The Sheik and the Slave

by Italia, Nicola

  But for the first time, she felt at peace. Thoughts kept running through her head. She would have a son, a son, a son...

  His son.

  Katharine made herself presentable and checked to make sure her hair was in place before she rejoined her aunt and uncle for the opera performance. She had much to think about.

  The next morning, her Aunt Louisa received word that Jamie would be stopping by their home in a week on his way to Germany to visit relatives.

  "That would be lovely, Katharine, no?" she asked her niece.

  Katharine pushed her eggs across her plate and looked up.

  "I'm sorry. What did you say, Aunt Louisa?" she asked.

  "Darling, you seem to be in another land. We have just received word from your fiancé James Clifton. He will be stopping here on his way to visit relatives in Germany. Is that not good news?"

  Katharine nodded. "Yes, Aunt Louisa," she replied.

  But Katharine knew it was not good news. Once she had a moment alone with Jamie, she would have to break off the engagement, which would cause more questions and comments from those around her. What would happen then?

  "My dear, weren't you and Katharine going to visit the perfumery today?" Jean-Pierre asked from behind his morning paper.

  Louisa exclaimed excitedly, "Yes, that's correct. When would you like to set out, Katharine? We could find you some lovely scents, perhaps in rose or lavender? What do you think?"

  "Yes, that would be nice. Do you mind if I lay down for a half hour and then we could set out? I'm a little tired."

  "Of course, cheri," her aunt replied.

  ***

  Katharine made her way up to the lavish room they had given her and threw herself on her bed.

  She felt exhausted, and her mind was in turmoil. She was glad to be in Paris, away from her family. It gave her a chance to decide what to do with her future. She moved onto her back and her hands moved down her simple linen dress to rest on her belly. The curved contour of her belly and her breasts, which were slightly swollen, all confirmed her pregnancy. Her breasts were very tender and sensitive. She sighed.

  What would become of her? She was a young woman from an affluent home and family, but she was not married. She knew she couldn't marry Jamie carrying another man's child, and in her heart she knew she couldn't marry Mohammed. They were too different and it would never work.

  After her nap, she dressed in a silk gown of white and green stripes to join her Aunt Louisa in town. Louisa took her niece to the Parfumerie to purchase a unique scent while Louisa preferred a simple blend of tuberose. They also purchased a pair of gloves for Louisa and a parasol for both women. Later, they took the coach home.

  Katharine was exhausted from the day's events and slept into the afternoon. She awoke for dinner.

  ***

  The next week passed uneventfully. When Jamie arrived, he had made accommodations to spend the night at a local inn, but stopped to speak with Katharine.

  The quiet Jamie, with his blonde hair and blue eyes, seemed restless and agitated when he greeted her, but she thought little of it. The engaged couple walked along the small green gardens that wound through the property. The small garden was desolate, but had many large beech trees.

  "You are well?" he asked kindly.

  "Yes, and you?"

  He nodded. They continued a short time before he suddenly blurted out, "Katharine, I would like to ask that we be married sooner than we had arranged, if you are agreeable."

  Katharine tried to speak but he continued on.

  "We will do very well together and I did not think there would be any objection on your part," he finished.

  "Indeed, Jamie, there is. Things have changed since our engagement and I need to break it off. I'm sorry," she told him.

  "I don't understand," he said, looking panicked.

  "Things have changed. That's all I can tell you. There will be no marriage between us."

  She looked at him and then turned away.

  "Do I not have a right to know what has changed? As your fiancé?" he asked. His eyes glittered dangerously.

  "Please. No good can come of this. Let us just be done with it," she told him.

  Suddenly, Jamie grabbed her arm and pulled her down to the ground with him.

  "I need this marriage," he told her harshly. "No matter what has happened, there will be a marriage between us."

  She had never seen him like this and it frightened her.

  "Let me go. There will be no marriage. My mind is set," she argued.

  His eyes were hard and cold and suddenly he delved beneath her skirts, snagging her silk stockings as he went. He pulled her skirts up above her thighs and parted her legs as he settled himself between them.

  Katharine cried out once, but her corsets restricted her breathing. She tried to fight him but he held her arms above her head. The dirt from the ground stuck to her face as she struggled.

  "So, everything becomes clear," He breathed into her ear. His hand rested on her rounded belly.

  "Did you give him a good fight for your little cunt or did he rape you?" he asked coldly.

  "Get off me, now," she spat out.

  "Or did you just pretend it was rape like most gently brought-up ladies and then spread your legs wide," he continued.

  They stayed like this for a few seconds. He sat between her legs with his hand on her curved belly.

  "So you are breeding the Arab's bastard child," he spoke contemptuously.

  Katharine stopped fighting him, for she no longer feared rape as much as she feared he would harm her unborn child.

  He suddenly grabbed her hair and pulled on it so that she was forced to look up at him.

  "Listen well, trollop. You have fucked your Arab and he left you pregnant, which is no concern of mine."

  Katharine could feel the tears behind her eyes as he pulled her hair.

