that you would live in poverty with my nephew—a boy who has never wanted for anything in his life?’

      But I have wanted, Felicia wanted to throw at him. And I’ve wanted the most important thing of all—love! But she knew better than to expect the man seated opposite her to understand her deep-seated need for that. Money was all he understood, she thought bitterly. Money and power.

      ‘I know what you’re trying to do,’ she said eventually, ‘but you won’t succeed. You’re a cruel, hard man, Sheikh, and I know you for my enemy!’

      In the darkness she saw the white flash of his smile.

      ‘Enemies?’ His voice was like velvet. ‘Is that what you think? In our country there is no enmity between man and woman.’

      ‘There is between the hawk and the dove, though,’ Felicia retorted, ‘and that’s what you are—a cruel predator, determined to destroy our love.’

      ‘And you are the dove?’

      He was sneering openly, his eyes contemptuous as they rested on her slender form beneath its linen covering. ‘Vulture would be a more appropriate description, don’t you agree?’

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