Desert Honeymoon

Rosemary Dawson was a kind-hearted, wellintentioned control freak who refused to consider that her decisions and arrangements on behalf of her family, friends and acquaintances might sometimes be flawed or even completely disastrous.

‘Goodnight, Rosemary.’ Nicole managed to smile at her stepmother and forced herself to kiss the older woman’s upturned cheek.

Inwardly, she was close to the end of her tether. Somehow she had to escape from the stifling atmosphere in this household. Her father, she knew, was resigned to it He had married Rosemary during the long and desolate aftermath of his first wife’s death. He would abide by that commitment, no matter how severely it taxed his patience.

Sometimes it seemed to Nicole that he was no longer the same person she remembered from her childhood. Something in him had died with her mother. Even with Dan, his grandson, he was not the same carefree, lively personality he had once been.

Dan had tackled his homework as soon as he came back from school. Now, in the small bedroom next to hers, he was sitting in front of his computer. ‘Hi, Mum. Come and look at this.’

‘It’s almost logging-off time,’ Nicole said, as she picked up a stool and placed it next to his chair.

‘I know, but you must see this website. It’s brilliant!’

She rested an arm on his shoulders and looked at the screen. What she really wanted to do was to hug him tightly to her. But although she still kissed him goodnight, and Dan planted a kiss on her cheek before he got out of the car when she dropped him off at school, she took care not to be too demonstrative.

He was twelve now, on the verge of puberty when life started getting complicated...especially for a boy without a father. In looks, he took after her, with the same fair hair and hazel eyes. But the size of his hands and feet, and the way he was shooting up, indicated he was going to be a big man. It was her most fervent wish that, despite a bad start in life, he would also grow up to be a good man.

After taking her on a tour of the website, Dan closed down his PC and began getting ready for bed. At school, he was conscientious rather than clever. Team sports bored him. His overriding enthusiasm was for computers, an interest that Rosemary deplored but Nicole encouraged.

While he was in the bathroom, probably skimping his wash but giving his teeth a good brush because she had given him an electric toothbrush which kept going for two minutes, Nicole sat on the end of his bed. She wished she had had the luck, when her son was little, to meet a nice man who would have been a father to Dan and set him a good example. A grandfather wasn’t the same. Her father did his best, but he couldn’t do the things a man in his thirties would have done.

And it wasn’t only for Dan’s sake that she longed for a man in her life. She would have liked more children, a home of her own and someone to share her bed. From a personal perspective, her twenties had been as arid and empty as the Great Thar Desert. Now she was in her thirties and the few men she met were either married or had been through a painful divorce and weren’t going to make another commitment in a hurry. She had long since given up hoping that a knight in shining armour was going to materialise and whisk her off to the life of her dreams.

That just wasn’t going to happen. The only person who could make things better was herself, which was why she had answered the advertisement.

Walking from the Underground station nearest to her rendezvous with him, Nicole wondered what Dr Strathallen had written in his report on her. She now knew a bit more about him than she had at their first meeting.

Her father, who clipped newspaper articles on subjects that interested him, had unearthed a report of a lecture given by Dr Alexander Strathallen to the Royal Geographical Society a couple of years earlier. His subject had been the Rabari nomads whose traditional way of life was under threat. Probably the only reason the talk had been reported was because he had made some controversial statements about the decline in moral values in the west.

Nicole had also found out from a girlfriend who knew about such things that the restaurant where he was giving her lunch was exceedingly fashionable and tables had to be booked long in advance. Not wanting to arrive first, when she came to the street where it was and saw that it was located close to the corner, she continued along the main road, window-shopping until her watch showed twenty-nine minutes past twelve.

The restaurant had a large plate glass window allowing passers-by to see the interior. As Nicole approached the entrance, she recognised Alexander Strathallen’s hawk-like profile. He was seated on a sofa immediately inside the window and at right angles to it. But he wasn’t alone.

There were two people with him, a man and a woman. The woman was leaning towards him from the opposite sofa, talking vivaciously and then breaking off to sip from a flute of champagne.

