by Mel Teshco
She looked at her watch. "Thank you so much but I can't today. I have to get home to my granny. Her short term memory's not great and her carer will need to leave."
"She's also vision impaired."
Lilly tilted her head and stared at him with appreciation. "You've got a good memory."
He liked this girl. Really enjoyed her intelligence and her sense of family responsibility. "Like an elephant, I'm told. I'm sorry I've kept you late. Let me drive you home."
"That's very thoughtful of you but I can jog from here. I haven't been to the gym today." She went to shake his hand.
Jamal put his arm around her instead, ushering her to the door, savoring the feeling of her body. "I insist. It's starting to rain and you are not suitably dressed to exercise."
Lilly laughed. "I won't break, James. People make the mistake of thinking I'm delicate because I'm petite. I have excellent health. I rock climb on my weekends or go horse riding in Richmond Park."
"You sound very active. You must come from strong stock." There was so much he wanted to show her, to do with her. His Grand Vizier was right. This girl would suit him. For the first time in years, a feeling of anticipation came over him. The sooner he got her to the fort, the better.
"Originally from somewhere in the Middle East on my father's side, though who knows where seeing as Granny insists she's British, and my mother is English. Not even my parents, who passed away in a car accident, knew anything about Granny's heritage. She wiped her whole background once she met grandpa. Said if her people found out where she'd gone they'd assassinate her."
"Sounds savage. Where do you think she was from?" He opened his front door and unlocked his Mercedes, which he had parked in front of the portico. In spite of himself, he wanted to meet Lilliantha Jones, the one who had become a legend in his country. No woman had ever dressed in Arab battle gear and led a charge to defeat invaders twice the size of her army. His young Lilly Jones would grow good strong sons for him with such warrior stock in her blood. And he did think of her as his.
"That's just it. She wouldn't say. It's a complete mystery to me."
Ten minutes later they arrived in front of her townhouse. Jamal opened his car door, grabbed his umbrella from the console and exited, coming around to Lilly's side to open it for her. "I'll see you to your front door."
"No need to go to so much trouble."
"I insist." This hard working young woman intrigued him and he wanted to know everything about her. He held the umbrella over her and they climbed the front stairs. He waited while Lilly took out her key and inserted it in the lock. Her granny, followed by her carer, came down the hallway the moment she opened the door. Although her granny was frail and her black hair had turned grey, she was still an arresting woman.
"Who is this, Lilly?" her granny asked, peering through misty eyes at James.
Lilly took some money out of her purse, paid the carer and said goodbye. "Granny, this is my newest client, Mr. James Amin. He kindly gave me a lift home so I didn't get wet."
"A pleasure to meet you," James said.
"Mr. Amin," Granny repeated.
Jamal bent forward, took the old woman's hand and shook it, but she stepped up close and touched his face, her hands moving over his cheekbones, nose and mouth.
"Granny, don't do that. You can't touch a client. I'm so sorry James." She took her grandmother's arm and tried to gently pull her from him.
"Leave me be, you foolish girl. You must know who you invite into your home. A scorpion is always a scorpion."
Jamal stepped back. So the old woman was still a virago. He checked her eyes but there was barely any brown iris remaining. She had a thin face with a large aristocratic nose over a tight determined mouth. A fighter.
"I'm so sorry, James. Please forgive my grandmother her manners. She gets confused, especially now most of her sight is gone."
"Come. It is not good for your grandmother to catch cold. Let me help you take her back into the house."
Relief melted the stiffness out of Lilly's frame. "You're so kind. I don't know how to thank you."
Jamal stepped into the hallway, shut the door behind him and helped Lilly bring her grandmother down the hall into the lounge room and settle her on a comfortable chair.
"You shouldn't be helping me look after my grandmother. It's beyond the call of duty."
"It's a pleasure to help and get to know you. We're going to be spending a lot of time together in the future." She would repay him soon.
