Desert Doorway

by Pamela Kent

  The road twisted and turned like a corkscrew, travelling along precipitous ledges, bending in sharp, hairpin bends. The children, who were used to this kind of travel, clung to the sides of the car and laughed in sheer glee when they overhung, asit were, an appallingly steep drop, or a mountain torrent came cascading down like a silver waterfall close beside the track and disappeared into the

  unseen valley below them. But Jenny's heartthumped nervously from time to time, and then beat quicker with admiration.

  On the seat beside the chauffeur, Celestine, in

  a striped silk frock and a shady hat, looked round from time to time and smiled as if the awed expression on the younger girl's face amused her.

  "This is something new for you, Jenny," shesaid�for lately she, too, had taken to calling the governess by her Christian name. "Something rather different from England."

  There was always a faint note of contempt inher voice when she mentioned England, which made Jenny wonder whether she had ever visited it and formed a dislike of it for some reason. She might even have visited some of her husband's English relatives, and taken a dislike to them. So far as Jenny had been able to observe she had no noticeable dislike of her mother-in-law.

  Hour after hour seemed to pass, and Louis and Simone sucked barley sugar and ate oranges. The impassive chauffeur at the wheel never once uttered a word, and Celestine completely ignored him.

  At last, having climbed to what Jenny felt certain was practically the roof of the world, theybegan to descend once more, and all at once the road flattened out again, although they were by no means at the foot of the mountains, risinglike a grim encircling wall, and in the middle of an open, sandy plain Jenny saw a white, crenellated building with the road running towards it and an enormuos entrance gate.

  Jenny had an impression of a kind of fortressringed about by loneliness, cut off from the world

  ill

  by those endless layers of mountains, and as the ear slipped through the gate and emerged in a high-walled courtyard the impression gainedstrength. There was another gateway facing them through which they also passed, and then she had a quick glimpse of servants standing like statues against the walls�in particular, a white-robed negro of enormous proportions held her eyes for a moment. They alighted from the car, and then they and their baggage were being escorted through endless corridors until they finally

  emerged in a patio so beautiful that, in spite of her weariness, Jenny voiced her admiration for it

  The sun was becoming tinged with the rosylight which meant that it was not so very far from its setting, and it gilded the oranges that hung like golden balls on the trees surroundingan exquisitely beautiful fountain. There was the cooing of doves strutting on the marble edge otthe basin in which the fountain played, and marble pillars supported the balconies of the rooms which overlooked so much fairy-tale beauty. Starry white

  jasmine flowers surrounded the slender columns, and the air was heavy with the perfume of the jasmine and the penetrating, all-pervading scent

  of the oranges. , - �.

  But they were not allowed to linger, and by this time the children were so tired that Jenny had to pick Simone up in her arms and carry her.

  Celestine walked ahead with the white-clad servant who had been in the outer courtyard to receive them, and with Louis stumbling at Jenny sheels they arrived at last in a portion of the building which, although Moorish in architecture, was modem and occidental in its furnishings.

  Jenny found herself in a room of vast proportions where there was a very ornate bed covered with a silk quilt, and where there were also twosmaller beds which she decided at once were for the children. Divans were ranged around the walls,

  piled high with cushions, and curtains of lustrous

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  silk hung before the windows which opened outwards on to a balcony. There was a dressingtable with a silver-framed mirror on it, and silverbacked brushes and crystal flagons of perfume. And adjoining the room was an up-to-date bathroom, with embroidered face towels as well as deliciously thick bath towels draped across a chromium towel-rail.

  Celestine waved a casual hand to Jenny and the children before she prepared to leave the room and then she turned back and instructed Jenny:

  "The children will be quite all right if you put them to bed straight away. Someone will bring them some supper. And then dress yourself in that pretty flowered frock of yours and join me in the next room. You'll meet our hosts downstairs."

  Jenny found herself wondering a good deal about those "hosts" while she first bathed the children and put them to bed, and then enjoyed a bath herself and dressed according to the instructions she had received. The word "hosts" had surprised her, but she supposed there must be a hostess as well, otherwise it would be a trifle odd.

  When she rejoined the Comtesse the latter was putting the finishing touches to her evening toilette in a room that was very similar to the one Jenny was to share with Louis and Simone, and as always she looked extraordinarily elegant. She was adding a touch of perfume to each of her pink-lobed ears when Jenny joined her, and as she replaced the handsome crystal flagon on the dressing-table she indicated it with a flick of a scarlet-tipped finger.

  "You needn't be afraid to use any of these little extras that are provided," she said. "They are not rubbish from the suqs. They started life in Paris, and would cost the earth if you tried to buy them."

  Then she looked at Jenny critically. "Yes," she said slowly, "you will do very nicely." Jenny felt herself flushing, because there was

  something about Celestine's inspection which sug

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  gested it was not an idle one. And it lasted solong that her flush had time to burn like a car

  nation in her clear cheeks. The Comtesse laughed

  in her brittle fashion as she fastened a pearl studinto the ear she had just touched lightly with the stopper of the perfume bottle.

