Abdul-Aziz’s gaze flickered uncertainly to Eleni, who was still standing there, waiting to be dismissed.
‘Do not worry, she is loyal,’ said Kaliq and Eleni hated herself for the fierce feeling of pleasure which those simple words of praise produced.
Abdul-Aziz gave a bow. ‘The succession is by no means certain, Highness.’
‘Prince Sebastian is eager to inherit, is he not?’ mocked Kaliq. ‘Ah, but ambition makes such vultures of men. How happy I am not to have dynastic ambition ruling my life!’
‘Indeed, Highness,’ said Abdul-Aziz, with another small bow. ‘Would you care to hear a report of how the day went?’
‘You think that I am interested in all the family feuding?’ Kaliq murmured, but Abdul-Aziz was looking especially solemn and so he made an impatient gesture with his hand. ‘Oh, very well, let us return to the palace and you can tell me all about it.’ He shot a quick glance at Eleni. ‘Oh, and by the way, Aziz—my new stable girl is to accompany me to England to look at that polo horse I was telling you about.’
Abdul-Aziz started. ‘Accompany you?’
‘That’s what I said,’ drawled Kaliq.
‘But, Highness—’
Black eyes pierced through the aide like twin ebony swords. ‘But what, Aziz?’ he echoed silkily. ‘You think that tongues will wag?’
‘Well, yes, Highness.’
‘Then let them—because only the tails of dogs and horses are meant for wagging! And I am taking the girl with me—that is the beginning and the end of the matter. We will leave by jet in the morning, do you understand?’
His face impassive, Abdul-Aziz nodded with the resignation of one who had spent their life taking orders from resolute rulers and Eleni found herself wondering how he could bear never to be able to answer back. ‘Yes, Highness.’
‘Good. Then please arrange it.’
And, giving Eleni one last mocking look, Kaliq swept from the stable yard, leaving her staring after him with a fast-beating heart and a mass of mixed emotions.
‘YOU can let go of my hand now,’ said Kaliq softly. ‘And open up your eyes, lizard—for nothing is going to happen to you.’
Eleni hadn’t even noticed she’d been gripping the sheikh’s hand! Tentatively, she loosened her grip as she allowed her eyelids to flutter open to see his dark and mocking face uncomfortably yet tantalisingly close to hers as he sat beside her on the luxury jet. And once again she willed away the feeling of fear as she allowed her gaze to flicker to the round windows of the plane. ‘I am flying through the air,’ she croaked in disbelief.
‘Oh, please don’t come over with all that ancient witchcraft stuff with me,’ he mocked. ‘You must have seen planes passing over Calista countless times.’
‘But I have never travelled on one before, Highness—nor ever imagined that I would.’
‘Your first time,’ he mused softly. ‘How exciting that must be.’
‘Exciting?’ Eleni quaked—not caring whether she was meant to answer his observation because she was still shaking from the experience of being whisked through the palm-tree lined streets of Jaladhar in a ‘four-wheel drive’ to the airport. A big beast of a car which had been light years away from the battered old rusty wreck owned by her father. ‘Terrifying would be a more accurate description,’ she answered truthfully.
‘Such an attitude does not bode well for any future new experiences, lizard,’ he murmured—though his mind was preoccupied with only one. For the greatest experience of all awaited her later in his arms. He studied her, thinking how very provincial she looked with those braids of hair which fell to her slender waist. How would she cope in England? he wondered. ‘Have you never wanted your own car?’ he questioned curiously.
‘Certainly not,’ Eleni returned. ‘They have but limited use in the desert regions—a horse is quicker across the sands and more reliable, too, and the car makes people lazy.’
‘Oh, does it?’ Kaliq’s eyes glinted. ‘Are you accusing me of being lazy?’
Eleni briefly let her eyelids fall. ‘I do not know enough about to you to pronounce such a judgement, Highness—even if I dared to break protocol by doing so.’
He studied her thoughtfully. ‘Sometimes I almost think that you are being sardonic, lizard—until I remember that a desert girl would know little of such subtlety.’
Eleni couldn’t help herself. Was it the unreal experience of being lifted into the clouds which had tipped all the normal rules of life upside down? Why else would she have dared to consider answering the sheikh in such a way? Surely not because she had known what it was like to be held and kissed by him?
‘You told me that western women would patronise me because of the way I look,’ she said. ‘And yet you now do the same. You speak of subtlety and tell me that I can have no understanding of it—yet why shouldn’t I? For it is just a variation on human behaviour and I am human—just the same as you.’
Kaliq frowned, and yet he accepted that she had a valid point—it was just that she was the last person on earth he would have expected to make such a point. ‘It was not intended as a criticism,’ he said, in a voice which was as close as he ever got to gentle. ‘More an observation. But you seem almost—educated—for one from such a background as yours.’
‘But I am educated, Highness. You see, I—’ And then she stopped abruptly. What in the falcon’s name was she doing talking to the sheikh about matters such as this? Her tongue had run away with her. ‘Forgive me,’ she mumbled. ‘I forget myself.’
‘No, no.’ He shook his dark head. ‘Your remarks interest me, Eleni. You give me insight into the lives of my subjects. Pray, continue.’
Eleni wriggled her shoulders a little. ‘Well, I liked school. The educational reforms initiated by your stepmother, Queen Anya, meant that girls like me were given access to books and learning for the first time. I had a teacher who encouraged me—she let me read her own books—novels,’ she elaborated shyly.
It had been like a sweet, long draft of water after a hot ride in the desert to sit at a desk and be given clean white paper and pens. An escape from the drudgery at home and the tyrannical reign of her father.
‘So why did you leave school if you liked it so much?’ he questioned softly. ‘You could have gone on to further study—it is rarer among girls, it is true, but the opportunities are there, and Jaladhar has its own university.’
Eleni stared at him. ‘Because I was poor,’ she said, her cheeks flushing pink.
‘There are scholarships, Eleni,’ he pointed out.
‘And because my father would never have allowed it. Because ultimately, men still make the decisions in Calista and women obey them, no matter how great the opportunities which lie before them.’
Kaliq was silent for a moment. She was turning out to be much cleverer than he had ever anticipated—with a native cunning which could spell trouble if he was not careful. She was here simply to help him decide on a horse and to warm his bed at night—and neither of them should forget that. So whose fault was it that they now seemed to be steering towards an inappropriate debate on the openings available for women in Calista? His!
‘Make yourself ready—for