Tawny Sands

by Violet Winspear

`Only those of the orient know how to make wonderful coffee,' he said, with a sigh of relaxation. 'You must now give me your answer to my question . . . have you ever dreamed of seeing the limitless golden sands of the desert? The radiance of an Eastern sunset? The secretiveness of a walled courtyard and the jasmine growing there?'

  There was a certain seduction to the words, painting for her a picture of sunlit sands, and the cool shadows of a jasmine court. There was in his eyes a smouldering look, as of a man who couldn't wait to return to his own surroundings ... who implied that he meant to take her with him !

  As he read the look in her eyes, he slowly smiled. 'Why do you look at me in such an alarmed way? Did I mention

  my harem?'

  `Don Raul, are you playing cat and mouse with me? Or are you serious when you ask me if I should like the desert?'

  `I have never been more serious, senorita. Come, does the thought of going there excite you?'

  `In what capacity, senor?' She looked at him frankly, with a tilt to her chin. 'As your secretary, perhaps?'

  No.' He shook his dark head and took a slim gold case from a pocket of his white dinner jacket. 'I recall that you don't smoke, but you will permit me?'

  `Of course.'

  He lit a panatella, and a small cloud of smoke drifted between them, teasing her nostrils with its tang of fine tobacco, mingling with the aroma of the coffee and the scent of the clustering flowers.

  `The house where I live is situated on the edge of the desert and surrounded on one side by groves of oranges, peaches and the pomegranate. On the other side the desert flows away like a golden sea to the foot of the blue mountains and many miles separate the oasis of El Amara from the nearest town. Yet we live a full and active life at the oasis. There is always plenty to do in the groves of fruit, and always there is the desert to explore.'

  He drew on his panatella and studied Janna through the smoke, his gaze at once lazy and yet intent on her face. 'One can live on its edge a lifetime and yet never reach the heart of it. It is sultry and temperamental as a tigress, fascinating as a secret doorway, veiled in stars when the sun burns out of the sky. It beckons like a temptress, and sometimes in anger it smothers the villa and the oasis in stifling waves of sand, blown on the winds of the sirocco. Then we hate it. Then we curse it, but when the wind dies down and the dawn unveils in blue and silver, we fall in love again with its magic, its enticement, it’s strange beauty.'

  He flicked ash to the tiled floor, and crossed a long left leg over his right one, his shoulders at rest against the back of the seat he shared with Janna. He looked every inch a

  man who controlled his life and his business with a firm, assured hand. It seemed as if nothing could ruffle him, and yet Janna sensed that he was worried and disturbed; that in her hands lay the remedy that would erase the frown between his black eyebrows.

  `If I asked you to come to El Amara would you agree, or would you jump to your feet and run away in alarm from me?'

  `I—I should want to know your reason for asking me.' Her heart raced and she felt slightly dizzy, as if the champagne still clung to her senses. 'You have said you don't need a secretary, and I can't imagine how else I could serve you—' And then she slowly flushed as he drew a finger down her bare left arm.

  `You have silky skin, Miss Smith. Azure blue eyes, and an innocence about you that makes a man wonder. Perhaps I want you for myself, far away from the restrictions imposed upon you by your orphan years, and now by your taskmistress who looks as if she had never felt the love she writes about so avidly.'

  Janna gave a tiny shiver, not because she believed any more that he was a seducer of young girls, but because his mention of Mildred made her loom even larger as a cloud over the days to come, which promised no more evenings such as this one. Soft lights, strange music, delicious food and wine, and the excitement of being with a man who was treated like a prince, and who looked like one.

  `You're teasing me, of course,' she said, forcing herself to be sensible. I'd be foolish to believe that on a magic carpet you can whisk me off to the orient. If I believed you, I'd never be able to face another day as Mildred's typist.'

  `You think I talk like this to make a joke on you?' His eyes sparkled dangerously. 'I am not in the habit of playing cat games with a little mouse. Mouse you are, if you leave here without listening to my story. Mouse you will remain, if you return to that woman because you are afraid to take a chance with me.'

  I'm not afraid,' she rejoined. 'Only of being made a fool of. I could agree to go with you to El Amara and then wake up tomorrow to find you had left without me.'

