“I couldn’t, either, until a couple of hours ago.” She sighed. “But enough of that. I’ve sent someone to bring you some men’s robes. We’ll get you fitted this evening so you’ll be ready to go first thing in the morning.”
“Fitted?”
“In length. The headdress, of course, won’t be a problem. And I have some stain that we’ll use on your skin to darken it.”
“Why stain?”
“Makeup will never do. It rubs off, particularly in this heat. A stain is much better.”
“But will it come off?”
“In time. But it will require some serious scrubbing.” She pointed at Jensen’s plate. “You aren’t eating.”
Jensen took a halfhearted bite.
“What’s the matter?”
“I’m worried about my brother. I don’t know what I’ll do if anything has happened to Henry. I love him. He’s the only family I have.”
Nira nodded. “I like your brother very much. He’s a good man. My oldest brother was a good man, too.”
“Oh,” said Jensen as she touched Nira’s hand. “I’m sorry. You’ve been so kind I forgot what you’ve been through.”
Nira’s eyes filled with tears, but she quickly wiped them away. “I’ve cried a river, but then I remind myself that it could have been worse. Michael was supposed to be on the plane that crashed as well as my father and other brother.”
Jensen’s heart caught in a way that was completely unexpected. “Michael?”
“He was late getting to the airport. My father, an impatient man at the best of times, decided not to wait and told the pilot to take off without him. Imagine what would have happened if he hadn’t?”
Jensen didn’t want to imagine. It was too horrible a thought to contemplate.
A woman walked in, her arms loaded with clothing. Nira smiled. “Ah, it’s time to experiment.”
Nira took the lead as she and the other woman led Jensen to a room. “This will be your quarters for the evening.”
She signaled to the other woman and spoke to her in Arabic. The woman began carefully spreading the clothing out on the bed.
“Here we go,” said Nira, as she picked up what looked like a back brace that fastened in the front with Velcro. “Wrap this around your breasts.”
Jensen, quickly losing her modesty in this world of women, let the silken robe she was wearing slide to the floor and bound herself with the brace as tightly as she could.
Nira looked at her and nodded. “Now, let’s try the robe.” Both women slipped the soft white cotton over Jensen’s head and buttoned it up the front. Yards of material billowed around her and touched the floor. The other woman knelt on the floor and began pinning up the material. “We won’t take it up too much,” said Nira. “We don’t want your ankles to show.”
Nira walked around her. “Now for your hair.” She took a brush from a nearby table and ran it through Jensen’s hair, then expertly braided it and twisted it around Jensen’s head, holding the whole thing in place with a single pin.
“This is the bottom piece of the headdress,” she said as she placed a white circlet on Jensen’s head. “Then we place the scarf on top of that,” she explained as she did it, arranging it artfully around Jensen’s face, “and then, to hold everything in place is the ogal.” She took a thick black cloth band from the bed and put it on top of Jensen’s head, then stepped back to look at her handiwork. “Not bad, if I do say so myself. Just make sure you keep the scarf around your face as much as possible.”
“I will.”
“All that’s left is to stain your skin.”
The woman on the floor rose and lifted the robe over Jensen’s head, then removed the headgear and placed it on the bed. There was a ripping sound as Jensen undid the Velcro fastener on the brace.
Nira handed the other woman a bottle and cloth that had been on a table in the corner. “This won’t harm your skin,” she assured her as the other woman began applying the stain in long, smooth strokes to Jensen’s legs and arms. “Some women here use it to enhance their own natural color.”
“Do I need it all over?”
“I think you should.”
And so Jensen stood still as she was stained all over with the beautiful walnut-colored liquid.
When it was over, she turned to look in the mirror and could hardly believe what she saw. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought this lovely color was natural.
Nira smiled at her. “It looks wonderful with your hair.”
“Thank you. I like it,” said Jensen as she picked up the silken robe she’d had on earlier and put it on.
Nira spoke in Arabic to the other woman, who collected the men’s garments and left. “They’ll be ready for you in the morning,” she told Jensen. “And now, I’ll leave you to get sleep. You have a difficult journey ahead of you.”
Jensen turned to Nira and smiled. “Thank you for everything.”
On an impulse, Nira hugged her. “Good luck with your search. I’ll be waiting anxiously for word of Henry.”
“Oh, Henry,” Jensen whispered when Nira had gone. “You have to be all right. What will I do if you’re not?”
Chapter Seven
Jensen turned out the lights almost as soon as Nira was gone, but she didn’t go to bed. Instead, she stood in the doorway of the room and looked out at the courtyard.
Did all of the main rooms of the palace look out on courtyards? she wondered.
The night air was cool; inviting.
Jensen’s nerves wouldn’t let her sleep.
Barefoot, she entered the courtyard and walked round the garden, smelling the roses and jasmine.
