The Secret of the Sheikh's Betrothed

by Felicitas Ivey

  “I don’t know,” Ikraam said. “There is no advantage for the tribe to have your marriage take place. The herds barely follow the same grazing routes. Din Qamar is a poor tribe with nothing to offer us.”

  “So why does Mother want this marriage bond, then?” Sabah asked.

  “I don’t know,” Ikraam admitted. “It’s not like I have access to all the gossip.”

  Sabah blushed. “I truly thought you were content, so I didn’t insist you join me.”

  “Bahiyya wanted me as far away from everyone else as she could get me,” Ikraam said. “I was content and didn’t miss going to the afternoon gatherings. I escaped in the middle of the night outside more often than you realized. Properly veiled, of course, but I spent a lot of time wandering outside on my own. I’m still surprised your mother let me do so.”

  “And that is how you met Saumer.”

  Ikraam glanced back at his room with a smile. He loved the cat beyond reason. Probably since Saumer didn’t care if he was male or female, so long as Ikraam gave him the attention he demanded. At heart, the leopard was a domestic house cat, even if he didn’t admit it.

  “I would prefer your room,” Sabah said. “There’s no balcony.” She paused. “But that would stop your intended from visiting you too.”

  “Fathi promised he would be respectful,” Ikraam reminded her. “He will come through the door the next time he visits.”

  Sabah giggled. “I thought he would be stern and proper,” she said. “Yet he snuck in here just to see you! That’s so romantic. I bet you he falls in love with you as soon as he sees your face.”

  Ikraam shook his head, not wanting to dash Sabah’s dreams but unable to stop the words. “Seeing my face isn’t the issue. It’s seeing the rest of me.”

  Chapter Nine

  FATHI frowned as he strode into the room. Grandfather had insisted he wear traditional clothing today, and it still felt heavy and uncomfortable. He stopped when he saw it was just the men there, Hashim and his attendant. So Bahiyya was trusting her husband to follow her orders and not insisting she be present for this.

  His impression of Hashim hadn’t been the best when they first met. Hashim still didn’t look imposing as he sat and stuffed himself with dates and coffee, caught under Grandfather’s stern stare, like an errant schoolboy.

  Hashim seemed to be very nervous about something, from what Fathi could tell, and he couldn’t think why. Ikraam was here and willing to marry Fathi, from what she told him last night. He couldn’t think of a reason the entire tribe was absent from this celebration. Though he thought it hypocritical to celebrate his “happy” marriage, the tribe should enjoy a feast, even if he, and most likely his bride, wouldn’t. Yet he also thought he could have a good life with her. And it wasn’t like he couldn’t afford a celebration like that. Fathi wondered if there was any way for him to send the tribe the supplies they had here for the wedding so they wouldn’t go to waste.

  He ignored the thought that Ikraam, from what he had seen, would be just the right size for him to hug, to lay her head on his shoulder. Not that he thought anything like that was going to happen. He didn’t know how he was going to deal with a traditionally raised woman in his life. He didn’t think she would be comfortable expressing any sort of affection to him, especially after he confessed to her his homosexuality.

  Fathi fought back a sigh. While he wasn’t comfortable with the over-the-top displays he had been subjected to by others while in college, he didn’t want his betrothed to act like a stranger to him for the rest of their life together, even if it wasn’t going to be a proper marriage. He had to accept this was going to happen and make the best of it. He would be kind to the woman, even if he didn’t truly desire her. But he wanted to touch Ikraam, be at ease with her. It wasn’t sexual, even if she had been on his mind most of the night.

  He sat down, slightly behind Grandfather. He felt awkward sitting on the floor and hoped he didn’t need help getting up. Rayyan was also there, and he looked like he belonged, blast him. Fathi had become too Western in his thinking and acting, it seemed. He should be more comfortable in a kaftan than a suit, but he wasn’t. Had his Western education influenced him more than he thought? Had it made him accept his sexual orientation, since homosexuality was preached against in his homeland as an insult to Allah and nature?

  It had been acceptable in college to have male lovers. Nothing serious, but he knew it wasn’t prohibited there. It had been… freeing. Even so, he never thought to stay. His home was here, his family was here, and that mattered more to him. If it meant he was cut off from any type of male relationship, he had accepted it. This marriage meant a lot to his grandfather, so he would marry this woman and make a life with her.

