Hamil heard the suffering in his brother’s voice, and sought to excuse her, for Kamal’s sake. “She knew great bitterness in my father’s harem. Her mind is not like a Muslim woman’s. She must have hated her imprisonment and our father.”
“And the Earl of Clare? Is he the villain she has painted to me?”
“Tell me what she told you. It is a piece of the puzzle Adam Welles could not provide.” Hamil listened intently, then said, “Her disappointment twisted her. I do not know how she came to my father. I was but a small boy then and was not in his confidence. But the Earl of Clare—” He paused a moment, then said quickly, “He is a man, not a coward. Were he to kill, he would do it outright, not skulk about on his belly, weaving vicious plots. I suppose there is much of him in his son, Adam, and he is an honorable man.”
“It is the same with his daughter.”
“Have you taken her to your bed?”
“Yes, and I will take her to wive. She is bright as the sun, as proud as an untamed gazelle, and loyal. Shall I tell you what she has done to me since I met her but a week ago?”
When the brothers returned to the camp, Hamil was still grinning over Arabella’s actions. “Her brother, Adam,” Hamil said, “has likewise been taken by a slip of a girl. The earl will be greeted by a double surprise.”
“Yes,” Kamal said, wondering what now awaited him, “he will indeed.”
“I believe, Kamal, that I am content with my Lella and my son.”
Chapter 28
Arabella gazed at Hamil intently for a moment, then asked, “Why did you not return directly to the palace when you arrived in Oran?”
A woman without a veil, a woman who looked a man straight in the eyes. Like Ria, Hamil thought, and smiled. “I had to know if Kamal had anything to do with my betrayal. One of my men discovered he had left the city with you. I was relieved, for I wanted to speak to him privately.”
“That is reasonable,” Arabella said, and Hamil, who wouldn’t have thought to ask a woman if she agreed with him or not, shook his head, bemused. She turned slightly in her saddle and smiled toward Rayna, who was in shy conversation with Kamal. “Kamal is hurt,” she continued. “I knew that his mother was a well, not a very nice person, but how could I expect him to believe me? You know, it is odd. Even though she drugged me and had me sent here, there were times when I thought she actually liked me.”
Hamil, who hadn’t the vaguest idea of how to deal with Kamal’s mother, merely nodded. He was hoping that she had heard he was not dead, and disappear.
“Lella loves you,” Arabella said unexpectedly, jerking Hamil from his twisting thoughts. “And she was my friend. You are very lucky, Hamil.”
“Yes,” he said, “I am.”
“Do you have other wives?”
“Yes, one other, but she died in childbirth. Lella is my only wife now.”
“But you keep many women in your harem, and use them, all in front of Lella.”
Hamil strove for patience. “It is our way,” he said. At her look of disapproval, he said, “Men have needs that one woman cannot—”
“Bosh. That is ridiculous.” She turned sharply in her saddle and frowned at him, Hamil El-Mokrani, the Bey of Oran. “How can a man ever justify hurting his wife by taking other women to his bed, especially when his wife loves him with all her heart? It is cruel and selfish.”
“Lella,” he said, “understands and accepts what she is. She is not outspoken and rude like European women.”
“I do not understand,” Arabella said, “why it is that Lella, your wife, cannot also have a harem filled with handsome young men. After all”—she shrugged elaborately—“women do have needs, you know, and you are but one man.”
Hamil stared at her. The thought of Lella in another man’s arms made him nearly blind with rage.
“Do not be angry with me,” Arabella said kindly, reaching over and patting his sleeve. “Kamal told me once that most Muslim men would throw me to the dogs for my sharp tongue. But,” she added, “if I were a man, and lucky enough to have Lella, I shouldn’t want anyone else.”
“You, my lady,” Hamil said, “will drive my brother mad.”
“Oh, no,” Arabella said, “Kamal does not need to prove his manhood by flaunting dozens of other women in front of my nose.”
“Kamal,” Hamil shouted over his shoulder. “Come and remove this woman before I am forced to teach her manners.”
Arabella laughed gaily. “If by manners you mean submission, I doubt that even you could succeed, Hamil. Poor Lella.” Hamil heard her bright laughter as she wheeled her horse about to join Kamal. Outrageous female, he thought, shaking his head. A woman with a harem. But the thought of Lella, hurt because she shared him with other women, gave him pause.
“Few survive a battle of wits with my sister,” Adam said, reining in beside Hamil. “Even, I see, the great Bey of Oran. Is your hide still intact?”