Devil's Daughter (Devil 2)

“I want to meet Hamil,” Arabella said, all possibilities now clear to her. Kamal would no longer be ruler of Oran. He was free. But what if he did not want to leave? She shook herself. Her life had taken so many bizarre turns in the past week.

“Lady Arabella, I believe,” Hamil said, studying her face. There was a dirt smudge on her cheek and her men’s clothes were wrinkled, too big, and somewhat the worse for wear.

She met his gaze. “I have heard much of you from Kamal. You look very fierce.”

Hamil shook his head, a smile hovering around his mouth. “Your servant, my lady,” he said, and bowed before her. It was only then that he became aware of the murmur of voices from Kamal’s men. He turned and raised his hand. “I am returned to the land of my father,” he said. “We will rejoice together before we return to Oran.”

“Kamal,” Arabella said, tugging at his sleeve, “this is my brother, Adam. He looks fierce also.”

The two young men eyed each other. Adam said carefully to his sister, “You wish to wed with this man, Bella?”

“Certainly,” Arabella said. “You would too, Adam, if you were a woman.”

“Perhaps not, cara,” Kamal said, “I think that you are blind, thankfully so.”

Adam looked into his sister’s eyes and realized that she was no longer the same girl he had known in Naples. She had changed; she was a woman. What the hell, he thought, would his father do? He cleared his throat. “I have another surprise for you, Bella.” He turned and waved to a small figure astride a horse. “Come here, Rayna.”

“Rayna.” Arabella began to laugh. “Oh, Kamal, my brother has finally met his match. Rayna, my shy Rayna.”

“Ha,” Adam said. “She has been nothing but trouble since I met her. She stowed on board with me to come and save you.”

The two girls clasped each other, each laughing and crying while the men watched them with amused tolerance.

“Women,” Hamil said, shaking his head.

Rayna, like Arabella, was dressed in men’s clothes. “I was so scared for you, Bella,” Rayna said, stroking her friend’s arms. “Adam kept telling me that you would be all right.”

“And you, Rayna, you left your father’s house?”

“Yes. I fear he will be furious with me.” She did not sound at all concerned and Arabella shook her head in wonderment.

Hamil turned to his brother. “We must talk, Kamal. There is much I have to tell you and much that must be decided.”

Kamal nodded and motioned toward a clump of oleanders some feet away. He heard the girl Rayna say to Arabella, “He looks like a Viking, Bella. So handsome.”

“That is not all,” Arabella said, smiling wickedly.

“The woman, Lady Arabella,” Hamil said thoughtfully as they walked together, “you truly wish to have her?”

“Yes,” Kamal said. “And you, Hamil, have now given her to me?”

Hamil nodded. They would speak more about it later.

They sat cross-legged beneath a skinny-branched oleander.

“Tell me what happened, Hamil,” Kamal said quietly.

He listened to his half-brother speak calmly of the storm, of the men who tried to murder him, of Antonio and Ria and his months on Sardinia. “When I was strong enough, I made my way to Cagliari. I discovered that you had returned to Algiers and taken my place.” He paused a moment, staring toward the men who were now staking the horses and enlarging the camp. “I did not want to believe that you had been the one who betrayed me. It took me but a month to discover who the person was.”

Kamal became very still. Slowly, pain and inevitability heavy in his voice, he said, “My mother.”

“Yes. I am saddened.”

“She will probably return to Oran shortly.” He paused a moment. “My mother sent me Arabella.”

Hamil nodded. “Lord St. Ives, Adam Welles, has told me much. I fear, Kamal, that your mother has created a fabric of lies that we may never entirely unravel.”

“Why? Why, Hamil, did she do this?”