  Fathi pulled his mind back to the matter at hand. While he wasn’t the one negotiating with Hashim, he should pay attention to what his grandfather was doing. He was glad to see Rayyan was watching Hashim’s companion, Ghalib. Fathi didn’t trust him. Was he Hashim’s wife’s spy? Sabah was supposed to marry him, but he didn’t think it would be so soon after Ikraam’s marriage. Was that the reason the tribe wasn’t here? But he was bearing the cost, so there was no reason to deny the tribe the celebration for Ikraam’s marriage. It was just one more mystery surrounding this entire mess.

  “My wife’s sister is one of our best weavers,” Hashim was saying. He took a sip of coffee. “The tribe is losing a hard worker with this marriage.”

  So that was the ploy they were trying to use to increase the bride price for Ikraam. It wasn’t a bad one, but it was clumsy. If Fathi had managed to figure that out, then Grandfather must have seen it even before Hashim had finished his first word. Who had thought Hashim was the right man to do this? If Grandfather wanted, he would have the leadership of the din Abdel tribe by the end of the afternoon as part of Ikraam’s dower. Plus Ghalib was just sitting there, not even paying attention to what was being said, just looking like he was planning to steal the silverware.

  “I would like to see my future granddaughter-by-marriage’s work,” Grandfather replied. “The goats I gave as surety of my intentions to Sheikh Muna must have kept her occupied, as a proper woman should be. I’m sure Fathi will encourage her to continue to weave, if she’s as talented as you claim.”

  Hashim flushed at the subtle insult. Fathi didn’t know or care about goats, but he knew they were the basis of the tribe’s wealth. From the reports Rayyan had dug up, it seemed Grandfather’s gift had almost doubled the size of the herd. Impressive, and he had only not given more because the land wouldn’t handle a larger herd than they had now. There were so many goats, they could be killed for feasting and guest greeting without worry, but not too many that they overgrazed the area. Grandfather had given them a great gift, and Hashim wasn’t acknowledging that. Fathi was furious behind his calm, and he knew why the groom wasn’t the one doing the negotiations. Barely five minutes into the meeting, and he was ready to punch Hashim for being an idiot. He hadn’t felt this way since high school, when he’d been a mess of burgeoning hormones and teenaged angst. Allah, was he falling in love with Ikraam? Would this be a repeat of the summer of his sixteenth year when he had fallen in lust—unrequited—half a dozen times? But Ikraam had the traits he looked for in a lover, aside from the small fact she was a woman.

  Grandfather looked at Hashim as if he expected him to whip an example of Ikraam’s work out of thin air.

  “There are some rugs in her dowry chest,” Hashim mumbled, almost choking on the date he’d popped into his mouth, obviously uncomfortable with Grandfather’s scrutiny. Fathi didn’t think it was a sound strategy to keep eating so he didn’t have to answer Grandfather’s questions. Because eventually he would have to stop or his stomach would burst. However, Hashim might think that an acceptable alternative to telling Grandfather the truth.

  “I am glad she has enjoyed the fruits of her labor,” Grandfather said before taking a sip of his coffee. “I look forward to seeing her work.”

  From t
he constipated look on Hashim’s face, Fathi was willing to believe there wasn’t any such thing in Ikraam’s dowry. Seeing how few possessions these people had brought with them, he even doubted there was a dowry. He bit back the growl he wanted to make. The girl was being handed off to a bunch of strangers, and her family was treating her like this? Why hadn’t they dowered her better would be a good question. Had Ikraam’s family thought since Grandfather was so rich, they didn’t need to bother? He didn’t know what went into a woman’s dower, but if they had sent Ikraam here with just the clothes on her back, he was going to rethink punching Hashim. It was a humiliation no one should have.

  Ikraam had been a nice surprise last night, intelligent and kind. She had also been dressed poorly, and he didn’t think the rest of her clothing was any better. He would have to talk to Sabah about that, when Ikraam wasn’t around, if he could. He doubted he would be left alone with her. Ikraam probably was watching her like a hawk because of Ghalib.