"I'll work all night tonight, once I've put granny to bed, to get some color boards done for you."
"Lilly, you won't do your best work if you are tired. It's wonderful to see how much you care for your grandmother. So many people put their grandparents and parents in homes now."
"That's because everyone works long hours." Lilly put a rug over her grandmother's knees. "Granny, I'll just show Mr. Amin out, then I'll get you your dinner."
"Amin," her grandmother repeated, her sightless eyes widening. "That name brings the desert winds of change." She clutched her throat and began to cough.
"Oh dear, hold tight Granny, I'll get your medicine and a glass of water." Lilly rushed towards what James supposed must be the kitchen. He could hear her clattering about.
The moment Lilly left the room, Granny stopped coughing. "I know you are one of ours. I could feel your bones under my hands. Whatever you call yourself, you are not English but a scorpion of the desert."
"It is a pleasure to meet you too, Lilliantha Jones, a fellow scorpion," Jamal said softly, marveling in the intensity of this frail, elderly woman.
"Who are you? Why are you here? Did my father send you?" She gripped his hand, her own gnarly and hard with determination.
The torch of war still burned in her soul. "Your father has long turned to dust, along with your brothers but you are a survivor and your line lives through Lilly."
"Have you come to kill her to punish me for my disobedience? All my life I waited for an assassin. The bullet. The arrow. The sabre. The chiefs blamed me for the massacre. Why did they not organize the Qutum army earlier? The fools."
Her words jolted him. "There will be no assassination. I have come to reward the young Lilly Jones."
"And what reward would a scorpion give my granddaughter? The same that I was promised after risking my life? Marriage to a cruel enemy sheikh? Pah!" Granny spat.
Jamal pulled his hand from hers.
At that point, Lilly raced in with a small medicine cup and water. "Here you are Granny." She guided her grandmother so she could drink her medicine and water.
Lilly's grandmother pushed the glass aside and turned to Jamal. "Lilly is all I have. Answer me, scorpion."
"Grandma, stop speaking to James like that. He's my client," Lilly remonstrated. "I'm so sorry, James. This is very embarrassing. Granny doesn't like people from the Middle East even though she's from there. Even when I was a child she was convinced someone from there would snatch me."
"I have good reason. While my brothers quaked in fear, I fought at the head of my tribe to rid us of the tyrant Zimbian Sheikh. And what reward did I get?"
Lilly moved close to James, so close that he could smell her perfume and whispered, "She never talks about her past."
"That's okay." He patted Lilly on the shoulder. It was an intimate gesture and he wanted to put his arm around her and hold her close but he couldn't risk it. Not when she thought he was engaged.
She looked up into his face, her gaze soft and trusting. "Do you mind?"
"Not at all."
Lilly stooped and took her granny's hand. "What happened Granny?"
"We should have followed the invaders into Zimbia and slaughtered the lot. Cut off their heads." Granny made a chopping motion with her hand.
Lilly grimaced in shock. "That's frightening Granny. I can't imagine you doing something like that."
Jamal could. He knew the fierce tribe she came from was trained for war from the time they were children, whic
h was why it was important to keep them onside and defending their border, so the Zimbian insurgents couldn't cross over in to Qutum.
"My life was very different from yours child. My father wanted to stop the war. He cowered like a dog in the hospital in the city while we stayed and fought the invaders. He was weak." Granny spat out the words. "He drew up papers and offered me in marriage to our enemy."
"That's terrible. How unfair," Lilly said, stroking her hand, gently calming her grandmother. "Especially when you'd been so brave. Luckily you married Grandpa and came here instead." She smiled at Jamal.
In spite of himself, he grinned back realizing he paid for a very sweet wife who would probably make a good and tender mother. He would enjoy training her to serve him. "You're a very kind person, Lilly."
"So are you, James. Most of my wealthy clients would have high-tailed it out of here by now."
