exactly as he pleased.
She heard a key turn in the lock and looked up quickly, but it wasn’t Ali. Two girls, dressed in the plain garb of maids, entered and inclined their heads respectfully towards her. One of them glided into the bathroom and began to run water into the sunken bath. Fran silenced her instinctive rebellion. She felt hot, sticky and tired, and the idea of a bath was suddenly very attractive.
The water was deliciously scented. Fran sank down into it and began to soap herself. Outwardly she was acquiescent. Inwardly she was planning just what she would say to Ali when she saw him. But when would that be? Rasheeda had hinted that she might be left here for a long time before that happened.
When she was ready to climb out of the bath the two maids held up a white towel to wrap around her. She finished drying and looked around for her clothes. There was no sign of the plain green tunic she had worn to enter the country.
Instead, one of the maids made a smiling gesture to some elaborate robes in peacock-blue that were hung up ready for her.
‘I’d rather wear my own clothes,’ Fran said firmly. ‘They’re in my bag. Where is it, please?’
One of the maids frowned. ‘Bag is missing,’ she said. ‘These are your clothes.’
‘Oh, no, they’re not. If your master thinks he’s going to dress me as one of his fancy women, he can think again!’
‘Please,’ the maid begged, ‘do not speak disrespectfully of master.’
‘I’ll say a few disrespectful things to his face when I see him. I want my bag.’
They stared at her blankly.
Against all reason Fran dug her heels in. ‘I’ll wear my own clothes or nothing,’ she said firmly.
Turning her back on them, she sat down on one of the heavily cushioned sofas, pulling the towel around her, and wishing it were larger.
Behind her she could hear whispering, as though the maids were conferring together about how best to cope with her rebellion.
‘I am not giving in about this,’ she said, as decisively as she could manage.
‘That’s my Diamond,’ said an amused voice.
Fran leapt up and whirled around. Ali stood there, arms akimbo, regarding her sardonically. The maids had vanished.
‘You!’ she said angrily. ‘How dare you?’
Ali grinned. ‘How dare I what?’
How dared he stand there looking so handsome, and so assured? That was the thought that scorched across her brain before she could stop it, but she quickly substituted, How dared he behave so disgracefully?
‘If this is your idea of a joke, then it’s misfired badly,’ she said with dignity.
‘Tell me.’ He folded his arms and regarded her.
‘I’m here to write a story-the one you promised me. You thought it would be very funny to dump me in this place and lock the door. All right. It was funny. But now it’s “joke over” time and I want to start getting serious.’
He looked her up and down, taking in the towel and the bits of her that it left uncovered. It reached only just to the top of her thighs. At the upper edge it was twisted into a makeshift knot just above her breasts, but with every breath she took Fran could feel it threatening to come loose. She put a protective hand over the knot, wishing Ali would stop looking at her in a way that showed he understood the danger as well as she did.
‘But I am serious,’ he said at last. ‘Diamond, for a woman who prides herself on having a brain, you are easily deluded. I told you once there would be no interview and no story. I haven’t budged from that position, and you were naive to imagine that I would.’
She heard the words but could hardly take in their meaning. It was simply too monstrous. ‘You-never meant to talk to me?’ she breathed.
‘Not for a moment. Money, business, politics- these things are not the concern of women. I told you that, but you wouldn’t believe me.’
‘You lured me here on false pretences. You had no right-’
‘But you should have guessed that I’d do something like this. You knew I was the kind of man who would never forgive an injury.’ He took a step closer, looking down at her. For a moment there was a hint of menace in his soft voice. ‘How foolish of you to forget that.’
‘What injury? I’ve never harmed you.’
‘You forced my hand over the cheque. That stung my pride.’
‘Your pride!’ she scoffed.
His voice changed, became harder. ‘The ruler of a country must be a man of pride. If not, he is unfit to rule. I could not allow an insult to go unpunished. You invaded my home in disguise-two disguises if you include the night we met. You thought you were very clever, but you weren’t as clever as you imagined. I decided it was time you had a lesson in reality.’
‘Reality?’ she echoed, hardly able to believe her ears. ‘You call this reality? Putting me with your concubines?’
‘You have only yourself to blame. You challenged me, and I took up your challenge. The next move is yours.’
‘Yes, and it will be, when people start asking questions about my disappearance.’
‘But when will that be? You told me yourself, nobody knows you came to work under cover in my house. Your friend Joey is away on another job. You have no family. Who will know that you are gone?’
‘And bringing me here on someone else’s passport…?’ she whispered.
Ali nodded. ‘Nobody will know that you have left the country, much less where you are.’
With mounting anger she realised the full horror of her situation.
‘All those questions you asked me last night about how I was going to tell my confederates?-you were checking whether it was safe to kidnap me. You were planning this then.’
‘I’m a man of foresight.’
She made one last attempt.
‘Ali, this has gone far enough. I want my bag, my clothes, and I want to get out of here.’
He laughed softly. ‘Oh, my Diamond, you are wonderful. You have no weapons, you are completely helpless in my power. Yet you speak with such authority, as though you had only to command and I must obey. I tremble in my shoes.’
‘I don’t believe this,’ she said in a shaking voice. ‘I’m dreaming, and I’ll wake up soon.’
‘I wish you the sweetest of dreams, and I hope they will all be of me. But when you awake you will still be here. And you will remain here, at my pleasure, until I decide otherwise.’
‘You’re utterly mad,’ she breathed. ‘You must be, to imagine that you can turn me into a concubine- number 37!’
He laughed. ‘Well, I have to admit that I don’t actually have thirty-seven. This is simply the only room with a lock on the door. The others don’t have to be locked in. They enjoy serving their country.’
‘Well, this isn’t my country, and I have no intention of serving it in your bed,’ Fran said emphatically. ‘If the others are so keen, why not stick to them?’
‘If you knew how often I’ve asked myself the same question. But you tease and provoke me as they do not.’
As he spoke he placed the back of one finger on her shoulder, and trailed it down the length of her arm. The touch was light, almost imperceptible, but it was enough to send tremors through her whole body. When he removed his hand she could still feel the tingling all down her arm.
She took a deep breath, trying to stop herself from shaking. It dismayed her to discover that her physical response to Ali was as intense as ever, even now when she was furiously angry with him. Of course he’d counted on that. He expected her to collapse before his male potency, and if it was the last thing she did she would prove him wrong. She lifted her head and met his eyes defiantly.
‘I demand that you release me,’ she said.
‘Magnificent,’ Ali murmured. ‘At this moment I admire you more than ever.’
‘Did you hear what I said?’
