Scarlett Secret

by Brenda Barrett

  "They are pretty," Hamad interrupted her. "I like that. Green and brown, the desert and mountains, just like Akdhir. And they speak so spiritedly of defiance and independence. The women in my life are cursed with this, what I like to call a Western virus. It is like a cancer spreading into the royal house of Akdhir and the other Arab lands. I hate this disease, Lola Montega."

  "Women have minds of their own," Terri said heatedly. "Some of your customs and rules for women are designed because you men are afraid that if you ever allow them to do anything that they will do it better than you. You chauvinists are afraid of the power that you know women can wield."

  Hamad narrowed his eyes but he responded mildly. "I told your stepfather that your upbringing would have been a problem. You go to school; you hear the blasphemous utterings of other women, teaching you that you don't need men. You went to university; what did you study?"

  "Business," Terri responded automatically, forgetting that she was playing a role; she was supposed to be Lola.

  Lola had done languages. In fact Lola was fluent in seven or eight languages? It was something that came easy to her, along with accents.

  Terri should not have laughed at her when she said she studied Jamaican patois. Lola could probably speak it just as well as she could.

  She refocused on the conversation at hand though, when Hamad snorted and waved his hand dramatically.

  "Business. What do women know of business? You are too emotional and irrational and incapable of focusing on anything but fashion and frivolities. You should all be kept at home, raising children and taking care of the family. It is because of your ridiculous insistence for thinking that you can be men that society is breaking down."

  Terri bit her lip and stopped her feet from tapping. He wanted an emotional and irrational outburst.

  He was watching her and waiting for it.

  She exhaled, stomping the urge to argue with all guns blaring.

  "Some men are just like that too. I do not think emotions or being irrational in certain situations are gender specific."

  Hamad rested back in his chair and started to laugh. He had a heavy laugh. It reached across the Japanese garden, echoing off the stone sculptures, and shook the white tablecloth with the utensils.

  The waiter appeared and silently served them lamb, rice and steamed vegetables.

  Terri wasn't sure that she wanted to eat any but she took a bite and found that the lamb was well done.

  Hamad watched her with mirth in his eyes.

  "In the next two weeks we can get to know each other. After that we can consummate this marriage. I find you acceptable, Lola Montega."

  "But..." Terri sputtered, "I am a defiant, disobedient woman, I hate hijabs and I am not docile..."

  Once more Hamad overrode her protests. "You will make a fine third wife, Lola. A spirited woman who knows restraint...you remind me of Paravina in her younger days, before she got so overbearing."

  Terri widened her eyes. So it would have been better if she had railed against him and called him names? What a missed opportunity!

  "No, I won’t make a fine third wife. I'll disgrace your family name." Terri shook her head. "I came to Jannah to tell you that I cannot go through with this. I can't. It's impossible."

  Hamad smiled faintly. "We can negotiate about this, eh? See how well your business skills hold up in the two weeks."

  Terri inhaled shakily. He was mocking her. She could see it on his face.

  "For the next few days," he changed the subject abruptly, "I am going to be busy. Starting today I have to choose lawyers to liaison with in this side of the Caribbean. I also have an emergency brewing in Greece that will take me away for a few days."

  He leaned forward, his watery eyes wicked, "But I will make time to spend with you, my high-spirited filly Lola. I will enjoy taming you. I have forgotten how this feels; it is enough for me that you are here on Jannah. Enjoy the hotel."

  Terri cringed. High-spirited filly?

  "The housekeepers will work out the details of our schedule. Are you pleased with Mona?"

  "Er... yes." Terri lost her appetite. Lola was wrong; this man was not looking for submission and tradition. He was looking forward to taming her, like a wild horse.

  Good Lord, help me...and Lola...help us! She prayed frantically. Help us!

  Chapter Six

  Lola looked around Terri's room after Terri left. It was to be her room for the next three days; she might as well get acquainted with it.

