Giovanna knew he spoke the truth. Memories, so many memories. Cesare, the earl’s half-brother, telling her that the English girl behaved like no man’s mistress he had ever met. She had been so young, so golden, so proud. Her eyes sought Arabella. Young and golden and proud, like her mother.
“You have caused too much misery and grief, Giovanna,” the earl said. “You have hurt many innocent people, including your own son. It must cease.”
“You left me with Khar El-Din. You knew he held me. Damn you, you knew.”
“Yes,” the earl said. “I knew, for he wrote to me to claim his reward. I left you with him, Giovanna, because I wanted my wife to know no more fear. I have answered my own question for you, I believe. Had I arranged for you to return to Genoa, you would not have rested until you had killed my wife.”
The truth of his words hung in the silence. The earl felt no sense of triumph, only an ineffable sadness for the misery of it all, the waste.
“Madam,” Hamil said, “I am the Bey of Oran, and you are subject to my judgment. Because you are the mother of my half-brother, I will not have you killed. You will take the veil of your religion. Perhaps in the years to come you will regret what you have done. If you do not, it will not matter, for we will be safe from your schemes.” He turned to Hassan. “Escort her to Raj. Tomorrow she will travel to Sicily.”
Kamal said quietly, “No, my brother. I shall escort her to Raj.” He gazed at Arabella as if memorizing her face, then took his mother’s arm and led her from the room.
Hamil said to the earl, “You shall be repaid for the ships and goods she had taken. I am sorry that so many men lost their lives. My brother was guilty only to the extent that he believed his mother, and vowed as a dutiful son to carry out her vengeance. He is an honorable man, my lord.”
“I understand, highness,” the earl said, his gaze going briefly to his daughter.
“Now I wish to see my wife and my son. Hassan, see to our guests’ comfort.”
“Papa,” Arabella said, and flung herself into his arms. He hugged her tightly to him, his eyes closing for a brief moment.
“You smell like a horse,” he said, holding her away from him.
She grinned up at him. “You should have smelled me and seen me when I arrived here. But it is all right, Papa,” she added. “Kamal is not like her. His name is Alessandro. I love him.”
The earl tried not to be shaken at her words. “So certain, Bella?”
“Yes,” she said in her clear sweet voice.
“Life is never what one expects, is it?” he remarked, more to himself than to her.
“No,” Arabella said, “it isn’t. Papa, did you truly abduct Mother? The day before her wedding?”
“Yes, my dear. I wanted your mother, had wanted her for several years. I took her. She fought me, escaped me, nearly got herself and me killed before she decided to keep me. She is a valiant woman, Bella, and you are much like her.”
“But how could she not love you immediately?” Arabella asked in a wondering voice.
“Your faith in me is warming. I was, however, rather ruthless, you know. She was a gently nurtured young lady, and she thought she loved Edward Lyndhurst.”
“Then I am right to love Kamal,” she said with alarming certainty. “He too was ruthless.”
“I am not certain,” the earl said, “if that is a trait I much appreciate in a man involved with my daughter.”
“Well,” she said, “since I didn’t already love someone, it didn’t take me long at all to decide I wanted Kamal.”
“I see Lord Delford looking quite purposefully at me, my dear. We will discuss this ruthlessness later.”
“No wonder Lord Delford would like to send all of us to perdition.”
“I have spent six long days with Edward Lyndhurst,” the earl said. “Let us hope that he is resigned to having Adam as his son-in-law. He became quite drunk one evening.” The earl shook his head in amusement. “He was positively jovial.”
“You mean he became human?” Arabella asked, awed.
“Absolutely. Well, Adam, Rayna, you are both fit, though like Bella, you are in need of a bath.”
“Father,” Adam said, “I am going to marry Rayna.”
Lord Delford said to the earl, “You know, my lord, Rayna is my daughter.”
“I had forgotten how like her mother she was. You are to be congratulated, Adam. Well, child, do you want my son?”
