Desert Honeymoon

CHAPTER ONE

ON HER way to the final interview, Nicole still didn’t know whose advertisement she had answered, or how many others had survived the first weeding out. In fact she knew little more than she had after reading The Times advertisement offering a suitably qualified person an interesting and challenging post, at a generous salary, in an exotic location, its exact whereabouts unspecified.

That she had been short-listed was encouraging, but to be the winner of this strange contest was something else. Design was a crowded field. She knew she was a good designer, but she didn’t underestimate the competition she would be facing.

The address to which she had been summoned was in the most fashionable part of London. It turned out to be an elegant block of flats with a uniformed hall porter in gold-buttoned pale grey livery. While Nicole gave him her name, she was aware of being scrutinised by a younger man in a business suit...a man who had ‘plain clothes policeman’ or ‘ex-Special Air Service’ written all over him.

She met his eyes, seeing in them not the smallest flicker of interest in her as a woman. Clearly he was a security guard of the most efficient kind. Any unauthorised person trying to get past him would be in big trouble. Which meant that the owners of the apartments must be very important or very rich: the kind of people who needed impregnable protection.

‘You’ll find Dr Strathallen in Flat Two on the fourth floor, madam,’ said the porter, escorting her to the lift where he leaned in to press the button for her. As the door glided into place, shutting her inside the most luxurious elevator she had ever been in, Nicole considered this clue.

Was Dr Strathallen male or female? Was he or she the so far unidentified prospective employer? What kind of doctor was he or she? Not medical presumably. Why would a physician need the services of a textiles designer?

Before she had time to work out what kind of doctor might need such services, the lift opened at the fourth floor, revealing a carpeted corridor. Directly opposite the lift was an alcove containing a sofa and, above it, a painting Nicole recognised as a Gustav Klimt Surely it couldn’t be an original Klimt...could it? Perhaps at this level of living, even the pictures in the corridors had to be the genuine article.

At one side of the alcove, a discreet sign indicated the direction in which she would find the entrance to Flat Two. Her footsteps muffled by the carpet and its thick springy underlay, Nicole arrived there exactly on time and pressed the bell.

Within moments the door was opened. She found herself confronting a man whose grey eyes seemed even colder man those of the guard in the lobby.

She had never been shy or timid, even in her teens. But at first glance something about this man zapped her normal self-confidence. Perhaps because, without being in any way handsome, he was incredibly attractive. She had never met anyone, in real life, whose charisma struck her so forcibly. Some film stars had this sort of impact when they appeared on the screen, but ordinary men didn’t, at least none she had ever met

Conscious of a constriction in her throat, she said, ‘Dr Strathallen?’

He nodded. ‘Come in.’ His voice was deep and brusque, giving the impression he had better things to do than interview her and was irked by the necessity of it.

As she obeyed his gesture and moved past him, Nicole was assailed by a powerful awareness of his physical presence; his height, his build, his aura of extreme fitness. In a totally inconsequential flashback, her memory transported her to a day in her childhood when her parents had taken her to the Regent’s Park Zoo. She hadn’t enjoyed it. The sight of wild animals in cages had upset her.

The one she remembered most clearly was the cheetah. The placard attached to its enclosure had said that, over short distances, it was the fastest animal on earth, hunting in daylight by sight rather than scent. She remembered reading that it was an endangered species, extinct in many of its former habitats. At the zoo, the size of its cage had permitted the creature only to pace its domain. It could never run at full speed, never enjoy its power.

Why the man now shutting the door should remind her of the captive cheetah was hard to fathom. But he did. Perhaps it had something to do with his tan. Here in London, at the end of an exceptionally wet summer, pallid faces were the norm and the tans acquired on beaches in southern Europe had soon faded when holidaymakers returned to their native climate.

But Dr Strathallen’s lean features, as he gestured for her to precede him through an open door at the inner end of the hall, had the tan resulting from a naturally olive complexion being exposed to a hot climate for much longer than the longest vacation.

