A Canopy of Rose Leaves (12 page)

But Deborah remained rooted to the spot.
Kheyr
was no, she knew, and she was certain that
bale
meant yes, but what had the girl been trying to tell her?

‘Merci,’
she said dispiritedly, realising that they were never going to make the other understand anything without so much as a phrase-book to help them. She wondered how it came about that the Persians used the French word for thank-you as often as they used their own. She grimaced as her foot struck a lump of rock in the uneven ground sending a shooting pain through her foot. She would have to do something about her blisters, she thought. If they went septic on her she would be in serious trouble, because the last person she would allow to treat her would be Reza! When she regained the tent, she took off her shoes and drew closer to the inadequate, smoking lamp in the centre of the tent to look at them. The blisters had rubbed raw and were bleeding in places. She washed them as carefully as she could, wishing she had some plasters, or even some ointment to help them heal. Tomorrow, she decided she would refuse to walk a single step! Not even the Khan could make her move if she had decided that she wouldn’t! Reza wouldn’t even try. How strange it was that she had actually liked that young man, when now she could only think of him with contempt and an acid dislike for being so stupid as to imagine that she had wanted to visit his mother in order to see more of him.

When she had done all she could for her feet, she sat cross-legged on the cotton mattress and tried to compose her thoughts. There had to be some way that she could escape through her own efforts. The Khan, at least, didn’t dislike her. If she appealed to him again—

She heard the sound of footsteps outside her tent and her blood froze. That they were male she had no doubt. The women all walked with that swinging step that moved them almost silently over the ground. This was a weightier step, one that sounded angry and impatient to her listening ears, and the masculine curse that was let loose as he became involved with the flap across the entrance of the tent could only have come from one man.

‘Roger
!’ Deborah was off the mattress and across the tent before she had time to think, hurling herself into the arms of the embodiment of the man she had been terrified she would never see again. ‘Oh, Roger, I was so afraid you wouldn’t come!’

‘It’s no thanks to you that I have,’ he retorted grimly. He held her away from him, examining her appearance with such marked distaste that she tried to turn away from his piercing gaze. ‘You took a hell of a lot for granted,’ he went on in the same bitter tones. ‘I’m beginning to see why Ian felt he had to get away from you!’

‘Oh, that isn’t fair!’ she exclaimed.

‘Isn’t it? Then you’d better start explaining exactly what you’ve been up to. You look a mess—’ He glanced down at her feet and the intake of his breath was plainly audible. ‘It didn’t turn out the way you hoped, did it?’ he added more gently.

She shook her head, hoping she wasn’t going to cry again. ‘Mrs. Mahdevi isn’t really an American at all,’ she murmured. ‘She’s an American national, but she’s really as Persian as any of them.’

‘So Toobi told me,’ Roger said, tight-lipped.

Her eyes widened. ‘She did? Then why on earth didn’t you tell me? You could have told me—you could have told me many things and I can’t think why you didn’t! I thought it was all my fault that this happened, but it isn’t! It’s just as much yours!’

He stared back at her. ‘It won’t do, Deborah,’ he said. ‘It makes little difference what she is. I warned you clearly enough that Reza wasn’t thinking about you in the platonic way you imagined. What did you expect when you went off with him completely alone and without telling anyone what you were about—?’

‘Maxine knew!’

‘Maxine is as empty-headed as that fool of a brother of hers! Why didn’t you tell
me
what you were up to?’

It was impossible to tell him that! Her mouth suddenly had gone dry. ‘Maxine isn’t empty-headed,’ she said.

‘She is at the moment! The only thing she can think about is that painter fellow she’s got staying with her. She couldn’t take her eyes off him when I was trying to find out what she knew about this escapade of yours!’

The contempt in his voice hit Deborah hard, but her curiosity overcame her immediate timidity. ‘What’s he like?’ she asked.

