Leena was very excited about Tally’s new wardrobe but Tally could hardly bring herself to look at the myriad of new gowns and robes. Instead she stood at the window, looking out at the desert and wanting to go, just go. Not to necessarily leave Tair, but to leave here, leave the confinement and the women’s quarters and the world that kept her in long dresses and veils and away from action. Adventure.
She missed action and adventure. Wistfully she looked at the sand dunes and the shimmer of sun on the undulating hills.
From here, the room in her tower, the sand was beautiful. Mystical. From here, she even missed the sandstorm and sand pit and her asthma attack.
Tair had saved her each time. He’d come to the rescue, riding hard and fast on his white and gray stallion. He’d saved her.
Tally bit her lip, trying to ignore the ache in her chest. The ache was different from yesterday’s anger. Her dream last night had frightened her, made her realize how little control she had. Not just over Tair, but Paolo, her family, her father. Life was slippery, nearly as slippery as those grains of quicksand.
“I like you, Madame,” Leena said unexpectedly.
Tally turned from the window, smiled. She was touched. “I like you, too. You’re very good to me. I appreciate it.”
Leena smoothed one of the gorgeous silk sheaths that rested on her lap. She’d been putting each gown carefully into the enormous carved trunk. “I wish I could be like you. Fierce and brave. Strong.”
Tally pushed a heavily jeweled hand through her hair, the myriad of gold bangles on her wrist jingling. “I’m not that brave,” she answered, moving to sit on the edge of her bed. No, she wasn’t brave. She actually felt like a coward. She felt afraid. Afraid for her, afraid for Tair. It was only a dream—not a foreshadowing—but it unnerved her, leaving her tender on the inside, tender and fragile. “I think I just like fighting with his lordship.”
The girl’s smile dimpled from behind the sheer veil. “Because you love him.”
“I don’t love him.”
“He loves you.”
“He doesn’t.”
The girl shrugged. “Then why does he permit you to speak to him as you do? No one else could address Sheikh el-Tayer that way. But when you open your mouth, he listens.”
“Maybe it’s because I’m Western.”
“He’s had other foreign women and he’s not allowed any of them to speak to him as you do.”
Tally’s eyes widened. What did Leena mean, other Western women here? But she wasn’t going to ask, couldn’t ask Leena, wasn’t right. But Tally couldn’t stay quiet. “He used to entertain here frequently?”
“Not entertain, no, but there have been…” And Leena’s voice drifted off and her shoulders shrugged. “Not a harem, no, but you must understand, he is a sheikh and he has had many women.”
“Westernwomen?”
“French. British.” Leena’s forehead furrowed. “One Canadian.”
Tally nearly slipped off the bed. “They were here?”
“Yes, Madame.”
“And they left?” Tally pressed her knuckles against the silk coverlet on the bed. “The Sheikh allowed them to leave?”
“Of course, Madame.” Leena looked at her uncertainly. “But why wouldn’t he?”
“I’m just going to have a word with my husband the Sheikh.”
“And your husband is here.” Tair gestured to Leena that she should go. He waited for the door to close. “What do you need to speak to me about?”
Tally sat on the bed and looked up at her husband, a man that towered over other men, a man with huge shoulders and a chiseled jaw and a stomach that was nothing but a ripple of hard, carved muscle.
This man was her husband. This man. Asheikh. And so what did that make her?
She stared at him so long and hard it hurt. If she was Tair’s woman what did it make her? And then it hit her.
She was the Sheikh’s captive bride.
Tally nearly smiled at the wretched state of affairs. One day into her marriage and she was already lost. How on earth was this going to work?
“What did you want to ask me, Woman?” Tair’s deep voice cut through her fog of misery.
She chewed on her inner lip trying to think of a way to ask him about what Leena had told her without divulging that it was Leena who had told her. Tally didn’t want Leena punished for gossiping. And maybe it was only gossip. Maybe Leena didn’t really know the truth…maybe it wasn’t the way it seemed…