by Kalia Lewis
Turning away from the balcony, she went into her dressing room and took off the black teddy, replacing it with a long T-shirt. All the sexual longing she'd felt for him had now dispersed. Going to the bed, she once again positioned all the pillows. If he came back now she'd be too mad at him to get up close and personal. Logic told her that what she'd just witnessed wasn't his fault, but emotionally she was peeved. Earlier this evening, she'd been ready to give herself to him, so why was he out there walking through the garden knowing that she was up here waiting for him? Curling up on her side of the humongous bed, she pumped up her pillow in frustration. Tiredness was now creeping in and she decided that she didn't want to think about it anymore, but come tomorrow he had some grovelling to do.
Chapter Nine
Waking with the morning light she instantly turned over and peered over the cushioned wall to find Tariq's place was still empty. There were no indents in his pillow or mattress, which meant that he hadn't even come in later. Where exactly had he been all night? Dressing in linens again, this time in a lemon colour, she tied her hair back with a matching ribbon. The sound of her empty stomach filled the room. After breakfast she was going to find some answers.
The living room of their suite was empty and no breakfast had magically appeared. Deciding to brave it, she meandered downstairs into the dining room, but that too was empty. Not sure where to go, she looked into another room and found the library, nope, no breakfast here, she thought ruefully.
Hearing voices from the back of the house, she made her way through a long living room and into what could only be called a sun room. Everything was in lemon checks. She laughed to herself, she'd fit right in here this morning. Walking through the glass doors she found a large patio area overlooking a Grecian style pool and to her right a table was set for breakfast. Amira and Hassan were at the table. Now suddenly nervous, she didn't know whether to turn around and go back or just say hello, grab a bread roll and make up some excuse. Before she could decide, she heard Amira call her.
"Come on over Katie, we won't bite you, I promise."
Katie felt an undertone of sarcasm in her voice, and she was still pissed off with Amira's actions from last night, but she'd dealt with far worse things in her life than people like Amira. Squaring her shoulders, she headed over and pulled out a seat. "Thank you, I couldn't find Tariq this morning, so I've been searching for where you all have breakfast."
"Oh, you won't find Tariq today," Amira said with an all knowing look.
Katie stilled her hand as she poured herself a cup of coffee. "I won't?"
Amira's eyes became cat-like slits. "Didn't he tell you? And here I was thinking you two were so close to each other."
Katie didn't want to appear as affected as she felt, so she slowly chose a peach from the fruit bowl before answering. "Well, he did say last night that he had an important meeting to attend to."
Amira snorted and laughed.
It was Hassan that answered her in a dull tone. "Last night another of our ships was ambushed."
Katie chewed the piece of peach slowly and swallowed it past the forming lump in her throat. "And what about the men on board?" she croaked.
Hassan shrugged, but darkness crept over his face. "No-one knows the full details yet. Tariq has driven over to the port and we don't know when he'll be back."
Katie slammed down her cup. The appetite she'd had earlier was now gone. "Well, let's hope Tariq catches the bastards behind the Somali pirates who are the real ones responsible for these thefts and murders. Those pirates can't be doing it alone can they?" She directed that sentence at Hassan, whose eyes had turned to steel. Not taking the hint to shut up, she turned to the now ashen face of Amira and continued, "Once caught, I hope they are given the punishment they're due and much more." Standing up, she pushed the chair under the table. "I've just remembered an errand that I have to do. Have a nice day."
Walking back to her room, she was livid. If they were behind all of this, they deserved to rot in hell. How had Tariq survived this long living under the same roof as them? Thinking about Tariq brought a deeper frown to her face. Why hadn't he come and told her he was leaving? Picking up her new camera from the sofa, she was about to march out of the room when an envelope caught her eye on the side table near the door. It was addressed to her.
Opening it, she found a hand-written note from Tariq. Immediately, her heart melted and he was forgiven.
"Little moheet."
She smiled at his sentiment.