He held her gaze and something passed between them that was more than mutual admiration. The thought that he would be bedding her soon thrilled him. "I never run from a challenge. It goes against the grain of who I am." She clearly thought Granny's tale was a mixture of truth and made-up memories.
But he knew differently.
Lilliantha Jones had not done her duty. Loyalty was everything in Qutum. Soon it would be time for the younger Lilly Jones to pay the price to keep Qutum strong.
Chapter Four
One month later.
When Lilly Jones stepped off the plane in Qutum she was delighted to see James, dressed in traditional Arab headgear and robes waiting to greet her. The man was so sexy in his robes, he could have passed for a movie star from an old-fashioned film.
"Welcome, Lilly Jones." He bowed to her instead of taking her hand in the English way and shaking it. Ever the gentleman, he took her wheelie bag from her.
Lilly bowed back. "Those robes suit you, James. It's like you transition between the two cultures in a blink of an eye." She looked around, noticing several security men surrounding James, wearing camouflage gear and carrying machine guns. When she turned in their direction they all bowed to her.
"Why are they bowing?" A ripple of alarm rose up her spine. After James had left, Granny had insisted that she not do any more business with Arabs. They never forgot a slight. Although she refused to elaborate what had happened in the past, she insisted they would assassinate them both because she was distantly related to the royal family. It was ludicrous, so she told Granny she was going on vacation for a month and had organized carers for her. It had been impossible to convince Granny that James was a civilized Englishman.
"My family have been important in Qutum for many years so the security are showing you respect. Do not bow back to them."
James seemed different in Qutum. More commanding, tense and foreboding. Yet he was impressive too, taller than most men with his body perfect in every dimension. "I googled you before I came but I couldn't find a James Amin and there were pages of Jamal Amins."
His eyes widened, his gaze wary. "It is a very common name here like Smith or Bruce in England however if your name is Amin, it means you are from the original tribe in Qutum and come from the ruling class."
"Yes I saw the sheikh is Rafir El-Amin. The peaceful king. It said on the Net. There's not been a war during his reign."
James bent close, so that she breathed in his musky scent, which made her legs wobble with need. "Our revered sheikh has just passed away but we do not update official information until the mourning period has passed out of respect for his family. Besides, when a leader passes, that is the time the insurgents strike and we have to be prepared. Our sheikh Rafir, was a great leader and very popular."
"So are you related to him?"
"Of course. The Amin tribe has thirty thousand members all claiming relationship to the king. We have been in this country since the eleventh century."
Lilly laughed, glad to be in his company again. "It must be an enormous clan then."
"It is. Come. We'll leave for the fort now." He led her to his Mercedes Sports, placed her bag in the back of his vehicle and then opened the front car door for her.
Lilly sat in the front seat and as they took off, she noticed an enormous billboard portrait of the recently deceased sheikh. She looked from the stern, foreboding face over to James. "You look rather like the sheikh, except younger and slimmer."
"And handsome," James quipped.
"That too but don't tell your fiancée I said that. I don't want to cause trouble." Stop flirting Lilly.
James' jaw tightened and his fingers gripped the steering wheel at the mention of the word fiancée. Lilly hoped she hadn't spoken out of turn. A black motorbike with the Qutum flag flying from a post mounted on its back moved in place in front of them. The traffic before them crossed into other lanes so that James's drive was unimpeded. She turned and saw that there were several white official-looking cars, complete with emblems on the bonnet and flying the Qutum flag following James. A ripple of fear rose up her spine. When she'd been commissioned to do up the Mahaba island fort last year, she'd had a driver and an escort for safety reasons but she'd read that Qutum was supposed to be peaceful. At least that was what it said on the Net.
"What is it that you do here, James?"
"Qutum has many oil wells, some of them offshore. When we leave the city and enter the desert, you will see vast tracks of land complete with oil wells."
