Darker Side Of Desire

The Sheikh wanted to see her to discuss something with her. But what? The note was almost deliberately evasive, full of gratitude for what she had done and yet really telling her nothing of the Sheikh’s purpose in writing to her. He would send someone to escort her to his suite, his note informed her. Obviously she wasn’t going to be allowed to refuse.

Repressing a sigh, Claire found the card she had bought for Teddy and started to write to him. The summer holidays were coming up and she already knew that Teddy had been invited to join a schoolfriend on his father’s yacht. She had been worrying about how she was going to pay for the clothes that he would need, but her godmother’s generous cheque had solved that problem. It would also enable her to give Teddy some money of his own to spend while he was away and she was just writing to him to this effect when she heard the sharp rap on her door. Guessing in advance that it would be one of Sheikh Ahmed’s armed men, she went to the door and opened it, suppressing a small stunned gasp of dismay when she realised he had sent Raoul.

‘I’ll just get my bag and my key,’ she told him, surprised to find that he was following her into her room. Her key and bag were on the far bed and as she picked them up she was astounded to discover that Raoul was openly reading the card she had been writing to Teddy.

‘Your lover?’ he questioned, without a hint of embarrassment at being discovered.

‘My relationship with Teddy is private,’ Claire responded furiously. From the first moment she had set eyes on him something about this man had antagonised her, and it was plain that he shared her antipathy. He was looking at her with something that bordered on acute dislike.

‘That will be something my uncle hasn’t bargained for,’ he murmured under his breath as he straightened up, but before Claire could question him further he was heading for the door, the small courtesy of opening it for her and then standing back so that she could precede him, drawing a thin, sardonic smile from his lips. ‘My mother used to say that the thing that made her fall in love with my father was his good manners. My countrymen…’

‘Believe in treating their women like possessions,’ Claire said unwisely. ‘No wonder your mother chose to marry a European.’

‘You prefer European males to Eastern?’ The dark eyebrows shot up. ‘Why is that, I wonder? Because you know it is easier to dominate them? Are you then a modern, liberated woman, Miss Miles, who believes herself equal or indeed superior to my sex? A woman who chooses her lovers as her grandmother might have done a new gown and discards them just as easily…’

Trying to hold on to her temper, Claire responded briefly, ‘And you? Am I to infer from what you have said that you prefer your women to be of a more biddable disposition; Muslim women, in fact, taught from the cradle to revere and worship the dominant male? How fortunate we both are that we can indulge our separate tastes without opposition.’

She had meant the words as a taunt, but had been totally unprepared for the look of dark, almost brooding anger that tightened every feature, his eyes almost black as they bored into puzzled grey ones.

‘You might be able to indulge your preferences, Miss Miles,’ he said at last, ‘I am less fortunate. Muslim fathers are careful where they bestow their daughters, and like any child of a dual-race marriage, I am totally accepted by neither. Indeed, if it were not for the good offices of my uncle Sheikh Ahmed, I doubt I would even have a country to call my own.’ He saw her expression and his face hardened further. ‘You might find the thought of a marriage between East and West a romantic concept, Miss Miles,’ he told her, correctly reading her thoughts, ‘but my mother soon discovered to her cost that my father had no intention of keeping the promises he made when they became man and wife. In the East at least a woman has the comfort of her family if she should be deserted or ill-treated by her husband, in the West… My father married my mother purely for her wealth. Once they were married and I was conceived, he devoted all his spare time to other women and gambling. My mother died shortly after I was born. The shame of her husband’s desertion was something she could no longer endure, and once my father discovered that he was not going to benefit from his marriage, he gave my uncle the option of either bringing me up himself or placing me in an orphanage.’

Why was he telling her this? Only this morning he had savaged her with the knife thrust of his contempt for merely betraying a brief curiosity, but now he was telling her the intimate details of his life, and in such a taut, bitter way that she guessed every word was a sharp thorn piercing an old wound. She couldn’t understand it.

They were borne upwards in the lift towards the Sheikh’s private suite. As before, the Sheikh was alone, his smile welcoming and she was sure sincere, as he waved her into a chair.

‘Please, sit down, Miss Miles,’ he glanced at his nephew as Claire obediently sank into a plush chair. ‘Has Raoul said anything to you of my purpose in asking you to join us?’

‘I have told her nothing. You know my views.’

‘But if she is agreeable you will…’

‘I will do whatever is needed to protect the child, you know that.’

Alarmed by the harsh tone of his voice and the undercurrents she could sense seething between the two men, Claire glanced from Raoul’s set, dark face to the Sheikh’s kinder, but no less resolute one.

‘You are alarming our guest, Raoul,’ he berated mildly ‘My dear, there is no need to be afraid. Indeed we are the ones to suffer that emotion lest you should…’ He broke off while Claire stared up at him in mystification. Neither of them struck her as men who would fear anything, especially Raoul. By his actions this morning he had proved that when it came to physical danger… She shuddered, suddenly over-taken by a vivid memory of the gunmen and the rapid sound of gunfire, the fear that had been pushed aside by the adrenalin-induced need to act now emerging to surge sickeningly through her veins. Only the knowledge that Raoul was watching her and would no doubt relish her weakness gave her the strength to suppress her feelings, her nerves as taut as fine wire as she waited for the Sheikh to continue.

‘I have a proposition to put to you, Miss Miles,’ he began quietly, and beneath the calm dignity of his manner Claire sensed a deep inner disquietude. ‘Indeed, it is only because I sense within you a warm and sympathetic personality that I am able to speak of this matter to you at all.’ He gave her a charming smile. ‘You might say that I am taking an unfair advantage of your good nature, and I’m afraid that is true. This morning you risked your own life to save that of my nephew…’

‘I acted entirely instinctively,’ Claire told him, a faint warm colour staining her cheekbones. If the Sheikh had brought her here to offer her another reward, she was going to refuse it. But surely a reward would not necessitate Raoul’s presence or be the cause of the uncertainty and agitation she sensed in the older man?

