Page 18 of Mistaken

“Thank you,” she called out to the closed door, but because there was no reply, she guessed that he’d already gone.

All right, then. She sat down on the chair and poured herself some tea. The djinn hadn’t asked what she wanted, but this tasted like it was probably English Breakfast or some other mild black tea, and that was fine by her. A small bowl of sugar and a matching baby-sized pitcher filled with milk had come along with the teapot and mug. Nice of him, she supposed, but she always drank her tea plain.

Well, unless she was indulging herself in a Thai iced tea, although she had to admit she hadn’t had one of those for several years even before the Heat came along.

The muffin was delectable, moist and with the blueberries so large and juicy, they almost didn’t seem real. Sarah supposed the ingredients were like the mattress and all the other items that had come with this room, everything the best it could be because that was just how the djinn rolled.

After she was done eating, she went and brushed her teeth, and then put on a little of the makeup she’d found in one of the other drawers, a hint of blush and some rosy-toned gloss, a flick of mascara. Her reflection as it stared back at her from the mirror now looked quite polished, a definite change from the simple, outdoorsy image she’d been cultivating ever since she got to Los Alamos.

No, she almost looked like the Sarah Wolfe she’d been before, a woman who’d tried to take good care of herself so she’d always present her best face no matter who she might encounter.

Too bad no one was around to see her.

She went to the door, putting her ear against it so she could get an idea as to what her captor might be doing right now, but she didn’t hear anything.

For all she knew, he wasn’t even inside the house. With the door and the windows of her suite locked down tight, it wasn’t as though he needed to be right there to keep an eye on her.

She’d tried all of them the night before, not jiggling them so hard that he would hear what she was doing, but enough to tell her there was no way she was getting out of that room unless he came by and unlocked the door for her. Likewise, she’d gone over to the kiva-style fireplace in the corner and tried peering inside the chimney, but it quickly became obvious to her that nothing bigger than a cat was getting up there.

The utter silence outside her suite didn’t prevent her from calling out, “Hey!”

Almost at once, she heard him respond, “What is it you need?”

To get the hell out of here,she thought. However, since she doubted he’d comply with that request, she didn’t even bother to ask.

“Something to keep myself from going crazy with boredom,” she said at once. “Books. An iPad. A computer. Anything.”

“I see,” he said politely. A pause so long that for a moment, she thought he’d gone away, but then he added, “And what is your name? I realize I did not ask.”

Took you long enough.But again, she kept the thought to herself and instead responded, “Sarah. Sarah Wolfe. And you?”

“Abdul,” he said briefly.

“Abdul what?” Because even she knew that djinn names had a patronymic kind of surname, with everyone being “al-this” and “al-that.”

“Only Abdul. I will see about getting you some form of entertainment.”

For a moment, she wondered if she should press him further about his name. But she once again caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and saw that an iPad had materialized on the chair opposite the one where she’d sat and eaten her breakfast.

The tablet wasn’t password-protected, so when she woke it up, she saw at once that it had been loaded with a veritable library of popular books, and that it also was stocked with movies and music and games. Maybe it wasn’t quite the same as the gorgeous multi-story library the Beast had given Belle in the movie, but it should still keep her occupied for quite some time.

“Thank you,” she called out.

No answer. By now she was beginning to get used to the way Abdul would provide her with something she’d requested and then leave, so she wasn’t quite as surprised by the lack of response as she might have been even the night before.

All right. She still had every intention of getting out of here, but at least in the meantime, she wouldn’t drive herself mad by pacing around her luxurious prison.

Tablet in hand, she sat down and began to read.

Chapter7

As far ashe could tell, the tablet computer he’d provided for Sarah was keeping her occupied, for he heard no further sounds from her that morning. But even though he’d done as she asked and should have been able to dismiss her from his thoughts until it was time to inquire as to her lunch preferences, she lingered in his mind nonetheless, like the faint traces of a perfume left behind even after its wearer had long since left the room.

She seemed to have accepted her captivity with some equanimity after her initial protests, although he thought that wasn’t so strange. After all, she was a human, and, as far as she knew, he was a djinn, and therefore she did not have many options for escape, not when she was so grossly outmatched.

If he had no need to fear any further escape attempts, Abdul was not quite sure why he should continue to feel unsettled. After a while spent in contemplation of the situation — a time during which he wandered out to the pond he had created near the house, and was gratified to see that a family of ducks had already taken up residence there — he realized there was a perfectly plausible reason as to why Sarah Wolfe would continue to linger in this thoughts.

This was the first time in his very long existence that he’d had another person dwelling in his home. Unlike the djinn, who generally had many partners during their long lifetimes, he had lived alone, apart. And unlike Ibram and Istar, who had found solace in a relationship with another of their kind, there was no one in the world precisely like Abdul. He had made his peace with the situation millennia ago, but still, he had to admit that the current situation was a novel one for him.

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