‘He’s no beauty,’ he answered. ‘He looks like a gorilla and is about as well-mannered. But I’ll say one thing for him, he has Maxine back at work—at her own work, what’s more, not just fetching and carrying for him. I imagine he finds her hero-worship a bit cloying, but he’s obviously fond of her. He might even marry her if she’ll settle for his terms, instead of the romantic dream she’s been brought up to believe that there’s only one remedy for unfaithfulness and that’s divorce.’

‘There’s another remedy,’ Deborah put in. ‘He could be faithful to her.’

Roger gave her a look that made her blush. ‘My dear girl, David Edgar uses his body as an extension of his eyes and paintbrush. He wouldn’t know what you’re talking about!’

Deborah sank down on the cotton mattress, determined not to let him see that he had embarrassed her. ‘I hope he won’t hurt her. I’ve grown to like Maxine very much. She’s not as confident as she looks.’

‘Nor are you,’ Roger said drily.

‘No,’ she admitted, not looking at him. She lifted her head a little. ‘I’m sorry to have put you to the trouble—’

‘The trouble! If
you
had taken the trouble to tell me that you were taking off by yourself, I’d have stopped you if I had to bind and gag you to do it. At least I wouldn’t have been put in the ridiculous position of finding I’ve inherited a bride from my younger brother because my family is too poor to repay your dowry!’

‘Oh,’ said Deborah.

He glared at her. ‘Perhaps the Khan misunderstood your story?’ he suggested with crushing sarcasm.

She preferred to ignore that. ‘I don’t see how you could have stopped me from doing as I pleased,’ she said instead. ‘I was very keen to meet Mrs. Mahdevi. I thought she’d help me get Qashgai craft products for the shop. She would have done if Reza hadn’t been so peculiar! I think she was almost as appalled as I was!’

Some of the angry tension left his face. ‘To tell the truth, I find Reza’s reactions a great deal more understandable than yours,’ he said. ‘You have a very kissable look to your mouth.’

Sadly shaken, she stole a glance at him and wondered that he could find anything in the situation to amuse him. ‘Will you take me back to Shiraz now?’ Her lips trembled, and she caught the lower one between her teeth to hold it steady, lifting her chin in the air because she was too proud to let him see how close to tears she was.

‘Not tonight.’

‘But—but we can’t stay here!’

‘Thanks to the fairy-tale you spun the Khan we haven’t any choice. He only half believes that you are promised to me, and Reza doesn’t believe it at all. If I want you, I must take possession of you tonight—’

‘But that’s barbaric!’

‘It was you who invented the situation,’ he reminded her. ‘Would you prefer me to leave you to Reza’s tender mercies?’

She shook her head, effectually silenced. ‘I’m sorry, Roger,’ she said at last. ‘I didn’t intend to embarrass you. You have every right to be as beastly as you like, only I don’t think I can stand very much more.’ Her voice trembled. ‘I was so frightened and it was the only thing I could think of to tell them. When the Khan sent a message to Howard, I didn’t think he’d take it seriously enough to pass it on to you, and I almost went out of my mind worrying about it. Roger, I know you don’t like it, having to involve yourself with me, but I haven’t I been punished enough?’

His eyes glinted at her in the subdued light from the lamp. ‘You were right about Howard,’ he said. ‘It was Toobi who came and told me where you had gone. Like you, she seems to believe that I have some kind of responsibility for you and never doubted for an instant that I would fetch you back so that you can go on plaguing the life out of me! You have quite a way with you, little one. Toobi is your undoubted slave and even the Khan was full of praise because you had told him you weren’t in the least bit afraid of me!’ He came across the tent towards her. ‘Another fairy-story, Deborah?’

If it was, she wasn’t going to admit it. ‘Just because you don’t like me,’ she began, ‘everyone doesn’t have to—’ Her eyes darkened as a new thought struck her. ‘What do you mean that I plague the life out of you? I haven’t seen you often enough—’

‘It doesn’t take much time,’ he said. He dropped down on his knees beside her, putting his hands on her shoulders. Then suddenly he reached forward and kissed her lightly on the nose. ‘Well?’