The large room where the interview was to take place was decorated and furnished with an elegance that married European taste with some fine things of Eastern origin. But precisely where in the vast Oriental world these artefacts came from she wasn’t sure.

To her regret, she wasn’t widely travelled. It was one of several reasons why she wanted the job. She longed to see more of the world. But that wasn’t her principal reason for hoping that, despite his unfriendliness—he hadn’t smiled or shaken hands—Dr Strathallen would prefer her to the other candidates.

‘Sit down.’ He indicated one of two sofas facing each other across a large low glass table.

‘Thank you.’ Nicole sat, placing her bag beside her on the cream-upholstered, feather-filled cushion into which she had sunk.

She was five feet six, but the sofa was designed for long-legged six-footers like the man relaxing opposite her. He was able to rest his broad shoulders against the back cushions whereas she had the choice of sitting upright or lounging which, in these circumstances, wasn’t an option.

For what seemed a long time he looked at her in silence. Nicole forced herself to hold his gaze while longing to look away. There was something extremely disturbing about that silent surveillance even though, like the security man, he didn’t send out the vibes of a virile man looking at a bedworthy woman. Not that bedworthy was the look she wished or tried to project.

Today she had dressed to look businesslike and efficient. Even so several men on the train and in the concourse of the mainline station had given her the eye. She knew, without vanity, that she was still attractive. At thirty-two, she hadn’t yet lost the sex appeal inherited from her far more glamorous mother.

When it seemed he was never going to break the silence, she found herself asking, ‘Have you many people to interview?’

‘Five...all equally well qualified. The choice depends on my judgment of who is best suited to the demands of the environment. Would you like some coffee?’

‘Yes, please.’

As he leaned forward to reach for a bell on the table between them and give it a vigorous shake, she couldn’t help noticing the way his thick black hair sprang from a high broad forehead. Even if she hadn’t known about his doctorate, the highest academic degree in any field of learning, even if he had been a stranger sitting opposite her in an Underground train, she would have guessed he was clever, possibly brilliant

Appearances could be misleading but no one with a spark of intuition could fail to read the signs of a penetrating intelligence... or to pick up the indications that he might also be a demanding, even difficult leader in whatever field he excelled in. Uncompromising was the word that sprang to her mind. She wondered if she could cope with another dogmatic person in her life.

‘What kind of environment is it?’ she asked, eager to know what lay behind the somewhat cryptic reference to an exotic location.

He answered her with a question. ‘How’s your geography?’

‘About average.’

‘Do you know where Rajasthan is?’

‘Of course...it’s a state in the north of India,’ Nicole said coolly. She had thought he was going to quiz her about somewhere far more obscure. Not that she was all that knowledgeable about India, but she had often browsed through Dan’s atlas, wondering when, if ever, she might be able to satisfy her longing to see other countries, other cultures.

‘What else do you know about it?’

‘Not a lot. I know it has a famous desert.’

‘The Great Thar Desert.’

Nicole knew how the name was spelt but, until he pronounced it, she hadn’t known the ‘h’ was silent.

At that moment another man entered. He looked to be about fifty, with jet-black hair turning grey, a slight physique and thin hands. He was wearing European clothes but was recognisably Indian.

‘Coffee, please, Jal,’ said Strathallen.

With a slight bow the man withdrew.

‘At the western edge of the desert,’ Strathallen continued, ‘there’s an old walled city called Karangarh. How would you feel about living and working there?’

‘If I hadn’t been prepared to go more or less anywhere, I wouldn’t have applied for the job,’ Nicole replied.

‘But from the questionnaire you filled in it appears that your travels so far have been limited to a few conventional tourist resorts in Europe?’

‘Because I haven’t had the time or the means to go further afield, not because I haven’t wanted to,’ she told him. ‘After my mother’s death, my father wanted me to share his holidays and I wanted to be with him while he was lonely without her. Now he’s married again and has my stepmother to go on holidays with him. Which leaves me free to go wherever I please.’

This explanation wasn’t untrue. It was a version of the truth that would give a better impression than the whole truth. Nicole felt the facts of her life, except those relating to the job she was applying for, were nothing to do with Dr Strathallen. Also he didn’t strike her as a man who would have much understanding of the complexities and pressures affecting the lives of lesser mortals than himself.