Michael stood in a darkened room at the far end that had served as his father’s study. It was the only courtyard in the palace that accommodated both a room from the men’s section and the women’s section. His mother had designed it.
He watched as Jensen moved among the flowers, bending occasionally to inhale their fragrance.
Sitting on a bench, she pulled the pin out and let the long braid fall. With her fingers, she brushed through her hair until it fell softly around her, then sat still, deep in thought.
Michael couldn’t take his eyes from her.
Didn’t want to.
And so he stayed where he was, watching this woman who had so unexpectedly come into his life.
This woman he shouldn’t want.
This woman he could never have.
He turned away and walked back into the room.
Jensen lay on the bench and stared at the sky. All kinds of thoughts were running through her mind. Thoughts she didn’t want to have; thoughts she didn’t want to deal with.
She fell asleep where she lay.
And she dreamed.
Jensen was running through narrow streets as fast as she could, trying to get away. She kept looking over her shoulder to see if it was gaining on her. She couldn’t see anything, but knew it was there—a presence...an evil presence. And even as she ran, faster and faster, in her heart she knew there was no escape.
The wall came from nowhere. It just suddenly appeared in front of her. She searched frantically for a way through it or around it, her hands clawing at the bricks until they were broken and bloody, but there was none. She was cornered.
With her back pressed flat against it, she waited for the end. She could feel it coming closer and closer...
Jensen sat straight up, her heart pounding, her breath coming in painful gasps. A film of perspiration covered her from head to toe.
She sat where she was, leaning her head against the back of the bench, gulping deep breaths of the night air. She gradually calmed down, but something of the fear stayed with her, even though she knew it was only a dream.
She couldn’t shake it.
Raising her head, she began looking around and saw a lighted room across the courtyard.
Someone else was awake. Nira, perhaps. Wrapping herself in her robe, she walked barefoot across the courtyard to
the open doors. It wasn’t a bedroom, as she’d thought, but a library.
And Michael was there, not Nira.
He was dressed in jeans and a striped shirt, sitting behind a desk, his elbows on the top, his head in his hands.
She might have turned and walked away except for that.
Jensen’s heart caught at the sight. “Michael,” she said softly.
He turned away from her. “Go back to bed, Jensen.”
She came closer and he put his hand up as if to ward her away. “Please, go.”
Jensen knelt by his chair and took his face in her soft, cool hands. “Talk to me.”
“Talking isn’t going to help.”
She kissed his cheek.
“Jensen...”
She kissed his other cheek. All she wanted to do was erase that look of pain from his face.
With a groan, he grasped the back of her head and crushed her lips to his.
After her initial surprise, Jensen opened herself to him. She couldn’t help it.
The urgent passion of the kiss turned to a gentle exploration that ached with longing.
Michael was the one who stopped. He tangled his fingers in her hair and leaned his forehead against hers. “You caught me at a weak moment. I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. I understand.”
He kissed her forehead, then rose and walked away from her.
Jensen stayed where she was. “What were you thinking about when I came in?”
Michael didn’t answer for a long time. “My brother was only two years older than I am. And my father was still a young man with great ideas about how the country should be run. They both needed more time to bring our people into the twentieth century. It isn’t right that they’re gone.”
Jensen rose from the floor and stood behind Michael, her hands on his shoulders. “You can do for your people what your father and brother would have done.”
“My father was the one with the vision. My brother was raised to be a king. I’m an engineer. That’s all I ever wanted to be. It’s what I’m trained for.”
“Then be an engineer. You don’t have to be king, do you?”
“You’re right. I could walk away.”
“But you won’t,” she guessed.
“My father might not have trained me to be a king, but he and my mother did train me to take responsibility. This country is my responsibility. The people are depending on me to guide them and to provide a strong enough leadership to keep them from being swallowed up by neighboring countries. I’ll do what I have to.”
“Including marrying a woman you don’t love?”
He turned to look at Jensen. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s the way things have to be.”
Their gazes locked.
Jensen blinked first. “I’m sorry. I’m intruding into areas where I clearly have no business. I should never have barged in here.” She started to walk past him and out the door.
“Don’t go,” he said softly. “Stay with me.”
Jensen stopped.
“Just for a little while.”
She let out a long breath.
“What’s wrong?”
“I had no business coming to you for help about Henry. You have enough on your mind without my adding to it. I didn’t know all that had happened to you.”
“It doesn’t matter. Henry is my friend. Of course I want to help find him.”
“What you want to do and what you ought to be doing are two different things. This is no time for your attention to be split. I can figure out something. Get someone...”
“Like the guide you thought was sent by the embassy?”
“That was a mistake.”
“A mistake that nearly cost you your life. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take any longer.”
“This is my life we’re talking about. My risk.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “I’m not backing away from this, Jensen. We’re going to find Henry together.”
“Whatever the cost?”
“Yes.” His voice was almost a whisper.