  "But I have use of you yet. No, I don't want your precious little body, though I wouldn't mind having use of it once you have given birth to your bastard seed. I have need of you for a different reason. I need your family, your money, and the comfort and protection all of it will bring me. Without it, I'm ruined. So marry me you will," James declared.

  He released her hair and remained where he was. The fight and heightened emotions had excited him. He had never been particularly desirous of her. She was a beautiful woman, but it was well known in most circles that Jamie's persuasion was for men and young boys. However, he had always been aroused by pain and suffering, and he loved having the haughty beautiful Katharine on her knees, so to speak, and at his mercy.

  He looked down at her in the soft earth with her legs spread and he fondled his hard cock.

  Katharine watched him and suddenly spoke, "Please Jamie. I am with child. It might hurt the babe."

  "What do I care? It's not my child," he answered. He began to unbutton himself.

  "If you force me, I won't go along with this," she told him.

  He stopped himself, but continued to stroke his cock through the fabric.

  "So the marriage will continue?" he asked.

  "Yes," she answered.

  He looked at her on the ground and spoke sullenly.

  "Your mouth would do just as well as your cunt," he said.

  "After the babe is born, you can have me whenever you wish," Katharine spoke quietly.

  "All right," He nodded and helped her stand up. "And to show you I am not completely without honor, I will marry you and give your bastard a name. I don’t want it known that my wife is of loose morals."

  “A match made in hell," Katharine said. She looked at him. He smiled at her, but it was cold, with no feeling.

  Together, they went back to the house to tell her aunt and uncle the good news, that they would be married sooner than originally planned.

  ***

  When Jamie left, Katharine bathed her body with a cool towel, running it all over herself. She wanted to erase him from her mind and body. She felt dirty and uncle
an, and she shivered in the moonlight cascading into her room.

  She covered her face with her hands and began to weep softly. What was she to do now? She was hopelessly lost. She couldn't go to Mohammed. If she went to him, Jamie would turn on her and tell the world she was pregnant and not married. She would be ruined and her family's name disgraced.

  She had no choice but to marry the madman. But she knew eventually she would have to face Mohammed, and that thought frightened her more than anything else.

  Chapter 14

  Abdullah touched his head to the mat and prayed; his lips moved reverently over the words. His heart was heavy as he bowed over the fifth "Isha" prayer, which usually ended before midnight.

  "Subhaan-Allaah wa'l-hamdu Lillaah wa laa ilaaha ill-Allaah wa Allaahu akbar wa laa hawla wa la quwwata illa Billaah," he spoke.

  Abdullah was a religious man who had always tried to give guidance and support to Sheik Mohammed Aksam Al Sabid; praise be to Allah and guide him through his journey. He had been honored to have been appointed as father’s advisor following time spent as a palace guard and he had been rewarded with riches and an esteemed position.

  But the growing obsession the sheik had for the pale foreigner did not bode well. The people respected the sheik, and it was partly due to his father's memory and reign, but also due to Mohammed's own wise rule.

  There was talk in the bazaars and inside the court and harem that the girl had bewitched their lord. They called Katharine a witch and a sorceress and claimed she had stolen the sheik's soul.

  Many of the men in the bazaars spoke of Katharine's surpassing beauty and that in the act of fellatio, she had swallowed his seed and his soul. Some called her a succubus, while others just wanted her stoned and dead.

  Abdullah had educated himself and knew the talk of Katharine was from gossips who were jealous of her beauty and the power she might hold over the sheik. But he also knew that gossips could turn a falsity into the truth and rob Arabia of the powerful sheik's reputation.

  He knew it was time to step in and get rid of the girl once and for all. Yasmeen had tried and failed. He would not.

  ***

  She hadn't seen Mohammed since that wretched night at the theater. They had made love and he had discovered her pregnancy. She had never been pregnant before and unmarried ladies were kept woefully ignorant of such knowledge until they became married and respectable. How could she have known?

  The scene with Mohammed had replayed itself over and over again in her mind, and as she had traveled back to England, she knew he would come after her. What was she to say to him? After all, he was the father of her unborn child. Worse than that was the situation she found herself in with Jamie.

  He had gambled and drank away his family's fortune. He told her of it one afternoon when he had calmed down, after she agreed to marry him. Early in his teenage years, he had found he had an affection for men and did not pursue the young women of his age and breeding.

  He had become taken with a younger man from a very affluent family and begun spending time with him. The man was a cad whose family had all but disowned him. Jamie spent more and more time with the man, spending money at the gambling halls, drinking, and wagering vast amounts to keep the young man's attention. A year later, he was in severe trouble.

  Jamie's father had insisted he not see the man anymore and had spoken to Katharine's father about a betrothal. Jamie’s family wanted him to appear respectable again.

  Katharine’s choices were dim. Mohammed was her unborn child's father. But not only that, if her child was a boy, he would be the next sheik of Arabia, supplanting his father when Mohammed died.

  But Katharine knew that his people would never want her as their queen and lady, and she worried about an uprising that would harm Mohammed's country. She didn't want to undermine anything that Mohammed had made, and she worried with the uncertainty of it all.

