Lucy Gordon - The Sheikh’s Reward

‘If she betrays his love his heart breaks. If he turns to find her, and she is not there, he doesn’t wait days and then ask a few mild questions. He goes insane.’

She could almost believe that he had gone insane that moment. His eyes burned with a fierce light and seemed to see right through her.

‘Do you understand?’ he grated. ‘Do you know what you have done?’

‘Yes, I left you,’ she said breathlessly. ‘It was what I had to do. I hoped that I could make you understand, but you can’t understand, can you?’

‘I understand that you belong with me, and this nonsense has to stop-’

‘Stop saying “belong”,’ she insisted desperately. ‘I don’t belong to you. I never will. I can’t love that way.’

‘What is your way of loving?’ he asked savagely. ‘To drive a man to distraction and then abandon him, laugh at him?’

‘I didn’t-’

‘Do you enjoy showing your power? Is that why you did this?’

‘If you think that, we’ll never understand each other,’ she said desperately.

‘Talk!’ he said contemptuously. ‘All this is talk.’ He seized her and tried to pull her into his arms. ‘Come back with me, and I will make you the most envied woman in Kamar. We can forget this and all shall be well between us again. Come back with me, Diamond-’

‘Don’t call me that,’ she cried. ‘Diamond never really existed. She cared for nothing but jewels and having people bow to her. She enjoyed being known as your favourite, and she didn’t mind that it wasn’t going to last, as long as she had her moment of triumph.

‘But that’s not me. My name is Frances and I don’t like being piled high with jewels. They could be made of plastic for all I care. You wanted Diamond, but you weren’t interested in Frances. Ali, have you any idea how wretched we would have made each other?’

It was as though she had struck him. He let his hands fall and stepped back from her.

‘You mean how wretched I would have made you,’ he said in a shocked voice.

‘Yes,’ she said sadly. ‘I think you would. And I’d have had to live with that wretchedness all my life. But you could have consoled yourself with a succession of favourites.’

His eyes were murderous.

‘You should not have said that to me.’ He wheeled away from her and began to stride the room. ‘You shouldn’t have said it, but perhaps it’s as well you did. It shows how far apart we are. There would have been no other woman but you, no other wife, no favourites. That was how my father treated my mother, and how I would have treated you.

‘Have you forgotten the day I found my cousin bleeding and you standing over him with a knife in your hand? I arrested him because I knew that, however it looked, you must be innocent. That was how much I trusted you. That was how close I thought we were. If you never understood that, then truly our minds never met.’

‘No,’ Fran said, nodding. ‘That’s exactly it. Our minds never met.’

‘And this banker-your mind meets his? Of course you are half a banker yourself.’

‘Luckily for you. How much did a mere woman save you, Ali?’

‘A great deal. I admitted that at the time and thanked you. But I missed the real point-that you have more in common with him than with me. You always did have, and you always will.’

He regarded her strangely. ‘My mother was right, as she is about all things. He is a good marriage for you.’

‘He’s a good banker, if that’s what you mean,’ Fran said stiffly. ‘Henderson & Carver is one of the most highly regarded merchant banks in London, and any day now he’ll be appointed chief executive.’

It felt strange to hear herself talking in that stiff, ‘proper’ way when her heart was breaking at the distance that increased every moment between herself and the man she loved. But she couldn’t bridge that distance, and only pride was left to sustain her.

There were lines of suffering etched on Ali’s face, yet the words that came out belied that suffering. She had hurt him, and that hurt her, yet he would deny his own pain to her, and so keep her at a distance. And that was a denial of love.

‘Chief executive,’ Ali mused. ‘What can I say to the woman who will be the wife of such a powerful man?’

‘Don’t jeer at me. I know he isn’t as powerful as you-’

‘He is nothing like me at all. And that’s why you’ve chosen him, isn’t it?’

‘What’s the point of talking about it?’ she said wearily. ‘Maybe I will marry Howard, maybe I won’t-’

‘Don’t tell me he’s hesitating?’ Ali’s face darkened and he turned away quickly. ‘He’s a fool,’ he said over his shoulder.

‘No, just a very cautious man.’

‘If he was a clever man he would seize you while he had the chance.’

‘Exactly,’ she said in despair. ‘Seize. That will always be the way you think.’

Suddenly she realised what a dangerous thing she’d done in coming here. This was Ali’s territory, where she could simply be taken prisoner again.

At that moment he turned and their eyes met. With a gasp Fran seized up her bag, ran for the door, pulled it open and hurried out into the hall.

The doorman on duty was the same one as last time. He’d learned his lesson by now, and stood in front of the front door, arms folded.

Ali came out behind her. Fran turned to look at him with a face full of accusation.

‘Let her go,’ he said.

The porter stared, not sure he’d heard properly.

‘Let her go!’

The door opened, and the next moment Fran was gone.

THE buzzer went on Howard Marks’s desk. ‘Someone to see you, Mr Marks,’ came his secretary’s voice.

‘You must forgive my arriving without an appointment,’ said the man in the doorway. ‘But my business is rather urgent.’

‘Your Highness,’ Howard said, rising hastily to his feet. ‘This is an unexpected honour.’

Ali regarded him askance. A voice was running through his head, making an ironic commentary on what was happening. It was unnerving because it was unfamiliar. In fact, it had never happened before he met Fran.

But the voice was there now, observing coolly, After the rumours this man has heard he should be wanting to sock me on the jaw, not declaring my company to be an honour.