  "One thing I like about you, Jenny, my dear,

  she told her, "is that although you're pretty, andyou pay for dressing, you're entirely modest aboutit I don't believe you know quite how pretty you

  are!" , . ^. ^

  Jenny, of course, made no response to this, and

  Celestine gave her a half amused, half contemptuous look as she led the way to the door.

  "Now," she said, "I've got something in the nature of a surprise for you!"

  H4

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  DOWNSTAIRS in the modern part of the building Jenny and Celestine found themselves in rooms furnished entirely in western fashion, and with little to suggest they were in the very heart of Morocco. Only the view outside the tall windows gave away the fact that this great house was set down in one of the most unspoilt parts of this northern tip of Africa.

  The view was of the splendid patio, where the fountain played, and the orange trees scented the air, and above its roof-tops rose the solid dark line of the mountains, frowning against the paling blue of the evening sky.

  Jenny saw that they were in a modern lounge, with a cocktail cabinet in a corner, and some fine watercolors on the walls, and beyond it, through an arch, she saw a table laid for dinner. The table was graced with flowers and high-piled dishes of fruit, and there was a blaze of silver and cut-glass which was both dazzling and impressive.

  While she stood there looking out at the patio, and Celestine sank languidly into the lap of a broad couch, a voice sounded from the doorway behind them, and Jenny whipped round,

  "I'm so sorry I was not here to welcome you when you arrived," Si Mohammed said, smiling in his most charming fashion. He wore a faultlessly cut white dinner-jacket, and his golden head shone in the last light of the setting sun. "But I hope you found everything you wanted when you did arrive?'"

  Celestine, who had been yawning openly before his appearance, hastily concealed the yawn and sat up and smiled back at him brilliantly. He moved across to her and bowed over her hand, carrying it up to his lips and saluting
it gallantly in the French fashion, and then he looked sideways at Jenny, who was quite unable to conceal

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  what she felt. In fact her eyes were so large, and so accusing, that the smile he directed towards her had a touch of almost disarming gentleness in ito

  "I can't tell you how delighted I am to see you here, Miss Armitage," he told her, crossing over to the window beside which she stood and offering her his hand. "In fact delighted does not quite describe my sensations at this moment!"

  "As she put her fingers into his, very reluctantly, he refrained from making the mistake of retaining them too long, and it was noticeable that he did not attempt to carry them up to his lips. But his eyes expressed something that might have been the frankest admiration while he gazed at

  her.

  Lights were brought, for although full of so many modern innovations the kasbah�and Jenny was soon to learn that what she thought of as a kind of castle was in reality its Moorish equivalent� did not possess electric light, and, a softfooted servant handed round drinks before dinner was served. The dinner itself was very similar to many she had enjoyed in the St. Alais house in Marrakesh, but on this occasion she had very little appetite for it, for she had the feeling that when they set out that morning Celestine had deliberately withheld from her the name of her present host, and their destination, because she feared that the prim English governess might raise objections, and her own plans be interfered with. But the one thing which puzzled Jenny was why Celestine had wasted so little time after the departure of Max Daintry from Marrakesh before accepting, apparently, a long-standing invitation.

  Or was it such a long-standing invitation?

  Si Mohammed was not aware of Jenny's bewilderment, and although he watched carefully

  while the meal was in progress to see that she

  had everything she wanted, most of his dinner

  table conversation was addressed to Celestine,

  who, as always when she was not dining m her

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  own house, with her own husband seated opposite

  to her at the table, was bright and gay, and as a

  consequence spectacularly lovely.

  But Jenny was wondering about the children upstairs, and how they were faring, and whether supper had been taken to them, and whether they were feeling alarmed by their strange surroundings. She was also wondering about Raoul de St. Alais, and whether he knew where they were at that particular moment, and she was troubled because Celestine was so strange and secretive, andbecause although her host was behaving faultlessly there had been a recent occasion when he had not behaved so faultlessly�at any rate, not to her� and she could not forget the occasion.

  A further surprise was in store for her when dinner was ended, and instead of being served with coffee they were requested to accompany SiMohammed to another part of the kasbah, and there they were presented�there was no other word for the formality of the proceeding�to an elderly, dignified man wearing the dress of his country and surrounded by true Moroccan state. Swinging oil lamps illumined a huge room with velvet couches ranged around it, and little low tables encrusted with mother-of-pearl and loaded with sweetmeats were drawn close to the re

  clining figure in the white dj'ellabah.

  The cowl of the djellabah was drawn up over a pair of fierce, proud eyes that stared hard, and in a somewhat embarrassing way, at Jenny, and it was not until the introductions were over, and she realized that this was Si Mohammed's father, that she wondered why he appeared to have so little interest in Celestine, and why his glance merely flickered over her in a curiously dismissing fashion.

  Silk pouffes were brought forward for them to sit upon, and then a servant appeared with alarge silver tray bearing all the appurtenances for making mint tea. The tea was served in very fine cups, and sweetmeats were offered. Celestine

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  produced a platinum cigarette-case from her handbag and handed it round, but to Jenny's surprise'neither the old Caid nor his son accepted, and as she declined herself only the Comtesse filled the slightly chill air of the great room with the aroma of choice Virginian tobacco.