“With all my heart, my lord.”
The earl paused a moment, and his brow furrowed. “I am not certain that it is a match I approve. After all, Delford, you have scarce behaved toward my son in a conciliating manner.”
“Clare—”
“I believe you even called my son a scoundrel. Scarcely a term that a father could appreciate.”
“He will change his mind, sir, when he gets to know Adam,” Rayna said with great seriousness.
“Do you really believe so, my dear? I do not know. Perhaps, Delford, you can convince me that your daughter will content my son.”
“Your jest wears thin, my lord,” the viscount said.
“Perhaps you are right,” the earl said. “Why don’t we send our children away and share a bottle of wine?”
Arabella giggled, then quickly coughed into her hands. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Yes, I would like a bath. Poor Hassan, he looks like a worried aunt, surrounded by all these foreigners. Rayna, I’ll take you to the harem.”
“Harem.”
“She will join you in a moment, Bella,” Adam said, drawing Rayna’s hand through his arm.
“I suppose,” Arabella said, eyeing the two of them, “that you want to kiss her and tell her all sorts of nonsense.”
“Indeed,” Adam said. “Now that I can forget about you, my dear, all my attention can shift to this little nuisance.”
“Nuisance? Arabella, don’t believe him. Had it not been for me, I am certain he would have done something unbelievably foolish.”
Adam flung up his hands. “All right, enough from both of you. Rayna, I swear you are no longer a nuisance. Father, Lord Delford, if you don’t mind, Rayna and I will stroll for a few minutes in the gardens.”
The viscount looked as though he would protest, but the earl gently nudged him in the ribs and led him away.
“Well, thank heaven, it’s all over,” Rayna said.
“And all of us are in one piece.” Adam smiled down at Rayna. “It would appear that I was right to have faith in my sire’s ability to bring your father around.”
“True.”
Adam kissed her and watched her follow one of the slaves to the harem. When he rejoined his father and the viscount, he heard Lyndhurst say, “I don’t like it, Clare. A harem. It’s ridiculous. You are certain they will be all right?”
“They will be surrounded only by women, my dear Edward,” the earl said. “Certainly safer than with the men they’ve decided to wed.”
“Father—” Adam said, his eyes narrowing.
“Ah,” the earl said, “here is Kamal. Perhaps you would like to accompany him, my son. I will become acquainted with him later.”
“Father,” Adam said, “Kamal is not what he appears. He was educated in Europe.”
The earl nodded.
“I had no idea,” the viscount said slowly, once they were alone again, “that Cassie had been harmed. She never told me.”
“No. It has been many years now, yet every once in a while she still dreams of it.”
The viscount accepted a glass of wine from a silent slave, and raised it in toast to the earl. “Perhaps,” he said slowly, “I should forgive, finally, all that happened so long ago. The woman Giovanna—her hatred is chilling.”
“I should be pleased if you would, Edward. It would be an excellent idea, I think, given that we shall be like to share many grandchildren in the future.”
“Not in the too near future, I hope,” the viscount said.
“My sentiments exactly,” the earl agreed.
&
nbsp; “Giovanna’s son, Kamal—what will become of him? I gather that he is innocent of his mother’s deeds.”
“I am not certain,” the earl said. “Arabella wishes him for a husband. Yes, it is a problem, is it not?”
“You could not allow it. The man is a foreigner, a Muslim.”
“At this point, I don’t know what he is. If he is as honorable as Hamil said, I fear that it will be he who will refuse Arabella. When Hassan returns, allow him to show you to a chamber, Edward. I think I shall speak to the young man.”
Not long thereafter, Ali bowed the foreign gentleman into his master’s private bathing room. Kamal had just emerged from his bath. He stood naked at the edge of the pool, his thoughts clearly elsewhere, even when Ali spoke to him. “Highness,” Ali repeated.
