A Summer Smile

that I’d share with him.”

“I’m not that competitive. I don’t need you to bare your soul to me to give me an advantage over Bradford.”

Relief surged through her, making her almost light-headed. “All right. Not now, then. I’ll tell you soon though.”

His hand reached out to brush his knuckles over her lips to the curve of her jaw in a gentle caress. “When you’re ready, I’ll still be here to listen.” His hand dropped away and he was suddenly on his feet. “But, if I’m going to make sure you’re still around, I’d better get you back to the house and see that you get some breakfast.” His hand reached down and he pulled her up. “You’re still on the sick list.”

She shook her head. Daniel was being very much the big brother again. Yet she wasn’t as discouraged as she might have been. The morning had been so full of beauty and revelation that it had planted a tiny seed of hope. Daniel did care about her. Perhaps even more than he realized. If she nurtured that seed, perhaps it would blossom as beautifully as this lovely poppy in her hand.

She reached up and tucked the green stem of the flower into the top buttonhole of Daniel’s blue shirt. “Yes, let’s get back,” she said lightly. “Or Pandora just may swipe Oedipus again and come looking for us!”

Pandora appeared surprisingly unconcerned when Zilah walked into the room. She was sitting cross-legged on the Oriental carpet by the bed scratching Androcles’s belly and she glanced up with a grin. “Will you look at that? I think he’s going to start to purr any minute.”

“Could be.” Zilah dropped down beside her on the floor and gingerly patted the cub’s head. “I think he’s grown in the last week.”

Pandora nodded. “I know he has,” she said sadly. “It won’t be long before I have to give him up.” She brightened. “But not yet.” She picked the cub up and put him over her shoulder like a baby about to be burped, her hand lazily scratching the tiger’s furry nape. “Have you had breakfast?”

“Daniel and I ate in the breakfast room when we came back from our ride.” Zilah raised a brow quizzically. “You seem to be very casual all of a sudden. What happened to all that mother-hen clucking?”

“You’re well now.” Pandora shrugged. “You don’t need it anymore. I could tell when my father examined you yesterday that it was only a matter of form. He didn’t think you were ill any longer.”

“Well, then why wouldn’t he release me?” Zilah asked, puzzled. “You have to be mistaken.”

“I’m not mistaken.” Pandora’s lips curved in a bittersweet smile. “I’ve learned to read my father very well over the years. I don’t know why he didn’t release you, but it wasn’t because you weren’t entirely well. Maybe Philip told him not to. My father likes the lifestyle Philip provides here in Sedikhan. He does what Philip tells him to do.”

“I hardly think your friend, the sheikh, is craving my company to that extent,” Zilah said dryly. “Though I admit he’s been very courteous when our paths happened to cross lately. I’m hardly on his list of favorite people.”

“But Daniel Seifert is on that list,” Pandora said calmly. “And Daniel wants you.”

Zilah felt a shock jolt through her. “Daniel is my friend,” she said huskily.

“He wants to go to bed with you,” Pandora said bluntly. “He watches you all the time. I bet he can scarcely keep his hands off you.” She lowered her lashes so their length veiled her eyes. “I know how a man looks at a woman when he wants to sleep with her. I’ve seen it often enough.”

Philip and his many khadims? Zilah felt a surge of aching sympathy for the child-woman who was Pandora.

“You’re wrong about Daniel,” she said gently. “He doesn’t want me in that way.”

Pandora shrugged. “You’ll find out. I don’t know what you’re so uptight about. You want him too.” She glanced up suddenly. Her magnificent raven-dark eyes were sharp as diamonds. “Don’t you?”

Zilah didn’t answer for a moment. “Yes, I want him,” she finally said softly. “But I also love him. The two don’t come in separate packages for me, Pandora.” It was strange to say the words aloud. She felt lighter, as if a burden had been lifted from her.

“Nor for me either,” Pandora whispered, rubbing her cheek against the cub’s soft fur. She closed her eyes. “Isn’t that funny? Philip never has a problem like that. Neither does my mother.”

