One Desert Night - By Maggie Cox Page 0,38

colourful clothes and many languages littering the sultry air, Farida thankfully suggested they take a break for some refreshments. Coming upon a group of chairs and tables beneath a tall date palm tree, she dispatched her servant Hafiz to the stallholder who was serving drinks and sweetmeats.

'Is there anything you have seen that you like enough to take home?' her companion asked as they sat together with their backs to the refreshment stall.

'I noticed a vendor selling essential oils... I'd definitely be interested in taking some agarwood oil home—the scent is divine. It will always remind me of Kabuyadir.' And Zahir, she thought with a bittersweet tug.

'We will visit his stall after our refreshments—but I will only allow you to purchase the oil if I know it is of the highest grade.'

'Thanks. You've been very good to me, Farida... I just want you to know how much I appreciate it.'

'Nonsense! You have been like a breath of fresh air to me, Gina, and I thank you for agreeing to spend time with a dull and sombre woman like me.'

'You are not dull or sombre...you mustn't put yourself down like that. I wish I had as good and bright and engaging a friend as you at home. When I eventually return there you'll always be welcome to visit and stay with me at any time.'

'That pleases me very much—but do not talk about leaving Kabuyadir yet, I beg you.'

'I'm not in a hurry to leave at all, as I'm sure you—Gina didn't finish the sentence. An arm that felt like iron had grabbed her round the neck from behind, and the smell of stale masculine sweat enveloped her.

A strangled yelp left her throat as she was dragged violently from her chair, even as Farida screamed for Hafiz. Her hands fastened on the coffee-coloured forearm of the man she now realised with sickening shock was trying to abduct her, and pure adrenaline-fuelled reaction—and not a little indignant fury—made her sink her teeth into the smooth hard flesh and bite him hard. Immediately he let her go, cursing loudly. By then Hafiz was on the scene, along with a crowd of shrieking, excitable onlookers, and the well-built servant and another man grappled the assailant to the ground and held him fast.

'Gina! Are you all right?'

Farida was as stunned and shaken as she was. Even though her answer was an affirmative nod, Gina sensed the violent aftershocks of her assault roll through her, and she couldn't stop shaking. It was hard to believe that such an out-of-the-blue frightening occurrence had happened here in broad daylight, in a busy marketplace.

'I'm okay...I think. But I—I do need to sit down.'

A chair was quickly positioned behind her, and someone pushed through the crowd to put a bottle of water into her hand with the halting instruction. 'Please do drink.'

Instantly Farida took the bottle, opened it, and sniffed the contents. 'It's okay. You can drink it—it will help.' She returned it to Gina.

With Farida's encouragement she downed the water in one, and the dryness in her mouth, as well as her shock, eased a little.

Someone had yelled for the security forces, and as if by magic officers peeled out of nowhere into the crowded market, swarming round the man who had dragged Gina from her chair. The assailant was young, but she blanched when she saw the seriously lethal-looking sharp-bladed knife that was retrieved from beneath his long robes.

'Who is he?' Her voice was decidedly shaky as she met Farida's concerned brown eyes. 'Why would he do this?'

'I don't know, my friend. But you can be sure of one thing...my brother will find out who he is and who put him up to this before you can blink an eyelid!'

Hafiz returned. Bowing courteously to both women, he turned his worried gaze specifically on Gina. Clearly frustrated at not being able to converse with her in English, he turned back to Farida, addressing the Sheikh's sister rapidly and urgently in their own language.

She sighed and said, 'Hafiz is distraught that he did not protect you better, Gina. I have told him it was not his fault. None of us was remotely aware of any danger as we made our way through the market.'

'You're not to blame, Hafiz. There's no need for an apology, really.'

'It is I who is to blame,' Farida insisted. 'My brother will go crazy when he learns that I took you to the market without taking a bodyguard with us. I can't have been thinking clearly.