‘I thought you didn’t like me!’

‘I dislike you just about as much as you dislike me,’ he told her. He smiled against her lips, taking a slow possession of her mouth that took her breath away. She shied away from him, but his hands restrained her, sliding from her shoulders, down her back to her hips. For an instant she resisted the pressure of his mouth on hers, but then her lips parted beneath his and she flung her arms round his neck to draw herself closer still to him.

‘You’re hurting me,’ she whispered at length.

He released her slowly. ‘You’re a fraud, Debbie Day. You’re more afraid of me than you’ll admit!’

‘I’m afraid of myself,’ she said.

She sat up, buttoning up her blouse with hands that trembled, more than a little ashamed of the wanton desire she felt to cast herself into his arms. ‘Please, Roger, couldn’t we go back to Shiraz?’

He touched her cheek with an explorative finger. ‘Not tonight, my love. First thing tomorrow I’ll take you to the hotel at Persepolis where my mother is staying, but tonight the Khan intends that we shall stay right here.’

‘Won’t your mother be surprised to see us?’

His finger reached her ear and he gave a gentle tug to the lobe, pulling her face round towards his.

‘Not as surprised as she was when I took off like a bat out of hell and left her stranded on her own there. ·Toobi couldn’t find me at the university and managed to persuade one of my students to drive her out to Persepolis to see me—a girl student, so you needn’t look like that. Not even for you would Toobi have driven alone with a male of the species!’

Deborah ignored that. ‘I’d like to meet your mother,’ she murmured in a social tone that made him laugh. ‘Well, I would,’ she added, ‘I don’t see that that’s anything to laugh about!’

He leaned up on his elbow. ‘What will you do if she decides you belong to me too?’ he asked her lazily. ‘She won’t have much sympathy for you over losing Ian. She didn’t care for love and marriage for herself, but she has very old-fashioned views when it comes to her son. Only the best is good enough for me!’

Deborah gave a little shrug of her shoulders. ‘I knew we’d come back to your need for perfection sooner or later, but you’ll never find it!’

‘No,’ he agreed, ‘perhaps not. Certainly not in a girl who hasn’t the sense to stay out of trouble for two minutes put together! First the Shah Cheraq Shrine, then Reza, and then, not content with that, you throw yourself at my head by telling the world that you’re expecting me to marry you for your dowry! It would serve you right, young woman, if I did share your bed tonight! The Khan seemed to think that nothing would give you greater pleasure!’

She turned her back on him, unconsciously straightening her shoulders. ‘You’re not very kind. What else was I to tell the Khan? If he believed that I’m in love with you what does it matter?’

In reply, he turned her round to face him, holding her close against his chest, kissing her with a relentless passion that she did her best to resist, finally abandoning herself to his caresses with a response that threatened to get out of hand. When he pulled away, she felt deserted and defenceless. ‘You make me lose my head all too easily!’ he exclaimed. ‘I’ll take a couple of the blankets and go and sleep on the other side of the tent.’ He touched her face, pushing her hair back out of her eyes. ‘Goodnight, little one. Sleep well!’

He doused the lamp, leaving her cold and alone in the darkness. She might make him lose his head she thought in despair, but there was no danger of his losing his heart to her.

CHAPTER TEN

With
the light grey eyes hidden, Roger looked younger and much more approachable. Deborah wondered whether to wake him or not. It had been a long night and she had slept little. Every muscle in her body ached a protest and the blisters on her feet had smarted badly, sometimes waking her from the dozing sleep that was all she had been able to manage. She tried to tell herself that her restlessness had had nothing to do with Roger, but it had. She had spent much of the night wondering what he had against marriage. If she had been another person, she knew he would have made love to her last night. It might even have been the start of a long, leisurely affair, but why wouldn’t he marry her? Was he afraid of marriage? Or was it because, although she attracted him physically, he didn’t love her in the way he wanted to love the woman he made his wife and the mother of his children?