  The room was not large, but it was very neat. A queen-sized bed took up the space in one corner. Terri was known for her neatness; she, on the other hand, was a pig. She didn't obsess over having everything in its rightful place like Terri did.

  She placed her bag on the chair beside the bed and then sat down. Today was Monday; what could she do?

  She glanced at herself in the mirror directly in front of her and raised her eyebrows.

  "Hi, my name is Terri." She lowered her voice a pitch and tried again. "Hi, my name is Terri."

  Sounded perfect. Terri's voice was a shade huskier than hers.

  She fluffed out her long red hair and made a Terri face, the kind of face that Terri made when she thought something was funny. Lola ended up laughing to herself. That expression always made her laugh.

  She wondered if Terri was in Jannah yet. What was it like?

  She got up and stretched and then reached for her phone. She was nervous for her friend. She would try calling her just to make sure everything was going smoothly.

  She pressed Terri's name under the contact list and then she heard a vibrating sound on the bed near the pillow. She scrounged around under Terri's several colorful pillows and found that she had left her cell phone.

  She hung up her phone and laid back on the bed with it in her hand. So Terri was incommunicado.

  This was not a good start for their mission. How would she contact her now? How would she know how things were progressing?

  She fretted about it for a while and then sat up.

  It was a beautiful day. The sun was peeping through the windows, giving the orange curtains in the room a certain glow. She could hear the sea calling her. Come and swim, Lola.

  She would keep true to her promise to Terri and not go into the town area. She would take the route that she and Terri had taken yesterday morning and she would try not to talk to the locals.

  Yesterday seemed like so long ago now.

  She opened Terri's closet to look for bathing suits. She had not thought about taking any when she had made a panicked dash to the airport.

  Terri had some really nice ones hanging at the back of the closet. Some of them still had on tags.

  She stopped to admire her dresses as she took them out one by one. There were so many dresses squashed in the closet: casual dresses, formal dresses, short dresses, long dresses...Terri had a dress fetish, obviously. Lola stopped trying to take them all out. They were squashed so tightly together she was having difficulty putting them back in.

  She took a pink one and a white one and laid them out on the bed. They were cute halter top, summery dresses. Though she preferred shorts and t-shirts for her casual wear she didn't see the harm in dressing like Terri for the next three days. She didn't have any choice really. She had not brought many items of clothing with her.

  Her luggage and all that she possessed were at her friend Joanne's house in East London. That had been her bolt-hole for a while. But if she was going to be in Jamaica for a while she guessed she would need more clothes. All she had in her mini-suitcase were the necessities. A pair of boy shorts and a tank top, her toothbrush, the shorts she had picked up at the airport and a t-shirt.

  She was staring at her sparse wardrobe and rubbing her chin when she heard a light tap on the door.

  Her body went rigid. She didn't dare breathe, which was ridiculous because unless the person had super hearing they wouldn't know she was in there. She exhaled slightly but was still tense.

  Who
would knock on the door now? She looked at the clock. It was just nine in the morning.

  She tiptoed to the living room and looked out the window. Maybe if she didn't make a sound whoever it was would go away.

  She quietly pulled the drape at the front window to see the door better and almost blew her cover when she gasped.

  There was a Michael Ealy look-alike standing at the door, except for the eyes, which were a medium whisky brown.

  The sun on the veranda showed him in stark, plain, handsome relief.

  "Holy Peony," Lola whistled, clapping her hand over her mouth and letting go of the drape.

  Who was he?

  She chanced a peek again and saw that he was looking at the door impatiently. He rubbed his designer stubble; his biceps flexed when he did so.

  He was tall, well over six feet. He was lean but muscled. Not chunky, but not too thin either. He looked like a guy who did a lot of physical work.

  If he decided to kick down the door maybe he could do some damage, Lola thought fancifully. She admired him with a little more interest than was wise. He was wearing a gray top and blue jeans that had three holes near the knees.

  "Terri, are you in there? Your phone is not working!"

