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Before going to our temporary home, I made a brief stop at the tiny tent Alan had set up for my use as a private toilet, for which I was infinitely grateful, since the rest of his company simply used open latrines.
“Thanks for being my bodyguard,” I told Az when he escorted me back to our temporary digs. Beyond the row of tents, I could see Alan still sitting at the long table, talking to his father and Etienne.
“It is my pleasure,” he said in his deep, thickly accented voice. “I will guard the falcon’s dove with my life.”
“The falcon. Is that what you call Alan?”
“Aye,” he answered, making a little bow in Alan’s direction. “Since he was a young boy, he has ever had a fondness for birds, and spent many a long hour in with the falconer, learning his ways.”
“Interesting. It explains why he has bird decorations everywhere. Well, thank you again. I appreciate you taking the trouble to follow me around. Good night.”
He held open the flap for me, waiting until I lit an oil lamp before dropping it. I had a quick wash, brushed my teeth with the repulsive tooth powder I’d bought in town, and got into bed with Leila’s book, wondering how long the imperator would keep Alan, and how hard the former was going to fight to get Alan to marry the duchess.
I remembered hearing about her from Jack. She was set to marry William the day we were going to be hung for treason, but then the Moghuls attacked, and evidently the wedding was delayed. I guess they called it off after that. I had no idea why, and frankly, I didn’t care so long as Constanza kept her grubby hands off Alan.
The question was, could Alan outright defy his father? “If he can’t, it’ll be over for us,” I told the book, not seeing the words on the pages. “I won’t be anyone’s bit of fluff on the side, not even Alan’s. Oh, goddess, why is everything so horribly tangled up?”
I resigned myself to a long night, one filled with doubts and worry and heartache.
Warmth at my back woke me up. I froze for a moment at the feel of something pressed against me, my brain muzzy with a disturbing dream. “Alan?”
“Did you think I would never return?” he murmured, one hand around my front, caressing my breasts, the other sliding down to my hip, and lower to my thigh. “My father enjoys hearing himself talk, but even he has limits.”
“What time is it?” I asked, arching when his hand stroked up my thigh, and teased flesh that was more than happy to wake up and party with him.
“About three hours from dawn. My father wishes to go hunting once the sun is up, but I must have you before I leave.”
“I like the sound of that ... whoa. New position? This is ... oooh!”
Alan pulled my upper leg back over his, positioning my hips so that they were tilted, giving him access to where he knew he would find a welcome, and welcome him I did when he eased into me. “I’m sorry, love, but all I could do was think of you while that Etienne droned on and on. I know you said you were fast, but perhaps you’re not—”
“Oh, yes I am. I so very am. Do it now. Right now,” I moaned, desperately wanting to turn so I could touch him, feel him against my chest, but at the same time enjoying this new angle. He seemed to reach places that he’d never touched before. “I think ... oh, god yes to the hip swivel ... I think you found my G-spot. Holy hamsters, yes, that’s definitely it.”
“I don’t know what that is, but since you seem to enjoy it—” His hips flexed with strong, piercing movements, his hand on my abdomen, pulling my hips to him with every thrust. He built an amazing pressure inside of me, one that seemed to make my whole body tighten around just one point, the fullness of him combined with the different angle hitting all the sensitive spots inside pushing me inexorably into an orgasm that had me tightening all my muscles in spasms of absolute pleasure.
Alan groaned my name as he, too, found his release, pressing deep into me a couple of times, which was enough to generate little aftershocks in me.
“So, that position gets an A plus from me,” I said, turning so I could kiss him, his lips warm and sweet. “Mmm. You’ve been drinking mead.”
“My father favors it,” he said, pulling me close, his chest drawing me in as it always did. “And yes, that is now a favorite position. I hadn’t tried it before, but we will add it to the list of preferred methods of lovemaking.”
“It’s right up there with orange oil in the bathtub. Do you have to go hunting in the morning? If it’s so close to dawn, you’ll only get a few hours of sleep.”
“Unfortunately, yes. It is something my father enjoys, and he requested it specifically. Are you going to yell at me now about Constanza?”
I smiled against his mouth, nipping his lower lip. “You know me so well. I won’t yell, but I do want to ask you one thing.”
“No,” he said, pulling me against him. “I do not want to wed her.”
“Silly.” I pinched his side, breathing deeply of his delicious scent. It was very masculine, now tinged with the results of our lovemaking, but even without that, he smelled like ... I had a hard time pinning down the scents that teased me. Something faintly spicy that I assumed was his shaving soap, but there was another layer, something that made me feel very feminine. “I was going to ask if you can defy your father.”