She leaned down and kissed him lightly on the lips and his eyes opened and looked up at her.

‘Playing with fire?’

She nodded, smiling. ‘Do you mind?’

‘Not if you don’t mind getting burned.’

Her gaze wavered before his. ‘I wish I didn’t mind,’ she said, ‘but I do.’ She moved away from him. ‘I could never be the paragon you want if I tried for a million years. I don’t even like perfection!’

‘You might come close to it, but how long would it last? You wouldn’t be the first woman in my life and how long have any of them lasted? It’s always the woman who loses, Debbie.’

‘But I wouldn’t lose if I were with you!’ she said.

‘I’ve seen it all before,’ he said wearily. ‘When Ian let you down you had the shop to help you through it. With me, you’d have nothing. I have a jealous nature and I’d be damned before I let you go on working with anyone like Ian!’

‘I wouldn’t have to see him. You’re in Persia, he’s in England.’

‘That’s about the only good thing about it as far as you’re concerned. Thank God he did marry someone else, or you might have found yourself subject to his blowing hot and cold—if he ever does blow hot, which, from what I know about you, I very much doubt!’

‘There’s no need to talk like that! You make me sound like a freak. I can’t help it if I never felt like that about Ian. I didn’t know one could!’

‘Exactly, but if you’d ever been my fiancée you’d have found out long since! A cold fish, that brother of mine, and not a particularly likeable one! The Derwents are no good to you, Deborah Day. All they’re likely to do for you is to ruin the little confidence you still have in yourself, and I have no intention of completing the demolition job that Ian began. I can’t help the blood we share, but I don’t have to ally myself with him in any other way.’

He rolled back the blankets and squatting easily, began to fold them ready to put back on the mattress. Deborah watched him, knowing that she ought to help him, but her muscles were too painful to make it easy for her.

‘You’re not at all alike,’ she said. ‘All you share is the same surname. You don’t even look alike.’

‘You should know!’

He turned his head and smiled at her. He was not usually a gentle person, but he could be. She knew that now. Where his heart was given he would protect, make many impossible demands, and always be sure that his way was best for both of them, but he would never wilfully hurt her and he would always be open to reasonable argument.

‘How are the feet?’ he asked her.

She grimaced. ‘Better—I think. I’m not sure I shall ever walk again, but they’re not actually bleeding any longer.’

His smile grew broader. ‘You do look a bit of a wreck at that,’ he said. ‘Was it that that kept you awake?’

Deborah wondered what he would say if she told him that it had been he who had done that. She sighed, beginning to think that he was right and that Ian had had a disastrous effect on her confidence. Anyone else—Maxine for example—would have known exactly how to handle Roger Derwent, so why didn’t she?

‘Partly,’ she compromised. ‘A hot bath might have helped with the stiffness. The Khan was going to lend me a donkey for today, but I don’t think I could have got up on it. And to think these women walk such distances every day!’

He stood up and she caught a sudden glimmer in his eyes and she felt shy. It was ridiculous to be so conscious, but she could not have been more aware if he had put his arms round her and kissed her again as he had kissed her the night before. She could almost feel her lips burning beneath his and the wild pounding of her heart was decidedly not her imagination.

‘Roger?’ she said uncertainly.

His mouth tightened. ‘You’ll be able to wash at the King Darius Hotel. My mother will let you have the spare bed in her room, if they’re full up, and you can sleep your fill without anyone disturbing you. Okay?’

She bit her lip. ‘What will your mother do?’

‘I’ll take her to Persepolis—’

‘Without me? You’ll do nothing of the sort! I’ve always wanted to see Persepolis! I saw it on the television when they made that film of the celebrations for the twenty-fifth centenary of the Persian monarchy and it was simply beautiful! You couldn’t leave me behind!’