"Last night another of our ships was hijacked, so today I shall be at the port on the west side of Socotra with my father and Murad. We have new information that may lead us to the perpetrators. I may send for you.
Tariq.
P.S I sat and watched you for a while as you slept. I missed the feel of you. What we began earlier will be finished and it may take a whole lifetime to perfect."
A warm fuzzy feeling crept into her belly. The thought of a lifetime with Tariq no longer seemed to be the problem it had been on the jet when they'd married. Maybe he was growing on her or maybe it was because he was so damn hot and hard to resist.
There was a new spring in her step as she took the stairs two at a time. Reaching the bottom, she checked in her camera bag for the sun filter lens. It wasn't there. It must still be in the room that Tariq had set up as a lab for her, so she raced back up the stairs. As she passed the doors to her suite, she saw that one of them was open. It momentarily caught her off guard as she was sure she'd shut both of them firmly behind her when she'd left. Peeking around the open door, the lounge area was empty, but one of the bedroom doors was also slightly open. How odd. Sneaking along the wall, she could hear someone humming inside. Perhaps it was just the maid?
Feeling a little silly at sneaking up on someone innocent, she was about to move away when she caught the back of Amira's head as she passed across the open doorway. She was heading through the bedroom, towards Tariq's dressing room. Katie's heart lurched. What was she doing in their bedroom and private space? Sliding her body as quietly as she could through the open gap, she followed Amira.
Now standing with her back to the wall, she could hear Amira rustling about on the other side. All it would take was a small movement of her head around the doorframe to see what she was doing. Katie bit her lip. It was now or never.
Tariq's dressing room was slightly larger than hers. Along one of the walls hung his suits and along the opposite wall sat tall units of endless drawers. Amira was currently fingering his suits, moving along them and touching them, humming as she went from suit to suit. How bizarre. Maybe there was a perfectly good explanation, but it felt creepy. It got worse when Amira began to open a few drawers, bringing out his T-shirts, holding them up to give them a once over and then stuffing them back in. It made Katie feel uncomfortable, as though she was the one intruding. About to cough and bring attention to herself, so that they could get to the bottom of whatever this was, she stopped when Amira opened Tariq's underwear drawer.
No! Now that's not on!
In disbelief, she watched with an open mouth as Amira took out a pair of black briefs and brought them to her nose and sniffed them.
Seriously! Even she hadn't thought about doing that!
Her heart was virtually in her mouth. Didn't this constitute as an act of weirdness? Katie gawped further as Amira folded up the black briefs, slipped them into her pocket and then turned in her direction. Instantly, she pulled back out of sight and quickly made her way along the bedroom wall and through the door that led into the lounge. She could hear Amira closing in behind her and she knew that she didn't have enough time left to make the distance to the suite door without being discovered, so she rushed towards the sofas and threw herself over the back of one. Holding her breath, she heard Amira pass by, not noticing her hiding amongst the cushions. Finally, she sighed in relief as she heard the click of the suite door closing.
Taking a few moments to catch her breath, she then left the suite and made
her way back down the stairs. The friendly face of Thebes greeted her in the foyer.
"Ah, Sheikha el-Tayeb, I have a message for you. Sheikha Selina el-Tayeb and Miss Miriam el-Tayeb will meet you in your room after lunch."
"Thank you." Still a bit bothered about finding an underwear snooper in her bedroom, she hoped she didn't come across as demanding when she asked, "Thebes, do you think it would be okay to have lunch in my room today?" She really didn't want to eat with Amira. It would be a reminder of Tariq's black briefs stuck to her face.
Thebes laughed. "Your wish is my every command."
"Can I have a cup of stars then?" she jibed at him.
He caught the humour and bounced it right back. "There are enough love-struck stars in your eyes to light the sky," he joked.
