Lucy Gordon - The Sheikh’s Reward

‘Where has she been?’

‘In New York. Hurry now.’

The flight back over the desert at night was magical. Far below them lights gleamed out of the velvety blackness. Gradually they went lower and lower, until the landing on the palace roof. Fran was escorted back to her apartment by a guard of honour that had mysteriously doubled in size since last time.

Ali’s secretary greeted him with the news that Princess Elise had already arrived. He went straight to her apartments.

The princess was an elegant woman with snowy white hair and a beautiful, fine-boned face. She had been born in London, sixty years ago, but now she looked every inch eastern royalty. She rose and greeted Ali with open arms, and a brilliant smile that made her face young again.

‘My son!’ she said warmly.

He hugged her with enthusiasm. ‘You look younger every time I see you. Did you enjoy your trip?’

‘Yes, it was very satisfactory. You will find the fruit of my work in there.’ She made a gesture towards a desk on which several files lay. ‘I hope you’ll approve of what I have done.’

‘When have I ever questioned any decision of yours? Put business aside for the moment and let me look at you.’

He stood back, holding her at arm’s length until he was satisfied. Then he grinned and hugged her again.

‘You look remarkably well for a woman who’s just flown all the way from New York,’ he observed.

‘Actually, I took a little detour to London. I seem to have arrived just after you left. And while I was there I heard some strange stories about you.’

He laughed and settled himself on the sofa, accepting the drink she offered him. ‘People talk. When have I ever worried about that?’

‘Perhaps you should have worried a little more. The servants in your house didn’t know how to answer my questions. They shuffled their feet and tried to get away, until I had to be very firm. Now tell me about this English girl that you have “invited” to be your guest.’

Ali shrugged in a light-hearted way, but actually he was as uneasy as his own steward under his mother’s piercing gaze. Here was one woman who saw through him and would tolerate nothing less than honesty, which made her uncomfortably like another woman, at this minute in his palace.

‘Miss Frances Callam is enjoying my hospitality for a while,’ he said. ‘Tell me more about your trip.’

‘All in good time, my son. I’ve had to play private detective to find my way through a garbled story about an employment agency, and a servant girl who vanished when you did. Through the agency I found myself talking to an enquiry agent called Joey, who is concerned because he cannot contact Miss Callam. I reassured him, hoping that I was right to do so.’

‘Quite right, Mother. Miss Callam is in no danger.’

‘Ali, why can’t you meet my eye?’

‘Believe me, Mother, you are making a fuss about nothing.’ Elise was looking at him wryly, and he reddened under that all-seeing gaze.

‘Ali, there are some laws that even you cannot ignore. I won’t ask what you’ve done, because it might be better for me not to know. But I expect you to bring this young woman to meet me tomorrow.’

‘Yes, Mother,’ he said meekly.

E LISE’Sapartment was a clever combination of royal luxury and English comfort. She was immediately above Fran’s own rooms, looking out onto the Peacock Garden, and her sitting room was filled with light. Long net curtains filled the floor-length windows and wafted gently in the faint breeze.

She rose, a tall, graceful figure in white robes, and embraced Fran warmly.

‘I have longed for this meeting,’ she said, adding mysteriously, ‘I’ve heard so much about you that it has made me most curious.’

Tea was served. It was good, solid English tea, because, as Elise explained, ‘After thirty-five years in this country I still can’t do without my cuppa.’

‘Oh, yes,’ Fran said, sipping gratefully.

They made polite small talk, with occasional interjections from Ali, until Elise said with a touch of exasperation, ‘My son, I’m sure you have affairs of state to attend to.’

‘No today,’ he said, smiling at them both. ‘If I leave you may talk about me.’

‘Certainly we are going to talk about you. Please go away at once. Can’t you see when you are not wanted?’

He gave a wry glance first to his mother, then Fran, before reluctantly leaving.

When they were alone Elise kissed Fran on both cheeks and smiled.

‘I knew you would be beautiful,’ she said, ‘from the effect you have had on my son. But you are more than beautiful. Speak to me quite frankly, I beg you. Are you here of your own free will?’

‘No,’ Fran said, and Elise’s face darkened.

‘We will talk of that later,’ she said heavily. ‘For now, tell me how you met.’

Fran described the first evening, and what had happened subsequently. When she came to the part about the cheque, Elise said, ‘Ah! Now I understand something that has been puzzling me. Come with me.’

She took Fran’s hand and led her into the next room. Fran stopped dead on the threshold. This room didn’t belong to a female forced to live in retirement. This was a business office, complete with desks, filing cabinets and all the latest equipment.

Two young women were busy at computers. They rose and bowed when the princess entered, and she waved them lightly away. Under Fran’s astonished eye she went to a third computer and began to tap in some figures. A file opened on the screen and Elise beckoned her to look.

‘Normally Ali gives the ICF one million a year,’ Elise observed calmly. ‘When he suddenly added another hundred thousand I couldn’t understand it. He never does such things without first consulting me.’

‘A million?’ Fran echoed in dismay. ‘And-consulting you?’

‘I handle all his donations to foreign charities.’

‘All his-?’

‘About twenty million a year.’ Elise gave her lovely smile again. ‘My dear, have you fallen for the legend of the playboy who spends every penny on himself? How unwise of you!

‘Ali maintains this grandiose palace because it’s expected of him, but the oil revenues are spent first on his subjects, and only afterwards on himself. I must show you some of our hospitals. They are simply the best equipped in the world.’

‘But why didn’t he tell me this instead of just saying loftily that he wouldn’t discuss it?’ Fran said in frustration.

‘Because he is a prince,’ Elise said, amused. ‘He doesn’t feel he has to explain himself to anybody. You take him on his terms or not at all.’

‘And all those things he told me about not discussing serious things with women-’ Fran said with mounting indignation.

‘He was probably trying to annoy you. And it’s true that he wouldn’t talk with a strange woman, nor does he appoint women to his cabinet. He makes an exception for me because I am his mother. In this country, a man who does not respect his mother is considered a disgrace.

‘I remember years ago, in England, my own brother once quarrelling with our mother and telling her to shut up. No Kamari man would speak like that to the woman who gave him life.’

She gestured towards the computer.

‘He takes his charities very seriously indeed, and they are all in my hands. If people wish to solicit donations they come to me, not to him. I visit them, and advise Ali according to what I discover. That is why I have been out of the country recently.’

‘And I thought it was a shopping trip.’

‘Well, I indulged myself with a little shopping as well.’

‘I can’t take all this in,’ Fran said, dazed.