  `You think I am insincere?' His voice sank down low and dangerous. 'Members of my family are not accustomed to having their honesty held in doubt. If you were not a girl '

  She made a little movement of retreat away from him, but her eyes were held by his, and he gripped her hand. She couldn't have run from him if he had put her hand to his lips and bitten it with his strong teeth.

  `Life has taught you to expect very little from people, eh?' He quirked an eyebrow and studied the slimness of her hand in his, its paleness compared to his own bronzed skin. 'Not the hand of a pampered young thing with little to do but make herself pretty, but with the emerald ring upon it, it will fool the Princess.'

  `What on earth are you talking about?' Janna thought she spoke aloud, but she really spoke in a shocked whisper. 'II have no emerald ring.'

  But you will have—if you agree to my proposal.' `Proposal?' she gasped.

  `Ah, I should have said proposition.' He smiled wickedly. `Your alarm is hardly flattering, Miss Smith. Do I look and behave like a roué?'

  `No—but you say such strange things, senor. Please, won't you tell me in plain words what you want of me?'

  `I want you to pretend to be a girl called Joyosa.'

  Janna stared at him, dumbfounded. Each thing he said seemed more outrageous and fantastic, and yet she couldn't protest. She saw from his face, from the glitter in his eyes, that he was now in deadly earnest. She was nailed on that dominant gaze, transfixed like a moth on a steel pin.

  `From the moment I saw you,' he went on, 'I was intrigued by your likeness to the girl I speak of—Joyosa. The other day you saw a man who was rather in despair about something, and then he saw you and all at once his problem

  was half solved. He saw a way to keep a woman happy.'

  Janna stared at him, and thought at once of the lovely Latin in the sari silk. 'Who is Joyosa?' she asked, in almost a whisper.

  The young half-sister of Rachael—whom you mistook for my wife. I must explain that my family is a feudal one. As a boy I had to learn not only to gallop across the sands of the desert, but to be a keeper of the fruit groves, and later on a man of business, and also a medic for my people if a doctor should not be available in case of an accident. I had to learn the ways of the world as well as those of the desert. I had to be masterful, and yet submissive to the rules that govern the male heir of a family in a ruling position.'

  He paused and the moment was filled with the sound of tiny frogs in the petals of the water lilies. Janna gazed at the strong face and the dark peak of hair that gave him a raffish look. He had been taught to snap his fingers and have women run to him, and he expected the same obedience of her, a young, unworldly typist.

  He quirked an eyebrow, as if he read her thoughts. Joyosa, when a small child, captured the fancy of my grandmother and was made her ward. She did not live at El Amara, but while a schoolgirl she came once or twice to visit Madrecita. Once at a village wedding her pony took fright at the noise and bolted. I galloped after Joyosa, caught hold of her pony's bridle and saved the girl from a nasty toss. Ever since the incident it has been assumed by everyone that I had captured myself a future bride in true desert style. Always the idea has intrigued the Princess, though she said nothing at the time. I have avoided an open discussion about the subject, but as soon as the girl had completed her education I was instructed to fetch her from her home with Rach
ael so that my grandmother could meet her again . . . and I think make a final decision about a marriage between us.'

  Again he paused, as if to let each word sink into Janna's mind. And each word as it sank seemed to have a little

  dagger edge to it. He didn't speak of loving the girl, or of being loved by her. 'Regardless of your feelings?' she gasped.

  `My grandmother is a Moorish princess, remember. Her own marriage was arranged for her and because it turned out happily she has decided to arrange mine.'

  But it's so unfair ! On you and the girl.' Janna looked at him with sympathetic eyes. 'Has Joyosa taken fright and run away?'

  `You could say so.' His eyes were sardonically amused. `Rachael has no idea where she is, though it was learned from two of her school friends that she had become friendly with a young man in her last term. We have made extensive enquiries in the hope of finding her, but they were unsuccessful. She has vanished with her young man, somewhere in Paris, I suspect, and I am left with the task of returning to my grandmother to explain that her ward has run away. That she obviously dislikes me, and the idea of living at El Amara.'