“I can, I have, and I will continue to do so if I need to,” he reassured me.
“Good.” I sighed, and pressed my face into his shoulder, twining one of my legs between his. “Then I have nothing to yell at you about.”
“I’m sure you’ll find something, but not concerning Constanza. Hallie, promise me that you will not go anywhere without all three guards.”
“I have no intention of doing so. I was going to go into town, because I really want to start an anti-corset league for the ladies there, to show them that they don’t have to be slaves to the steel-caged fashion, but I can have a day reading in bed instead.”
“I think that might be a better idea. Do not stir from the tent without the guards.”
“All right,” I said, yawning, and snuggling into him, strangely happy despite the threat of having the imperator and Etienne breathing down our necks.
I trusted Alan to keep us both safe. He was, after all, a famous warlord. Who else could keep others from messing with us?
It’s amazing sometimes just how wrong I can be about things.
What seemed like ten minutes later, but was probably a couple of hours, Alan shook me awake. “Hallie.”
“Mmrf?” I cracked open an eye to see him pulling clothing out of the chest belonging to his sister. I wondered if he’d even had time to sleep, since he was fully dressed. “Are you going off to slaughter animals now?” I made kissy sounds before snuggling back into the feather bed. “Have fun.”
“You have to get up. Here, these look like they go together.” He shoved a couple of pieces of clothing at me.
“What?” I sat up, frowning. “Why do I need to get dressed? I don’t want to go hunting with you or anyone else. I’m against blood sports.”
“You’re going into town.” His voice was grim and flinty.
“Why?”
“Because I’ve changed my mind. Etienne may not have recognized you, but I don’t trust him not to make some excuse while we’re out and return in order to do you harm.”
“Why would he do that if he didn’t recognize me?”
“I said he may not have recognized you. I don’t know for certain that he did not do so. If he did, and hid it, it must be for some foul purpose.”
I thought about that for a moment, then hurriedly pulled on the clothes Alan held out, snatching up the soft linen bag I usually wore under my shirt that had the remains of my funds, and tucked into it the book I was reading before slinging it across my chest. “Normally I would say you were being overprotective and a worrywart, but from what I’ve heard of Etienne, if he knows it was me in El Kef, then I’d really rather not tangle with him. Where am I going?”
“The house of the headman. I’ve paid him to keep your presence quiet. You must be quick, though. I don’t want anyone seeing you leave.”
We crept out of the tent after Alan had a quick look around first; then we booked it to the line where the horses were tied, Alan leading me past them and out into the wilds for another five minutes, before he stopped at a large outcropping of dusty rocks. Az waited there, along with Yussuf and Ajay, all three of them mounted, with Delilah looking particularly dejected.
“Go,” Alan said, kissing me hard and fast. “I’ll bring you back later, when the hunt is over. Do not go anywhere alone.”
“Are you kidding? I just know if Etienne does me in, your dad will have you married to that Constanza chick so fast, your head will spin. I have to stay alive just to save you from that horrible future.”
He smiled, and heaved me onto Delilah’s back. “I will hold you to that, dove. Now, fly.”
We flew, if by “flying” you mean trotting, which was more than fast enough for me. We hit the town of Tozeur just as the sun’s peach fingers stretched across the sky, and made it to the headman’s house without anyone seeing us but a couple of goats and a small boy who was herding them to a field filled with scraggly shrubs.
The headman turned out to be a very nice old man, white haired and with a lined face, his wife just as ancient, but they made us at home, offering me the only private room in their house. Neither of them spoke anything but the most primitive English, and since my only other language was French, we didn’t communicate until Yussuf offered to translate.
I helped the woman, whose name was Hiba, make some of the flatbread consumed locally, petted the small dog who followed her around until I caught a flea leaping off the dog and onto my arm, then sat in their minuscule bedroom and read for a few hours.
By midday, I was bored, and going nuts.
“Would it be OK if we went to the oasis and had a swim?” I asked Az.
He sounded scandalized when he answered, “You wish to bathe in the oasis waters?”
“Not bathe, swim. I could wear my undies and ... right,” I said, realizing that although I badly wanted to help emancipate women, I wasn’t going to be able to do it starting with Az. “OK, so a swim is out. What about a walk? Can we take a walk? Just the four of us?”
He shook his head. “The prince would not like it. He wishes for you to stay here until he returns for you.”
