Close to the Heart

by Rebecca Stratton

  'If I was as amenable and—and submissive as you think I should be/ she told him bitterly, Td have no chance at all against a—a tyrant like you.' She was appalled to realise just how close she was to tears; tears not only of anger but of regret too, but she could not yield now. Her voice was husky and unsteady, but she stood her ground rather than blindly obey his injunction that she should go back to the galley. The least you could do is let me go ashore for an hour.'

  Yusuf looked beyond her to the hot dusty site of his project and he shook his head. 'I think not, Miss Pelham. Not until I am certain that your friends no longer present a threat to my plans.'

  'But that's not feasible!' Her eyes brimmed with the tears that she was determined he should not see, and she held herself tightly under control. 'It can take months, even years, to complete a project like that!'

  He held her wavering gaze steadily, his lips pursed to emit a thin jet of smoke. 'I doubt if your friends' enthusiasm will last so long,' he said. 'But I shall keep you here for as long as is necessary.' There was an air of ruthless determination about him that Lisa noted with a hammering heart. 'Perhaps by then,' he went on. 'you will have learned to care for other things than interfering in matters about which you know nothing.'

  'I care about Zobi and what you're proposing to do to it!' Lisa insisted, but her voice shivered uncertainly and Yusuf was still watching her as he drew on his cigarette.

  'You care about putting on a show,' Yusuf insisted relentlessly. 'You know nothing about Zobi or its people;

  if you did you would not have set out on this ridiculous escapade.' His arrogant head at an angle, he looked down at her with gleaming dark eyes. 'And now I shall insist that you return to your duties in the galley. It is getting late and my crew are accustomed to having their meals on time. I have a certain reputation for being a good man to work for, and I do not intend to lose that reputation on your account.'

  'If you think ' Lisa began. But he had already

  turned away, leaving her to glare in angry frustration at his retreating back. In the circumstances there was little else she could do but as he said.

  It was nearly two days later when Yusuf found her on deck once more; leaning on the rail and looking as disconsolate as she felt. She had refused to join him for another meal and Yusuf had not pressed the matter, although Lisa thought Ali was rather disappointed. Whether or not Yusuf really minded, she had no idea, and there was little likelihood of her finding out.

  Her pulse fluttered rapidly when he came up beside her, but she did not turn her head, nor did she break the silence between them, but left it to him. Although what he said was hardly what she expected and took her by surprise. 'Do you know Tiznit?' he asked.

  Lisa turned her head quickly, and her eyes were at once eager and anxious, for the question was not merely an idle one, she felt sure, and something in his voice raised her hopes. 'I know ol it/ she said, and a slight huskiness in her voice betrayed the anxiety she was trying so hard not to show. 'Why?'

  His narrowed gaze went beyond the sandy foreshore of Zobi and to the hazy distance. 'It is only a few kilometres from here,' he said, and Lisa's heart began a quick tap-tapping against her ribs as she watched his face, trying to read what was going on behind his eyes

  when he switched his gaze back to her. 'It occurred to me that you might perhaps enjoy a drive as far as Tiznit.'

  'Oh yes, I would!' She made no pretence of being other than in favour of the idea and her blue eyes sparkled between their thick brown lashes. 'Now?'

  'Very soon, anyway.'

  She glanced down at the brightly coloured tunic that showed off her slim bare legs. 'Only I'm not really fit to be seen in this dress.'

  Yusuf took stock of it with his usual frank appreciation, and seemed to find nothing wrong with what he saw. 'You are perfectly fit to be seen in that dress/ he argued in his quietest voice, and one hand slid the wandering neckline back up on to her shoulder as he had done before, and with the same disturbing effect. The lingering touch of his fingers on her flesh brought a brief, shivering reaction from her that was impossible to control. 'But perhaps in the circumstances it would be better to change into your own clothes,' he suggested. 'You have plenty of time.'

  'Who'll be taking me?' Lisa wanted to know in a distinctly unsteady voice. 'You?'

