Page 25 of At the Sheikh's Bidding
“All in good time. Right now. I’m hungry and, you know, my memory is very unreliable without a couple of cups of coffee to help it along.” He smiled winningly. “This way.”
He led her out into the sunshine, where she could see the source of the sound of water. A table laden with food and coffee had been set beside a marble fountain. Its bright white surface gleamed under the sun, which filtered through the canopy of leaves overhead.
He pulled back the chair for her. “Please, take a seat.”
“Such excellent manners,” she murmured as she did as he suggested.
“My grandmother taught me well.”
“Ah,” she said, as she watched him pour her a cup of coffee, “your grandmother again.”
He passed her the cup. “She played a big role in my life.”
“She must have been some lady.”
“She was.” He took a sip of his coffee and replaced it on the table. “But I’d rather talk about you.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“I’m sure,” he said equably. “But, please, humor me.”
“So long as it’s about business, nothing personal.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve often found that business is based on the personal. Like in your case, for example.”
She groaned. “My business is quite separate from my personal life.”
“Hm,” he said. “I’m not so sure. Something is driving you to succeed, and if I was a betting man, I’d bet it was something personal.”
She lowered her gaze in surprise. She’d underestimated his powers of observation. It seemed he’d been speaking the truth to her last night about wanting to understand her. Hewastrying. She wished he wouldn’t.
He replaced his cup on the saucer and then reached over and took her hands in his. “Habibti, I have no wish to make you feel uncomfortable. That, I can honestly say, isnotmy intention. Quite the opposite, in fact.” He released his hands and offered her some food. “Please eat something and then we will talk about the diamond.”
She nodded, relieved at the prospect of a respite. She ate as she listened to him talk about inconsequential things, obviously designed to put her at her ease. And it worked. By the time they’d finished breakfast, she felt as if she was ready for anything. Even something more personal, after spending half-an-hour watching this man, as she savored not only the food, but his forearms, his hands, glimpses of his chest, and his face. Especially his eyes. She sighed. Those eyes–almost almond-shaped and distinctly naughty. She was almost disappointed when he changed conversation to something decidedly non-personal.
“So, the diamond,” he said decisively, as if he, too, had been tempted to talk about something quite different. “Tell me why you believe it to be here.”
Janey nodded, reining in her wayward thoughts with a frown. “Queen Mandana.”
“Ah, I know that name,” said Amare. “My grandmother spoke of her.”
“Really?” replied Janey, excitedly. “What exactly?”
“Patience, Janey,” smiled Amare. “We’ll come to that in time. First, tell me what you know.”
“Well, Queen Mandana was the principal wife of King Aryasb at the time of the wars. She had great political power and great wealth. And it was she who ruled through her husband and was in power at the time the diamond went missing, at the time Lord Gleave arrived.”
“You really don’t believe Gleave took it?” asked Amare with a disbelieving smile. “I mean, come on”—he said waving his hand as if brushing Lord Gleave aside in disdain—“the man was an out-and-out crook! He’d have taken anything and everything he could. That was, after all, what he and others like him came for.”
“He claimed he wanted adventure.”
Amare swore on an exhaled breath. It was clear what he thought of that. “He wanted wealth. Just like all the rest of them.”
“Then surely he’d have shown it off. I mean, it didn’t stop others like him showing things off. And he showed off a lot of other stuff at his home in Wales.”
“Hm, yes, that was always the odd thing. Why didn’t he give it pride of place in either his castle or the Oxford College he endowed—Gleave College?”
“Well, I can assure you it’s not there.”