  Lola jumped when he spoke. He was looking through the window as if he could see her. Who was this guy?

  He knocked again and then faced the door squarely, searching in his pockets.

  Lola's heart started to hammer away in her throat. He looked like he was searching for a key.

  She had to act like Terri now if she didn't want him to come in and wonder why she hadn't answered. Her heart fluttered.

  Was he one of Terri's relatives?

  He was not her brother Troy; she knew Troy. She met him in Montego Bay. The only thing he seemed to have in common with Troy was the height.

  He was not Yuri; there was a huge picture of Yuri and his wife and their baby on the mantle place. He did resemble Yuri a bit. In the nose area, same shaped lips. He was probably family.

  She took a deep breath and pulled the curtain. She was now Terri Scarlett.

  "Er... yes," she croaked. Approximating Terri's voice was not that hard.

  He looked up at the window in relief. "Did I wake you up? You sound funny."

  "No, er, actually." Lola swallowed. "Give me a sec."

  "Wait," he pointed at the door, "let me in. I have to fix the machine. Aunt Daisy said it was acting up again. That way you have time to pack."

  "Pack?" Lola croaked. "Why?"

  "You said you would come to my place and hang with me for a couple of days, remember? You said Treasure Beach was boring and you wanted change. You were tired of being you, yada... yada...yada.

  "Oh." Lola's mind raced. Terri had said that? How on earth could she find Treasure Beach boring? The place was a little slice of rustic paradise.

  "What's your name again?"

  He flung back his head and laughed. "My name? Really, Terri? I am Reuben J. Scarlett." He smiled at her crookedly. "So what is this? You are going to act as if you don't know me? If this is your idea of entertainment, I don't think it is going to work."

  Lola inhaled and then opened the door. He was Terri's cousin. He called Terrie’s mom aunt. He was a Scarlett.

  Obviously he and Terri were close. This was going to be an impossible situation; she couldn't stay with him for days and act like his cousin.

  He walked through the door and looked at her skeptically. "You look different."

  "How?" Lola asked, trying to act Terri-like and not as tense and wound up as she was feeling.

  He stood in the doorway and looked at her intently. "I am not sure. You have in brown contacts and there's something else I can't quite put my finger on."

  Lola suppressed a groan. Big blunder. She had forgotten to put in the cumbersome hazel contacts when he knocked.

  To be honest she didn't like putting them in at all. At least he thought they were contacts and not her honest–to-goodness eyes, and then point her out as an impersonator and demand to know where his real cousin was.

  He was staring at her, an interested look in his eyes. She returned his stare, still having trouble with her breathing. Her pulse was doing a weird jumping dance.

  Up close he really was handsome and almost magnetic. She dragged her eyes from his and took a nervous step back. There was tension between them. Hot, heavy tension. Were Terri and Reuben having some kind of affair? Because surely this couldn't be their normal reaction to each other.

  "I thought you were going to change your hair too." His voice sounded husky. He took a step back too and shook himself slightly.

  So it wasn't one sided, this electric atmosphere. She hadn't imagined it.

  "Well, I was." She nodded vigorously.

  "Joy is at her shop right now." Reuben grinned at her. "I dare you to do it."

  It dawned on Lola slowly that Terri must have had some kind of conversation with her cousin about changing her look and this Joy person was probably a hairdresser.

  "Well, I..." she cleared her throat. "Well, sure. I accept that dare."

  "I'll see it when I see it." Reuben headed for the laundry room. "Pack. I shouldn't be long."

  "I, er..." Lola hesitated. "I don't think I can come with you, Reuben."

  "Nonsense." Reuben waved her off. "The room is ready and I decorated it in shades of green, your favorite colors. I am thinking of calling it the green room. You know those fancy houses that call some rooms by the name of colors? I think that room should be the green room. Maybe I'll do a blue room and a black and white room. What do you think?"

  Lola cleared her throat and decided to fall back on the excuse that Terri had told her to use. "I think I am coming down with something. My throat..." Her voice chose that moment to go husky; she sounded authentic.