He put out a hand and touched the collar of her blouse, making it stand up under her chin. ‘But you’re so tired, my girl. Wouldn’t you like to have a good sleep first?’

‘Yes, but I want to see Persepolis too!’

His hand was gentle against her throat. ‘What a child you are! You shouldn’t be so greedy when it comes to experience. You have years before you in which to visit Persepolis and do everything else you want to do.’

‘But you can’t be sure of that, can you?’ she said seriously. And the opportunity to see Persepolis with him might well never come again. ‘I want to have lots of memories when I’m old. What’s childish about that?’

Yet the Khan had told her she was childish too, expecting the world to bow to her when she went by. Inside, she didn’t feel young at all. She felt old and grey, with the constant vision of defeat and loneliness before her, for it was not in her nature to love twice as she loved Roger. Where he was concerned she was the beggar who bowed to him, glad of any roses he threw in her direction. For her there was no one else who would do as her particular ‘minstrel of the night’.

‘It’s unexpected—’

Her eyelashes fluttered, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to challenge him with a look as she wanted to do. ‘I think you feel safer if you can think of me as a child,’ she said.

‘Safer?’ His eyes lit with a sudden brilliance. ‘What about you? Do you feel
safe
with me?’

She nodded. ‘Of course,’ she said.

‘Then you shouldn’t,’ he advised her. ‘I can only bring you harm!’

She shook her head. ‘Never. Not you. I know you better than that.’ She hesitated. ‘I know I was taking a lot for granted, just as you said, by using you to get myself out of a scrape, but I’m grateful to you for coming all the same. I’ll always be grateful to you for that.’

Roger let go of her collar. ‘I’m glad to have been of service,’ he said formally.

‘And you’re not cross any more?’

‘Deborah, are you by any chance flirting with me?’

Her eyes were wide and innocent. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said slowly. ‘Maxine is the girl for flirting. I’d have to take lessons from her before I started on you. She says that one look from you is enough to turn her mushy inside, and you don’t do that to me, so perhaps I’m not in love with you after all.’

‘Very likely not,’ he grunted. ‘How do you feel when I look at you?’

‘Warm and happy,’ she answered.

‘Deborah!’

His fingers bit into her shoulders and his mouth took possession of hers with an abruptness that startled her. There was none of the tenderness she had come to expect in the embrace, only the demanding hardness of his lips demanding her surrender in a kiss that deepened and became more passionate as he felt her quivering response and heard the little sob of sheer happiness that escaped her as he left her mouth and ran his lips up her cheek to her eyes and then back to her mouth again.

The slight sound of a cough behind them brought them back to their senses and they fell apart, Roger as much in control of himself as he always was, even a little amused by Deborah’s hot cheeks and embarrassed expression.

‘Good morning, Aga,’ he said coolly. ‘I was just coming to find you before my attention was diverted by other matters.’ He took a step forward, half hiding Deborah from the bright, interested gaze of the Khan. ‘I wanted to thank you for your hospitality—to us both.’

‘It was a pleasure,’ the Khan assured him. He threw a quick smile to Deborah. ‘Knome Day was afraid you might not come, but now she can be certain she is well loved, no? Yesterday she was saying you might not love her enough; today she knows better.’ He laughed out loud. ‘Today you are certain, are you not?’

Deborah’s hand trembled in Roger’s. ‘I should have had more faith, Aga,’ she admitted. ‘When we visited the garden of Hafez an old man there told me that these were the days of roses, jasmine and celebration for me, but I was afraid that Roger would think I’d brought my troubles on my own head and leave me to get out of them as best I could.’

The Khan looked kindly at her. ‘The Aga is not a man to allow his prize possession to be taken from him, whatever you tell me happens in England. I think he is more than a match for my poor brother.’

Deborah thought so too. ‘I’m sorry to have made Reza unhappy,’ she said.

