Page 51 of Desert Barbarian

'When will I be released?' she asked, afraid of anger­ing him any further.

'When it is dark,' he promised, smiling again. 'I will drive you somewhere and release you.'

The hours seemed to pass with appalling slowness while Marie waited for the moment of her release. She could not eat the food Sarwana brought her. She could only sit staring at the thin slits of light filtering through the shutters.

At last it was dark and she was led out, once more blindfolded and gagged. The drive was bumpy and un­pleasant, over rough terrain; they were not, she realised, driving back the same way they had come. At last the car stopped. She was pushed out roughly, the car reversed and sped away with a grinding of gears.

Marie hurriedly untied her blindfold and removed the gag with hands that shook.

Then she stared around. She stood in the dark road on the outskirts of a small village. The lights shone with friendly invitation just a few hundred yards away. She stumbled and ran towards them, and knocked on the first door she came to, her body trembling with the long tension of the last few days.

The door creaked slowly open and a dark face peered cautiously out at her.

'Help me,' said Marie, clinging to the door frame. Her knees were buckling under her, as if she could no longer maintain the pretence of being calmly under control.

The face withdrew. Voices chattered inside the house, then someone else came to the door. Marie held out an appealing hand, realising that they could not speak Eng­lish and were more frightened of her than curious. They were amazed by the appearance of an English girl in their village at such an hour, and suspicious of her reasons for wandering about without masculine protec­tion in the dark.

She had no money on her, no way of explaining her predicament. She held out her hands again, plead­ingly. 'Lhalli,' she said. 'Me… go to Lhalli… Lord Hathni…' She began to recite the names of the royal family, watching them intently.

They looked at each other, shrugging. One of them made a gesture to her, speaking loudly to the others, then he ran off into the darkness. A moment later he was back, leading a reluctant and irritable-looking mule by a rope halter. He gestured to Marie to get on the animal.

She managed to climb on to its back, looking at him nervously as he took up the halter. He turned and nodded to her, giving a shy smile.

'Lhalli,' he said, nodding. 'Lhalli…'

Then they set off into the night along the rough, rutted hill roads in the dark, moonless and haunted by the howls of jackals and the floating wail of hunting owls. Bumping and clinging to the mule for grim life, Marie felt herself wearily wishing she could just lie down and die. It was all too much for her.

The throb of an engine reached her ears suddenly, making her sit up and stare ahead. Like yellow eyes in the darkness, the headlights of a lorry shone straight at them. The peasant drew the mule to the side of the road to let the lorry pass, but instead it ground to a halt with a crash of gears, and from the back of it sprang a dozen soldiers in the palace uniform. Shouting, brandishing guns, they surrounded Marie and the peasant. The peas­ant cringed in terror, wailing, then Marie recognised Aziz descending from the lorry cab. He was grinning delightedly.

'My dear Miss Brinton! How glad I am to see you alive and well.' He glared at the peasant. 'You will suffer for this, animal!'

'He had nothing to do with it,' Marie assured him quickly, laying a hand on the unfortunate old man's shoulder. 'He just helped me when the others had dumped me in his village…' She told Aziz how she had been released and he spoke more kindly to the old man, drew out a handful of coins from his purse and pushed them into the old man's trembling hand. Hurriedly, with many bows, the peasant vanished into the night. Marie was not sorry to see the back of his mule, which moved much faster now that it was heading homewards, she noticed.

Aziz helped her gently into the lorry. The soldiers climbed aboard and the lorry slowly reversed. Aziz told her as they drove back to Lhalli that his cousin had been quite horrified by her kidnapping, especially since Stonor had been almost beside himself with rage and anxiety. They had searched everywhere they could think of, all the known haunts of Jedhpuri rebels, but they had found no clue as to her whereabouts.

'So the King had to give way. He could not risk your life. Mr Grey would never have been prepared to invest in our country if you had been killed.' Aziz looked at her, and smiled, relapsing into silence.

Marie was fast asleep, her head slumped against his shoulder.

CHAPTER NINE

SHE woke up when the lorry stopped outside the palace gates. Aziz smiled at her, his glance mischievous. 'Mr Grey will be jealous when he learns you have slept on my shoulder for so long! Are you stiff? Come, let me help you down.' He lifted her down and put an arm around her as her knees gave way. 'Shall I carry you? Can you walk?'

Marie shook her head. 'It's only cramp.' She flexed her calf muscles, grimacing at the pain. 'I can walk now…'

Lights still burned everywhere in the palace, but curi­ous sentries stared as they passed along the marble cor­ridors. Whispers preceded them. A soldier ran ahead to warn the King, and as they approached the royal apart­ments the King himself appeared in the doorway, his face tired, fully dressed.

'Miss Brinton! Heaven be praised! You are safe! Those dogs kept their word, then. We had begun to think…' he broke off as Stonor arrived, his bandaged shoulder impeding him.

Marie looked at him, her whole being concentrated on his face. He was white, his dark eyes like bottomless wells in his face. He stood over her, staring down as if he had never seen her before, searching her face with stark intensity.

'You will wish to speak alone,' the King said quietly, clearing his throat, 'Please, use my room.'

Stonor took Marie's arm in his free hand and propelled her firmly past the King into the room. He paused be­fore closing the door to thank the King, then shut the door and leaned against it, staring at her.

Marie was so nervous she could barely breathe. The room seemed to be full of electricity, like the sky before a storm.

'God!' Stonor groaned. 'Oh, God, Marie…'

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