Escape from the Harem

by Mary Lyons

  ‘No.’ Leonie said firmly, walking across the room to sit down in an easy chair. ‘Why should I have to listen to your puerile excuses? I’m not in the slightest bit interested in your relationship with your other so-called wife, whom I will always regard as nothing more than your mistress. Frankly, I have far more important things on my mind than trying to keep up with your sex-life!’

  ‘You stupid girl!’ he shouted, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.

  ‘You are so right! Stupid is exactly what I was, but I’ve now decided to get smart. So--you, my dear Badyr,’ she added caustically, through teeth which chattered loudly in her head, ‘had better just shut up--and listen to me for once.’

  ‘I will not divorce you. I will not let you go back to England--and that is my final word,’ he retorted in a hard, flat voice.

  ‘I’ve already realised that,’ she informed him bleakly, noting a look of uncertainty flit across his face. Taking a deep breath, and trying to control her nervously shaking body, she began to lay down her terms. ‘We have been married--if you can call it a marriage!--for six years. We have a little daughter and now I am expecting another child. My mother had always said that Jade needed a father, and the same must apply to the new baby. I am, therefore, prepared to stay with you, to act as your wife and to submit to your possession as best I can,’ she shuddered.

  ‘However, you have admitted that you have used me shamefully--as indeed you have! And it is only right that you should make some effort to repair the damage you have caused myself and my daughter. I must insist that you immediately divorce your second wife, Aisha. I’ve nothing against the woman--if anything I feel damn sorry for anyone involved with you--but my children need the sole attention of their father. To put it bluntly: I’m not prepared to have Jade’s view of life corrupted by the sight of her father’s flagrant immorality!’ She paused. ‘Have I made myself quite clear?’ she demanded harshly.

  ‘Yes, Leonie. Very clear,’ Badyr retorted bitterly, before turning to look out of the window, his tall figure silhouetted against the dying sun. It was a long time before he gave a deep, heavy sigh and slowly turned back to face her once again.

  ‘You are a fool if you do not realise that I would do anything I possibly could to please you,’ he said softly. ‘But in this case. . .’ He wearily shook his head. ‘I cannot . . . I cannot do what you ask, my darling. It would be too unkind, too cruel for my Aisha to bear.’

  ‘Your Aisha? To hell with your Aisha! What about our daughter, and the new baby'?’ She took a deep breath. ‘I don’t care about myself, Badyr, I really don’t,’ she assured him earnestly. ‘But what sort of life is it going to be for my children? Surely they deserve more than half a father’s love. Do you really want them to grow up in the sort of life and atmosphere that you did'? How can you have so quickly forgotten that terrible old palace?’

  ‘I cannot do it, Leonie! You may be right in what you say, but I cannot do it, my darling. If you’d just let me explain . . .’

  ‘Okay--that’s it!’ she snapped grimly. ‘I had to try and rescue something from the shambles of our marriage--if only for Jade and the baby’s sake--although God knows, the thought of having to live another day with you makes me feel sick! However, it now seems that I have no choice but to give you my final ultimatum.'

  ‘What on earth are you talking about, Leonie? If you’d just . . .’

  ‘I’m just going to tell you how it will be from now on,’ she said, her voice low and deadly. “There is, you will agree, a fifty-fifty chance that the baby I’m expecting is the son you want so much?’

  ‘Yes, of course, but . . .’

  ‘Right, let’s see how badly you want that child, Badyr. You are going to leave this palace tonight--together with the rest of your family--leaving me, Jade, Miss Jackson, Hussa and sufficient servants to make sure we are all comfortable.’

  ‘No!’ he retorted furiously.

  ‘Oh yes--this is where I am going to live--without you, I’m happy to say! I am quite prepared to send Jade to see you once a month, but you will never—never—so much as set foot in this palace, ever again.’

  ‘And what makes you think that I will agree to such a preposterous idea?’ he demanded angrily.