Katie gave him a wide smile and left him to spend the rest of the morning taking pictures in the gardens and orchards of the sizeable grounds. It was a beautiful sunny day, but she kept thinking about Amira. Surely, after Tariq's rejection of her last night, she'd got the message that he wasn't interested in her games? Obviously, Amira wasn't taking the hint. Katie thought about what would cause someone to go and sniff a person's underwear? Possibly obsession or the excuse of looking for a clean pair, but the latter could be ruled out in this case.
Not wanting thoughts of Amira to steal the beauty of the day, she shoved her aside by concentrating on the task at hand. She knew that her time with Amira would come.
Now making her way back to her room, she found Thebes just leaving.
"I've set it out on the balcony for you," he said as he smiled and moved to walk down the stairs.
Sitting on the balcony in the shade of the midday sun, she munched on tiny salmon and dill sandwiches, salads and a lemon cake while listening to the sounds of breaking waves. It was possibly the most peaceful she'd felt in a long while. As a young child, her world had been full of this peace. When she'd become an adult, she realised that much of the joy and safety she'd felt then was due to the love that her parents shared.
A little judder of sadness in her heart caused a slump in her mood. The relationship between her and Tariq was chemically explosive, that was pretty clear in the way that she wanted to jump his bones every five minutes, but chemistry alone is not what makes a marriage work.
The love between her parents had been equal. Of this she'd been sure, because as a child she'd felt no fear between them, no fight for power. This is what she wanted for herself and there was already fear between her and Tariq. Being taken and forced to give up her own dreams of love and what marriage meant to her, and to never be allowed out of the bonds he'd woven around her, freaked her out. The earlier fuzzy feeling and contemplation of being with Tariq for life, vanished in the face of reality. It wouldn't work if the root of their union was based on fear.
The option to have that bond with someone else had also been taken from her, and any children she now had with another man would be legally tied to Tariq. Maybe she would speak with a solicitor once she returned to England. She knew that between now and then there would be sexual explosions between her and Tariq, but that was only one part of what she really needed. Deep down, she wanted to totally let go, like she'd felt as a child, a complete freedom to be herself. Was that possible with another human being? She wasn't sure if it was obtainable for herself, but she knew she'd lived amongst it with her parents before it was so cruelly taken away from them.
If her father had remarried since, she wouldn't feel hurt. To have loved like her parents had and then to lose it under such vicious conditions must make for a hole inside of you, perhaps one that can never be filled again. If her father had found comfort in the arms of tenderness from another, then who was she to judge? It could be the one thing that would have given him the will to live beyond his heartbreaking loss, and for that, she'd be grateful.
At some point between being on the jet and now, it had become very clear that she was here to do a job. If she was to complete her part in the bargain and take the pictures, then she would see her father again. This was the one thing that she'd yearned for more than anything else. It was incredible to even think that he was still alive and that she would see him again and have his presence back in her life.
The next step after this would consist of unravelling herself from Tariq. How she was going to do that was not yet clear. The irony was that in five minutes time she'd be discussing wedding plans with Tariq's mother and his sister while working out how to divorce him.
Thebes cleared away the table as he whistled a happy tune. She liked his presence. It was like a soothing balm to her worries. As Thebes was leaving there was a knock at the door and an excited Miriam entered followed by several women carrying a whole collection of gowns and accessories. A lump burned in Katie's throat as it hit her that this was about her wedding. The only one she would possibly ever have.
Once everything had been draped over the dining chairs and table, Miriam shooed out the women. "I would like to dress you," she declared happily. "Well, that's if it's okay with you?"
Katie laughed. "It would be an honour."
Miriam beamed.
A second knock came at the door and Selina walked in. Dressed in casual cream slacks and a pale blue overshirt, she looked crisp and fresh. Without any hesitation she came over to Katie and hugged her. "This is very exciting for me. I'm about to see my first-born marry a beautiful woman who is now a part of our family."
Katie had a twinge of guilt, but she shoved it away. The least she could do was make this woman very proud, for the time being anyway. "I'm very privileged to be accepted by you all."
