‘Engaged? Who is engaged?’
-hit!
‘It’s Lilly!’ Ella, the little traitor, exclaimed, beaming brightly. ‘She’s finally met the right man. I’m so happy!’
Patsy’s face betrayed that she, too, was experiencing some intense emotion. However, happiness would probably not have been the right way to describe it.
‘Is that so?’ Her eyes sparkled like the stars on the night before Armageddon. ‘How fabulous.’
‘Ah. Um. Patsy.’ I cleared my throat. ‘So…the hotel manager found you?’
‘Yes, he did.’ She took a step forward, her parasol swinging menacingly. ‘Just in time, apparently.’
‘S-so nice of you to drop by. Won’t you take a seat? Would you like something to eat? A cup of tea?’
‘No, no.’ She waved. ‘Don’t let me interrupt. You were at “the man I’m engaged to is…”’
…the man who defeated you in a rhetoric battle and humiliated you in front of several hundred people in a public park?
But I didn’t say that. Unwise though it may seem, considering the last two years’ events, I hadn’t yet taken out a life insurance policy on myself.
‘Sahiba?’
I glanced to the door behind Patsy, already knowing who it would be. Never in my life had I been this glad to see that beard and turban, and the man who accompanied them everywhere! If there was one person who could take on Patsy and survive the battle, it was Karim.
I was so derailed by her sudden appearance that it took me a moment to realize – Did I just hear him call me Sahiba?
‘These females made their way upstairs, it appears, against the staff’s express instructions.’ The big Mohammedan stalked into the room. ‘Do you wish for them to be removed?’
‘Excuse me?’ Patsy puffed out her chest, which was bad news for her poor corset. ‘I will not allow myself to be manhandled! You touch me, and I’ll have the law on you!’
‘I,’ Karim said with an expression as deadpan as a pan in in a graveyard at the funeral of a fellow pan, ‘am so terribly afraid.’
Patsy turned purple and started sputtering like a defective teakettle. She was about to reach for her parasol, when I hurriedly jumped to my feet.
‘Um, Patsy? Allow me to introduce you to Karim. He was kind enough to drive Ella and me here. Without him, we probably wouldn’t have managed to escape the epidemic.’
Patsy’s hand froze halfway to her parasol. She eyed Karim suspiciously.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes. Quite sure.’
‘Damn!’ Sighing, Patsy let her hand drop. ‘I guess I can’t skewer him today, then.’
‘You won’t be able to tomorrow, either, woman,’ Karim shot back.
‘Don’t count on it, goatface!’
Karim gave her a look. The kind of look he’d probably learned from his employer.
Please don’t insult her back! Please! If you do, I won’t be able to vouch for the consequences.
He didn’t. He did something far worse.
‘I am above bandying words with mere women,’ he told her. And with that, he turned around and marched out of the room. Patsy stood there, mouth open, her face slowly turning a nice, explosive tomato colour. I could almost see the fuse sticking out of her head, shortly about to blow.
‘That…that…that…’