Free Double Danger by Margaret Thomson Davis Page A

These meeting rooms are called majalis. I never meet any of the female members of the family – only brothers and uncles and male cousins. Guests come and go all the time in the majalis.’
    ‘Where will I go then?’ Jessica asked.
    ‘You go round the back. Don’t worry, one of the women will be waiting for you and will take you in to meet all the other women in the family. They’ll probably treat you like a queen. But for God’s sake, watch what you say. Saving face, avoidance of shame and keeping dignity are vital to Saudis.’
    ‘Why on earth would I want to shame them?’
    ‘You wouldn’t mean to, Jessica. You’d just think you were kidding. But they don’t understand that. So just try and keep your mouth shut. That’ll be the safest way.’
    ‘For God’s sake,’ Jessica gasped impatiently. ‘What a carry on!’
    ‘You’ll get used to it. Just relax and enjoy the tasty titbits they’ll feed you with.’
    ‘As if I’m a rabbit or something? What about my dignity?’
    ‘Darling, we can have a fight once we’re back home, but please, not here.’
    They didn’t fight, though. On the way home, she was so taken up with the novelty of her experiences that she forgot about the fight. The camels strolling across the road for instance, with slow dignity, their large feet causing small puffs of dust as they slapped down. Then there were the roundabouts in the desert.
    ‘Look at that one,’ Brian said. ‘The Arabs like to do everything in a big way. Have you ever seen anything like that in your life?’
    Around the city of Tabuk were these roundabouts with gigantic structures in the centre. The one Brian was pointing at had a huge aircraft balanced high on top of it. Then there was one with a tank perched on it.
    ‘All very military-looking, though,’ Jessica said.
    Brian shrugged. ‘It’s got an interesting history. There’s an ancient mosque where the prophet Mohammed prayed for twenty days.’
    Back in the compound they collected Tommy and Fiona from the supervised playpark where most of the children, including Tommy and Fiona, were enjoying riding about on scooters and bikes. They all went for a swim to cool off and afterwards had a meal in one of the dining halls. Then they went to the post office to see if there was any mail for them to collect. They also had a look at the noticeboards for details about all the clubs, events and company notices.
    There was no mail for Jessica but an official-looking letter for Brian.
    ‘Good God!’
    ‘What’s up? Not bad news, I hope,’ Jessica said.
    ‘On the contrary. A distant relation of my father’s has left me a house and quite a bit of land on the Campsie Hills.’
    ‘Gosh! Will that be near Vale of Lennox? I know a lot of folk there – including Mrs Mellors, of course.’
    ‘No, it must be a good bit further up than that. I’ve never seen it even with all the walking I’ve done in the area.’
    ‘Gosh! What are you going to do about it?’
    Brian shrugged. ‘I suppose we’d better go and have a look at it on my next leave.’
    ‘You could sell it and get a lot of money for it if it’s a big place with a lot of land.’
    Brian laughed. ‘Trust you to think like that.’
    ‘Well, what else is there?’
    ‘I’ll have to retire eventually. It might be a good place to retire to.’
    ‘But that’s years yet, isn’t it?’
    ‘Yes, but according to this letter, there’s a housekeeper and a handyman living in the house. They could continue living there and looking after the place until I retire.’
    ‘You could maybe even rent it out for a few years.’
    ‘Darling, it’s not a question of money. I’ve an enormous salary here. I don’t need any extra money.’
    ‘Gosh, there can’t be many folk like you going around. You’re the only one I’ve ever met, anyway.’
    ‘Well, I’ve been earning this salary for quite a few years and there’s so many perks and freebies. Also there’s very little you can spend money on here. So