Chapter 24: Sequel

It was three days later when Molly approached Derek as he was mowing the front lawn.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Pullman, but I can't get the kitchen tap to flow, and George, my husband, is away on business. Would you be a darling and help me?"

"Of course, Mrs. Davenport," he answered, wondering what she was planning as he moved towards her house.

"Oh," she gushed, "Do call me Molly."

"And I'm Derek."

As they walked down the side of the house, Molly took his hand quite unnecessarily and led him into the kitchen. The tap was, indeed, very tight, but once he had freed it, Derek found nothing wrong with it. He did notice that the metal seemed a little rough to the touch. Had he been able to see into the kitchen ten minutes earlier, Derek would have realised why the tap was jammed and why the handle was rough. It had taken Molly some minutes and a lot of effort to over-tighten the tap with a wrench, so that she had an excuse to invite Derek in.

Filling the kettle, she was effusive in her thanks, "You don't know how grateful I am. You must let me give you a cup of coffee, at the very least."

Recognising that he had been caught, Derek gave in with good grace. When they were sitting in the breakfast room with their coffee, Molly broached the subject she most wanted to grill Derek about.

"You two, you and Shulah, were having me on about her being given to you as a slave, weren't you?" she asked.

"Slave is the wrong term," said Derek cautiously, "She is contracted to be a servant to me. An employee, but with a binding contract. It's a bit like a professional football player; she works for me, but she can't change jobs without my permission. If she does change to a different employer, I have the right to expect a transfer fee."

"But she was given to you by the Emir, who was her father? And doesn't that make her a Princess?" asked Molly, genuinely puzzled now.

"Well as her father he automatically owned her contract, by their laws, so he could give me her contract, and with it the right to her services, or he could have sold the contract for that matter. She is not a Princess, since His Magnificence never conferred any title on her."

"How far do those services go?" mused Molly, and then realising she had said the words aloud, hastily added, "In the contract, I mean, in her country?"

"This is her country. She is British. She works as a live-in housekeeper for me," Derek said.

"So she could go where she wants when she wants?" persisted Molly.

"I have advised her not to go out without me. You must realise she has had a very sheltered upbringing. Until we came here she had never seen a shop, or been on an aeroplane, or walked in the street. She had been in a motor car only a few times before, and the first was from her father's ... home to mine. If she were to go out alone she would be frightened of the crowds, and of the open spaces, and of the noise. She has no concept of money, or of the value of things."