  Jenny sat rather awkwardly on her huge pouffe, and she noticed that the Caid flickered another glance at Celestine as she put away her lighter, and wondered whether he approved of womensmoking so near to him, and with such an air of self-contained ease. Si Mohammed, on her other hand, struck her as adopting a very graceful attitude, which his European dress did nothing to detract from. In the presence of his father his demeanour was one of deference and extreme respect.

  The conversation�a little stilted�was carried on in French, and Jenny was asked several rather pointed questions by the Caid. He wanted toknow how long she had been in Morocco, and how long she proposed to remain. His eyes had none of the brilliance of his son's, and his complexion was pale as ivory, but his almost overpoweringdignity made Jenny stumble in her answers, although she sensed that his attitude was kindly.

  She could feel, after the first quarter of an hour or so, Celestine's boredom rising, and when her cigarette was finished she did not hesitate to light another. They all drank the requisite three cups

  of mint tea essential as a sign of good mannersand respect for a host, and then Si Mohammed brought the interview to an end by rising withelegant ease and suggesting that they might like

  to return to his own quarters.

  When they stepped outside into the patio the night was dark like velvet, and the stars hung in it like lamps, but the air was decidedly chill. The

  Comtesse said to Jenny:

  "I'll go and have a look at the children, but you two might like some fresh air. I'll send you down a wrap, Jenny."

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  "And before Jenny could raise any objection she

  had vanished under the shadowy canopy of the

  darkness, and Si Mohammed's voice at her elbow

  said softly but reassuringly:

  "There is no need for you to be alarmed, Miss

  Jenny. I shall not repeat the mistake I made

  before, and while you are a guest here in my

  father's house you are safe from anything you

  might regard as unpleasant."

  Jenny could think of nothing to say in answer

  to such a reassurance, but she did feel a sudden

  sensation like relief, and there was something in

  his voice that convinced her he was sincere in his

  guarantee of good behaviour.

  She permitted him to lead her forward along

  the paths, and when a servant appeared with her

  wrap she allowed him to put it about her shoul

  ders. Above them the stars, she thought, were

  incredible, the scent of the starry white Jasmine flowers was both heady and intoxicating, and

  occasionally a dove roused itself and uttered a low, soft, burbling cry from its, perch under one of the colonnades.

  "I hope you will remain for several days�perhaps longer," Si Mohammed said, as they moved side by side along the paths. "I told you about my father's house, didn't I? And I wanted you to see it. And the air is good up here."

  "You are very�remote," Jenny found herself saying, because somehow the feeling of remoteness oppressed her.

  She realized that he smiled in the darkness, and she could see the faint shine of his white teeth.

  "To you, perhaps, we may seem remote, but it is not really so. A fast car and the miles to Marrakesh are eaten up in no time at all." There was silence for a moment and then he asked; "Do you ride?"

  Jenny had to admit that she had ridden almost since babyhood, but not for the last year or so.

  "Then that is good," he answered her enthusiastically,, "I will @ee to it that you are provided

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  with a mount, and in that way you will get some

  exercise."

  "But what about clothes?" Jenny asked. "I haven't brought anything suitable with me."
"We will devise something," he said, "or per

  haps the Comtesse can solve the problem for us.

  She is an excellent horsewoman."

  This surprised Jenny, but she said nothing, and when he suddenly felt her shiver beside him he said with concern that she must go in.

  "Our nights are very chill," he said, "and you must not catch a cold."

  He raised no protest when she said she would

  like to go straight up to her room, and the last.thought which flickered through Jenny's brainbefore she finally fell asleep in her great bed with

  the enormous feather pillows and silk sheets, wasthat she might perhaps have been hasty in herjudgment of. Si Mohammed. He was, after all, of

  alien race, and he might have imagined her will

  ing to be flirted with, if nothing more positive. And he seemed to have realized his mistake.

  The next day, which was a wonderful day of blue skies and sunshine, and flower scents floatingon the warm air, she had the two children with her about eleven o'clock in the morning when he rode into the outer courtyard where they were

  carelessly sauntering.

  He was on a black horse, and he wore a fine white wool djellabah with his riding-breeches and polished boots', and a white gold-embroidered tdrban For a few moments Jenny's admiration for

  the sheer spectacular appeal of his appearancemust have shown in her eyes/for he smiled downat her in a way that made the most of his perfect

  teeth, and softened the lustre of Ms long-lashed

  dark eyes. He told her; ,,',,�

  "I have spoken to the Comtesse about riding

  clothes for you, and it seems that she has brought

  jodhpurs with her which she is very willing tolend to you. Tomorrow morning, therefore, it it

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  is agreeable to you, I will have you called at an early hour, before the sun is hot, and we will ride

  together. I have a little mare which will carry

  you beautifully," running his eyes for a moment over her slender proportions.

  Jenny thanked him, not altogether certain that she really wished to ride with him,' although she thoroughly enjoyed the exercise, and she was surprised that the Comtesse had brought a pair of jodhpurs with her. Unless, of course, she had hoped to be invited to ride herself�in-which case why was she sacrificing her opportunity in order that Jenny could wear the jodhpurs?