Dismayed at the thought of being interrogated by three people, Nicole raised her hand to open the door, but had it opened for her by a friendly young man who welcomed her to the restaurant. Then a smiling girl appeared to take her coat and umbrella. Although it hadn’t rained so far, heavy showers were forecast for later. When, having handed over her things, Nicole turned towards Strathallen and his companions, she found he had already risen and was standing behind her.

‘Good afternoon.’ For the first time he smiled and offered his hand.

The smile transformed him from a somewhat forbidding personality into one of such charm that Nicole felt her insides do an involuntary flip. The feel of his long strong fingers closing over hers accentuated the reaction.

‘Good afternoon.’ She always shook hands firmly but now put all her strength into returning his clasp to avoid having her knuckles ground together. But his handshake wasn’t the crushing grip she expected. Obviously he modified it when greeting women.

Then, instead of introducing her to the others, he said to the hovering young man, ‘We’ll go straight in and have our drinks at the table.’

Apart from one young couple so casually dressed that Nicole thought they had to be from the pop music world, or showbiz, the restaurant was empty.

‘What would you like to drink?’ her host asked, when they were seated.

Nicole’s mind went totally blank. Perhaps it was the result of tension, followed by relief that the other people weren’t with him, plus the jolt of attraction, but all the right answers deserted her.

‘As we’ll be drinking wine, let’s stay with the grape, shall we?’ Strathallen. suggested. ‘Two glasses of champagne, please.’

‘Certainly, sir.’

When the young man had gone, Strathallen said, ‘I arrived early and got into conversation with a couple of Americans. Nice people, but I didn’t think you’d want to hear all the details of their itinerary. I hope coming to London again hasn’t caused any problems with your present employer.’

‘No, my working hours are fairly flexible. With all the people I’ve worked for since leaving college, I’ve always tried to give maximum input—never just the minimum required—and that’s paid dividends. They’ve been understanding when I wanted to go on courses or take an extra day off.’

‘What sort of courses have you been on?’

‘Oh...time management...computer graphics skills...that kind of thing.’

The champagne arrived and with it two large folders containing the menus.

‘To an enjoyable lunch,’ said Strathallen, raising his glass to her before tasting the pale golden wine. ‘Let’s decide what to eat and then we can concentrate on other things.’ He replaced the flute on the table and began to study the menu.

Nicole tried to match his concentration, but it was making a good second impression on the man beside her that mattered more to her than the specialities of a chef who, according to her friend, had already been awarded two Michelin stars and was said to be sure to gain the coveted third star before too long.

When the maître d‘hôtel came to explain, in a pronounced French accent, some of the choices to her, she was conscious that, although he was very good-looking and charming, he didn’t, for her, have the disturbing qualities of the darkly bronzed Scot beside her.

At least she presumed from his surname that Strathallen’s roots were in Scotland even if, like so many of his countrymen, he chose to spend his life elsewhere.

After their food and wine had been ordered, on impulse she said, ‘Does your wife like living in India, Dr Strathallen?’

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. There were no visible signs of his displeasure, but she couldn’t have felt it more strongly if he had glared at her. Perhaps he expected her to let him lead the conversation. Or perhaps he didn’t approve of being asked a personal question. For whatever reason, she sensed she had annoyed him.

‘I’m not married,’ he answered. And then: ‘My way of life and domesticity don’t mix. But why are you free of all attachments?’

The questionnaire she had filled in had required ‘divorced’ to be ticked if that was the applicant’s status. So he knew she had never been married. But searching as it had been, the inquisition hadn’t required her to state that she was a single parent. And she had no intention of revealing that fact to him now. Somehow she didn’t think he would be sympathetic. He might even consider that Dan’s existence disqualified her.

Some people wouldn’t understand how a loving mother could contemplate leaving her child, even though, hopefully, it wouldn’t be a long separation. Had Dan been younger, she wouldn’t have left him. But at this point in his life, the potential benefits outweighed the drawbacks. She would miss being with him a lot more than he would miss her.

