It was ridiculous how comfortable she felt around him. He was so easy to talk to, warm and funny. Not at all snooty or imposing. “I guess now I’m ready for anything.”
“I know what I’m ready for.” He looked wistfully at the bed. “But duty calls. You’ve just helped me decide that we need to get out there and talk to the people. Not talk down to them with proclamations of legalese, like we did this morning, but to speak to them man to man—”
“And woman,” she scolded gently.
“And woman.” He smiled. “So that they can join with us and be our partners, not our opponents.”
“Sounds like a plan. I want to be there.”
He frowned. “I don’t think it’s safe.”
“How about if I wear a disguise so no one knows who I am? Sam said she does that from time to time when she wants to blend in. She said she wears the traditional costume with a full-face veil like some of the older women do.”
“I don’t know. I’d be worried about you.”
“I’ll be worried about you. And I’d be a lot more worried if I couldn’t be there.”
His eyes narrowed, but she could see them sparkling with amusement. “Are you serious?”
“Absolutely.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“No one would guess we’re Americans.” Ronnie looked at Sam, who’d outlined her eyes with smoky liner and covered her face with a veil.
“I’m not even sure I am a real American any more.” Sam arranged her headscarf. “I still have my citizenship, since the U.S. allows you to hold both, but Ubar feels more like home every day.”
“You don’t miss home?”
“Sure I do. I miss silly things like breakfast cereals and television shows. But it’s not like I couldn’t get those things here if I really want them. I just order them over the Internet.”
Ronnie smiled “I suppose you’re right. That’s how I buy nearly everything even back in D.C. How are we going to travel there? Won’t it look obvious when we show up in one of the shiny black sedans with the royal license plates?”
Sam smiled mysteriously. “I have a car I keep for occasions such as this.”
Within minutes they were sitting in the back of an elderly green Volvo with a loud engine. Sam had pointed out that they were more likely to fly under the radar with a male driver, especially since they were masquerading as older women, who generally didn’t drive in Ubar.
In less than twenty minutes they’d entered the old city, the driver dropped them off, and they blended into the crowd. They’d promised Osman and Zadir that they wouldn’t talk unless they were sure no one could hear them. Emotions were still running high and they didn’t know how people would react.
Sam moved through the walled city as if she’d always lived there. Apart from the occasional car, winding slowly behind loaded camels and people with baskets on their heads, the marketplace looked like a scene from the middle ages. Men and women all wore long traditional costumes, vendors sold their wares piled in baskets or spread out on clothes, and animals squawked and barked and bleated in all directions.
It was reassuring to see women and children milling freely about as the selling wound down during the late afternoon. There was an atmosphere of excitement but not really one of danger. Still, Ronnie held her breath as she saw the royal motorcade pull up.
The crowd grew quiet and she felt tension build in the air. Anger flashed inside her. Didn’t these people know the brothers wanted to help Ubar and make it an even better place to live?
Change is scary. She tried to remind herself. She wasn’t great with new-and-different herself. It was almost funny how she could take huge risks in her artistic and professional life but remain so boringly conservative—chicken, even—in her personal life.
She’d never have come here if Zadir hadn’t all but dragged her. For years she’d felt safe in her ivory tower, insulated from people who might grow to disappoint her. Now that she’d stepped out of it, the world seemed brighter—a little scary, yes, but more exciting and hopeful all the same. With any luck all these people around them would soon come to embrace a future that seemed strange and worrisome.
The three brothers—they’d apparently persuaded Amahd to come, too—walked out into the crowd. They didn’t climb up to one of the balconies she saw above the crowd. Instead they simply stopped and turned to address the people. An eerie hush fell over the square. Even the animals seemed to hold their tongues. Ronnie twisted her hands into her blue dress, a sense of terror and anticipation building inside her.
Anyone there could pick up something and throw it, or attack one of the brothers with the daggers most men wore at their waist. Her heart ached at the thought that anything could happen, here in this crowd of semi-hostile strangers. It was humbling to realize how much she truly cared about Zadir now she’d come to know him.
“I’m the eldest of my father’s sons,” she heard Osman say. Sam fiddled anxiously with her scarf, her pretty hands betraying that she was no old woman. “My mother died when I was only three, but I still remember her. I remember the warmth of her embrace, the soft sound of her voice as she sang me to sleep. I remember her telling me not to cry, to be brave, that I had a great destiny ahead of me.” She watched him inhale, trying to control his emotions. “Maybe she knew even then that she wouldn’t live to see me fulfill it. Perhaps she already knew that her days were numbered and that she had to make the most of each one.”
The crowd seemed to be holding its collective breath. A dog whined, but no one spoke a word. “I’m sure you’ve all heard the rumors that my mother was quietly disposed of. That my brothers’ mothers were made to disappear. We, their children, have no more evidence of that than you do. We’ll likely never know, and we’ve had to make our peace with that.”
He frowned. “I hope that the men among you love and cherish your wives, and treat them like the queens they are.” Ronnie had a feeling he wanted to look at Sam but was forcing himself not to. “But if you feel that your relationship has no future and that there is no way to mend it, you can now obtain a divorce and take a new wife—and no one has to die.”
