Desert Doorway

by Pamela Kent

  driven her to see one afternoon, were things she would never forget. "And you are going to remain amongst us for perhaps a very long while?" "That depends on the amount of satisfaction I give to my employers, the Comte and Comtesse de St. Alais," she answered, and was aware that Max Daintry, although he, too, was engaged in conversation with his neighbor�who was not Celestine, at that moment looking rather bored because her nearest neighbor was a stout and very elderly Frenchman, riding his favorite hobbyhorse which was French politics�was still looking down the table towards her, and that he appeared to be observing her every movement with detached interest.

  "Then, in that case, it is almost certain you will remain," Si Mohammed declared, triumphantly. "Why?" she asked, looking at him smilinply� and if the smile was rather brilliant, and perhaps just a shade provocative, that was for the benefit of Max Daintry.

  "Why?" the young Moor echoed. "Because it is obvious that you could never be anything other than a success, and you are bound to give satisfaction!"

  Jenny declared that perhaps the smile had been a little too brilliant, and tried to change the subject by introducing as an alternative the various places of interest to be visited locally. "How much have you seen?" he asked. "The medina, of course, and the sugs��? But how much of what lies beyond?" "Why, nothing," Jenny had to admit. "But thenI've been here such a short while, haven't I?" "Then, in that case, I must show it all to you Madame la Comtesse will give me permission, and I will drive you wherever you wish to be driven." He sounded extremely enthusiastic, and instead of being completely dark his eyes all at once discovered an amber light in them which caressedher, and his features were so perfectly chiselled

  49

  and so absolutely faultless that, but for the factthat whenever she looked sideways at him he instantly seized the opportunity to look sideways at her, she would have enjoyed studying them in a leisurely fashion, just as she might have been tempted to study a piece of sculpture. "My father has a house m the High Atlas, and perhaps one day, if we can persuade the Comtesse to accompany you, you will pay him a visit?" Jenny managed to evade this question, and others similar to it and she was not at all sorrywhen the long-drawn-out meal ended, and the diners all dispersed and formed fresh groups. Si Mohammed would have clung detenninedly to her, but she managed to evade him by escaping to the hostess's bedroom, which was being used as a ladies' cloakroom, and having effected a few repairs to her make-up she wrapped the Comtesse's cloak around her and made up her mind, tohave a quick look at the garden in the light of the moon which had now risen.

  She was standing like a slim, white, petrified figure, utterly entranced by the magic of moonlight on mosaic paths and beds of flowers that filled the night with exciting and disturbing perfume, while around her rose silvered walls and motionless palms, and the distant gleaming white range of the Atlas mountains, when a voice spoke to her �and once again it was from behind!

  "Why do you always put yourself into the sort of position which makes it necessary for me to creep up on you?" Daintry asked, and she knewhe was smoking a Turkish cigarette, because the fragrance of it reached her above the fragranceof the flowers before ever she turned to look at

  him,

  He gave her a half mocking, half formal bow. "How enchanting you look tonight," he said. "'But no doubt Si Mohammed has already told you much the same thing? I noticed you were getting along very well at dinner."

  50

  Jenny ignored this observation, but she said quietly; "I thought you were annoyed with me this morning~ much too anoyed to speak to me''

  "Not at all," he assured her in a casual leisurely manner. I put to you a suggestion, and you preferred to think I had some sort of an ulterior motive, so we'll forget the whole thing, shall we?" He slipped two fingers beneath her elbow and propelled her forward along the path, and she found herself moving as if compelled at his side. "You dont get this sort of night in England, do you? At least, not if my memory serves me rightly, for its a good many years now since I visited my own homeland. Not that I have as much right

  to call it my homeland as you have, because my mother wag the daughter of a Roman surgeon, and that makes me half Italian, doesn't it? And as I choose to live in Morocco that makes me something of a mongrel�or, at least, I'm sure you thing so!"

  "I don't!" Jenny denied, almost too hastily. And then she added: "But it does' explain��" And then she broke off.