“I think I could fall in love with you.” Jensen hadn’t meant to say it, but there it was. The words were between them.
“And I’ve been in love with you from the moment I saw you in the hotel.”
Their eyes met and held.
“So what do we do?” asked Jensen. “Where do we go from here?”
“We find Henry. Then you go back to Wisconsin and I come back here.”
“What if I can’t let you go?”
“You’ll have to. We’ll have to. But Henry comes before anything else. I can help you find him. I have better resources than any guide you’ll be able to hire. And I can keep you safe.”
“You’re right,” she agreed reluctantly. “We’ll do it your way.”
“And tomorrow we’ll blame this conversation on the lateness of the hour and the exhaustion of the participants.”
Jensen attempted a smile.
Michael was determined to change the subject. He inclined his head toward her. “I admit it’s a nice tan, but you still don’t look anything like a man.”
“Ah, you haven’t seen me in my new clothes. Rarely has the world seen so much manliness in one package. Even Ali will be impressed.” She walked around the study. It was all arches, bookcases, leather and tapestries. “This is a wonderful room.”
“It was one of my father’s favorites. Mine, too.”
“I’m surprised to find it just across the courtyard from the women’s quarters.”
“My mother designed it that way. There were certain customs she refused to follow. One of them was being separated from my father. This area was a place where they could be together in complete privacy. Only their bedrooms and this study face the courtyard.”
“I wouldn’t agree to be separated from my husband, either, regardless of what the custom was.”
“And I can’t imagine your husband agreeing to be separated from you.”
Jensen smiled at him. She couldn’t help it. “We’re in for a tough time of it.”
“I know. You’d better go to bed, Jensen. We’ll be leaving in a few hours.”
She headed toward the door. “Michael?” she said without turning.
“Yes?”
“Thank you for everything you’re doing. I might not always act like it, but I’m grateful to you. Good night.”
Michael watched her walk away and continued to watch her until she was safely in her room.
Jensen, both physically and emotionally exhausted, fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
The next time she opened her eyes, Michael was there.
“It’s dawn,” he said softly. “Get dressed. I’ll meet you in the courtyard.”
Jensen was instantly alert. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”
As quickly as she could, she found her way to the bath, brushed her teeth and rinsed her face.
The stain held, she noted with satisfaction.
Then she dressed in her new clothes the servant had returned during the night, and looked at herself in a long mirror.
The clothes worked, but she was still very feminine looking. Perhaps it was the way she carried herself; the way she moved.
She was just going to have to be more guylike.
Adding what she thought was a strut to her walk, she went back to her room for her backpack and met Michael in the courtyard.
As soon as he saw her, he had to smile.
“What?” she asked. “I think I look pretty good. And I’ll have the walk down before we get there.”
“You don’t have a masculine bone in your body.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you could see me play touch football with Henry and his friends.”
“Yes, I would, but be that as it may, let’s go.”
“You’re not ready,” she said, inclining her head toward his cotton khaki trousers and white T-shirt.
“I�
�m more comfortable in these. I’ll put my other clothes on when we get closer to Adjani.”
With his hand in the middle of her back, Michael guided her through the palace to the two cars that awaited them in the driveway. Jensen stopped and stared at the rattletraps that were old Hummers with paint pitted from years in the desert.
“You can’t be serious,” she said. “These won’t get us ten miles much less all the way to Adjani.”
“They’ll get us to Adjani and back.”
“Why two?”
“To carry extra water and fuel—and to be on the safe side in case one breaks down.”
Ali appeared suddenly and silently beside them.
Jensen gasped and put her hand over her heart. “I wish you’d make at least the occasional noise,” she told him.
Ali just looked at her.
But Jensen was unfazed by his silence. She stepped back and did a turn. “What do you think, Ali? Will I pass for a man? Michael doesn’t seem to think so.”
There was no change of expression.
Jensen sighed. “Which—car—do you want me in?”
Michael had intended putting her in with Ali, but relented. “Come with me.”
Moments later, they were on their way. For the first hour or so there was something resembling a road, but that soon turned into a track that had holes and rocks. They couldn’t have been traveling more than twenty miles an hour, if that, and were churning up sand all the way.
An added bonus was the constant heat.
Jensen took off her headdress and tossed it into the back. “How can you stand to wear these things?”
“They protect us from the sun. And you from prying eyes.”
“Let me know a bit before we reach Adjani. I’ll put it back on.”
Michael looked at her profile. “Talk to me about yourself?”
“What?” she asked in surprise.
“I know very little about you except what Henry’s told me over the years.”
“There’s not much to tell. I’m a writer. I spend my days at a computer in an office in my home.”
“Do you live alone?”
“No.”
“So you live with someone?”
Jensen smiled. “My home is an old farmhouse that I share with a very large dog.”
“There’s no man in your life?”
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