Reminding herself that she hadn’t even got the job yet, and might never have it, Nicole said, ‘I loved someone when I was younger. Unfortunately it didn’t work out. Since then I’ve concentrated on my work. Perhaps I’ll meet someone else someday... but I’m not holding my breath,’ she tacked on lightly. ‘There are other things in life.’

‘Indeed there are—and food is one of them,’ he added, as two more of the restaurant’s staff arrived at their table, the one in the rear holding a large silver tray from which the other took a dish and placed it in front of Nicole.

She had chosen scallops as her first course. They came arranged in a circle surrounding a column of chicory. Earlier, a basket of long pointed brown rolls had been brought. As she broke hers in half and helped herself to butter, Nicole realised that she was hungrier than she had expected to be.

Usually, stress killed her appetite, and what could be more stressful than knowing that her future and Dan’s depended on convincing Alexander Strathallen that she was the best person for the job?

CHAPTER TWO

FOR some minutes they ate in silence.

Strathallen had already finished his glass of champagne and started drinking the wine he had chosen to go with the meal. Nicole still had some champagne left and planned to go easy on the wine which, judging by her glimpse of the label when the wine waiter had displayed it, was several cuts above the plonk she drank on evenings with her friends.

She liked to relax with a glass of wine when she got home from work. But her father wasn’t allowed to drink for health reasons and Rosemary was one of those non-drinkers who disapproved of alcohol as vehemently as reformed smokers disapprove of cigarettes.

She was the kind of woman who, if Nicole had kept wine in the sideboard in the dining room, would have watched to see how much she was drinking. So Nicole kept a bottle of supermarket plonk in a cupboard in her bedroom-cum-studio. The cupboard was locked because she knew Rosemary went in there while she was out. Keeping the bottle out of sight made her feel uncomfortable, but it was preferable to having Rosemary making critical remarks. She made enough of those as it was.

Closing her mind to thoughts of her stepmother, Nicole said, ‘My father is interested in anthropology. He remembered a talk you gave to the Royal Geographical Society. Perhaps it wasn’t reported accurately, but it gave the impression that you don’t think much of the way the western world operates.’

He put down his knife and fork, leaned back in his chair and gave her the penetrating look that made her feel he could see inside her mind. ‘I don’t. Do you?’

‘The west is the only culture I know.’

‘You must have opinions about it.’

She had hoped to start him talking about his views, not to cause him to quiz her about hers. ‘Of course... everyone has opinions, but they’re not always worth expressing. Mine certainly wouldn’t be worth a report in The Times as yours were.’

He shrugged. ‘They were probably short of copy for that particular issue. But we didn’t come here for me to expound my views. I want to know more about you. What do you do with yourself outside working hours?’

Most of Nicole’s spare time was spent with her son, but she couldn’t tell him that. She said, ‘I walk...I I read...I go swimming...I like to cook.’ Though, since Rosemary’s advent, her only chance to use the kitchen was when her father and stepmother went out to dinner with Rosemary’s circle of friends.

‘What sort of books do you read?’ Strathallen asked.

‘Anything and everything...mainly travel books and biographies.’

‘No fiction?’

‘Sometimes.’ She wasn’t going to tell him that, last thing at night, she often unwound in the pages of a romance. Men didn’t read romances and tended to make fun of or despise them. They were not in touch with their emotions the way women were. Instead, she said, ‘I rather like science fiction.’ This was a taste she had acquired from Dan.

‘Never tried it,’ he said, a touch dismissively. ‘But when I’m out in the desert my choice of reading is dictated by space and weight considerations. I’ll send you a list of books to read before you come to India. It’s always a good idea to bone up on a place before one arrives.”

Thank you—’ It was a few seconds before the full impact of his statement sank in. When it did, her hazel eyes widened. ‘Do you mean you’re recommending me?’ She couldn’t conceal the surprise mingled with her delight.

‘Unless you reveal some serious defect between now and the end of lunch...yes, I’m recommending you,’ he confirmed.