  "What?" he asked, as if he was interested. "Nothing," she said, rather feebly, because if

  she told him that the fact that he was not wholly English helped to explain that unusual swarthiness of his, and the kind of grey eyes she had never seen before in her life, he would probably be highly amused. "Which means you'd rather not tell me?'" "There's nothing to tell." He looked down at her with the smile in his eyes which told her that he was amused. He touched the collar of her cloak.

  Are you quite sure you're warm enough, or would you rather go back to the house?" No�no, I like it out here." "And if we keep moving you're hardly likely to catch a chill." He stopped for a moment beside a

  51

  white painted seat to offer her a cigarette, and after a moment's hesitation she selected one. "Virginia on the right, and Turkish on the left," he directed her. "Better not risk the Turkish, because they'd be too strong for a little girl like you." "I wish you wouldn't call me a little girl," she said impatiently "Why not?" he asked. "You're certainly not abig one, are you?"

  ' As she looked up at him, and he held his lighterto the tip of her cigarette, she thought that thesmile on his mouth was indulgent, but his eyeshad as much mockery in them as always. Apart from that he seemed to her to be immensely tall, and his shoulders were very well held, and withjust the right amount of breadth, under his white dinner-jacket. "Was the Comtesse annoyed with you becauseyou were late this morning?" he asked, as theymoved on.

  "Yes." She looked up at him quickly, in surprise. "And she was also annoyed because�because I met you!" "Dear me!" he murmured, but showed no surprise. "Then she'd hardly approve of our walking out here tonight, would she?"

  Jenny felt almost repelled by his words, andmoved a little away from him. He was too smooth, too casual, too indifferent, apparently, to anyone'sfeelings but his own�and they were of such a superficial order that he could probably controlthem at will! Or that was what she told herself. She looked sideways at him, with a touch of scorn. "Why did you really ask me to go home this morning? What is your real reason for wanting me to go?"

  "I haven't any reason," he replied composedly, "and I have no desire for you to go, either. So we won't discuss it any more, will we? We'll just forget it."

  "But you wanted me to go," she reminded him, "You were quite urgent about it."

  He shrugged his shoulders. His eyes, as he looked down at her, were suddenly veiled, and he turned her about so that they faced back to the house.

  "Nevertheless, we'll forget it. And instead I'dlike to hear the truth about how you and Celestine get on." "Oh, quite well."

  "I've known Celestine for years," he said. "She was a model in Paris when first we came across one another, but she's gone quite a way since then. She succeeded in marrying very well, and I'm sure you'll agree that the Comte is all a woman could desire in a husband?"

  She answered carefully; "I hardly know him, but he seems very nice�and kind!" "And in your opinion kindness is very important in a husband?" She looked at him suspiciously. "Do you really want to know my opinion?" "Oh, yes," he answered. "Because I feel sure that the man you marry will not only have to ooze kindness, but he'll also have to be someone very young and pure, straight out of a theological college. He'll never have kissed a woman in his life�not even on the top of the headi�and as for having kissed the head of a married woman��!"

  She knew that he was mocking her, and drew even farther away from him, so that he was forced to drop her arm, and fortunately the path was wide enough to permit a foot of space between them. He could feel her looking
at him with strengthened suspicion, and as he looked down ather and saw that her small face was touched by moonlight he smiled at her suddenly. "What a pretty child you are!" he exclaimed, and she felt the compliment was most inappropriate.

  53

  The distance between them and the house lessened. He remarked conversationally; "Wouldn't you like to know something about how, and why, I come to be mixed up with the St. Alais?" As she did not answer, he went on: "As a matter of fact, the Comte and I collect pictures together, and not only pictures but fine furniture, and books, and all sorts of objects d'art from all over the world. And then, of course, we sell them again sometimes, in order to make a profit. And as a side-line I do a little gun-running and dope-smuggling, and so forth�which is also profitable!" As he saw her eyes widen in horror he laughed dryly. "Well, you've already assigned me the role of a home-wrecker, haven't you? And there's no reasin why you should stop there! For all you know to the contrary, I may have all sorts of potentialities and possibilities�some of them unknown even to myself!" She felt herself flushing brilliantly in the moonight, but this time there was nothing soft in his eyes,' and they had no sympathy in them, either.

