Free The Gabriel Hounds by Mary Stewart

legend.’ He smiled, the first smile of genuine amusement. ‘If you want the truth I think she has a fair amount in common with her original. Well, she simply settled down to enjoy it, and took a great deal of pleasure from the more picturesque details – riding out with the hounds and hawks, for instance, letting Dar Ibrahim be used again as a halt for caravans on their way from High Lebanon and Antilebanon to the sea, and receiving the occasional “distinguished traveller” – mostly archaeologists, I believe, who’d known her husband and his work. She even meddled a bit with politics, and for some time now she’s been threatening – though I think it’s only window-dressing myself – to turn Muslim.’ He paused. ‘And then of course when I turned up out of the blue she was delighted. I was to be the “resident physician” who has such a large part in the Stanhope story … you know that Lady Hester Stanhope kept her own doctor with her at Djoun? Well, when our “Lady Harriet” took me in, and found I’d been halfway to a medical degree, it suited her down to the ground. So I get a courtesy title which impresses the Arab servants, and what I actually do is provide your great-aunt with company and conversation. I need hardly add that if she did need medical attention I’d get it from Beirut.’
    ‘Who does she have now that Dr Grafton’s gone?’
    ‘Dr Grafton?’ He sounded quite blank, and I looked at him in surprise.
    ‘Yes, don’t you know him? Surely, if he attended her six months ago you must have been here.’
    ‘Oh, yes, I was, I was only wondering how you knew the name.’
    ‘Someone at the hotel who told me about Dar Ibrahim said my aunt had been ill last autumn, so I got them to find out who her doctor was, and rang him up to ask about her. I was told then that he’d left Beirut. Who does she have now?’
    ‘She hasn’t needed anyone since then, I’m glad to say. She’s got a bit of a thing now about the Beirut doctors, but I’ve no doubt that if it’s necessary I’ll make her see the light.’ He smiled. ‘Don’t worry … I really do look after her quite well, you know, and I run the place for her as far as one can. And if you’re thinking about the general four-star-hotel atmosphere you’ve seen up to now, let me tell you that there are five courtyards, two gardens, three Turkish baths, a mosque, stabling for fifty horses and twelve camels, several miles of corridors including a secret passage or two, and as for mere rooms, I’ve never managed to count them. I use radar to get from the Prince’s Court to the Seraglio.’
    I laughed: ‘I’m sorry, was I looking at the dust on the floor? Don’t you have slaves to go with the décor?’
    ‘Only myself and three others – Jassim the porter, a girl called Halide, and Halide’s brother Nasirulla, who lives in the village and comes over during the day. Actually we manage quite well, because the old lady herself lives very simply now. I may tell you that her part of the palace is a bit better kept than this. Halide’s a good girl, and looks after your aunt pretty well. You really have no need to worry about her.’
    ‘Did I say I was worrying? I didn’t mean to throw you on the defensive like this, what have I said? I’m sure Aunt Harriet’s having a whale of a time being Lady of the Lebanon, and I’m glad you’re here to look after her. All I want is to see her for five minutes so’s I can tell my people all about it.’
    Another of those pauses. Here we were, I thought; back to Square One.
    He shifted on the hard seat, and glanced sideways at me.
    ‘Yes, well, that’s rather it, don’t you see? The point is, we’ve standing orders to stall everybody off, and’ – his gaze dropped again to his hands – ‘anything she’s ever told me about her family didn’t lead me to think she’d make an exception there.’
    I grinned. ‘Fair enough, I’m not blaming you, or her either. But can’t we let her decide