Daughter Of Hassan. PENNY JORDAN

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СКАЧАТЬ Mother’ Danielle sighed, unconsciously deliberately not using the more childish ‘Mummy’, ‘you can’t keep me wrapped in cotton wool for ever, you know—and besides, from what I’ve already heard of him marriage to Jourdan would be far from a bed of roses.’

      ‘You must take what Philippe Sancerre told you with a pinch of salt,’ her stepfather said calmly. ‘While I cannot attempt to speak for Jourdan’s past, Danielle, like all men of good sense he knows that marriage is a serious business, and once married…’

      ‘It doesn’t matter how seriously he takes it,’ Danielle interrupted swiftly, ‘and it wouldn’t alter my views in the slightest if we were talking of some other man; personalities do not enter into my argument, object to the principle of the arranged marriage, no matter how or why it arises. Oh, I know you have only my welfare at heart, but such a marriage is abhorrent and repugnant to me. I could no more agree to it than I could… fly!’

      ‘I understand how you feel, darling,’ her mother said gently. ‘Hassan, try to understand,’ she appealed to her husband. ‘Although Danielle has had a sheltered upbringing, she is not a Muslim girl trained from birth to accept male dominance and her role in life unquestioningly.’

      ‘And nor should I wish her to be,’ Danielle’s stepfather agreed, smiling fondly at the downbent darkened head and rebelliously taut body of his stepdaughter.

      ‘Then you accept that there can be no marriage between your nephew and myself?’ Danielle asked him.

      ‘If that is your wish, but I cannot pretend that I am not disappointed. It would have been a good marriage. Jourdan will have to be told, of course…’

      ‘I’m sure he’ll soon find someone else,’ Danielle said grimly, remembering the girl Corinne had mentioned.

      ‘When it becomes known in our family that he is not to marry you, he will lose face,’ her stepfather said sombrely, ‘but the fault is perhaps mine. I forgot that for all I consider you to be my daughter, you are not, as your mother does well to remind me, a daughter of the East…’

      He looked so cast down that Danielle was moved to comfort him. ‘I know you were trying to secure my future, but when I marry I want it to be to a man I can respect and share my life with, not a man who looks to me only to bear his children. Besides,’ she added firmly, ‘I’m not ready for marriage…’

      For the second time in a very short span of hours her stepfather’s wryly encompassing scrutiny of her slender, determined form filled her with embarrassment.

      ‘Perhaps not yet,’ he agreed. ‘But the time is not far off… If you will not marry Jourdan, then will you at least visit my family as my emissary? As you know, I shall shortly have to go to America on business. Your mother will come with me, and it would please me greatly, Danielle, if you would use these weeks before you start college—if that is what you are determined to do—to show my family how beautiful and chaste a daughter I have.’

      ‘You mean fly out to Qu‘har?’ Danielle asked. ‘Oh, but I couldn’t…’ Couldn’t live with complete strangers, was what she meant, strangers who disapproved of her mother and her marriage to their relative; strangers who included the man she had just refused to marry!

      It was later when she was preparing for bed that her mother entered her room, so quietly that at first Danielle didn’t hear her.

      ‘Danielle,’ her mother begged softly, sitting down on Danielle’s bed, and watching her daughter brush the gleaming cloud of darkened curls clustering on her shoulders, ‘please go to Qu‘Har. It means so much to Hassan—far more than he has told you. You have compassion and imagination, surely you can understand how bitter has been his own lack of children, especially in view of his position? To claim you as his daughter, albeit by marriage, is one of his greatest joys. Do not deny him the pleasure of showing you off to his family…’

      ‘A family who don’t want anything to do with us as long as Daddy continues to make money for them,’ Danielle protested rebelliously, putting down her brush and turning to face her mother. ‘I can’t do it. I can’t pretend the way I would have to…’

      ‘Not even for the sake of your father?’ her mother prodded gently. ‘It would be a compromise, Danny. I know Hassan mentioned that Jourdan will lose face over your refusal to marry him, but so will Hassan…’

      Her sympathy aroused in spite of her own feelings, Danielle stared reluctantly at the floor, knowing what her mother was asking of her and yet unwilling to commit herself to visiting Qu‘Har.

      ‘I can understand Daddy,’ she said at last. ‘But you… surely you knew that I would never agree to such a marriage?’

      ‘I knew, but Hassan was so sure he was doing the right thing, so convinced that he was protecting you that only your own reaction could convince him. Having gained so much surely you can afford a little compromise now, darling?’

       CHAPTER THREE

      A LITTLE compromise took one a long, long way, Danielle thought ruefully, staring out of the window of the powerful jet—one of the twelve owned by Qu‘Har Air. This jet, though, was special. It was the personal property of her stepfather’s family, and a courteous, deferential young man had been conscripted from his normal job in the oil company offices to accompany her to Qu‘Har.

      The whine of the high-powered engines changed abruptly, denoting the fact that they were nearing their destination. In spite of her resolution not to be, Danielle felt nervous. She smoothed the skirt of the silk two-piece she was wearing with fingers that trembled slightly. The silk was peacock green, highlighting her hair and flattering the golden tones the summer sun had given her skin. She eyed it ruefully. Never in all her holidays abroad had she ever tanned. When she had complained about it to a beautician the girl had chided her, telling her she ought to be grateful for having such a delicate English complexion and preserve it at all costs. The colour in it now was only as a result of slow and careful exposure over the entire length of a particularly good English summer, and her stepfather had told her that even though the worst of the humidity had passed the temperature in Qu‘Har in August was very high, and would continue to be high throughout the duration of her stay. For this reason she had been careful to include in her packing a good supply of sunscreen, essential if her skin wasn’t to get badly burned. The girl in the chemist had also suggested a new sunburn lotion which she had assured Danielle was extremely effective, and that too had been packed with her other cosmetics just in case.

      What would her stepfather’s family think of her? Although she assured herself that she couldn’t care less, for his sake she knew that she hoped they would approve of her. Jourdan, thank goodness, would be in Paris, on business, or so she had been told, and she was grateful to her stepfather who she was sure had been responsible for this diplomatic move. It would have been awkward and embarrassing to have to meet the man who had so callously agreed to marry her, without even seeing her, and she was glad that she would not be called upon to do so.

      The jet was descending; she glanced out of the window but could see nothing apart from dazzling blue sky. As she glanced back Danielle saw that her escort was watching her shyly, although he looked hurriedly away when he realised that she had observed his speculative glance. He was about her own age dressed expensively in a Western style suit, his black hair neatly groomed. He was, her stepfather had told her, the son of one of his cousins, in addition to being on the staff of the oil company. In Arab countries nepotism was obviously a virtue rather than a vice, and as the jet came to rest on the tarmac runway СКАЧАТЬ