But his smile gave no sign of this as he approached Howard’s desk and began to unload his briefcase.

‘Recent disturbing events have compelled me to make alterations in my financial arrangements,’ he said smoothly. ‘Men that I thought I could trust have turned out to be thieves. For this revelation I am greatly indebted to Miss Frances Callam, whose visit to my country has been most beneficial.’

‘I had heard that she’d been to Kamar,’ Howard said cautiously.

Ask me about it, damn you! said the voice. Threaten to break my neck if I laid a finger on her, as I would do with you.

When Howard said nothing Ali continued, ‘She persuaded me to break my normal rule and give her unprecedented access for her feature. I am now very glad that I did so. I have learned to trust her judgement.’

‘I have always admired Miss Callam’s business sense,’ Howard said gravely.

‘It was her recommendation that persuaded me to seek you out and suggest that you take on some of Kamar’s business.’

‘Indeed!’ Howard said.

Oh, Diamond, if you could see this man’s face now! At the mention of business his eyes light up as they never did at the sound of your name.

For an hour they went through papers together. When they had finished Ali said casually, ‘Miss Callam informs me that you are in line to become chief executive.’

‘It should be a certainty now,’ Howard observed with a grin, looking at the papers.

‘I hope so,’ Ali said formally. ‘It would please me to help to promote your marriage with Miss Callam, which I understand is imminent.’

‘Did she say so?’ Howard asked eagerly.

‘She spoke of you in the highest possible terms.’

‘I say! By Jove! Really? Always a bit hard to know what’s going on in Fran’s mind. She keeps her secrets, you know.’

‘Not from you, I feel sure,’ Ali said. ‘But I am emboldened to touch on a delicate matter, so that there may be no misunderstandings. I hope your mind is entirely without suspicion regarding Miss Callam. Her visit to my country was made solely in pursuit of her feature. She never forgot what was due to you, and she was treated at all times with respect.’

In saying this Ali was not conscious of uttering a falsehood. Respect had always been a part of his feelings for Fran, and it was when she had lain in his arms in the throes of passion that his respect for her had been deepest.

‘Well, naturally,’ Howard said, with an awkward laugh. ‘I never imagined anything else.’

Then you should have done. If such a beautiful woman were mine-as I once dreamed she was-I would suffer torments at the thought of her under the eyes of men.

Aloud Ali said, ‘Then all is well. I look forward to hearing of your marriage. I return to Kamar tonight, and you will be hearing from me soon.’

He inclined his head and left the room. Howard stared at the door for a moment, puzzled. At last he muttered, ‘Funny fellow!’

Fran’s flat was tiny by the side of her palatial apartment in Kamar, but now it felt like a refuge, and she loved it. It was on the ground floor, with French windows that opened onto a garden. On summer evenings she could sit with them open, looking out at the garden and listening to soft music.

That was what she was doing when Howard phoned her. But as she listened to what he had to say her relaxed mood was shattered.

‘He actually came to see you?’ she asked, dazed.

‘You should see the business he’s putting my way. Every bank in the world is after Kamari money and this should just about clinch it for me getting the job.’

He droned on about the job for a few minutes. Fran listened on automatic, trying to take in this astonishing new development.

‘You seem to have made a big impression on him,’ Howard said. ‘I didn’t follow everything but I gather this has something to do with you.’

‘I helped to show that he was being defrauded,’ Fran said, through stiff lips.

‘That’s it. When he talked about us handling some of his affairs, he almost made it sound like he was giving you a dowry.’

‘A-dowry?’

‘Yes, he said he hoped we’d be happy and all that. He seemed to think your reputation had been compromised, and he wanted to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood. Good of him, wasn’t it?’

‘Very good,’ Fran whispered.

‘So, all that remains now is to set the date. Why don’t we have lunch tomorrow?’

She answered mechanically and hung up as soon as she could.

It was over, and now she knew the truth. Ali had acted out of possessiveness, not love, and he was probably glad to be rid of her. He was certainly acting like a man who wanted to draw a line under the whole business. She had been right to leave him.

But the ache of regret in her heart, for what might have been, couldn’t be stilled.

It was getting late, and the light in the garden was beginning to fade. Fran switched on a small lamp and went to close the curtains. Then she started back with a gasp.

‘I came to say goodbye,’ Ali said.

‘You-’

‘Forgive me for not coming to the front door. I preferred to be discreet, having already caused you so much trouble. I also wanted to return these.’

He held out the files she’d left behind when she’d fled his house.

‘Thank you,’ she said blankly.

An awkward silence fell. This was the last time she would ever see him, and she didn’t know what to say.

‘Howard called me,’ she said at last.

‘Good. So now all is well.’

‘Is it?’

‘I finally understood what you’d been trying to tell me all this time. I thought I could give you everything, but all you wanted was to be free of me, and I wouldn’t see it. I can love you best by letting you go. So let this be the end.’

‘The end?’ she whispered.

‘I shall never trouble you again; you have my word on that. That’s why I had to seek this last meeting, and tell you what was in my heart. From you I have learned many things: that love is more than passion, and the freedom of the heart is beyond price. It is over, Scheherazade. And you have won.’

‘Don’t call me that,’ she cried, her eyes stinging with tears. She turned away so that he shouldn’t see.

‘It is how I shall always think of you, what I shall always call you in my heart. My Scheherazade, who set all my power at nothing, and outwitted me in the end. You have defeated me. Go in peace. Remember me kindly if you can. Forget me if you will. You, I shall never forget.’