  ‘Are you a betting man? How do the odds of two-to-one attract you? If you leave me here, I will give you your son--maybe. However, if you make me live with you, forcing your revolting attentions upon me, I will deliberately abort the baby I’m expecting and any others that I might conceive.'

  ‘I don’t believe you!’ he snarled, his face as white as chalk. ‘It would be a sin to do such a thing.’

  Leonie shrugged as carelessly as she could. She had to try and make Badyr too angry to think clearly, and to be as convincing as possible if she hoped to get away with her bluff.

  ‘What is sin'? As far as I’m concerned it would be a far worse crime to bring a new baby into our present lives. To have our son grow up realising that his father is a bigamist!’

  ‘Don’t you dare use that word!’ he bellowed with rage.

  ‘The facts speak for themselves,’ she snapped. ‘However, let’s keep to the point. Unless you are prepared to lock me up in one of your father’s dungeons, I can assure you that I will terminate this pregnancy. And there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it!’ She saw that he was hesitating, and quickly pressed home her advantage before she lost her nerve in saying the terrible words.

  ‘Of course, you might be like your dreadful old father--maybe you’d get a REAL thrill out of having me chained to a dank prison wall for the next eight months? It would make the time dear old Sultan Raschid had you confined here, in this palace, seem like a picnic--wouldn’t it?’ she murmured, encouraged by his hard, bleak expression to go for the coup de grace. ‘Ah well, you had better unlock the door and call the guards in to arrest me.’

  ‘My God, you’re a clever woman--just like my mother!’ he whispered with cold rage. ‘That is a very dramatic performance you have just given--you know damn well that any question of prison is ridiculous! What is more, I don’t believe for one moment that you would harm our unborn child, but you know I cannot take the risk that you might do so.'

  He swore violently under his breath as he paced up and down before the windows, clearly trying to find a way out of Leonie’s ultimatum. ‘Very well, Leonie,’ Badyr said at last, his voice cold as ice as he turned to face her. ‘You win—it shall be as you say.’

  Despite her total misery and her loathing of the man who had so destroyed her life, she felt a sudden pang as she looked at his bowed shoulders and the lines of strain on his face as he went over to open the door.

  ‘Oh Badyr,’ she sighed wearily. ‘Can’t you see? Can’t you understand—that once you deserted me and married another woman, you set in train this . . . this ghastly, unhappy mess in which we find ourselves? You talk about winning,' she gave another deep, heavy sigh, ‘there are no winners in this affair--only losers, I’m afraid.’

  He turned, pausing to look at her for some moments, his face a blank mask, ‘I am not a loser, Leonie. And you would do well to remember that fact in the future!’

  His cold, harsh warning seemed to permeate the still air of the room long after he had slammed the door behind him.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  HUSSA showed the doctor out of the bedroom, leaving Leonie to dress herself in privacy. Checking her make-up in the mirror, she grimaced at the reiiection of her heavy figure before walking slowly and carefully down the stairs to the main room of the palace.

  ‘Would you like a cool drink before you go?’ she asked Dr Winslow, the brilliant young American gynaecologist at the new hospital in Muria, who had been assigned by Badyr to monitor her pregnancy.

  ‘I’d love one,’ he grinned. ‘I never need any excuse to delay leaving this lovely part of the country. It sure is a great place!’

  ‘Yes, I’m very happy here, it’s so peaceful and quiet,’ she said, ringing for a servant and ordering som
e fresh lime juice.

  ‘Well, I guess you’d better make the most of it. I reckon this is likely to be my last visit before the monsoon sets in, and I gather that there is no way you are going to be able to stay down here in the south when that happens. Besides,’ he added, ‘you’re seven months pregnant now and I’ll need to give you more than the monthly check we’ve been having so far.’