. Despite his amused reply, she sensed that he had some underlying reservation about his selection of her as the best of the candidates.

‘How soon can you start?’ he went on. ‘How much notice must you give your present employers? I’m sorry...’ The apology was tacked on because, in shifting his long legs under the table, his thigh had brushed against her knees.

Nicole knew the contact was accidental. He was not the type to play footsie. What disturbed her was her own reaction: an intense curiosity to know what it would be like to have this somewhat dour man make an amorous advance to her. Exciting...wildly exciting, was the next thought in her mind. And not only because he looked the way men were supposed to look—tall, lithe, with latent power and virility in every line of his body—but because there was also something primitive and untamed lurking under his seemingly civilised exterior.

She had felt it the first time they met when the memory of the caged cheetah had come into her mind. She felt it again now, so strongly that for a moment she couldn’t collect her thoughts and answer his question.

Then she pulled herself together. “Six weeks... is that all right?’

Walking back to his friend Kesri’s apartment, a place the Prince seldom used himself but kept for the benefit of his aged great-aunts who belonged to an era when India’s royal families had enjoyed every possible luxury, Alex wondered if in picking Nicole Dawson for the post he had made an error of judgment.

Her qualifications and those of the other finalist were evenly matched. He had selected Nicole for no better reason than that he wanted to see more of her...in every sense of the term.

He had found her attractive the first time he interviewed her, and today’s lunch had heightened her allure. There was something elusive about her that appealed to the hunter in him. Women who were pushovers left him cold.

He remembered her explanation of why she was on her own. I loved someone when I was younger. Unfortunately it didn’t work out. Since then I’ve concentrated on my work.

That, in essence, replicated his own situation. His job, and the places it took him to, precluded any close, long-term relationships. He was a loner and had been for a long time. As long as she understood that, and he’d already indicated the way things were with him, they could have a good time together. But like Kesri’s liaisons, his own had to be without strings. There was no way he could share his life with a woman.

When Nicole told Dan about her new job, he said, ‘Is it in London?’ Then, his expression hopeful, ‘Are we going to live there?’

Anxious to give him time to assimilate the change, she said, ‘Would you like that?’

Dan nodded vigorously. ‘It’d be great. I’d miss Granpa, of course, but I wouldn’t miss her! Not having her breathing down our necks would be brilliant That’s one of the reasons I’m looking forward to being a boarder next term.’

It was the first time he had said in so many words that he didn’t like his step-grandmother.

‘No, it isn’t in London. It’s somewhere much further away...somewhere abroad,’ Nicole told him.

Far from looking dismayed, he looked pleased. ‘America?’

She shook her head, praying that what she said next wouldn’t make him look crestfallen. ‘Rajasthan...it’s in India.’

For a moment or two he looked startled. Then his eyes sparkled with excitement. ‘You’re not kidding me, are you? Wow, that’s brilliant, Mum.’ A flicker of doubt subdued his initial enthusiasm. ‘It’s a long way. Won’t the air fares be way too expensive for me to come for the holidays?’

‘On what I’m going to be earning that won’t be a problem. But it does mean we won’t see each other except in the long holidays. I can’t come back for your half-term and weekend leaves.’

‘We can email each other every day. But, Mum, will you be all right...in India all by yourself?’

His concern made her smile, but there was a lump in her throat. ‘You needn’t worry about me. I’ll be living in a palace.’

She began to tell him everything she knew about the Prince and the picturesque walled city on the fringe of the desert.

Soon after Dan was born, her father had taken steps to ensure that his grandson could be educated at the independent school where he and his father and grandfather had been pupils. It was a family tradition that, in some ways, Nicole would have liked to break. In her heart she wasn’t in favour of boys being sent away from home at the tender age of thirteen.

But Marsden wasn’t one of England’s famous public schools like Eton or Gordonstoun. It was a more modest establishment not far from where they lived. Also, not only had her father denied himself many pleasures to fund Dan’s education, Rosemary’s advent had changed Nicole’s view of the situation.