He scanned the crowds. “Ubar has had a great past, as one of the key cities on the Silk Road, and we have a great future ahead of us. This should not be a land where a young boy has to fall asleep at night, his face wet with tears, missing the young and loving mother who wanted nothing more than to raise him to adulthood, for no good reason than that his father wanted to take a new wife.”
Ronnie could hear her own heart beating. The crowd was mesmerized, as much by Osman’s visible emotion as by his powerful words. She tried hard to remain calm and steady as Osman turned to look at Zadir.
“I also remember my mother.” She was close enough to see the pain in his eyes. “She too was young, so young, on her marriage and on her death. I was five when she was taken from me, and I still remember the very last time I saw her. She kissed me on the forehead and told me to be a good boy.” She head his voice catch and felt her own chest heave in response.
“I’ve tried to do what she asked. To become the man she hoped I’d grow into. We all have. We were born and raised in Ubar. The circumstances of our mothers’ deaths—an open secret of sorts—conspired to keep us all in exile while our father still walked the streets of Ubar. We were wary, as you may have been yourselves.”
Zadir drew himself up. He and his brothers stood a head taller than everyone else there, and looked effortlessly regal. “He was a strong and proud man who did what he thought was best for himself. He made few changes in Ubar, because the country suited him just the way it was and he enjoyed a life of luxury in the palace, and didn’t concern himself much with life outside it.”
Zadir looked around, deliberately peering into the faces of the people around him. “My brothers and I don’t want to keep that kind of distance between us and you. We are all citizens of Ubar, and we want to enhance your lives and give our children the means to survive and thrive in the modern world
, while retaining the best aspects of our rich, traditional culture. We want to work together with you and share with you the labor of love that will make our country a better place for all of us.”
Ronnie sagged with relief when he looked at Amahd, who then talked about his experiences, and how excited he was about the great potential locked up in Ubar’s vast mineral wealth and how much it would mean for all of them.
When he’d finished, Osman addressed the crowd one last time. “I know you’re upset, as we are, at the unrest and violence that’s disturbed the peace we’re all used to. We’re working our hardest to find the culprits and bring them to justice, and any help from you would be much appreciated. We consider you to be our brothers and sisters, not our subjects, and what hurts you, hurts us and vice versa. Please work with us to restore our country to a state of peace and prosperity.”
The brothers then walked through the crowd, shaking hands with total strangers and greeting them. The stunned silence gradually rose to a murmur, as people exchanged their views on this unprecedented and intimate communication by a monarch. She saw other women weeping and even men shedding tears, and she had a feeling that this was a transformational moment for all of them.
She wanted desperately to talk to Sam, whose own eyes had filled with tears, but didn’t want to break the agreed-upon protocol. She listened, heart beating wildly, as a song began to rise from the crowd.
They must have all known the words—and she had no idea what they meant—but the air filled with the harmonious sound of voices, high and low, young and old, skilled and raw, creating a song that joined them all together in what could only be described as a breathtaking act of unity and celebration.
Ronnie could no longer stop the tears falling from her eyes, and Sam clutched at her hands. Neither of them said anything, but they nodded to each other. This was exactly what the brothers had hoped for, without even knowing it, when they took the brave step of greeting their people face-to-face.
Zadir strode toward her and bowed slightly, amusement in his eyes.
“How do you even recognize us in these clothes that cover everything except our eyes?”
“I’d know you anywhere. There’s something about the way you carry yourself. Unmistakable and unforgettable.”
His low voice made desire rise through her, under her concealing garments. “I always said you were trouble.” She glanced around. “Won’t the crowd wonder who we are?”
“Let them wonder.” He kissed her hand. “Soon they’ll know, anyway.”
They will? His words made it sound like he was planning to marry her or at least date her openly. Strangely, the idea gave her a hot, tight feeling of anticipation. She’d moved beyond wanting to run away from Zadir. Yes, he was trouble. Yes, he made her life more complicated. But she cared about him. He was intelligent, warm, exciting, affectionate, and she enjoyed his company.
Maybe this didn’t all have to end the moment she got back on a plane. Maybe she could design his home and spend more time here, maybe even lay the foundation for a real relationship—with a future…
She was getting carried away. Forgetting about her real life. “I should probably head back to the palace and make some calls. My assistant was going to put together some notes from the meeting and go over ideas for some changes they proposed.”
“Changes to your design?” He looked surprised. “I thought the point of hiring an architect was that it should be their vision.”
She laughed. “You really are a dream client, then. Most clients want at least some input. They wanted some additional ideas for the exterior skin.”
He frowned. “The aluminum skin, based on the aircraft that sheltered us?”
She shrugged. “It’s a concept. There are different ways to interpret it. There’s no harm in presenting some alternatives.”
She was trying to convince herself as much as him. She couldn’t imagine feeling the same about the project if she made such a major change. Maybe she should put her foot down about that. For some reason she wasn’t nearly as gung-ho about the library commission as she had been even yesterday.