Miriam sniffed. "I always wanted a proper sister. Amira's okay, but she can be mean."
"Now, now," reprimanded Selina. "This is Katie's moment. Let's not tarnish it with any talk of family troubles."
At first, Katie felt self-conscious in her underwear with these two women helping her to try on the outfits, but after a while that dropped and she began to enjoy herself.
The first dress she tried on was a bit bouffant with feathers as the train. They all shook their heads at the same time. The second was worse, with rows and rows of pleats. It reminded Katie of a huge ra-ra skirt. Miriam picked up the third dress and held it up in hope. It had frills. Both Katie and Selina shook their heads. Now Katie knew exactly who'd kitted out her wardrobe!
It was the fourth dress that really caught Katie's eye. The white silk dress was a long sleeveless sheath that fitted snugly in the bodice before loosening out at her hip line and falling in soft drapes to her feet, fanning out slightly at the back. Gold stones decorated the neckline which sat as a choker around the neck. At the back, tiny matching gold buttons ran all the way down from the neck to the top of her buttocks. Katie blushed at the thought of having to ask Tariq to undo them in order to step out of the dress at the end of the day. But the most striking feature was the coat that came with it. Made in matching lined white silk, it fastened with a white button just underneath her bust, giving the glittering neckline of the dress a perfect stage to stand out. Without any lapels, the cut followed the line of the dress and then fanned out at the back, giving it a wide train. The sleeves were long and they opened out at the bottom, like a medieval gown, but it was the gold embroidery that ran down the edges of the coat, along the seams of the train and around the cuffs of the sleeves, which gave it the edge.
Miriam sighed. "Katie, you look really beautiful, like a princess."
Katie noted Selina's dewy-eyed look and decided that this was the one. It was exquisite, elegant, classy and so very her. "It's just incredible," she breathed, imagining what Tariq would say.
Just then the suite door opened and slammed shut. Amira had walked in. "Sorry I'm late. Oh my, Katie, it's lovely, but so very plain."
"You're wrong Amira," huffed Miriam in Katie's defence.
Amira put her hands on her hips. "I'm just saying that Tariq likes things a little more glitzy. When we were engaged, he gave me a necklace with twelve teardrop d
iamonds. You can borrow it if you like?" she offered her with a tight smile.
Katie felt all the joy of the afternoon being squeezed out of her, but she wasn't going to bite at the bait that had just been thrown her way. Earlier, they'd wheeled the full-length mirror into the lounge from the dressing room and through the reflection she gave Amira a sweet smile before replying, "Thank you, Amira, but I won't need it. I guess Tariq has changed since then, he now prefers things a little less...brassy."
Amira tossed her head and slumped down onto the sofa. "Suit yourself. After all, you obviously know him much better than I do after four days. I guess a thirty-year relationship doesn't count," she replied in sarcasm.
"Well, I now have a lifetime to discover him fully," she replied dreamily. There, take that you scheming bitch, she thought, although she did have a twinge of jealousy at the image of Tariq kissing Amira last night, but she pushed that aside. She knew that last night wouldn't have counted as something important to Tariq.
Both Miriam and Selina sighed.
"Anyway," Amira huffed, not willing to take the conversation of Tariq's preferences any further. "I can only stay long enough to pass on a message. Hassan has gone to the port and Tariq is requesting your presence, so I’m to take you to him tonight, after dinner."
A little flutter of excitement passed through Katie at the thought of seeing Tariq again. "I’ll be ready. Do you know how long we'll be staying at the port?"
Amira shrugged. "Tariq has a house around the corner from his office, so I guess a few days. Sometimes they stay aboard the ships, but I'll know more when I speak with Hassan later."
Miriam was sorting out the discarded dresses at the dining table. "I’m coming too," she trilled from the other side of the room.
Amira scoffed. "No you’re not. You can stay here with Mother dear."
Miriam pouted and looked at Selina for support.