Page 41 of At the Sheikh's Command
She heard him approach, but didn’t open her eyes until his shadow fell over her eyelids. She opened them to find his frown had deepened.
“You look anxious,” she noted.
“I’m concerned about you,” he said, glancing toward the maids who’d followed him, carrying refreshments. He said nothing further until drinks had been poured and dishes laid out on the table. He poured a glass of water and handed it to her. “You must drink. I think you are dehydrated.”
She smiled at his practical consideration—it was the least of her problems—and did as he suggested.
It was only after he’d made her eat something that he sat down on the chair opposite her and leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees, his eyes watching her intently.
“I want you to tell me everything, Nora. Miss nothing out. I need to understand what’s going on.”
“Yes, I know.” She gave a weak smile. “Question is, where to start?”
“The beginning is the usual place,” he said.
She picked up a piece of bread and crumbled it nervously in her hands, willing the jumble of thoughts and emotions slowly to unravel. He reached out and took her hand in his, gripping it, giving her the courage to talk. She put the bread down.
“After my father’s last position in the Foreign Office, as Ambassador to Sifra. You remember?”
“How could I forget? There was quite a scandal. Involving the wife of a high-ranking Sifran official, I believe.”
“Yes, well, I knew nothing about that. Only that my father had done something wrong, yet again, and we had to leave the country which had bewitched me from the first moment I’d stepped foot in it.”
“Where did you go?”
“To the house…” Her voice was husky and weak. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “To the house in which I was raised. The family home. It was in an isolated valley in Wales. The ground was rocky and there was a mountain behind it.” She huffed a laugh. “When my mother had been alive, she’d had tons of topsoil brought in to create a garden, but nothing seemed to grow there.” She looked at him and she had his full attention. “But then perhaps nothing grows where there is no love.”
He gave a glimmer of a supportive smile. “Or where the ground is too rocky.”
“Yes, indeed.” She let a few moments pass, to gain control of her thoughts and emotions once more. “After Mum died, Father never once looked at the garden, or went in it, as far as I know. He had no interest. When he was at home, he spent all his time in the library either working or drinking.” She paused as she remembered the fug of smoke in the wood-paneled room the few times she was summoned there. She shuddered.
“And what did you do?” Darrius asked.
“I studied. Father said the local school wasn’t any place for me and so he hired a tutor—a local woman. It wasn’t long before she spent more time with him than with me. But that was a relief. It tied up my father’s time and gave me more time to spend in the town’s library. I think I read every book in that place.”
“What about friends? Did you have any?”
“My books were my friends. They were my everything.” She gave a small smile. “I was such a nerd, no one looked at me twice until I turned fourteen. And then everything changed.”
“What happened?”
“I developed into a woman, and then walking to the library became a whole new experience. Boys talked to me. One even asked me to a dance at the village.”
“And did you go?”
She shook her head. “No. When I did what I was told, everything was fine at home. But when he refused to allow me to go to the dance, I answered back. We argued. He didn’t like that.”
“Why would he do that?”
She shrugged. “Who knows? He was a strange man. I think his career as a diplomat had disappointed him. He’d been sidelined and had been forced into extended leave of absence for a few years. I never understood why, but then I never tried to find out. Truth was, I didn’t want to know. I knew it wouldn’t be good. Anyway, in Wales, he became a recluse and seemed to expect me to do the same. Or maybe he simply wanted to control me because he could. Because I was all he had left to control.”
“That must have been very hard for you.”
“It was, so I told him I was going to the dance anyway, and he couldn’t stop me.”
“Figures,” he said. “Headstrong.”
She should have smiled, but couldn’t. Not with what she was about to tell him.