  `I'm sure you aren't afraid of your grandmother.' Janna smiled at the mere idea. 'Surely, in view of your own dislike of a forced marriage, you are relieved not to have to go through with it?'

  `There is a complication . . . in fact there are two.' `And that is why you need . . . my help?'

  He looked steadily at Janna, with eyes that smouldered in the lantern light. 'My grandmother is elderly and frail. She clings to her fading strength in the hope of seeing that all is well with me and the future of El Amara. Needless to say I love her very much, though she is an autocratic old lady bent on having her own way to the end. If she had to learn that Joyosa has run off to live with another man, she would be incredibly shocked and angry.'

  `You spoke of two complications, senor.'

  He studied Janna with searching eyes. 'You have never known a family of your own, so perhaps you can't imagine how it feels to want to protect those whom you have always

  known and loved. The Princess is frail in health but still active in mind, and extremely self-willed. She might, upon learning that Joyosa has taken wing, be angry enough with her family to cut off the generous allowance which Rachael and her two small sons depend upon.'

  He dropped the stub of his cigar into an ashtray. 'I hope with your help, Janna, to convince the Princess that a man's marriage is his personal affair. Will you assist me?'

  `I don't see how—'

  `I do see how it can be done. Joyosa was little more than a schoolgirl when she was last at El Amara. Girls change as they grow up, though they retain blue eyes if they have them, and a fair colouring. I plan to pass you off as Joyosa. I want to protect Rachael, and I want to keep the Princess happy.'

  A smile came into his eyes at the stunned way Janna looked at him. He shrugged slightly, as if he didn't expect her to understand family involvements—but she did. She guessed that the Princess was both generous and imperious and could snatch away her gifts if her will was crossed. Don Raul obviously adored her, but he knew what she was like and he was concerned for Rachael's welfare. The tears she had wept had not left him unmoved . . . they had led him to suggest a deception that would ensure her security!

  Was it possible he was in love with Rachael . . . a lovely young widow with two small sons by another man? A woman the Princess would oppose as a bride for her grandson. He was to take over at El Amara when she died, and so the children born of his marriage must be her direct descendants. Her pride as matriarch demanded this of him.

  Janna had been left out in the cold as far as family loyalties were concerned, but she had a heart, and she had compassion, and her imagination was vivid. She wasn't at a loss to understand the predicament in which Don Raul found himself . . . divided between his devotion to the Princess and his masculine response to the lovely widow.

  But I can't see how a deception would help.' The words

  broke from Janna 'Your grandmother wouldn't be deceived.'

  `Won't you take a chance?' He leaned suddenly closer, and Janna was startled by his nearness, by the dark strength of him, the purpose and the attraction. A shocking thought winged through her mind, and her body . . . what would it be like to be kissed by him

  `Don't look afraid,' he taunted. 'I'm not going to force you into anything . . . though there are ways to persuade a girl. I could appeal to your romantic heart; kidnap and carry you off like the sheik you glimpse in my eyes . . . the one which no doubt sent Joyosa running away when she heard that I was on the way to the Cote d'Azur to take her to the desert.'

  `Are you regretful about losing her, Don Raul?'

  `Hardly regretful! The idea of an arranged marriage appals me, and I knew all along that Joyosa was only a pretty picture without any real dimension to her. A rather shallow and selfish girl who had never suffered, or been anything but pampered. Whereas—'

  There he broke off, but in her mind Janna supplied the missing words. Rachael had suffered! She had lost her husband and been left to rear and educate her two sons. She was lovely, with the great lustrous eyes of a Madonna, said to be the ideal of Spanish men, and Don Raul was as much a Spaniard as he was a son of the sands.

  `You speak of Joyosa as a pretty girl.' A tiny wry smile clung to Janna's lips. 'I don't know how you mean to pass me off in her place.'