“But Etienne isn’t here. Even if did want to hurt me, he has no idea I’m in town. What if we walked to the north? That’s the opposite direction of the camp, and it’s even less likely that we’d run into Etienne there. Plus, I’ll have all three of you to protect me.”
It took a good ten minutes of wheedling, but at last Az agreed that I could take a short walk, but only to the north, and we had to stay off the road.
The region around Tozeur was filled with dried riverbeds called wadis, sharp, dusty rock outcroppings, a variety of scraggly shrubs that seldom grew taller than three feet, and numerous date trees. To the south, beyond Alan’s camp, the terrain turned to undulating waves that transitioned into the sand dunes of the Sahara, while to the north, the land was arid and uninspiring. But I was determined to take pleasure in every minute of it as we strolled along the middle of a wadi, taking delight in the few birds that flitted high overhead playing hide-and-seek amongst the date trees. The wadi swung to the east, and Az stopped us, saying we needed to turn back.
“You’re a party pooper,” I said, unwilling to go back to house arrest. “All right, all right, I know, it’s not safe. Let me just pop up to the top for a second so I can see what the landscape is like—then we’ll go back.”
Az grumbled, but pulled out a skin containing wine, taking a pull on it while I scrambled up the wadi bank. As I crested it, I stopped, staring with first surprise, then horror at the white-and-black airship that was moored about fifty feet away, my appearance startling an armed guard who spun around to look at me.
I looked at the guard. I looked at the giant Black Hand image on the forward-most envelope. I looked at the group of people who were lounging around outside open cargo doors, all of whom stood and gawked at me.
“The prince’s woman!” one of the men said in French, pointing at me.
“Oh, shit,” I swore, and for a fraction of a second, the immediate future was laid out before me just as if someone had filmed it. I saw my three guards streaming up over the wadi bank, only to be slaughtered by the approximately fifteen Black Hand men. That I was caught was not disputable—they had me, and I knew it. But I’d be damned if I sacrificed Az, Yussuf, and Ajay because I had to take a walk.
All that went through my mind while one second passed to another, and then I was running, racing away from the wadi at a speed that I had not, to that point in my life, ever achieved.
There was a shout that I feared was from Az, but I didn’t slow down to look back. I ran like I was trying to qualify for the Olympics, leaping over small rocks and shrubs, heading, for some reason that I couldn’t explain, for the road that snaked northward. If I could just get the Black Hand guards far enough away from Az and company, then perhaps they would survive.
As best I can figure it, I lasted about a quarter mile; then the fact that I wasn’t in the shape of someone qualifying for the Olympics caught up to me.
As did Etienne’s men.
The first one to reach me launched a flying tackle that ended up with me flattened, the breath knocked out of me, and my mouth full of dirt. I limped and swore as the full contingent of men hauled me back to their airship, but even though I spat out dirt and invectives equally, I didn’t see any bodies near the wadi. I sent up a little prayer that Az and company had gotten away, my mind so busy with that, I didn’t even object when I was tossed into a small, airless storeroom on the airship.
I sat there for what seemed like an interminable time, guilty, angry with myself, trying to think of an explanation for Alan—assuming I ever saw him again—and in general utterly miserable. The incarceration reminded me of the time a year before when I’d been imprisoned on a trumped-up charge. I’d survived then by going over the acts of revenge I would perform on my captors, lovingly detailing them, as well as thoughts of what I’d do when I returned to my own world.
This time, my thoughts spun around Alan, just as if he was a lodestone. If the guards had gotten away and told him I’d been captured, what would he do? Would he come after me? Try to take down Etienne? Would his father stand for that?
I was confident that Alan wouldn’t just wash his hands of me, but realistically, was there anything he could do? “If his dad is so damned insistent that they work with the Black Hand, then he won’t be able to do anything against Etienne without causing a civil war, and Alan isn’t stupid. He knows he can’t win that.”
I gnawed on my lower lip while I worried, suddenly sitting upright when I realized that not only had I fallen asleep, but the floor under my feet was vibrating in a familiar manner.
The airship was moving. I peered out a small, grimy porthole, barely able to see a few wispy clouds and rolling brown earth sliding away beneath us.
At that moment, the door behind me opened, and Etienne himself stood with a smug smile on his face. “How very thoughtful you were to deliver yourself to me. It’s almost as if you know of the many plans I have for you.”
I slumped back on the narrow cot, my heart sinking. I was well and truly in it this time.