  He looked over at Grandfather, who had a gleam in his eyes that Fathi hadn’t seen in a while. Even if this marriage never came to fruition, his grandfather looked more alive than he had in a while, maneuvering his words the way he did during this negotiation. Hashim had been outclassed as soon as he had said “Hello.” Grandfather had to take back some of the business he had given Fathi, so he would keep looking like this. Fathi ignored the little voice in his head that pointed out he wanted to keep Grandfather busy so he wouldn’t nag him about great-grandchildren.

  Rayyan looked over at him while Hashim and Grandfather dueled on the next few points in the contract. Hashim was loud and blustering, while Grandfather hadn’t bothered to raise his voice once. They were arguing about when the bride price was to be paid, how many installments and what was to be in it, in goods and currency. Fathi calculated the amounts being thrown back and forth and came to the conclusion he spent more on coffee and dinners in a month than what Hashim was demanding as Ikraam’s bride price. Granted, there was a difference in their stations, and what Fathi thought of as a pittance wasn’t how Hashim thought of the same amount of money. This might be the reason Ikraam was dressed so badly. Yet Sabah’s clothing had been in much better condition than her aunt’s. As the youngest, was Ikraam being treated as a poor relation because Bahiyya resented her for some reason? Ikraam was the child of another woman. Fathi wondered whether there would be some resentment there, even if Bahiyya’s mother had been dead when Muna married Zaynab.

  “What are you thinking?” Rayyan murmured, turning his face to Fathi as he poured him some coffee.

  “I think you need to introduce Grandfather and Auntie,” Fathi said, raising his cup to his lips, so no one could see them talking. He wasn’t going to try to explain what he had been thinking, the topics had been so tangled.

  Rayyan snorted softly when he said that. “Keep your mind on what’s going on.”

  Fathi nodded and shifted a little. He noticed Ghalib was sneering at him, since he couldn’t sit comfortably for hours cross-legged. He made a note to have Rayyan find out more about the man so he might be able to make him leave. Ghalib was annoying him, and Fathi wanted him gone in case the man did something dreadful to Sabah. He might be jumping to conclusions because of Sabah’s and Ikraam’s reactions, but he hadn’t trusted Ghalib from the first time he saw him.

  “I’ll look into it,” Rayyan murmured, practically reading his mind, before pouring coffee for Grandfather and shifting back into his place.

  From the way things were progressing, it was going to take a couple more hours just to get through the next few items on the list. Fathi settled back to listen to his grandfather’s arguments rip Hashim apart, and he wondered how Hashim kept control over his tribe if he was this inept a negotiator. Fathi was good, but even he didn’t want to face Grandfather because he knew he was outclassed. Watching Hashim argue with Grandfather was like watching a small child read classical poetry—painful and needing to bite one’s tongue not to finish the child’s stumbling words.

  Chapter Ten

  THEY broke for lunch a couple of hours later. Fathi wondered if Hashim even had room for food in his belly, since he had gorged himself on dates and figs most of the morning. Fathi’s bladder was full from all the coffee he drank, and he was starving. Still, he managed to stand from his sitting position smoothly. He didn’t want to embarrass his grandfather in front of the other men by appearing to be clumsy. Rayyan was as graceful as a gazelle when he got up, even as preoccupied as he looked. Fathi wanted to be annoyed, but all he could think was that Rayyan would be a much better husband for Ikraam; he was able to fit into her world. And Fathi wondered at the anger he felt when he thought about that. He wasn’t the man for her, but was he jealous because he didn’t want to let her go? After the few words that had passed between them, why was he being possessive?

  Grandfather strode from the room with Rayyan and Fathi following. Hashim and Ghalib were being served lunch separately to evaluate their strategy—such as it was—and after this short break for food, there would be more arguing… negotiations about the marriage. Fathi wondered what there was still to argue about, if he had been Ikraam’s betrothed since she was born. Or was this a ritual that had to be observed, even if all the details had been set ages ago? Fathi thought it was to give the tribes more time to feast and relax, mingling the two tribes for a couple of days, maybe spurring more marriages. It was wasted here.

  They were in the dining room and the servants had left before Grandfather spoke.

  “I fear I have made a bad bargain for you, Fathi,” he grumbled.