  `You are far too modest.' His eyes held a slightly wicked glint as they took in her slimness in the silvery dress, the blue gems in her ears, her pale neck and shoulders caressed by fingers of shadow. 'My plan sounds very wicked to you, I can see that, but all my grandmother is expecting is a fair and slender young thing. Joyosa's mother was English, which accounted for her fair colouring and her blue-grey eyes. Yes, eyes more shallow than yours, senorita, but it will

  be assumed that the colour deepened as Joyosa grew into womanhood. Come, I am not asking you to actually marry me. I merely want you to come to El Amara, to stay a while, and then be jilted by me when the Princess sees for herself that we are not a loving couple.'

  `But I couldn't possibly agree to such deception.' Janna looked at him with shocked eyes. 'I'd be too afraid, and I'd hate the idea of misleading your grandmother. You say it's for her sake, but I believe you're more concerned for Rachael. You are safeguarding her interests.'

  `Quite so,' he agreed. 'But I shall also be protecting my grandmother from knowledge that would have an adverse effect on her frail health. You don't know her ! How set in her ideas she is. How determined that the new mistress of El Amara shall be someone she has selected; whom she believes will make me an affectionate wife. Strange how easy it is to be taken in by a pair of large blue eyes. One is inclined to believe that only innocence and honesty shine in them and they hide no secrets.'

  `If I were only innocent, senor, I might be led into this deception. But I do happen to be honest as well, and I couldn't help you to fabricate a lie which I am sure the Princess would soon rip to pieces. She wouldn't be the head of a business if she wasn't shrewd, and wise.'

  `She used to be as sharp as a needle and amazingly active,' he said, a little sadly. 'I can remember her in the saddle of an Arab mare, riding around the groves on her inspection, and galloping at full tilt across the sands. But now she is frail. Her eyes look back upon memories, and her only dream of the future is to see me settled down as a family man—with Joyosa. But Joyosa ran away from me, and I never loved her.'

  `I still think it would be wise to be frank with your grandmother,' Janna said, and then she gave a gasp as Don Raul caught her by the shoulders and pulled her close to him. He gazed down directly into her eyes and there was nothing of pleading in his look, only command and enticement.

  `There are many things for you to enjoy at El Amara,' he said in a deep voice. 'You will be left to your leisure most of the time, and there will not be a Madam Noyes to demand your time and your attention. And there is one more thing —and it may have alarmed you more than all the rest—I
I shall not be an ardent suitor. We present for the Princess the picture of a couple cooling off.' His gaze fell to her mouth, so innocently curved and unkissed. 'Is it my kisses you fear? Are you afraid I shall make demands upon you? Foolish one ! I am not asking you to show me affection... I wish you to be cool towards me. To be the little ice-maiden. The Princess believes that a woman should be warm, responsive to a man's ardour, and when she sees the reverse in you, then she will not make a murmur of protest when I announce that I don't want to marry you.'

  `I couldn't . . . I'm sorry, Don Raul, but I'm no actress.'

  `It would not be acting,' he mocked, 'to play the ice-maiden with me. I feel you trembling now at my touch, and your eyes are tearful. You have only to be yourself and the Princess will realise that she has condemned me to an icicle.'

  `Please . . . don't try and persuade me !'

  `You will be well paid, Janna, and I shan't ask you to run errands and write my memoirs.'

  She gave a reluctant laugh. 'You are a devil, Don Raul. You are asking me to go against all my principles, to set aside honesty and become your partner in a lie. No, I couldn't do it for a thousand pounds !'

  `Think what two thousand could mean to you,' he coaxed. `Escape from Mildred Noyes, and the holiday of a lifetime.'

  But why me?' Janna almost pleaded. 'The Cote d'Azur is teeming with girls.'

  `You, child, because you resemble Joyosa. I noticed it from the moment I saw you. You have her slimness. The shape of your face is similar to hers, and the colour of your hair. You have a wondering way of looking at everything, just as she once had. I am sure she has now lost it, but you

  have it still and it will not be lost on my grandmother. It was such a look that beguiled her, led her to believe that Joyosa would grow up to make her devil of a grandson a refreshing and innocent bride.'

  The irony in his voice made Janna think of Rachael, whom the Princess would hardly consider innocent and unworldly. And so he had to find a way to convince her that a mere girl was not for him. That youthful chatter and dewy kisses would bore him. He had to prove this to her, and he needed someone naïve like Janna Smith; she would be ideal for his purpose.