Page 16 of Her Loving Hero

“I’ve heard talk at the American School. Some of the kids who work at the Embassy say their parents are talking about how the trouble in Yemen is going to spill over to us here in Muscat.”

Emily thought about the capital of Oman that was a good twelve hundred kilometers from the Yemen border. It made no sense that problems from Yemen could spread that far.

“How is that even possible? Muscat is too far away, it would hit Dhofar, way before then.” Emily stood up from the bed and started pacing. “Anyway, it makes no sense. Oman is one of the few countries taking in the displaced Yemenis, and the Sultanate of Oman has been bending over backwards to get all the different factions in Yemen to talk and maybe come to some sort of accord.”

“You’ve been gone for a while,” Carly said wryly. “You don’t know everything. Trust me, thinks are hinky.”

“Is Dad acting weird?”

“Not that I can see. I even questioned him and told him what I’ve heard, but he says there’s always gossip, and I shouldn’t worry my pretty little head about it.”

Emily heard the hurt and frustration in her sister’s voice.

“Honey, don’t you believe him. Butter wouldn’t melt in Dad’s mouth. He’s been trained not to say anything to anyone. You know that, right?”

Emily was at her desk and firing up her laptop. How had she missed things heating up near her family?

Carly didn’t answer.

“Sweets, are you still there?”

“I’m here. You were always the smart one, remember? He would have confided in you.”

Emily snorted. “Carly, he loved all of us in his way, but he never paid attention to any of us. The only time he really sat up and took notice of me was when I took that tutoring job in Saudi Arabia. He was just really excited to be able to tell all his diplomat friends that I was working for a Saudi prince.” Emily’s voice trailed off.

Emily looked at the date that she had last logged onto the closed chat room for Oman expats. It was an exclusive club that very few people ever got invited into. Dang, it had been five weeks ago. No wonder she didn’t know anything about anything.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories,” Carly said quietly.

“You didn’t.”

“Then why did you go quiet?” Carly asked.

“I was checking up on some things. Did you know about the three fires in Dhalkut?”

“What are you talking about?”

Emily read fast. “According to one guy that I know, he’s saying that the authorities are trying to keep things under wraps at the border. Things that they are obvious terrorist attacks, but authorities are claiming they are accidental fires or just run-of-the-mill crimes. They don’t want to get anybody worried.”

“Wouldn’t word have spread? What about journalists?” Carly asked.

“The international press wouldn’t be interested with everything that’s been going on in North Korea and Syria.”

“What about local Omani press?”

Emily tore off her sweater, she was too hot. She set down her phone and put it on speaker. “Carly, if the authorities want to suppress a story, they do it. They either bribe or intimidate.”

“That’s not true, I read the papers here in Muscat and they report on scandals all the time about the Sultanate.”

Emily laughed at Carly’s naivety. Any real story was definitely squashed, she’d learned that up close and personal having worked for Prince Khalid bin Al Halabi while she was tutoring his two boys. She sure thought she’d known about how power was wielded before moving to Saudi Arabia, but she’d known nothing.

“I take it by your laugh that I’m gullible.”

“No more than I was at your age,” Emily sighed.

Emily typed back to Anthony, her British expatriate friend who had posted to ask if he thought it was Al-Qaeda who was behind the incidents in Dhalkut. But of course, he wasn’t on-line.

There was a knock at the door. It had to be Wyatt.