‘The pain is fleeting. He will soon marry among his own people and my mother will be satisfied. In other circumstances I should have been pleased to welcome you to my family, but you will be happier with your professor. Are you still unafraid of such a man?’ he inquired.

Deborah could think of no answer to that. She was more than relieved when the two men shook hands and went out together to make the final arrangements for Roger’s and Deborah’s departure.

It was only as she got into the passenger seat beside him that Roger gave her an ironic smile. ‘Did you really doubt that I would come for you?’ he asked.

She nodded, unable to say a word. His hand covered hers briefly before he slipped the heavy jeep into gear and drove away from the Qashgai encampment.

‘You underrate yourself,’ he said.

The hotel where Mrs. Derwent was staying was only a mile or so away from Persepolis. Deborah caught a glimpse of slender columns rising high into the sky as they made their way across the Marvdasht plain, and she wondered what the city of palaces had been like before Alexander had burned it down. Excitement flared within her as she saw a pair of storks had taken up residence on the top of one of the columns. Storks were lucky, everyone agreed, so perhaps they would be lucky for her.

‘Won’t your mother wonder where we were last night?’ she asked Roger as they approached the modern building of the hotel, built, so she found out later, to resemble one of the fabulous palaces of old.

‘I doubt she’ll ask you any embarrassing questions,’ he answered, with a swift smile. ‘She won’t consider it to be any of her business.’

‘But you’re her son!’

‘We cut my leading reins by mutual consent a long, long time ago. We both appreciate our independence too much to interfere with the doings of each other. Even as a child I went my own way and made my own mistakes.’

It sounded rather a chilling creed to Deborah. ‘There’s a difference between loving interest and interference,’ she said.

‘Tell that to my mother. It will give you something to talk to her about.’

Deborah smiled. ‘I’d rather she didn’t write me off as one of those modern, impertinent young women who have no respect for their elders, so I’ll hold my tongue. I daresay she had a different way of showing her love to my mother, who fussed unceasingly over me from the day I was born.’

‘I expect you were a more lovable child,’ Roger acknowledged. ‘I was always in trouble with my elders and betters, whereas I’m sure you were a well-mannered infant who knew exactly how to twist the most awkward adult around your little finger.’

‘Don’t sneer,’ she replied. ‘I didn’t always get my own way. And you don’t do so badly yourself in that field, do you?
I
wouldn’t take you on once you’d made up your mind to something!’

He laughed. ‘I thought you had courage enough for anything?’

Deborah thought about that. ‘I’d have to be sure you wanted it too,’ she amended her claim. ‘Absolutely sure.’

A fountain was playing outside the entrance to the hotel. Deborah stood in its lee while Roger parked the jeep out of the way, enjoying the cool drops of water against her face. She tried to pretend to herself that she wasn’t nervous at the thought of meeting Mrs. Derwent. She rather hoped that she was less formidable than Roger, but everything she had ever heard about her hardly backed up that hope. When Roger joined her he smiled at her strained face.

‘She won’t eat you, Debbie.’

‘I want her to like me,’ she said. ‘She might not. I don’t think anyone at home was very kind to her.’

‘It was a long time ago,’ he said. ‘Mother doesn’t bear grudges, little one. That sort of thing doesn’t matter to her as much as it does to most women. Don’t expect too much, will you?’

She would try not to, but she knew that Mrs. Derwent was her most likely ally.

‘Why does it matter so much?’ Roger queried, laughing a little as he held the door open for her to enter in front of him.

She smiled and laughed a little herself, but she didn’t answer. She thought he knew very well why it was important to her.

But whatever she had been expecting, Mrs. Derwent came as a surprise to her. She was a tall woman with awkward, angular movements, and a bony, intelligent face which she dusted with a powder that was several shades too light for her skin. Her hair was caught back in a would-be bun at the back of her neck, held in place by a few dangerous-looking pins that scattered wherever she went, allowing a lock here and there to escape, giving her a wild look that was accentuated by her habit of running her blunt fingers through the front wave whenever she got excited.