There was another factor to consider. The local state school had been going downhill under a lax head teacher. It had a reputation for disorderly behaviour and poor exam results. The principal of her father’s old school was a man of forceful character, with teenagers of his own. She felt Dan would be safer under his aegis than at the local day school with its overcrowded classrooms and lack of playground supervision.

Relieved to have her son’s backing, Nicole went down to break the news to her father and stepmother,

Predictably, Rosemary was outraged. ‘How can you even contemplate leaving your poor little boy?’ she expostulated. ‘It’s bad enough that he doesn’t have a father. For his mother to desert him—’

Keeping control of her temper, Nicole said quietly, ‘I’m not deserting him, Rosemary. It will only be for a short time. At the end of term, Dan can fly out to join me.’

To her relief, before Rosemary could resume her denunciation, Mr Dawson said firmly, ‘If you hadn’t taken the initiative, I was going to suggest that, with Dan away at school, it was time to broaden your horizons. You’re doing the right thing, my dear. For almost thirteen years you’ve adapted your life to Dan’s needs and that was right and proper. Now it’s time to consider your own needs...time to spread your wings. I can’t think of anywhere more exciting to do that than India.’

And then, to the surprise of both women, he directed a quelling glance at his wife and said with great firmness, ‘Nicole has made a decision which I think will benefit her and the boy. If you don’t agree, Rosemary, please keep your views to yourself.’

Nicole’s night-flight to Delhi landed early in the morning.

When she emerged from the airport building, pulling her suitcase behind her, a daunting scene greeted her. What seemed like hundreds of people were waiting to pounce on the passengers, grab their luggage and convey them to their final destination.

In her jet-lagged state she was strongly tempted to turn tail and go back inside the airport, especially as none of the placards with European names on them that were being brandished by some of the men behind the barricades had her name written on it.

Reluctantly making her way to the opening in the barrier through which other newly arrived foreigners were passing ahead of her, she braced herself to hang on to her luggage until whoever was meeting her materialised.

Then, with profound relief, she saw a familiar figure making his way towards her. She was so glad to see him, her face lit up with delight.

Towering over the crowd, Alex Strathallen was also noticeable for his air of complete relaxation in a situation fraught with the tension of too many porters and drivers competing for too few customers.

While everyone else was shoving and pushing, he moved through the crush with the ease of a tall and commanding figure to whom smaller, less assured people automatically gave way. But his expression, she noticed, was not the chilly hauteur to be seen in old sepia photographs of the British who had run India during the Raj. He was smiling as he moved through the press, exchanging friendly words with those who let him pass.

‘A bit of a madhouse, isn’t it?’ he said, when he reached her.

‘A bit,’ she agreed, with a smile. ‘I’m glad I have someone meeting me.’

‘Let’s get you out of this maelstrom. Our driver will take your case—’ he indicated an Indian who had come through the crush behind him ‘—and I’ll take your backpack.’

He slipped the straps from her shoulders rather in the manner of a grown-up divesting a small child of its coast Then, with it slung by one strap over his own broader, more powerful shoulder, he led the way through the multitude who now made no further attempts to impose themselves on her.

A few moments later she was in the back of a taxi and Alex was folding his long legs to fit the space beside her.

‘How was the flight? Did you get any sleep?’ he asked.

‘Not a lot...but otherwise it was great. I enjoyed it. Very nice food...two good movies.’

‘Who did you have sitting next to you?’

‘An elderly couple celebrating their golden wedding with a trip to see the Taj Mahal.’

Perhaps it was only her imagination, but it seemed to her that, for a moment, something strange happened... like a shutter coming down. He was sitting beside her, but his mind was somewhere else.

She wasn’t sure why, but his silence made her uneasy. After some moments, she asked, ‘How are we getting to Karangarh? By train?’

‘By air...but not till tomorrow. I have some business in Delhi and you need to break your journey. We’ll fly to Karangarh after breakfast. Tonight we’re staying at the Imperial, an oasis of calm right in the centre of Delhi.’