‘Perhaps, but nevertheless, your first instinct was to protect Saud, and I myself have observed your care of the child. You like children, Miss Miles?’

‘Yes, but…’ Her voice trailed off as her muddled thoughts clarified. Could the Sheikh be going to ask her to act as Saud’s nanny? ‘I could not look after him full-time if that is what you are about to suggest. I have a job already, and then…’ Then there was Teddy, but some inner caution made her say haltingly, ‘I have certain commitments…’

‘To your lover?’ Raoul suggested sardonically. ‘His should be the commitment to you, Miss Miles.’

‘There is a man already in your life?’ The Sheikh looked disturbed.

‘Yes…’

‘But you are not betrothed or married to him. There is no truly firm commitment?’

Her mouth had gone dry. Why hadn’t she simply explained that Teddy was her brother right from the start? How on earth was she going to extricate herself from her own half-truths now? Anger came to her rescue. What business was it of either of these men what her relationship with Teddy was?

‘Miss Miles and her lover are conducting a long-distance affair,’ Raoul supplemented cynically. ‘She was writing to him when I went to collect her.’

‘So… Then it is possible that you would be free to return with us to Omarah?’

‘As Saud’s nanny? I cannot. I am not trained… I…’

‘It is not as Saud’s nanny that my uncle requires your services, Miss Miles,’ Raoul cut in in a hatefully mocking voice, ‘but as his mother.’

‘His mother?’ The room seemed to whirl dizzily in front of her eyes, ‘but… but that is impossible.’

‘Biologically yes, but…’

‘What my nephew is trying to say, Miss Miles, is that in order to protect Saud it might be as well if we allowed those who instigated this morning’s attack to believe it succeeded. No… please hear me out,’ he begged when Claire would have interrupted. ‘No one apart from ourselves and my guards, whose loyalty I know I can depend on, know the truth. Those sent to kill my nephew have themselves been killed, but if we return to Omarah with Saud there will be other attempts on his life, attempts which could easily prove to be successful, and then I fear my country will turn its eyes and heart to Russia. You know already of the divisions in my country.’ He drew a sharp sigh. ‘Had Raoul been the son of my brother rather than the son of my sister, I could have appointed him as my heir…’

‘And that, I believe, is the only thing I can thank my father for,’ Raoul interrupted grimly.

‘I know you have no wish to step into my shoes, Raoul. Raoul is the head of our petrochemical industries,’ the Sheikh told Claire, and something in the look on the former’s face told her that this was no sinecure post, and that Raoul was completely genuine when he said that he had no wish to take his uncle’s place.

‘And thanks to the insistence of my father I am also a Christian,’ Raoul added grittily. He saw Claire’s look of surprise and said cuttingly, ‘Does it surprise you to know that those of my uncle’s faith are so tolerant towards others? The Prophet himself decreed that it must be so.’

Why, when he obviously felt so bitter about his father, and had chosen to ally himself to the Arab blood he carried, had he not changed his religion, Claire wondered, trying to shrug her curiosity aside as the Sheikh shook his head warningly.

‘We digress Raoul. We have not appraised Miss Miles of our… plan. Obviously, if we do allow it to be known that Saud did not survive this morning’s attack, it would be difficult for us to take the child back with us to Omarah. I did think at one time of leaving him in your country where he could be brought up in secret and, I hope, in safety, but…’

‘But if you do that he will grow up a stranger to his own country and its customs. The people would never accept him in your place. He would be more European than Arab.’

‘This is true,’ the Sheikh agreed gravely, ‘which is why, my dear, we are seeking your help. You see, the only way we can take Saud back with us in safety is if we take him as someone else’s child. You can see, I am sure, the dangers attendant on such a course. How could we be sure that the couple we might choose would be trustworthy? And Saud must be brought up as befits his station.’

‘I am honoured that you should have thought of me as a candidate,’ Claire responded truthfully, ‘but surely, even if I agreed, people would think it strange that you should take into your family an unmarried European girl with a child. Surely they would suspect…’

The two men exchanged a look that made her blood turn to ice in her veins, a feeling that she had suddenly strayed on to very unsteady ground sending alarm signals rushing to her brain.

‘I have not entirely explained, Saud would not just be your child, but… but Raoul’s as well. It would be announced that you were married during our visit to your country, and…’

‘Oh, but that couldn’t possibly work,’ Claire expostulated, refusing to dwell for the moment on the multitude of sensations assailing her and clinging only to the bare facts. Later, when she was alone, she would allow herself to think more deeply on the strange sensation stirring in the pit of her stomach at the thought of Raoul as her husband… her lover.

The look he gave her was bitterly sardonic. ‘Well, it won’t,’ she said sharply. ‘Everyone will know that we haven’t been married long enough to have a child, and… and with a European woman… Surely…’

Finding no reassurance in Raoul’s hard, cynical features, she looked wildly at the Sheikh, her heart sinking at what she saw in his calm, dark eyes.

‘We have been into this, and if you are in agreement, our story will be that Saud was the result of an affair between you and Raoul. He spends a considerable amount of time abroad, so that aspect need not cause us any concern. Your child will have been born illegitimately, and I will have coerced Raoul into marriage with you, for the child’s sake.’

The picture he was painting wasn’t a very attractive one and Claire found herself grimacing in distaste. ‘I suspect Miss Miles is thinking the proposition would sound more attractive had I been the one to do the coercing, Uncle,’ Raoul interceded mockingly, ‘but you are not thinking clearly, Miss Miles. No one knowing me would believe that I had willingly married a European woman…’