  “I don’t like Ghalib,” Fathi said, wondering what he could say about his grandfather’s statement. Yes, he would like to cry off from the marriage, but that was because he was homosexual. He had always had the thought of an arranged marriage in the back of his mind, since it was something many of his classmates spoke of. Very few of them expected to marry for love. In addition, he had met Ikraam and Sabah and didn’t want anything bad to happen to them. Calling off this marriage would put both of them in danger. What would Bahiyya do with them? He had to pretend to be ignorant of who Ghalib was, since he wasn’t supposed to have visited Ikraam. However, he couldn’t ignore the worry in Sabah’s voice when she and Ikraam had spoken of Ghalib. “Why is he with Hashim? The man has said nothing all morning. And Hashim needs all the help he can get, to be frank. The Americans aren’t this bad at bargaining.”

  “He’s too young to be an advisor,” Rayyan mused. “And he isn’t one of his sons, since he looks nothing like him. Yet the name is familiar to me. It’ll come to me eventually who he is.”

  “I fear your bride’s dowry will be a pittance,” Grandfather said as he started to eat. “Her brother-by-marriage has brought nothing with him but empty promises.”

  “You should have expected that when they arrived without a single pack camel,” Fathi said. “For her at least. Her niece seems to have had some.”

  Grandfather grunted at that, his face tightening in anger. “This man is not a worthy heir of Muna. His first move in these negotiations was to insult me.”

  Fathi was grateful he ignored his slip of the tongue. He wasn’t supposed to know who these women were, so how did he know there was a niece? That would lead to him confessing to last night’s indiscretion. Then Grandfather would look at him, and he would feel like he was a clumsy child who had disappointed him.

  “I wonder if he thought we wouldn’t notice?” Rayyan asked. “We’re not desert people anymore.”

  “We’re people, though,” Fathi said. “And this is a wedding. You expect more than five people to show up for one.”

  “What is the tribe going to say when it is known Hashim denied them the occasion to celebrate Ikraam’s wedding?” Grandfather asked.

  “Ghalib’s the name of a middle son of a minor sheikh of a tribe loosely allied with Hashim’s,” Rayyan exclaimed. “I knew it would come to me.”

  “But that still doesn’t say what he is doing here,” Gran
dfather said with a smile.

  “He might be here to marry Sabah,” Fathi commented. “Even if she’s too young to get married.”

  “And who is Sabah?” Grandfather stared at the two of them in a manner that demanded they tell him the truth.

  Fathi and Rayyan looked at each other, and Fathi sighed, wanting to beg forgiveness before he explained what he had done. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, blast it!

  “My apologies, Grandfather. I snuck into the harem last night.”

  Grandfather stared at him for a moment before bursting out in laughter. “You, Fathi? You! To do something so reckless?”

  “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he muttered, putting his thoughts into words. Why wouldn’t he have done something like that?

  Rayyan snickered. Fathi glared at his twin before continuing. He felt as if he were ten and had gotten caught stealing baklava from the kitchen. Grandfather was going to be more upset at violating his hospitality than he had been then.

  “It isn’t like this is the Dark Ages,” Fathi said. “I wanted to meet Ikraam before the wedding. I wanted to talk to her and try and be her friend. I wanted this whole ordeal to be easier for her. For both of us. I want to know what she expects or wants from me. It was wrong and rude of me to do so, but Ikraam’s probably scared out of her mind right now. I wanted to show her I’m not an evil djinn.”

  Ikraam didn’t seem scared of him, but then she carried a knife. Plus she had been more amused than insulted by his actions. While Grandfather was upset, Fathi didn’t think that was as important as Ikraam being happy. See, he was being a good groom.

  “You encouraged him, didn’t you?” Grandfather demanded, glaring at Rayyan.

  Rayyan shook his head. “He thought this up all on his own.” He paused. “This might have gone better if you had talked about this before we went to university. Or did something more than suddenly announce this to the two of us. Fathi walked into this cold. He took it better than I expected, but neither one of us is twelve. We do want some say in our life. Fathi was just trying to do something. And frankly, he’s been a lot better after his breakdown when we bought jewelry for Ikraam, but he still needs more time to adjust to the fact he’s getting married.”