Zadir was now shaking hands with an older man who nodded emphatically while he spoke. Then another person spoke to him, and another.
“Do you understand what they’re saying?” Ronnie asked Sam.
“I can get the gist of it. They’re thanking him for having the courage to speak the truth.”
“Good.” It seemed okay to speak aloud, now that the tension in the air was replaced by an air of festive excitement. And Zadir had spoken to her in English already. “Hopefully this will be the end of the protests.”
“Agreed. Lets leave them to mingle with the people and head back in the Volvo.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Back at the palace Ronnie dressed for dinner in a simple gray dress, which went nicely with the earrings she’d been wearing at the gala before Zadir whisked her away. It was hard to believe she’d gone out that night expecting a few humiliating moments onstage—and found herself on the other side of the world, enmeshed in an intense romance.
She had a feeling that tomorrow things would have calmed down enough for her to get on a plane. She’d told her assistant that she needed to think about the building skin and do some research, so to hold off on sending anything to the committee. For some reason she felt like putting that project on the back burner.
She’d rather think about the facade—which would be integral to the construction—of Zadir’s residence here in Ubar. Maybe she’d spent too much time on the library project over the past few weeks, but almost everything about it seemed boring compared to the challenges of cantilevering a structure made out of native materials so it would hover over its delicate environment like a hummingbird in flight.
Ronnie was pleased to see the brothers smiling and toasting each other at dinner. Barbit was rather sullen and quiet, probably annoyed to be proven wrong now that the divorce edict seemed to be meeting with some acceptance.
Zahaina was bubbly and flirtatious but had turned her attentions to Amahd, since Zadir’s solicitous behavior toward her—Ronnie—left no doubt in his guest’s mind as to who interested him.
Osman was oddly involved in a phone conversation—in their native language—that pulled him away from the dinner conversation. When he hung up, his expression was both grim and excited. He turned to Zadir. “Do you remember Gibran?”
Zadir frowned. “I remember a Gibran we used to play with as kids. His mother worked here. Whatever happened to him anyway?”
“He went on to join the French Foreign Legion and is now arguably the foremost expert on security in the world.”
“Are you sure it’s the same guy? He was kind of quiet and shy. And why would a boy from Ubar join the French foreign legion?”
Osman looked at the phone and blew out a breath. Then he looked Zadir in the eye. “Because his father, the king, sent him to France to quiet gossip about him.”
“What?” Zadir looked stunned.
“Yes. I’d heard rumors before but nothing solid. Apparently our esteemed father didn’t marry every woman he slept with. Nabila Al Nazariyah was his mistress for some years.”
“But she was a servant.” Amahd interjected. “Why would he…?”
“She was beautiful.” Zadir spoke seriously. “I remember her well. Very quiet, too. I suspect that he knew he couldn’t possibly marry her because of her low social status, so he never considered it, but just carried on with her while he was married to….” He looked around. “How old is Gibran? I feel like he’s the same age as me.”
“More or less. I spoke with him today. He’s the one who confirmed the rumors about his origins, which he learned from his mother. He also said he has no intention of coming back to a place where he was never welcome.”
“How does that help us?”
“This is where I put my persuasive powers to work.” Osman narrowed his eyes. “I tried to remind him that Ubar is changing, that we all suffer
ed at the hands of our father, and that we need him to embrace our future. By the end he was listening.”
“I don’t know.” Amahd looked skeptical. “He sounds like a loose cannon. Would you really want someone like that involved in something as sensitive as security?”
“We need to do something.” Osman gulped his drink. “Right now our security is something of a joke. We have all the expensive, high-tech hardware that money can buy, but a lone man was still able to set our plane on fire. We need the best, and he’s the best.”
“What if he says no?”
Osman shrugged. “Most people have their price—the one they can’t say no to. Also, his mother still lives in Ubar, in a house he built for her, so he has some ties to the country. I’m going to make bringing him here my top priority.”
Sam raised a brow. “I’ll expect to see him here any minute.”
Osman smiled. “It may take a little longer than that, but I do usually achieve my goals.”
Ronnie glanced sideways at Barbit and noticed her dark eyes had narrowed to slits. Although she appeared to be busy ripping bread and dipping it in a cucumber sauce, Ronnie had a feeling there was a lot more going on in her mind than she let on. Was it possible that one of the brothers’ enemies was right in their midst?
“What’s going on with the man you captured? The one who torched the plane?” she asked, keeping half an eye on Barbit to see if she reacted.
Zadir leaned back in his chair. “We know he did it, but since we don’t plan to torture the identity of his boss out of him, we need time to figure out what to do with him.”
“Everything takes time in Ubar.” Sam winked at her. The servants were still bringing out dishes that formed the large and elaborate main course. One was actually squeezing fresh limes into some limeade right in front of them. “Sometimes a very long time.”
Ronnie smiled. She was growing to appreciate the slower pace of life and the attention to detail that made their lives richer. “I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.”
Desert Kings Boxed Set: The Complete Series Books 1-6 Page 38