  ‘Oh, no!’ Leonie checked her outburst as the servant returned with the cool drinks. ‘I’m really very well, and what is a little rain to someone who is used to English weather?’ She gave him a soft, cajoling smile. ‘Couldn’t you persuade my husband to let me stay down here for another month, at least?’

  He looked at the lovely girl and regretfully shook his head. ‘I sure am sorry,’ he said, ‘and I truly understand why you don’t want to leave. But I just can’t do it. I had enough trouble persuading your husband not to haul you back to Muria last month—he’ll never go for again, I’m afraid.’

  'But I’m perfectly fit and well.’

  ‘Hmm. Yes, in general I’d agree. But your blood pressure is up a little, and with under two months to go.’ He paused and shook his head. ‘If it wasn’t for the monsoon, I might possibly have been able to swing it--to allow you to stay here for a while. However, what with the bad weather coming soon and the need for more frequent medical checks, I’d have to agree with the Sultan. I’m sorry, but. . .’ He shrugged his shoulders.

  Gazing at the beautiful girl’s unhappy expression, he wished that he didn’t have to be the bearer of what she clearly regarded as bad news. There was obviously trouble between the Sultan and his wife, and it was a shame to see two people tearing each other apart; although after a shaky start to her pregnancy it now looked as if the wife was in better shape than the husband. Still, the Sultan had his own doctors, and it was up to them to tell him to take it easy. He could only be glad that it wasn’t his job to try and talk some sense into that austere, taciturn figure. Sultan Badyr, once such a likable and approachable guy, had lately become so hard, tough and bad-tempered, that it would take a brave man to tell him that if he didn’t slow down on his work-load, sooner or later he was going to be seriously ill.

  Leonie sighed. ‘Well, as you said, I’ll just have to make the most of the time I’ve got left,’ she murmured, realising that it was unfair on the doctor to protest any more. By getting the last two months’ extension he’d already done as much as he could for her, and to push him any further was unreasonable.

  Walking slowly through the garden, Leonie sank down on to a bench beneath a wide, shady palm-tree. It was almost six months since she had been left alone in this palace, desperately unhappy and heart-stricken at the discovery of Badyr’s second wife. As the weeks had passed slowly by, the peace and calm of the quiet life had provided some measure of balm for her troubled spirits, but nothing it seemed could banish her love for Badyr, or the wretched misery at the choice he had made.

  She hadn’t--she didn’t--wanted to know anything about his other wife, Aisha. But that didn’t stop the evil, insidious jealousy from winding its slimy green tentacles around her heart. Night after night she hadn’t been able to stop torturing herself with the thought of Badyr making love to another woman--a woman that he had refused to relinquish, and who therefore meant far more to him than Leonie had ever done.

  Those first few months, living day and night with the haunting vision of Badyr’s long, tanned body lying closely entwined with another woman, his erotic lovemaking arousing and inflaming another woman’s passion, had led to a serious decline in her health. Growing daily more thin and strained, her face gaunt and pale with dark shadows beneath her dull blue eyes, she had only been jerked from the dark depths of her misery and depression by Dr Winslow’s hard words.

  ‘Look here,’ he had said. ‘The Sultan has made me entirely responsible for your health during this pregnancy. The baby is fine at the moment, but I can’t say the same goes for you! After my last trip, I had to tell your husband that I wasn’t happy about you--it would have been worth more than my life not to—and he hit the roof!' He looked at the haggardly beautiful girl with compassion.

  ‘So, okay, I’m not blind and anyone can see you’ve got problems, but you’ve got to try and pull yourself together. I’ll do what I can for you, but you’re going to have to co-operate and make a big effort. Otherwise, I can promise you that the Sultan will override anything I say, and insist that you go back to Muria. You may be able to stop him doing that, but I sure as hell can’t!’