  "Do you generally make up your mind about people you meet before you have a chance to cheek on them?"

  Her color burned more deeply into her cheeks. "Well you must admit, it did look a little�a little odd," she defended herself. "You kissed me �a perfect stranger!�and you didn't even attempt to make sure I was not a stranger! And, even so-- "Even so, Celestine is a married woman, and you're very full of sympathy for the Comte, aren't you? Well, we'll leave that at that, shall we?" They were now almost back to the house, but she had a chance to study him more carefully before the moonlit garden was left behind. Certainly that noticeable jaw of his was not indi cative of weakness, and there was not much sign of it in the unrelenting line of his lips, either. And although his eyes derided, and were frequently inscrutable, they were capable of long, hard looks,

  54

  and were not the kind of eyes to look hurriedly away. In fact, she could not imagine him under any circumstances yielding ground of any sort toanother, and in a battle of wills his would be the stronger�at any rate, so far as she herself was concerned, for when he looked directly at her shehad to look away, and she was a little afraid ofthat strange compelling something which was a part of his personality. As, for instance, when hehad coolly taken her arm and led her away down the garden�although he had parted from her without even a curt "good-bye" only that morning!

  Just before they passed through the enclosed patio back into the brightly-lighted house he paused abruptly and asked;"What wag it you said about Celestine being annoyed because you met me this morning?" Jenny, too, paused, and looked up at him gravely, although her eyes watched him carefully while she answered.

  "She said you were so slight an acquaintance it was not correct for me to do anything more than merely acknowledge you if I met you outside the house. And that in future I am not to do any thing more than that."

  His black brows drew more closely together, and she thought that for an instant a hard expression flashed into his eyes. And then he looked down at her in that strange, inscrutable way hehad, and said almost curtly,

  "I wouldn't let that curb upon your own inclinations upset you, if I were you, although I've no doubt the Comtesse is thinking merely, of you, and the fact that she is in a sense responsible for you while you are a member off her household, But if she suggests that you see no more of Si Mohammed Menebhi I would follow her advice to the letter!"

  But, as it was the Comtesse herself who had made a deliberate point of introducing the extraordinarily handsome Moor to her new, young, and

  perhaps dangerously impressionable governess, Jenny did not feel, somehow, that any such prohibition would be laid upon her. "Don't worry about Celestine," Daintry remarked suddenly, looking down at her. "And as I am�or, as least, a part of me is�a fellow countryman of yours, there's no reason why I shouldn't show you the sights of Marrakesh if you'd care to be shown them by me. When are you due for another break from nursery duties?"

  "I don't know," Jenny admitted. "The Comtesse said she was going to go into the matter of my offduty times, and arrange various things that I could do�with her approval�when I was free."

  "I see," he said slowly. She thought for an instant, a spark of humour appeared in his eyes. "Then in that case I shall have to apply to her for permission to remove you from the safety of the St. Alais nest, won't I?"

  "And you'll do that?" she asked, with so much unmistakable surprise in her eyes that his old, mocking smile appeared on his lips.

  "Oh yes, I'll do that! I even entered a lion's cage once, when the trainer was absent, without being badly mauled! And I'm not really afraid of Celestine, you know!"

  She knew that his voice was mocking her, as well as his look, but the surprise remained strong within her. He was right when he said she had made up her mind about him�and it was not the simplest matter in the world to un-make it. Besides, there had been Celestine's behaviour at lunch time.