The earl studied the young man. He was tall, well-formed, a handsome man, but that, the earl knew, was of little importance. He carried most of his father’s features, save they were refined, purified. His body looked taut, pain emanating from him.
“What is it you want, Ali? And do not call me ’ highness’ anymore.”
“One of the foreign gentlemen to see you.”
Kamal turned around, then stood very still, his eyes locked on the earl. Very slowly he wrapped a towel about his waist and nodded dismissal to his servant.
“Your daughter lied to you, my lord,” he said. “She is not as she was.”
“My exuberant daughter is no longer a virgin?”
“No, she is not.”
“Well, you still live, Kamal, so you must please her.”
Kamal touched the healing wound on his shoulder. “She is unlike any other woman I have ever known.”
“My son tells me you were educated in Europe?”
“Yes. I had not thought to return to Oran until the supposed death of Hamil. Then I had no choice.”
“No, I suppose not. Duty is a stern taskmaster, I have always found. Pride is another.”
Kamal turned away from him, his jaw clenching. “Your daughter must wed a man of her own rank, an Englishman, a man whose honor is unquestioned.”
“My daughter refused such a paragon. It is you she wants. I have found that when Bella makes up her mind, an earthquake would have no effect. Do you not love my daughter? Do you wish to live as a Muslim and remain in Oran?”
“I wish you to take your daughter back to where she belongs.”
“You know,” the earl said gently, “you cannot be blamed for your mother’s deeds. Her bitterness does not touch you. What is more important is that you must not blame yourself.”
Kamal waved away his words. He said very calmly, “I want Arabella’s happiness. I would appreciate it, my lord, if you would take her back to Genoa as soon as possible.”
“She will not understand.”
“She will do as you and I bid her.”
“Damnation,” Adam said. “What are you going to do, Father?”
“I will do as Kamal wishes. We are all leaving on the morrow, aboard the Cassandra. Captain Sordello, as you can well imagine, is dizzy with relief at our arrival and his freedom. Yes, we will leave tomorrow, and then we shall see.”
“Where is my sister now?”
“With Hamil and Lella, admiring their son.”
“I have told your fierce husband, Lella,” Arabella was saying, “how sad you were without him. Now, if only he will see reason, all will be well.”
“Reason, Arabella?” Lella asked.
“I suggest, my lady,” Hamil said sternly, “that you keep your idiotic opinions to yourself, else I shall call my brother to remove you.”
“We will hope,” Arabella said, disregarding him, “that your son has more of his uncle in him, Lella. Look how he is clutching my finger.”
“He is his father’s son and he is trying to break it,” Hamil said.
“Arabella, what have you done to put my husband so out of temper with you?”
“I simply told him,” Arabella said, “that if he is to keep a harem, you should have one also.”
Lella blinked at her, then began to laugh, a joyous sound that made Hamil’s heart swell. “Ah, my husband,” she said, still gasping with laughter, “I have seen a very handsome young soldier. Unlike you, he has no streak of white hair on his head.”
“Lella.” He turned narrowed eyes toward Arabella. “Now that you have stirred the hornet’s nest, I suggest you go torment my poor brother.”
Arabella merely smiled, and hugged the black-haired baby once again. “That,” she said, “is an excellent idea.” Still smiling, she strode to her old room and rang for Lena.
Kamal stood alone in his chamber, a glass of brandy in his hand. He quickly downed it, feeling its warmth all the way to his belly. But it could not erase his mother’s face from his mind. She had said nothing further until he had delivered her into Raj’s care. To Kamal’s surprise, she had raised her face to the eunuch and said quietly, “You have won, have you not?”
“No,” Kamal said now to his silent chamber. “No one has won, I least of all.”
If only, he thought, he had known Arabella’s father, none of this would have occurred. He felt a lurching pain even as he thought of the man’s understanding. The earl’s dark eyes, so like Arabella’s, had but added to his pain. Tomorrow she would be gone from his life, and he would never see her again.
He struck his fist against the wall, but his inner pain was so great that he scarcely noticed.