  She had a curious little curling sensation in her stomach when she anticipated driving with him and, had she thought about it, it would have surprised her to realise that the idea of it as a means of escape did not even occur to her. She thought only of going ashore and going to see a place she had heard of but never visited, and she watched a brief smile touch his mouth as he bent his head to light a cigarette.

  'Does that make you want to change your mind about going?' he challenged softly, and Lisa shook her head.

  'No.' She sounded very sure of it. 'I'd like to go to Tiznit whoever takes me.'

  There was amusement in his eyes for a moment, but not mockery in this frit sun*. 'You are

  thinking about the glamour of the desert oasis, is that it?' he asked. Tiznit is on the very edge of the Sahara— it is an oasis, although perhaps not just as you picture it.' Still slightly on the defensive, Liza kept her eyes on Zobi rather than meet that steady and infinitely disturbing gaze. The desert fascinates most people who haven't seen it,' she insisted. 'I suppose because we've nothing like it in Europe.'

  'It also fascinates those who know it well/ Yusuf told her.

  Lisa wondered just how familiar he was with the lonely fascination of the Sahara. His hawkish profile and teak-brown skin suggested he had much more in common with his Moroccan mother's family than with his European father, and when she turned her head and looked up at him briefly, a shiver of sensation slid along her spine.

  'Are you one of those who know it well?' she asked. 'Quite well.' He expelled smoke from pursed lips and his eyes were for the moment half-hidden by black lashes, but he seemed willing enough to enlighten her. 'My mother's people were originally of the R'Guibat tribe and some of them still keep to the old nomadic life. I have visited them, when my grandparents were alive and they came into Goulimine/

  The R'Guibat?' Lisa looked at him curiously, recalling where she had heard the name before, and Yusuf nodded. The Blue Men/ he said. 'You know of them, of course.'

  'Yes, of course.' It occurred to Lisa suddenly how very different he seemed when he was talking about something other than business or her own shortcomings. 'It's a pity we're not going as far as Goulimine/

  He drew deeply on his cigarette for a moment, then threw the rest of it over the side into the sea before he spoke. 'When I have attended to the business I have in

  Tiznit we can drive on to Goulimine for an hour if you would like to/ he said, and Lisa could not imagine why her heart was suddenly beating so hard and fast that she felt as if she had run a very long way. 'Would you like to do that?'

  'Yes; yes, of course I would, I'd love it/ She was rubbing a forefinger back and forth on the top of the rail and thinking of what he said, a small thoughtful frown between her brows. 'Did you say you have business in Tiznit?'

  He nodded. 'I have, but it will not take very long to complete/

  The prospect of the drive and the visits to Tiznit and Goulimine were suddenly put into perspective, and Lisa began to wonder about the real motive for his asking her to go with him. He could have left her aboard the Djenoun while he attended to his business, but there was always the chance that she would outwit his crew and manage to go ashore. If he kept her under his own more diligent eye he could be sure of her not getting away— it was logical, and above all Yusuf ben Dacra was logical. But while she watched her finger move across the rail she found herself almost praying that it was not his only reason for asking her.

  'What would have happened if I'd said I didn't want to go with you?' she asked in a slightly breathless voice, her finger rubbing harder and harder.

  Reaching over, Yusuf placed his own big hand over hers; his long brown finger
s pressing gently for a moment. Then I should have been very disappointed/ he said, and Lisa closed her eyes briefly in undeniable relief.

  For the first time since she had known him, she smiled up at him openly and frankly. 'In that case/ she said, 'I'd better go and change/

  Yusuf had been right; Tiznit was not what she expected

  it to be, but Lisa was not disappointed by any means. From a distance it did not look quite real, but more like a stage setting than an actual town. A gated town with ramparts and towers and the fan-like spread of palm trees against the skyline, it delighted Lisa long before she saw it close to.

  She had a little while on her own to explore, but not very long, for, as he had promised, Yusuf s business, whatever it was, took up very little time. Having completed it he came in search of her and found her, by some unerring instinct, admiring one of the six gates that gave access to the fortifications.

