LITMIR.BIZ

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      She laughed out loud as a brightly colored bird flitted across the man’s path, startling him. He lifted his head to follow the bird’s flight, revealing a deeply tanned, hard-boned face, cheeks creased, teeth bared in a smile. For several seconds he seemed to look right at Leila, and her breath caught, stifling the laughter. Oh, she knew he couldn’t really see her. She was well concealed behind the balcony’s intricately carved screen. It was just that he had such a nice smile.

      “That one,” she said in a conspirator’s whisper to the woman beside her. “Who is he—the one in the hat? I saw him yesterday at the wedding. He must be an American.”

      “Oh yes, Princess, he is—and not only that, but from Texas.” The servant Nargis threw a guilty glance toward the divan where her mistress, Leila’s sister Nadia, had her nose—and her attention—safely buried in her sketchbook. She lowered her voice anyway. “His name is Cade Gallagher. The princess—er…Mrs. Elena invited him. Salma heard her tell Madam Alima that he is her guardian.”

      Leila made a derisive sound, forgetting to whisper. “Do not be silly. Elena is an American. In America women don’t have guardians.” She couldn’t keep a note of envy out of her voice. Her new sister-in-law was only four years older than Leila, but so smart and sophisticated, and the head of her own company! And still she had managed to attract and win the love of a handsome and powerful man like Hassan.

      Nargis shrugged. “It is what I heard.”

      “Perhaps Elena only wished to honor the customs of our country,” said Leila’s sister Samira in an appeasing tone, laying aside the needlepoint she’d been working on and coming to join them. “You know that since the death of her father, she has no family of her own. This man may be a distant relative, perhaps a friend or even a business associate. Anyway,” she added, gently chastising, “if Hassan has agreed to have him here as a guest, there can be nothing improper about it. You should not gossip, Leila.”

      Leila hooked her arm through her sister’s, not in the least chastened. “Oh, but look at him, Sammi—do you not think he is handsome?” But at the same time she was thinking that the word “handsome” really did not suit the tall man in the gray suit and cowboy hat. It seemed too pale and feminine a word, somehow.

      “He seems very…rugged,” said Samira after a moment’s consideration, voicing Leila’s very thoughts. “Quite imposing, really.” She tilted her head sideways as she thought about it. “It would be difficult not to be intimidated by such a man.”

      “Oh, I know,” Leila teased, rolling her eyes, “you’d prefer someone more suave…someone smooth, someone sophisticated—” she pointed “—like that one there—the dark, beautiful one with the impossibly gorgeous eyes.” And much too aware of how gorgeous they are, she thought with disdain. She didn’t know quite why, but she found something about the man vaguely unpleasant. Rather like food that had been cooked in too much grease. “And…is he not the one I saw talking with you yesterday?”

      “That is Desmond Caruso, Princess,” Nargis interrupted eagerly, pleased to be the bearer of information that would make her once more the center of attention. “He is one of the Sebastianis—you see, that is Duke Lorenzo with him. And the woman with the red hair is Duke Lorenzo’s new wife, Eliza. She is an American, too, you know.” Her voice dropped to a gleeful whisper. “A newspaper reporter.”

      “Really?” As always, Leila’s interest perked up at the mention of America, and she did not stop then to wonder why Samira had suddenly gone so pale and silent.

      “Really—you three are the worst gossips,” said Nadia, making a tsk-tsking sound. But she said it good-naturedly as she, too, came to join them at the screen.

      There was a little silence while the four women watched the shifting patterns below in the gardens…people gathering, greeting, moving on. Sounds drifted up to them on the balcony…the tinkle of water in the fountains, snatches of laughter and the murmur of conversation.

      “Well,” Leila said flatly, “I do not trust a man who is that handsome.” A small, involuntary shiver surprised her. Funny—the same thing had happened to her when she had seen him talking with Samira yesterday in the corridor near the great hall. Something about the man was definitely off, but Leila did not mention it. No one would take her seriously anyway. She smiled with lowered lashes and added in a voice like a purr, “I much prefer the tall American. Do you not think he looks like a cowboy? Even dressed in a business suit?”

      Samira smiled indulgently. “Oh, Leila, you just like Americans. You have a fascination with that country.”

      “Why not?” said Leila, tossing back her long, black hair. “America is fascinating.”

      “How do you know?” Samira asked with a trill of laughter.

      Leila could feel her cheeks growing warm. “Hassan evidently thinks so. And Elena has told me about America—especially Texas. Since Elena is from there, it must be a very wonderful place, must it not? She is so smart, so…” She caught herself before she could say the word in her mind—free!—and instead turned her back on Samira and addressed the sister on her other side. “Nadia? Wouldn’t you like to visit America?”

      Nadia gave an indifferent shrug. “What is so special about America? It is just…very, very big.” “But,” said Leila eagerly, “that is what makes it special.” She threw her arms wide. “It is so big. And Tamir—” she brought her hands almost together “—is so small.” She finished with a sigh. “It is hard to imagine a place so enormous.”

      Oh, but Leila could imagine it. If she closed her eyes she could see herself mounted on one of her brother Rashid’s polo ponies, riding like the wind across the green-gold fields of his farm on the outer island of Siraj, with the wind blowing back her hair and the sky cloudless and blue above and all around her and the land seeming to go on and on forever.

      Only it did not go on forever, of course—how could it, on Siraj or even Tamir? Very quickly the land ended and there were the cliffs, and below them the white sand beaches and blue-green water. Someday, she thought with a sudden and intense yearning, I want to go to a place where the land does not stop.

      “Where would you like to go in America, little sister? What would you want to do there?” Nadia was looking at her, smiling in that tolerant, affectionate way she had, as if Leila were a particularly appealing, perhaps even moderately amusing child. “Shopping, I’m sure. Perhaps…New York City?”

      Leila had shopped in London boutiques and Paris salons; her shoes were custom-made in Italy. What, she thought, would New York City have to offer her that those fashion centers did not? But she only said with a shrug and a superior smile, “I was thinking more of Hollywood. Maybe…Rodeo Drive?” But images of endless desert vistas and ranges of snowcapped mountains remained wistful and golden in her mind. Like memories, except—how could she have memories of places she had never seen?

      Nadia laughed. “Hollywood? Oh, Leila, you are a dreamer.”

      Stung, Leila said, “Why is it so impossible to think of going to America?”

      “You have no reason to go,” Samira answered in her matter-of-fact way. “Father would never allow you to make such a trip just for fun, and what other reason would you have, when Europe is so much closer?”

      Leila had to bite her lip to keep from mentioning the fact that Hassan had attended college in America. Her own education had been restricted to an all-female boarding school in Switzerland, capped off by a year in England, and her brother’s engineering degree from M.I.T. was a source of envy to her.

      “What about business?” she said after a moment. “Now that Hassan has married Elena, and she is head of an oil company—”

      “But that is Hassan’s business. It has nothing to do with you. No, Leila, dear—” Samira gave her arm a not unsympathetic squeeze as she turned away from the screen “—I am afraid the only hope you would have of visiting America

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