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"You must rest now," Mashla told her. "There will be a feast tonight and you will attend."
"Feast? But, Mashla, who's house is this?"
"This is the home of the Sheik Kareim al Barbrani. He owns much of the land we crossed as well as this house and others."
Holly stared at Mashla. "Sheik?"
Mashla nodded then rose and walked from the room. At the door she turned and said, "I will call for you in two hours." Then she was gone.
Holly could not rest. Too many things had happened in the past few days: Ship wreck, capture and enslavement torture and... Holly's mind did not even want to imagine the horrors that occurred with the men the night before last. That was something best forgotten forever. But how could she? She was a ruined woman now. Not any fault of hers but still ruined.
These and other thoughts filled her mind until she was interrupted by Mashla returning to fetch her. Together the two women walked together down the stair, across the entrance room and out the back into another beautiful garden. Here there were low tables set up in the middle of the garden under a canopy on an immaculately groomed lawn. Everywhere there were flowers and brightly dressed servants carrying trays of food and drink. Most of the guests were dressed in the usual white robes but one man was dressed in a gray tweed wool suit. "How very odd," Holly thought.
Casually Holly moved around among the guests always keeping the gray suit in sight out of the corner of her eye. As she moved around through the crowd randomly the man seemed to be doing the same. It took nearly an hour before Holly "bumped" into the man.
"I'm so sorry," Holly exclaimed looking as embarrassed as possible.
"No harm done. By the way, Palmer. Fredrick Palmer," the man said extending his hand. Holly took his hand. "And what brings you here this afternoon, my dear?" Holly noticed that Mr. Palmer was looking at her smiling and holding her hand just a bit too long to be entirely polite.
Holly was not quite sure how to answer the question. After a moment she responded, "I'm a guest of the Sheik."
"Oh, then you must be Miss Lancaster. May I call you Holly? So glad to meet you."
"How did you know?" Holly was confused.
"Why, didn't you know? We've been waiting for you for several days. One of the Sheik's men came to my office at the embassy five days ago to tell me you'd been found wandering in the desert."
"The told you..." Holly could not believe her ears.
"Why yes. I'll be around to collect you in the morning. You have passage back to Liverpool on the afternoon tide. I will be accompanying you on the voyage home. You didn't know?" Now it was Fredrick's turn to be surprised.
"Oh, I see a friend from the Egyptian delegation. I really must talk to him. So good to meet you, Miss Lancaster. Don't forget tomorrow morning 10 O'clock sharp," he said over his shoulder as he hurried away.
Holly stood stunned. Home. She was going back to England. But her entire plan to see the world was shattered. But was it really? Look what he had done, what she had endured. Had I actually done the tourist "Grand Tour" would I have even come close?
Later, sitting alone in the garden after the guests had left. Mashla came and sat down next to her.
"So, I hear you know you will be leaving," she said flatly.
"Yes. But why didn't anyone tell me?"
"And did you need to know?" Mashla said softly looking down at her feet.
"Well yes. Of course. But..."
"But would you have survived? This is not England. This is a hard land. We have our own laws here and our own ways."
Then looking up into Holly's face, tears ran down Mashla's cheeks. "I will miss you. I will not see you tomorrow before you leave. Kareim has forbidden it. And I will never see you again." Mashla leaned over and kissed Holly softly on the mouth. Her lips lingered a moment then abruptly got up and walked quickly into the house.
***************
Standing on the pier Holly looked out across the Atlantic. It seemed so wide, yet not so wide as before. Fredrick had come around to fetch her as he had promised exactly on time. The they gone by open carriage to the embassy for a few formalities. Afterwards, a fine lunch at the Morocco Hotel. The tide was already turning and time to board the packet ship.
Silently Holly said good bye. Goody bye to an adolescent dream. But more importantly good bye to a friend who guided her through an important, though short, time in her life.
Confidently, Miss Holly Lancaster took Mr. Fredrick Palmers arm and said, "Mr. Palmer, shall we?"
- COMMENTS
Anonymousover 14 years agobut if you are going to add facts and figures to a story then make sure they are correct and not a load of bull shit - it is so irksome when writers get it wrong especially having been there and so on. Do your research before committing such errors to print as they detract from what was otherwise a fairly good story.
amicusabout 17 years agoWell done Jenny, an enjoyable read.
One never know when beginning a story just where the author might take us and this one led me to totally unexpected places, which a good story is supposed to do of course.
I wonder have you read Wilbur Smith? Some of his early Courtney saga novels have a flavor and style you might appreciate dealing with tribal people and the African desert.
I am quite impressed with the scope you chose to write about but being somewhat of a prudish writer myself, I never use the common words describing the act in quite so vivid a style but I suppose for Literotica, it is acceptable, perhaps essential. Although, with less explicit descriptions, this could well be extended into a full length mainstream novel, (which is why I mentioned Smith, for a wider audience.
I have also done some sailing and while your description of ship board events is fairly accurate, your understanding of wave motion, 'pitch-poling', and the actions of a vessel in distress, could be done better. And as was pointed out the work is in need of a close edit, but then, most of mine are the same way, I seem always to miss a few mistakes here and there.
Regardless, you held my attention as a reader and gave me an interesting journey when I did not expect one.
Thank you.
amicus...
Matadoreover 17 years agoYou need to give more respect to your readers. Please proof read aloud your work before you post it. Look for simple typo mistakes (to instead of too, he instead of she or the).
Your knowledge of geography, the customs and language of the characters are not quite on target.
I personally am put off by "non-consent" or rape that ends up with the woman enjoying the experience--esp. for a "first time." I kept being so distracted by erroneous details and loose plot descriptions that I couldn't enjoy the sexual scenes!
Since I have had only a very limited experience of Morocco, Spain, Gibraltar, the desert and the straits, and because you really tell a good story, I felt obligated to extend to you the benefit of the doubt and score this a "5" to encourage you to write more.
But do show more pride in your future work and take the time to do the research to present a correct background. Period pieces are difficult and strange-but-real settings are even trickier. Thanks for a promising read.
