A Bride for the Taking

‘Dorian—I don’t know if you realise how different things will be, once we reach Kadar.’ She heard the rasp of his breath. ‘You’ll be Dorian Oliver again, WorldWeek’s reporter on the scene—’

‘WorldWeek?’ She smiled into the darkness. ‘What’s that?’

Jake kissed her. ‘And I—I’ll be—I’ll be…’

‘You’ll be the abdhazim.’

He went still in her arms. ‘You know?’

She sighed. ‘Yes.’

‘When…?’

‘I don’t know, exactly. I thought that’s who you were, at first, and then you convinced me otherwise. But when we were on the way to Quarem…’

Her breath caught. Quarem. The telegram. She had to tell him about the telegram…

‘Dorian.’ He stroked the hair back from her face. ‘These last few days with you—they’ve meant everything to me. I never dreamed my last hours of freedom would be so sweet.’

‘Your last hours…?’

‘Yes. My advisers almost went crazy when I told them I was going to fly into Kadar alone, but—’

‘Is that what you were doing? I thought—I thought you’d changed your mind about becoming abdhan.’

‘How could I change my mind about a responsibility?’ He kissed her gently. ‘I just wanted the luxury of being Jack Alexander a little while longer.’

Dorian touched his cheek. ‘Or Jake Prince.’

‘No, love. I never expected to be lucky enough to be a man named Jake Prince—or for these days to have been so special.’

Her heart lifted at those simple words. ‘Have they been?’ she whispered.

He rolled to his side and took her with him, holding her close in the hard curve of his arm. There was a silence before he spoke again.

‘When I was eighteen, I met a woman. I met her at a party, one of those university madhouses where there are too many people, too much noise, and too much booze. I wasn’t much for that kind of thing, but I’d let my room-mate talk me into going.’ He drew in his breath, then expelled it. ‘I’d been having a bad time. I’d just lost both my parents in an accident—’

‘At eighteen? How painful that must have been.’

‘I suppose I was feeling sorry for myself, and very much adrift. I’d always had this strange division in my life because my father was a Barovnian diplomat, part of the royal family, and my mother was an American. Losing them made me feel as if I’d lost the only solid ground I had. So there I was, vulnerable as hell, and there she was, this woman, a little older, very beautiful—and very understanding.’

‘But she hurt you, didn’t she? I can hear it in your voice.’

‘We became lovers. We were inseparable for a couple of weeks.’ He drew his arm from under Dorian’s head, sat up, and wrapped his arms around his knees. ‘And I trusted her. I told her things—I talked about how hard it was to live in two different worlds, about the tragedy of the poverty that still plagued my father’s birthplace…’

Dorian sat up, too. ‘And?’ she asked softly.

‘And,’ he said, his voice hardening, ‘about a month after the affair ended, everything I’d said was splashed across four columns in the sleaziest of the tabloids—including some not-so-subtle references about what it was like to go to bed with—I think her phrase was “a magnificent savage” like me.’

‘Oh, Jake!’ Dorian put her arms around him and pressed her cheek to his back. ‘It must have been horrible.’

‘Yeah.’ His voice was gruff. ‘But it was a lesson, and I never forgot it, a lesson about reporters—and about women.’

His words drove a knife into her heart. The telegram, she thought, the telegram!

Perhaps it hadn’t been sent.

‘Jake—are we—are we going to Kadar through the Valley of the Two Suns?’

He turned and took her into his arms. ‘Just listen to this woman,’ he said, drawing her down beside him. ‘She wants a geography lesson at a moment like this.’

‘Jake, please—it’s important.’

The old woman hadn’t spoken English very well, had she? Perhaps she hadn’t really understood.

‘This is more important,’ he whispered.

Perhaps there wasn’t a telegraph office in Quarem after all. Perhaps…

Jake bent to her, and she was lost.

* * *

When she awoke next, grey light was filtering into the tent. Jake was fully dressed and leaning over her.

‘I’ve been out scouting,’ he said quietly. ‘Our pals are still sleeping off the party. I want to get going before they awaken and change their minds about letting the guest of honour leave.’

She dressed quickly, then crept after him out of the tent and through the silent encampment. A herd of horses was grazing just beyond the tents. Jake held up his hand and Dorian stood still while he moved in among the animals. Minutes later, he emerged on the back of a white horse.

‘Give me your hand,’ he said, and he swung Dorian up behind him.

‘Jake?’ She put her arms around his waist and leaned close to him. ‘When will we get to the Valley of the Two Suns?’

‘Why do you keep asking me that?’

Because I’ve betrayed you, she thought. No. She hadn’t, not really, she’d only been doing her job. But it was too much to explain now.

‘Dorian?’

‘I must talk to you,’ she whispered. ‘Before we reach the valley.’

Jake hesitated. ‘We’ll make a stop before then, OK? Now, hold on tight, kitten. We’re going to ride hard.’

They rode for what seemed like hours. How could she tell Jake about what might be waiting for them? What could she say? No matter what she said, he wouldn’t like hearing it, but he’d understand. He had to understand.

The mare reared wildly as a shattering roar filled the air. Dorian ducked as an enormous dark shadow swooped over them.

It was a helicopter.

‘Jake,’ she shouted, ‘Jake, look…’

But he’d already jumped to the ground. He clasped Dorian around the waist and brought her down beside him, and then he began waving his arms over his head.

The ‘copter dipped down for a closer look, then settled slowly to the ground ahead of them. The engine whined to silence as a handful of men tumbled out and trotted to where Dorian and Jake stood.

‘My lord!’ The tallest of the men dropped to his knees. ‘Thank God you are all right!’

‘Get up, Kasmir. I’m happy to see you got my message.’

‘From Quarem. Yes, it reached us yesterday.’ The man smiled. ‘It is good that you remembered this ridge.’

‘How is my cousin? Is he—?’

‘He lives, my lord, but in a coma. The surgeons say we must wait.’

Jake nodded. ‘Well, then,’ he said briskly, ‘let’s get going. I’ll want to see him as soon as possible.’

Dorian moved closer to Jake’s side. ‘You told them to meet us here?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then—we’re not going through the valley?’

Jake’s mouth twisted. ‘No.’

‘But you told me—’

‘I know what I told you. But it made more sense to arrange to be met here.’

She nodded. ‘Because—because you didn’t trust me.’

He thrust his fingers through his hair. ‘Dammit, Dorian, does it really matter now?’

‘Yes, it does,’ she said. She thought of the anguish she’d suffered, thinking he was going to walk into the trap she’d set. ‘Why didn’t you tell me the truth when I asked how we’d be entering Kadar?’

His mouth turned down. ‘As long as we’re asking questions, why did you keep asking?’