  "Ah." Reuben nodded. "Then I guess I'll fix you up with some of my herbal elixir--remember how it cured the whole family of flu a couple years ago?"

  Lola sighed. "No, I don't remember."

  "Then I will just have to remind you." Reuben laughed wickedly and Lola shuddered. She couldn't imagine what sort of mixture would 'cure' her right now.

  "Go pack. We have work to do." Reuben passed her and went to the black pickup that was parked at the gate for a tool box.

  He returned to find her still standing in the hallway.

  "Seriously, Terri. I promise you can hang out in the hammock at the back of the house if you don't want to lift a finger."

  Lola groaned inwardly. "I am going to need to go shopping for, er, pants."

  Reuben laughed. "Well then, we can go shopping. That's not a problem."

  Lola went to the room and got her bag. All she needed to do was add the dresses that she had laid out on the bed. "You didn't say how long we were staying at your place."

  Reuben responded, his voice muffled. "However long you want to. We have all summer till you get bored. When are you going to Kingston to see Zack?"

  Lola flushed. Zack. The name of the lawyer that Terri had said was very, very handsome.

  "I don't know." Her voice quavered a bit. She hadn't even asked Terri why she was going to see Zack.

  "Well, pack for a week. Maybe by then you will get totally fed up with me, as you usually do."

  Lola couldn't imagine getting fed up with him. When he smiled he had a dimple at the side of his cheek. She could stare at that dimple, transfixed, for hours.

  He was really attractive. She wondered why Terri had never mentioned him before but then again she probably had and Lola hadn't registered the info.

  "You know you look a lot like Michael Ealy," she said before she could stop herself.

  Reuben came to the room door. "That's the guy in 2 Fast 2 Furious."

  "Yep." Lola nodded vigorously.

  "We settled that debate a long time ago, Terri. You said I look like him. I don't think I look like him. I look like Pops, remember--our grandfather, Dolby Scarlett."

  "Yeah, right." Lola nodded. "You look like Pop
s."

  "You are acting strange," Reuben said before turning to go to the laundry room, "and you feel strange. I can't fathom why."

  He stared at her for a while. "The brown contacts suit you. It is different."

  "Thanks." Lola sank down in the closest chair and exhaled raggedly.

  So he hadn't guessed that she was a fraud but that was a close call.

  She was probably contributing to the strangeness by staring at him, and not in a cousinly fashion. She was going to be in for a bumpy couple of days pretending to be this man's cousin.

  Chapter Seven

  Terri's lunch with Hamad ended prematurely. He was called away to a video conference. There was some panic about his business interests in Greece. The man who came to whisper to him about it kept saying Greece and emergency. He excused himself and then spoke to his headman quickly.

  He came over to her and bowed. "Madam, if you are finished eating I can escort you home."

  "Not home. The hotel." Terri corrected him firmly.

  "Oh yes," he nodded, "I will speak with Mona."

  And that is how Terri Scarlett, former flight attendant, child of Lloyd and Daisy Scarlett, ordinary fisher and farm folk, found herself in the most luxurious hotel in the world.

  The nightly rate was $25,000 US dollars. Mona told her for a suite like theirs, it was much higher.

  She stood in the doorway of the Al Jerza suite and realized that suite was not the word that should be used to describe the massive edifice.

  It was like a house within itself. It was decorated in black and white and gold. There were tasteful paintings and artifacts everywhere. If she were an art connoisseur maybe she could better appreciate the decor. All she knew was that they were pretty impressive.

  The suite had three bedrooms, a huge study, an infinity pool on the patio of the living room and an unparalleled view of the eastern side of the island with a tall mountain range and view of the sea and a green mass like another island in the far distance.

  Mona opened the drapes with a flourish. "Welcome to Al Jannah Hotel, Madam."

  Terri nodded, still in awe.

  The hotel activities and a map of the hotel were on a touch screen menu, which Mona pointed out.