The manservant returned with a tray. To have come back so soon he must have been expecting the request and had everything in readiness. Silence fell on the room while he went through a practised ritual of serving the visitor and then his employer—if in fact that was their relationship.

For reasons there wasn’t time to define, Nicole sensed that Dr Strathallen wasn’t the owner of this luxurious and sophisticated apartment It didn’t match his persona. Indeed the clothes he was wearing, a well-cut grey suit with a light blue shirt and dark blue tie, didn’t quite ‘go’ with the general air of the man.

She had no idea what was worn by the inhabitants of the Great Thar Desert, if it had any. But she had read a book about the fierce Tuareg tribesmen of the Sahara. She could easily visualise Strathallen riding over a rolling sea of sand dunes, mounted on a camel, with a black turban on his head and an indigo ‘veil’ protecting his nose and mouth from the gritty desert wind while his narrowed grey eyes searched the empty horizon.

What it was about the man that caused her imagination to present her with this vivid improbable picture, she couldn’t tell. Except that the body inside the businessman’s clothes looked more powerful than that of any men she’d encountered, and his face was a tough man’s face, not that of a number cruncher or anyone desk-bound.

The manservant withdrew, leaving them each with a poured cup of coffee, with a pot containing a couple of refills beside it. The cream jug and sugar bowl were near Nicole. She didn’t take sugar but added some cream to her cup.

‘Do you take these?’ she asked, ready to pass them to him.

‘No, thanks. I don’t eat biscuits either,’ he added, referring to the plate of English biscuits also left near her cup. Nicole had concluded that he didn’t when a plate and a white-on-white embroidered napkin had been set out for her but not for him. Normally she enjoyed biscuits, but right now she didn’t want to have her mouth full when he shot a question at her.

Normally calm and self-possessed as befitted her years, suddenly, in Dr Strathallen’s presence, she felt her poise cracking as if she were an apprehensive twenty-year-old instead of a mature woman..

‘How large a place is Karangarh?’ she asked.

‘A long time ago it was an important city ruled by a long line of princes. The palace at Karangarh is still owned and occupied by His Highness Prince Kesri, the Maharaja of Karangarh, who is also the owner of this apartment’

Strathallen broke off to drink some coffee. Nicole found that, even with milk, hers was still too hot for her to take more than a sip.

‘His life is completely different from that of his forebears,’ he went on. ‘A large part of the palace has been converted into a hotel. Another wing is a hospital. Other buildings are workshops for craftsmen. The Maharaja was educated in England and America. He knows that eastern artefacts often need modifications to appeal to western tastes. That’s why he wants a western-trained designer to oversee the export side of the business.’

‘What sort of skills do his craftspeople have?’ she asked.

‘I’ll show you part of a promotional video the Prince has had made.’ He rose to go to a large cabinet made of some dark unfamiliar wood elaborately inlaid with silver and pieces of mother-of-pearl. He opened the doors, revealing a large television screen. After touching some switches he returned to his place on the other sofa, holding the remote control. ‘This edited version was made to show the applicants for the post,’ he told her. ‘It only lasts seven minutes.’

Watching Nicole Dawson while her attention was concentrated on the screen, Alex was reminded of children’s faces when they were listening to an enthralling story. Her expression showed the same rapt attention. Almost from the opening shot of the walled city of Karangarh rising out of the sandy wasteland surrounding it, she had become totally immersed in the colourful scenes being presented to her.

Already he had interviewed all but one of the other contenders and was becoming bored with the task entrusted to him. Designers were not on his wavelength, nor he on theirs. He disliked big cities and the kind of people who gravitated to them. Especially ambitious career women in designer suits with designer hair, dietfreak’s bodies and complexions you could scrape off with a spoon.

Not that this woman was heavily made up or catwalk-thin. Her figure couldn’t be faulted and she had excellent legs. But she didn’t flaunt them with a minuscule skirt and unnecessarily frequent