"Yes, but what do you do? I don't know why but with your accent and house at Kensington, I thought you were English though I can't recall you actually telling me that." Granny's face along with all her strange and extravagant accusations of revenge and assassination swam in front of her, the latest being that Granny was distantly related to the Qutum royal family. Unease made her throat dry and she wished she'd thought to bring a bottle of water.
"I run the oil business here. Qutum exports 150 billion dollars worth per year."
"Oh." Lilly sat back in her seat. "I had no idea. You're well hidden on Google. Seems you're very important. You must have very good connections with the royal family." No wonder he had so much security. She knew enough about Arab culture to understand that only favorites or those close to the top got the big contracts.
James glanced at her, amusement making his eyes crinkle. "Unlike the hounds of Fleet Street, the press is respectful in Qutum. I keep my presence on the Net to a minimum to avoid trouble. Unfortunately we still have some issues with kidnapping. It is always wise to have good protection."
"Well I'm sure I'll be safe with you."
***
Jamal's security men opened the massive fort gates when they arrived two hours later, so he could drive through and park in the forecourt. One of his security men opened Lilly's door and she stepped out, smoothing down her long black coat and holding on to her ankle-length skirt to stop it billowing in the breeze. A charcoal-colored scarf covered her hair. She'd styled it in a French roll so that it couldn't blow around her face and wore dark nineteen fifties-style sunglasses. She looked very Grace Kelly, sophisticated yet demure, a fitting queen for Qutum. His security man stepped back and bowed before removing her case from the trunk. It would be only a matter of time before she guessed why she was really here. He hoped if she planned to fight him over her new role, it would be in the bedroom.
He would enjoy it then.
"What an amazing medieval structure," Lilly said, staring up at the crenellated walls. "It's literally hewn from the mountains. It's so old, it's almost overwhelming."
"This building started in the tenth century with the crusaders."
"It has so many influences. I was thinking that when I was looking at the drawings but it seems so much bigger."
"Yes. The part we will be staying in was renovated in my father's time but the lower fort is in ruins as you know. I sent you those drawings."
"Well if you have an unlimited budget you could renovate in the old style but have it comfortable and modern inside."
"We are of one mind, Lilly. I think you will e
njoy this experience." Just as much as he would.
She pointed to a carving over the grand entry doors. "What does that say?"
"Qal'at Saladin Amin. Castle Saladin El-Amin," he translated for her. "Saladan led our tribe to this land in the eleventh century."
Lilly ran forward, ran her fingers over the stones and turned to him her face delighted. "I can't believe I was lucky enough to get this project. Everyone went through here, Byzantine emperors, Crusaders, your rulers. "
Jamal enjoyed her enthusiasm, imagining what it would be like to have her writhing under him. "Come inside and have some refreshment. I do not want your perfect white skin to be tarnished by the Arab sun."
Lilly laughed. "I'm not fragile James. I'm glad to get into the sun after the atrocious weather in London."
"In that case, I hope you'll enjoy it here."
She strode side by side with him in to the entrance where a row of his fort staff lined up wearing uniforms with a large gold crest on their robes. One of the security men said something in Arabic and all the staff straightened up and looked straight ahead. Jamal stopped and faced them. The staff prostrated themselves in front of them, their foreheads touching the ground.
Lilly gasped.
Jamal spoke in Arabic to his servants. "Stand to attention." He waited until they did so. "Thank you for welcoming my princess, Sheikha Lilly El-Amin. When the period of mourning for my father, the great Sheikh Rafir El-Amin is over, my princess will be crowned as your queen. You may not be aware that she is a descendant of the hilltribe sheikh, Abdul El-Amin and granddaughter of the famous Lilliantha El-Amin. She does not speak our language nor know our ways. Under no condition is she to leave the fort without my permission."
The staff bowed again.
Lilly frowned, staring from the servants to him then up to the large portrait of his father that hung in an ornate gold frame with its enormous gold crest, the same one that was imprinted in to all the servant's robes. Finally she spoke. "What did you say? I heard you mention my name."