“Your mother?” Zilah had somehow thought Pandora’s mother was dead. The girl had never spoken of her before.

“My mother’s on her sixth husband now,” Pandora said. “She’s one of the beautiful ones.” She opened her eyes. “She’s an actress. Not a very good one, but then, she doesn’t have to be.”

“Your parents are divorced?”

“Since I was three. My father hates her,” Pandora said dispassionately. “I don’t hate her. She isn’t cruel or heartless or anything like that. She’s just selfish and likes to have a good time. She insisted I come and visit her in Hollywood four years ago and she was quite nice to me.”

Quite nice to her own daughter? Somehow the phrase was more poignant than a brutal condemnation would have been. “You were probably very easy to be nice to.”

Pandora shook her head and suddenly the sadness was gone from her face. She grinned mischievously. “No, I was hell on wheels even then. She was glad to see me leave. Did you know that according to myth, Vulcan created Pandora out of clay?”

“No, I didn’t know that.”

“Well, he did. But Philip says I definitely don’t have feet of clay. He says they have to be hooves.” Her eyes were twinkling. “I asked him if he meant a horse’s hooves or Satan’s cloven hooves, but he wouldn’t tell me. He said that either concept would fit admirably.”

“It sounds like him.” Zilah got to her feet. “I have to leave now. I promised to meet Daniel at the pool at eleven for a swim. Do you have enough books to keep you occupied or should I go to the library and pick up a few more?”

“I have enough.” Pandora’s expression was suddenly speculative. “I may give Androcles a bath. Tigers are supposed to be able to swim, aren’t they? I wonder if it’s instinctive or if they have to be taught.”

“Oh, dear, now you’re giving him swimming lessons?”

“If he’s going into a wildlife reserve, he has to have all the skills to survive,” Pandora said earnestly. “I’m sure it won’t take long. Androcles is very clever.”

“You don’t mind if I use the bathroom first to change into my swimming suit and braid my hair?” Zilah asked politely. “If it wouldn’t be too much bother?”

“Am I being pushy?” Pandora asked a little uncertainly. “You don’t really mind our being here, do you?”

Zilah tousled the top of Pandora’s silky head affectionately. “I like having you here,” she said as she turned toward the bathroom. “You’re good company.” She sighed. “I’m even growing fond of that blasted tiger cub.”

Zilah had reached the bathroom door when Pandora spoke behind her. “Daniel does want you. Maybe if he doesn’t love you now, it might come afterward.” Her voice was wistful. “You might have a chance, at least.”

“That’s assuming that you’re right.” Zilah kept her voice firmly under control. “And you’re not right, Pandora. Not this time.” The door closed softly behind her.

Daniel replaced the receiver of the telephone and turned away from the desk to accept the drink Philip was holding out to him. “Three down, one to go.”

“Donahue?”

Daniel nodded. “They captured three of the terrorists this afternoon trying to cross the border back into Said Ababa.” He took a sip of brandy. “Hassan wasn’t with them. They’d had a slight difference of opinion and split up.” Daniel smiled grimly. “These three decided they wanted to stay alive.”

“You think he’s still on your trail?”

“Probably,” Daniel said. “According to his dossier, Hassan is almost as fanatical as his brother. He won’t give up easily. Starting tomorrow I want a guard on Zilah’s door.” He made a face. “Not that she’ll need it with Pandora staying in her room. I haven’t even been permitted through that sacred portal since she arrived on the scene.”

“Really?” Philip’s arm halted midway in the act of lifting his own drink to his lips. “That’s curious. I knew she was displaying a most unusual devotion, but I can’t see Pandora as a chaperone. I would have thought you would have objected more vigorously. I take it you’re not sleeping with the lady?”

Daniel was silent.

“Even more curious,” Philip said. “It’s not like you to waste opportunities. You wouldn’t want to tell me why you’ve developed this superhuman restraint at this stage in your life?”

“No, I don’t think I would,” Daniel said quietly. “I don’t think it’s something that you would understand.”