  He had evidently done some shopping too, for he carried a couple of smallish packages tucked under one arm. Lisa made no objection when he suggested they leave, for he had already told her it was some distance to drive to Goulimine. But sitting beside him in the Land-Rover once more she eyed him curiously as he started up the engine.

  Tou don't mind going on to Goulimine, do you?* she asked, and he half-smiled, turning those dark, unfathomable eyes on her for a moment.

  *I should not have volunteered to take you there if I had not wished to go/ he promised her frankly, and Lisa thought she was beginning to know him well enough to be sure he meant what he said.

  It was, as he said, quite a long drive; much longer than Lisa had realised, but they had started fairly early in the day and not stayed over-long in Tiznit, so they could still be back on the Djenoun by nightfall, all being well. As yet the irony of that speculation did not strike her, and she settled back to enjoy the drive.

  The route took them to the Tizi Mighert Pass and through a veritable forest of thorny argan trees where goats ignored the thorns to go scavenging among the branches for juicy leaves. But then they left the trees

  behind and there was no more vegetation at all; when even the last treeless hillocks of the Anti-Atlas petered out and gave way to a seemingly endless plain, Lisa felt the first impact of the barren desert.

  It was her first experience of such over-aweing vast-ness and she found it rather unnerving, so that when the lushness of a palm grove appeared in the distance ahead of them, she heaved an inward sigh of thankfulness. 'An oasis?' she ventured, and Yusuf once more half-turned to look at her.

  'Not yet Goulimine/ he said. That lies just beyond those palm groves; about fifteen kilometres beyond/

  •That far? 1

  He smiled at her obvious surprise. 'It will not seem so long, you will find/ he promised, and eyed her quizzically. 'How do you feel about your first glimpse of the desert?'

  Lisa hesitated to commit herself too soon. 'I find it— over-aweing/ she confessed, and saw the way he smiled.

  'But this is not the place to judge it/ he told her. 'Here it is only a promise of what the desert is like. The real Sahara lies beyond Goulimine/

  'Where your mother's people still live/ she remembered, and Yusuf nodded, but said nothing.

  It was not long afterwards that they drove into Goulimine itself; inside the impressive walls that completely enclosed the town, and in to a place of sandy-red houses built of dried desert mud. It was a little bigger than Lisa had imagined it, and more commercial too, although not in the same way as the more Westernised towns and cities of the north.

  There were a couple of hotels and restaurants catering for European tastes, but primarily it was still a desert town, a harbour in the sea of sand. It was the market town of the R'Guibat tribe who each Saturday and Sunday drifted into Goulimine for their weekly souk,

  and became the centre of interest for a growing tourist industry.

  Lisa had heard about the Blue Men—the tribe who for the past four hundred years, ever since an English merchant introduced them to an indigo-dyed cloth, had dressed in the same distinctive blue robes and turbans from which the dye spread to colour even their skins blue, a phenomenon that made them easily distinguishable from any other of the desert people. She was only sorry that this was not a week-end and they would be unable to witness the arrival of the intriguing nomads from whom Yusuf's mother had come.

  But if she could not see the Blue Men, there were plenty of other things for her to see, including plenty of shopping arcades. Shops selling all the traditional craft-made items that were the very life-blood of Morocco. Coppersmiths and leather workers lived in the intriguing red mud houses, alongside the makers of the gold and silver jewellery, and all sold their products in the arcades of Goulimine.

  It all fascinated Lisa, but she saw one item that particularly took her eye and she lingered over it for so long that it was obvious it attracted her more than anything else. It was a heavy silver bracelet, like the desert women wore; primitive in design but still breathtakingly beautiful, and Lisa found it hard to walk away.

  'You like that?'

  She glanced up to find Yusuf s face hovering close to her own and he indicated the bracelet she was admiring with an inclination of his head. Lisa nodded, not for a moment suspecting what result her admission would have, i couldn't say why exactly,' she confessed with a shivering little laugh that admitted a weakness. 'I adore this kind of thing. It's very primitive, even crude, but it's also beautiful.'

