AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He looked down at the photos she held in her hands. ‘How long were you alone with him?’
‘A couple of hours.’
Now Ilyas knew she was lying. He well knew Hazin’s reputation and he could see how easily he might be framed. In fact, Ilyas had warned him over and over to be careful so as to avoid a scandal such as this.
He accepted, though, that this Maggie might be innocent at some level and might not have known it was all a set-up.
‘When you slept with my brother—’
‘I’ve told you,’ Maggie shouted now, but it was like screaming into the wind; her words simply swallowed. ‘Nothing happened.’
‘Oh, please.’ He completely dismissed that notion. ‘What were you doing, idling the hours away with my brother alone in the cabin?’
‘We were talking.’
He gave a mocking laugh. ‘I wasn’t aware my brother was such a good conversationalist,’ Ilyas said. ‘So tell me, what were you discussing?’
Maggie didn’t answer.
It had been a private conversation.
She had told Hazin that she was feeling a bit flat, he had asked why, and she had mentioned it was the anniversary of her mother’s death. The conversation had gone from there.
She looked now at Hazin’s elder brother and knew that what had been said had never been meant for Ilyas to hear.
‘I’m not involved,’ she said, instead of answering him.
‘Youareinvolved, and heavily so, in an attempt to bring down my brother.’ He waved his hand in rude dismissal and addressed the maidens. ‘Take her out.’
Maggie was led away and taken to an area where a large vessel was filled with water. There, the maidens pulled the photos from her hands and moved to undress her.
‘Leave me!’ she shouted, but the maids persisted so she shouted it again and fought against them.
Ilyas heard the fear in her voice and closed his eyes. His intention had been that the maidens assist her, but the note in her voice made him accept she did not understand that.
‘Get off me,’ Maggie shouted, and then they halted, only not because of her orders.
She heard his voice call out something and the women moved away. As they did so she could see concern in their expressions.
One said something and pointed to a curtain as she left.
Alone, Maggie stood trying to gather her thoughts and mute her own terror. When she pulled back the curtain, she saw that it was a sleeping area lit by lanterns.
It was far more lavish than the one from which she had been hauled.
It was actually far more lavish than any she had known.
On the plump bed there lay a muslin slip that, when she examined it, Maggie guessed was intended for her to sleep in.
There was a huge mirror against one of the walls and Maggie looked at herself.
Her hair and clothes were full of sand and she could perhaps see why the maidens and even the Sheikh himself might have decided that a bath and a change of clothes might be in order.
Sheikh?
He was also the crown prince.
Her mind swept back to the conversation she had had with Hazin and what she had gleaned from it about his fractured family.