“Master.”
He turned to face Ali, knowing that the boy knew what had happened, just as everyone in the palace now probably knew.
“Leave me,” he said.
“His highness wishes that you and he dine with the foreigners, master. We must hurry.”
To face Arabella once more. For a brief moment he pictured her beneath him, her hands on his back, open to him. He could practically taste the sweetness of her. And her bravery. A woman to swell a man’s heart with pride. A woman who would wed a man other than himself, and bear his children, not Kamal’s.
“Master, you must go.”
His dazed eyes peered through Ali. “Yes,” he said finally.
“Hassan is beside himself,” Ali said, grinning. “He is running to and fro, praising the return of Hamil, yet wishing that the both of you could rule. What will you do now, master?”
Kamal said nothing while Ali pulled his shirt over his head.
“Will you wed with the beautiful English lady? You will likely have to beat her, master. Her tongue is too sharp and would make a man’s rod soft. Ah, but what children you will make, master. Golden and proud, all of them.”
“There will be no children,” Kamal said. “Give me my belt, Ali.”
Once dressed, Kamal looked a moment about his chamber. “Have all my things removed, Ali. My brother will wish everything to be as it was.” He did not wait for his servant’s reply, but strode from the room. He stood quietly in the doorway of the banquet hall for several moments, watching all the people who had changed his life. All save his mother were there. Lella sat beside Hamil, her smile so radiant that it would have shamed the sun. The girl Rayna was dressed in a European gown, her lovely hair piled high on her head. His eyes went from Adam to the earl, and he recognized them as strong men, honorable men. Where was Arabella? She wasn’t here. He wondered if she had refused to be present. Did she now despise him? Well, he thought, it is what you want, you fool.
“My brother,” Hamil called out, waving to him. “Bring your handsome devil’s face here. My Lella commands it.”
Kamal nodded, and seated himself beside his half-brother. He felt stiff, unnatural, as if it were another man peering through his eyes.
The earl toyed with his goblet of wine, wondering how Giovanna and Khar El-Din had produced such a magnificent son. He understood the young man’s pain, but knew, for the moment at least, there was nothing he could do about it. There was a sudden silence around the low table, and he looked up toward the arched doorway. His jaw dropped. Arabella, garb
ed in shimmering yellow harem trousers and jacket, her sunlit hair down her back, smiled a small, quite wicked smile, her eyes upon Kamal.
She walked gracefully forward, her eyes never leaving his face. Slowly she sank to her knees before him and touched her lips to his boot. Her hair cascaded about her, touching the thick carpet.
Kamal flinched as if struck. “Get up,” he yelled.
Arabella raised her head and searched his face. She cocked her head to one side in question, the gentle woman’s smile never leaving her lips. “Yes, my lord,” she said. “If that is your wish.” She turned to smile at Hamil. “Is not a mere woman to show her loyalty and respect to her master?”
“Indeed,” Hamil laughed, “but not, I vow, in front of your father. You may kiss my brother’s boots in private, my lady.”
“I’ve a mind to see you dressed like that, Rayna,” Adam said. “But first I must see to having my boots polished.”
The earl watched his daughter study Kamal’s set face. There was such longing in her that he winced. He knew deep within him that, like him, she would love but once. Perhaps, he thought, she could convince Kamal that his mother’s shame did not touch him.
“You are silent, Kamal,” Arabella said.
He ignored her for the moment, nodding toward the slave boys to serve the dinner. “There is much on my mind.”
“I’m sorry about your mother, Kamal. Perhaps we will visit her in the future, if it is your wish.”
“No,” he said. “It is not my wish.”
Arabella frowned at his profile. Not once had he even looked at her since she had seated herself beside him. She wondered if she had embarrassed him with her clothes and her dramatic gesture. He seemed angry, remote, and she did not understand. The spiced lamb tasted like ashes in her mouth. She looked toward her father. “How did mother sprain her ankle, sir?”