  From the way he smiled, Lisa guessed that her opinion

  pleased him, but only when he called for the attention of the shopkeeper did it begin to dawn on her what he had in mind, and she caught her breath. Shaking her head, she tried to interrupt, but in vain. For one thing it was not easy to interrupt Yusuf ben Dacra, and for another he was already bargaining with the man, as custom demanded.

  Using hands and arms in a flurry of extravagant gestures, the two men haggled amiably, words flying backwards and forwards over the bracelet that lay gleaming richly and temptingly on Yusuf s broad palm. Again Lisa tried to intervene before it was too late, but Yusuf waved her smilingly to silence, and the bargaining continued.

  Eventually a price was reached that satisfied both parties, and Yusuf took out his wallet, handing over the required number of dirhams while Lisa stood by anxiously. She knew she hadn't enough money to pay for it herself, and she was very doubtful about allowing him to buy it in the circumstances.

  'You can't do this/ she murmured breathlessly. The sharp dark eyes of the jeweller were on them, curious and intrigued by the contrasts between his two customers; the man so tall and dark and the girl so small and fair, and Lisa was conscious of it. 'It isn't '

  'You would prefer another one?' Yusuf countered swiftly, but his eyes made it clear that he knew that was not her reason for objecting.

  'I mean I didn't intend buying one at all/

  His back half-turned to the seller, Yusuf reached for her hand and slid the silver bracelet over her hand and on to the slender wrist, his fingers caressingly light on her skin. 'You have not bought it, hah?*

  Still in a daze and not knowing quite what to say, Lias Stared at it, twisting the heavy, cool silver round and round on her wrist while Yusuf watched her with a curiously gentle look in his eyes. 'You can't—I mean, I

  can't let you buy anything like this/ she insisted, and tried hard to stifle the thrill of pleasure it gave her to wear the gift. 'It's very beautiful and I love it, but I've

  never taken presents from men ' She had so nearly

  said men-friends, and she suspected he knew why she had stopped short so suddenly. 'I suppose that sounds illogical to you, doesn't it?'

  There was a hint of defensiveness in her voice and his expression suggested he regretted it. 'I hope you will make an exception in this case,' he said, too quietly for the proprietor of the jewellery shop to hear. 'It would be a pity to deprive yourself of something you want so much, simply for an old-fashioned principle.'

  Lisa looked up at him, her lips
parted, ready to remind him that he had been the one in favour of old-fashioned principles, surely. But he met her eyes and something in the depths of his kept her silent. Instead she examined the bracelet, turning it round and round. It was curious how suggestive it was of a shackle when she looked at it more closely, and it was heavy too, but she knew that not for anything .would she have parted with it now.

  'It's beautiful,' she said. 'Thank you/

  She had the idea he was smiling, although she did not look up again. Walking with him through the cool shadowed arcades gave her a sense of lightness suddenly, and it was a sensation she made no attempt to find a reason fon

  By the time they got back to the Djenoun it was already dark, and the view as the Land-Rover bumped along the last few metres of the sandy track to the mooring struck Lisa as almost too perfect. Nothing particularly spectacular had happened to make her feel as she did, but she felt that somehow everything had changed in the few hours she had been away. Not once had they ex-

  changed angry words, and Yusuf had been a willing and knowledgeable guide, but apart from his buying her the silver bracelet which still encircled her wrist, nothing had happened to account for her feeling so oddly satisfied.

  The moon was a little past full and it shone in rippling streaks across the surface of the sea, golden as honey and in smooth contrast to its reflection. It looked so idyl-lically romantic seen through Zobi's fringe of ragged palm trees that she could forget for a moment the squat little houses whose fate she had so determinedly argued about with Yusuf.

  Her sigh was barely audible, but Yusuf must have heard it, for he turned his head briefly and looked at her before braking to a halt and getting out. 'You regret coming back?' he asked as he slipped a helping hand under her arm.

  Lisa stepped out on to the stone pier and stood for a moment while he turned off the vehicle lights and took a couple of packages he had brought from Tiznit from the back seat. 4 I suppose I do/ she admitted, walking beside him along the pier. 'After all, I am still your prisoner, even though I've been able to forget it for an hour or two today/