  The threat that she might be forced to return to Badyr had been enough to help pull her at least halfway out of her depressed state, and the slow march of time had done the rest. She was still bitterly unhappy, but she had made a determined effort to banish from her mind the sensual images of Badyr’s lean, hard figure, and to control the overwhelming sexual jealousy, which had been so tormenting her days and nights. She wasn’t always successful, of course, but very gradually she had begun to put on some more weight, the colour coming back to her cheeks and the life to her sapphire-blue eyes.

  ‘Attagirl!’ Dr Winslow had said on his next monthly visit, looking at her glowing beauty with appreciative eyes. ‘Just keep on the way you’re going, and you’ll be fine.'

  A shout in the distance interrupted her thoughts, and she looked up to see Jade racing over the grass towards her.

  ‘I caught a fish--I did, really!’ Jade danced with excitement. ‘But Miss Jackson said it was only a baby fish, and so I had to put it back.’

  ‘You’ll be able to catch it again next year, and it will be much bigger then, just like you!’ Elizabeth laughed as she joined them, carrying the fishing rod which was Jade’s latest present from her great-uncle Feisal.

  ‘Can we go fishing tomorrow?’ Jade demanded. ‘Maybe Mummy can come too--oh, please do say that you will, Mummy?’ she added, giving Leonie a hug and laughing as she felt the baby moving in her mother’s womb. ‘I bet the baby would like to go fishing. I do wish it would hurry up and arrive, ‘cos I want to show it my collection of shells.’

  ‘Well, you’ll have to wait just a little bit longer,’ Leonie said as she stood up, and taking Jade’s hand began to walk slowly back to the palace. ‘Although I think it might be some time before the new baby will be able to appreciate your collection, I’m afraid!’

  ‘Did the doctor give you a clean bill of health?’ Elizabeth asked as they stopped to allow Jade to pick some flowers.

  ‘Yes, I’m fine. But it looks as if we’ll have to leave here fairly soon. Apparently the monsoon is due to hit this area of the country very shortly, and when that happens, we must return to Muria.’

  ‘Never mind. It’s been an idyll--as far as I’m concerned, anyway. And although you may not want to return, you’re going to be so busy getting all the necessary bits and pieces ready for the baby, that you really won’t have time to think of much else.’

  Leonie smiled gratefully at Elizabeth. Looking back, it seemed incredible that she had once been annoyed with Badyr for engaging the governess. Elizabeth had been such a quiet tower of strength during these last months, that she didn’t know what she would have done without her.

  Not that Leonie had confided in the other girl, of course. But she imagined that Elizabeth must have a very good idea of exactly why the Sultan and his wife were so estranged. The governess had been here with Jade at the Summer Palace when the whole terrible business--Nadia’s revelation about Badyr’s second wife-had blown up in Leonie’s face, and there couldn’t have been many there who didn’t know the reason why Badyr had so suddenly ordered everyone out of the place. Any remaining doubts would have been removed by the subsequent, monumental row between Nadia and Badyr.

  Leonie had resolutely refused to leave her bedroom but even from there she could hear Badyr’s thunderous roars of anger as he vented his rage over the head of the hapless girl. When Sara had come in to kiss Leonie farewell, she had been shivering and shaking from the scene downstairs.

  ‘l
warned her,’ Sara had muttered through teeth that were still chattering with nervous tension. ‘But, wallahi!, I did not realise just how bad it would be. My brother is as one demented! Oh, Leonie, I am so desperately sorry and unhappy for you.’

  ‘Don’t let’s talk about it, please,’ Leonie had whispered, very near to breaking down again. ‘I--I can’t face any more discussion of the subject, I really can’t.’

  ‘But, surely Badyr explained . . .’

  ‘Oh, yes, he explained all right!’ she had grated, before the events of the day proved too much for her and she ran into the bathroom to be violently sick. Sara hadn’t wanted to leave her at that point, but Leonie had insisted. Sweet though the girl was, she simply didn’t feel she could take any more of Badyr’s family. She hadn’t of course set eyes on Sara since, and as to what had happened to Nadia, she had no idea.