She shook her head and pulled the towel more tightly to her.
He rose and she took a step back. He frowned. “Don’t be afraid of me, cara.”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
“And don’t ever lie to me. Your nose turns red.” He didn’t give her a chance to reply. “I’ve brought you some clothes and a comb for your hair. Come to the fire. After saving your beautiful hide, I don’t want you to catch a chill.”
He handed her a soft velvet robe with long full sleeves. “I promise not to look.”
“Did you plan all this?”
“Not precisely this,” he said, waving his hand around the small camp. He turned his back and Arabella quickly shed the towel and pulled on the robe. “I won’t wear those ridiculous veils again.”
He smiled at the challenge in her voice. “No,” he said only turning to face her. “The blue velvet is lovely. Sit beside the fire and dry your hair.”
He had placed wool blankets on the rocky ground. “What if it rains?”
“If it rains, I will lay you beneath me to keep you dry.”
For the first time since Kamal had met her, she was silent. Then, “Where is the lion?” she asked finally, accepting some of the rabbit. “Is it not dangerous to leave the carcass close to us? Will not other animals want it?”
“I have taken care of it,” Kamal said. “Have some more rabbit.” He wasn’t about to tell her that he had sent his men, with the lion’s carcass, back to the other camp. “Why were you coming back, cara?”
“I had no water, no food, and no weapons,” she said. “I am not entirely stupid.”
“You execute your escapes with dash, but once you are away, things go awry.”
“I said I was not entirely stupid.”
“I’m sorry I forced you.”
Her head jerked up at his words. She remembered the pain, the humiliation.
“You have the talent, Arabella, of bringing out extremes in me,” he continued when the silence stretched long. “Will you forgive me?”
“You hurt me.”
“I know. It was not well done of me.”
“Not just my body, but my spirit.”
He removed the rabbit bone from between her fingers and tossed it away. He drew a deep breath and stared toward the spitting fire. It was dark now, and the stars overhead glittered down like sparkling diamonds.
“When I was a boy,” Kamal said finally, “I saw my father rape a woman he had captured on a raid. It was as if he had ceased being a man and had become an animal. The other men laughed and cheered my father, for the woman was Spanish, and thus an infidel and of no count. Hamil did not laugh. It was he who pulled me away. He told me that a man should not prove himself by hurting another who is weaker, even though it be but a woman. I had forgotten that incident until after I forced you. I felt like the savage you have several times accused me of being. Your bravado, cara, and your damned stubbornness made me forget.”
“Do not blame me, sir, if your veneer of civilization peels off like the skin on an orange.”
He laughed. “No,” he said. “In the future, when you anger me, I shall kiss you until you are soft and yielding to me. Ah, you blush again, Arabella. It pleases me that no other man will ever know the depths of your passion, and rest assured that I shall never let you forget it.”
The future. She realized suddenly that she wanted a future with this man, and she felt her mind shy away from all the reasons why it could not be so. Instead she said, “It is so beautiful here. Savage and untamed. I felt so alone and frightened all day.”
“And now?”
She drew a deep breath. “Now,” she said, smiling, “I feel safe and warm and well-fed.”
Kamal looked about their primitive camp with a grin. “You are easy to please. I must remember that.”
She knew she should ask him what he now intended, but there would be time enough tomorrow. “I have known you but a week,” she said.