Shackled to the Sheikh

She eyed the four-poster bed longingly. Weary from both the travel and the emotional roller coaster of the last however many hours since she’d walked into her cousin’s office, already she imagined herself lost in blissful sleep amongst the cushions and the pillows. Tomorrow would be soon enough to chase up the funds Rashid had promised and let Sally know they were coming. By then she might be able to sound convincing when she told Sally that her delay in returning home was caused by nothing more than a simple request to stay while Atiyah settled in. Not that anyone was likely to believe her if she did tell them the truth.

But that could wait until tomorrow. Once Tora had bathed and fed Atiyah and seen her comfortable, bed was the first place she was headed.

‘And through this door,’ Kareem continued, opening a door of exquisitely carved timber, ‘is Your Excellency’s suite. The rooms are interconnecting, of course.’

‘But of course,’ said Rashid with a smirk in Tora’s direction.

He was teasing her again, she realised. No more than taunting her. And yet all of a sudden Tora’s sprawling apartment didn’t seem anywhere near big enough.

Atiyah cried out, growing restless, and Tora saw her chance.

‘If that is all?’ she asked, not interested in venturing into Rashid’s apartments. ‘I will take care of Atiyah. She’s had a long day.’

‘Cannot Yousra take care of the child for you?’ Kareem asked. ‘Would you not like to dine together with us?’

While the girl’s eyes looked up at her hopefully, Rashid’s dark eyes gleamed, his lips turned up in one corner. He knew she was avoiding him and right now she didn’t care.

‘I will welcome Yousra’s assistance, of course,’ Tora said, smiling at the girl so as not to offend her, but also because she really would appreciate the help, especially when sleep tugged so hard at her, ‘but Atiyah has been through many changes recently, and until she’s settled in I’d like to keep some routine in her life. Besides, I’m sure you and Rashid have many matters to discuss that don’t require my input.’

‘As you wish,’ Kareem said with a bow, and Tora was surprised to see what looked like approval in his eyes. ‘I will have your meal sent up.’ He touched his fingers to Atiyah’s brow, uttered a blessing to the child and wished Tora goodnight.

‘I’ll see you later,’ said Rashid.

‘Seven in the morning for breakfast?’ Tora suggested, refusing to acknowledge the implicit threat in his words. ‘That would be perfect. We have some details to discuss also. Goodnight.’

And the flash of his eyes and the flare of his nostrils told her he did not like her dictating when they would meet or being so summarily dismissed. No doubt, he didn’t like being reminded about his end of the bargain either. Tough. He had promised, he could pay up. ‘Come,’ said Tora, turning to Yousra. ‘Let’s give Atiyah her bath now.’

With a swish of Kareem’s robes, she heard him disappear with Rashid through the interconnecting door and Tora could breathe again.

* * *

Zoltan was coming. Rashid felt the tight bunching ache in his gut loosen a fraction, but it was fraction enough to be able to breathe more deeply than he had since arriving in Qajaran. He gazed out from his terrace over the gardens surrounding the expansive pool below. Around him the palace slept. Night had fallen fast and now the sky above was a velvet shroud of blue black.

Zoltan would arrive in three days, to be joined by Aisha and the children, and Bahir and Kadar with their own families, the day before the coronation. The last time they had been together had been in Melbourne for Kadar’s wedding six months ago. It would be good for the desert brothers to be together again, although once there were just four of them, and now every time they got together there seemed to be more, wives and children swelling their numbers. He shook his head. Such an eventuality would have been unthinkable even a few years ago, one by one his brothers falling into marriage.

He alone was left. He wasn’t counting his hastily contrived marriage to Tora. It wasn’t as if she were a real wife. She would be gone in a matter of weeks, even if their marriage needed to last a year on paper. In some ways, it was unfortunate that his desert brothers and their wives would meet her at all, for they were bound to make something of this temporary arrangement.

He heard a sound and looked sideways towards where Tora’s suite of apartments lay, but the night settled into quiet again, the rustle of the palm fronds on the barely there breeze the only sound.