Free Girl in the Bedouin Tent by Annie West Page B

getting his own way. It must gall him that he couldn’t get her away from the camp immediately.
    ‘I understand. Time looking after me is time away fromyour negotiations. The more delays, the longer before we leave.’
    A slight lift of dark eyebrows signified his surprise.
    Had he thought she didn’t understand the situation? She’d little to do but think about it through the long, lonely hours.
    ‘I appreciate the trouble you’ve taken to arrange this.’ Not only Mustafa’s guards but Amir’s men were on duty for this short excursion. ‘But, believe me, the sooner you finish your work here the happier I’ll be.’ Despite Amir’s protection Cassie wouldn’t be truly safe till she was in Tarakhar.
    She let her gaze drift to the magnificent vista, like a 3D map before her. ‘So where’s the border?’
    Amir pointed to the foot of the escarpment. ‘Beneath this range. All that—’ his sweeping hand encompassed a vast plain of patchwork fields ‘—is Tarakhar.’
    ‘It looks prosperous.’ She recalled the route her bus had taken. ‘I’d expected it to be arid.’
    ‘Further south is the Great Interior Desert. One of the harshest environments in the world, yet still nomads exist on its fringes.’
    Amir described his country, from its fertile valleys to its deserts and rugged mountains, with an enthusiasm that made her almost jealous. She enjoyed Melbourne, its bustle and vibrant arts culture, but she’d never experienced this love of place so clearly evident in Amir.
    Gilded by the sun, what she could see of Tarakhar looked idyllic.
    ‘What’s that, crisscrossing the plain? They’re not roads, are they?’ Cassie caught the glint of water.
    ‘Irrigation channels. That’s the secret to the region’s prosperity. Water from the mountains is fed through channels, some of them underground, in a system that’s hundreds of years old.’
    Amir led her to the comfortable folding chairs his staff had set out. Nearby a table groaned with food.
    Faruq had excelled himself, Amir noted, eyeing delicacies to tempt the most jaded appetite.
    Not that Cassie’s appetite was jaded. She wasn’t greedy, but her enjoyment of local dishes pleased him. Or maybe it was that he liked watching her eat. The way she savoured each taste. Her neat economy of movement.
    She looked up to find him watching. A hint of colour tinted her cheeks and she turned away. Proof that she had no interest in him sexually. It was a timely reminder.
    ‘I hadn’t expected it to be so beautiful,’ she said, looking at the distant view.
    ‘You really do like it then?’ Strange how her simple praise delighted him. He’d imagined her experiences would prejudice her. That she wouldn’t see the beauty he did. But Cassie wasn’t the sort to let bitterness take hold. She resented the wrongs done to her, but at core she seemed positive, vibrant and surprisingly strong.
    ‘I enjoyed the little I saw from the bus too. And the people are very friendly.’
    ‘Hospitality comes naturally to the Tarakhans.’
    Cassie looked at the massive feast spread between them and laughed, a short peal that seemed to scintillate in the dusky air. It drew a reluctant smile from him and threatened to shatter the formality between them.
    Amir walked a fine line. He needed to put her at ease and remedy as far as possible the trauma of her abduction. Yet getting close was dangerous. Already they were too intimate for comfort. Safer by far if he kept their dealings on a casual yet slightly distant footing.
    Grudgingly he stifled the urge to hear that laugh again. To discover more about his fascinating companion.
    So … nothing else personal.
    ‘Let me tell you about those canals …’
    Amir lay on his side, watching another dawn filter through the tent walls.
    Another night without sleep, his mind in turmoil.
    He shifted slightly and winced at the brush of cotton against his heated skin. Silently he cursed the need to wear loose trousers. But preserving Cassie’s