  Katharine had no one to turn to. She dared not tell her family she was breeding; they would be ashamed. So she kept all of her secrets inside. She was sleeping poorly and her eyes were dark, with circles underneath them.

  She was only content when she walked along the small creek that wound through her father's property. England was green and lush and she had missed it so when she had been suffocating in Arabia. But now that she was in England, her heart longed for the heat and sand of Arabia and the proud sheik.

  She settled herself under a great oak tree as the creek trickled by. She removed her shoes and breathed a sigh of relief. She had a very poor appetite, with bouts on nausea in the morning. In the afternoon, she was able to consume bread and tea. She leaned her head against the tree with her hands over her belly and sank into a light slumber.

  ***

  He had been walking through her father's property for a while. The grooms pointed him in the direction she had taken to walking, but it was still a vast and green estate.

  The marriage certificate still burned a hole in his breast pocket, and he longed to confront her father. But secretly, he was torn. He didn't want her screaming down the local clergyman’s aisle, claiming he kidnapped her.

  He wanted her pliant and warm in his arms as she had been that first night. He wanted her dressed in silk, surrounded by her family, with obedient words on her lips.

  He had been enraged when he had felt her rounded belly that evening of the opera. He had thought that she meant to conceal it from him. But the more he thought about that evening, the more he knew that she had been unaware of her condition. After he had given her the ultimatum, he had gone back to his lodging and it had sunk in.

  She was pregnant! His beautiful lady with hair like the Sahara sands and eyes like the Arabian Sea was pregnant. Inside her belly was a child they had created. Inside her belly was the next sheik of Arabia, a son to carry on all that he had created. A son!

  After that night, he realized what he wanted. For the first time, he didn't want to command and demand; he wanted her love. He came onto her father's property alone to quietly talk to her. The grooms had indicated she was out on the property and led him to the creek. He found her lying on her back next to a tree, with her soft white hands resting on her belly. She was lovely in a simple yellow linen dress.

  He had a large harem with women to please him every day of the week, but he wanted this one sleeping beside him for the rest of their lives.

  Her face seemed serene in sleep, but she looked like she had lost weight. This was not uncommon in pregnancy; he had seen it with Yasmeen. She must be alone here in her home with no one to speak to about her situation, he thought. She was a gently brought up woman and a pregnancy outside of marriage is unthinkable. He had done this to her and he felt ashamed.

  He should have married her in Arabia, because now he risked losing her. It was unthinkable. She was his. He would never let her go.

  Mohammed bent down to touch her face as she slept. Her face was soft and almost like silk.

  "Princess," he spoke softly.

  She stirred but didn't wake.

  He touched her hair as it fanned out and lifted a lock to his nose. The smell of jasmine wafted into his senses and he felt himself tighten with desire and lust. He remembered that time she had been scented with it and he had asked her why. “Because you like it," she had said.

  He ached to have her moaning beneath him again. His desire for her was great, and she now swelled with their child because of it.

  "Princess," he spoke quietly and watched as she moaned in her sleep and her eyes blinked open.

  She looked at him questioningly, closing her eyes once and then opening them again.

  "Hello," he said, smiling at her.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice husky from sleep.

  He remained quiet and then spoke.

  "I have come to take you home."

  "I'm fine where I am. I like being outdoors," she said. She moved to sit up.

  "No," he said. "That is not what I mean."

  She lowered her ey
es.

  "You mean Arabia."

  "Yes, Arabia. My home, your home, our son's home."

  Katharine blushed in the afternoon light.

  "It could be a daughter. I know you would hate a daughter. You already have two."

  "Yes, I have two. But a child from our union would be blessed by Allah."

  He reached out to stroke her cheek.

  "And there will be many more nights to come for us to create a son," he continued.

  Katharine blushed again at his familiarity and words.

  "Mohammed, I can't go with you to Arabia. Your people would never allow me to be your wife and consort. I am a foreigner. They would hate me and it would ruin your reputation as their lord."

  "No, princess. They would be fine with my choice, and they will learn to love you."

  "But," she began.

  "And besides, it is too late for all of that. You are breeding with my child. There is only one choice."

  Katharine lowered her eyes before him as he spoke. It seemed so natural that she should be here under a great oak tree in England talking to a man from a distant land of the child they created that lay in her belly. And yet, it was all wrong.

  "Katharine. I have followed you across many lands. I ache for you. Would you deny me?" He pulled her into the circle of his arms and Kat could smell the horse scent on him and sandalwood incense.

  "Mohammed," she said.

  "Shhh. No more words. I don't want to talk anymore. I just want to hold you. I want to be close to my woman. You are all that matters to me."

  His words thrilled her as she relished being close to him and listening to his pounding heart. His mouth kissed her golden hair and lightly bit her delicate ear, causing gooseflesh to break out on her arms.

  "Hold me tighter," she spoke into his ear. "Don't let me go."

  He grinned.

  "I won't, little falcon,” he responded. “You are mine."