  "If Celestine gives permission, are you likely to withhold your own acceptance of an invitation from me to see some of the local sights in my company?" Dance music, soft and seductive, was stealing out to them from the open windows and doors of the house, and they could see couples swaying gracefully beneath the discreetly shaded lights. There were one or two smart French uniforms,

  56

  and some breathtakingly lovely frocks. And frombehind them the peculiarly pungent scent of the lily-tree, which flowers all over Morocco, reached them, and there was the plash of incessantlyfalling water into a marble basin. Jenny looked upwards at the huge stars that were wheeling above them in a violet sky, and at the astonishingly pure light of the moon�such moonlight she had never seen before, and it was making a wonder of Marrakesh, with its minarets and its palms and its rose-red walls. She felt for a moment that she was very, very far from home, and lowering her glance to the dark but completely strong face of the man who stood beside her she found herself answering with just the merest touch of hesitation in her voice�so that it sounded more like a catch of her breath;

  "No�no, I don't think so. . . ."

  He laughed suddenly, and very softly. And to her surprise he reached out and caught her hand, giving it such a hard, almost convulsive squeeze that she felt her fingers tingling as a result of itfor quite a long time afterwards.

  "Brave girl!" he exclaimed, and although there was undoubted mockery in his voice, it was verygentle mockery this time, and somehow she didn't mind. She didn't even mind that hard squeeze of her fingers, and as they went up the steps side by side and back into the over-heated crush of the house she didn't greatly care that Celestine saw them.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  SOMEWHAT to Jenny's surprise Celestine said nothing to her afterwards about her emergence from the garden with Max Daintry, and she was particularly pleasant on the drive home. She did say however�and this made Jenny feel, although she could not quite explain the sensation to her self or why she should even feel it, as if someone had ruffled her back hair up the wrong way� that Si Mohammed Menebhi had found her so

  charming that he had had to admit as much to Celestine herself. In fact, he was quite bowled over by Jenny, and as he was a very rich young man, and many young women found him attractive this was most decidedly a compliment which even Jenny�who no doubt prided herself on

  being English'�could regard as a feather in her

  The Menebhi family is a very old family, Celestine observed, as if she was determined to drive home to Jenny the significance of any member of it singling her out for approving comment, "And Si Mohammed is not merly good-looking, he is quite sensational!" Jenny said nothing, and the Comte, at the wheel, sent her a sudden sideways look which, although it was too dark for her to be able to read easily the expression in his eyes, provided her with the strong feeling that he was sending out to her waves of sympathe
tic understanding because he sensed that inside her she was shrinking with a kind of repugnance from his wife's line of confercation. "Apart from anything else, I hope you had a good evening?" he asked in his gentle voice, and recalling those moments in the garden, with the magic of moonlight all about her, and the heavy scent of flowers in the air, and Max Daintry looking at her out of those strange, smoky-grey eyes

  58

  of his, she was able to answer honestly that she had. For now there was something like a truce between her and Daintry, and she could not forget that in a moment of feeling lost and far from home the grip of his fingers had been curiously comforting.

  When they reached home the Comte invited Jenny to join them for a drink in the big main salon, and as Celestine appeared to be in a very amiable mood the girl felt it was safe to accept. She found herself wondering why the Comtesse's mood was so unusually mellow, for not once during the evening had Jenny observed her have any conversation alone with Max�although, of course, it was possible that they had managed to contrive this while she was not looking�and when Jenny and Max had reappeared from the garden and Celestine had met them there had, for an instant, been a very hard look in her eyes.

  But now she appeared secretly very 'Well satisfied about something, and lay back in a very' elegant attitude on a satin-covered Empire couch, and studied Jenny almost complacently. The Comte brought them both drinks, looking very slender and distinguished in his evening things, and Jenny was impressed as always by the beauty of the room in which they sat. It contained so much that was costly and rare�so many examples of priceless furniture, pictures and ornaments. The rugs were rich and rare, the lights shone softly across them so that none of the beauty was missed. And flowers were massed in great bowls of beaten copper and silver, and there was even one richly chased golden bowl which held some of the lilies that smelled as if they were drenched with exotic incense.