Chapter 38: Dinner And Later

For dinner, the two men wore simple black tie, dinner jackets and the two women wore western evening dress, though to be daring, neither of them wore knickers. This was, of course, not something of which either man was aware at the time. Alima's incipient pregnancy meant that her dress was a tight fit, but it would be a while yet before it would really show. During the meal, held in the Throne Room and served by more staff than the Earl had imagined possible, conversation varied from horses to fashions to the weather to marriage customs to almost anything else anyone could think of. The tone remained light throughout and the food was typically English and superbly prepared and presented.

After dinner, the Emir and his wives escorted the Earl to the entrance to his suite.

"I have selected Zeinab to be your companion tonight," said the Emir.

"You indicated that I might prefer to select my own choice," the Earl demurred.

Overriding the older man's protestations, the Emir said, "I think Zeinab will suit you well. She's twenty-three years old, local born, speaks English, has a delightful body on her, and wants to get pregnant again. She takes the whip well if that's to your taste. I'll have her sent her in."

To the Earl's surprise, when he reached his room Zeinab was already there. He was not yet used to the Kobekistani habit of fulfilling the Emir's wishes without any direct order being given, though he was in no doubt that his choice had been made for him.

"Who are you?" he asked, by way of starting a conversation with this very personable young woman, who had appeared in his bedroom with her most private parts in full view.

Lighter skinned than most Arabs, she was supple, tall, and slim by Kobekistani standards, though her breasts were by no stretch of the imagination boyish and her rump projected pertly enough. Uniquely among the women he had seen here, a tiny bit of pubic hair had been left on the body, carefully shaped to form a hand pointing downwards to the clitoris and the entrance to the tunnel of love.

She made deep obeisance to him and from the floor said, "I am Zeinab, Master, may you live for ever. I am here for your pleasure and delight, to satisfy all your desires, and if it be your wish, to bear your son."

The Earl nearly choked. It certainly was different here; this lovely near-naked girl whom he had never even seen before, a third of his age, part of the harem of his son-in-law, offering to bear him a child as the first thing she said to him. He tried to imagine one of the village girls at home being ordered into the bed of a visitor to the Grange; the repercussions didn't bear thinking about. One or two of the older women had indicated a certain willingness to console him since his wife had died, but nothing remotely like this. Suddenly, he was acutely aware that his dress suit trousers were tighter than those he had worn that afternoon, when the Emir's mother had visited him and proved as wanton a woman as he had ever met.

It crossed his mind fleetingly to wonder if his daughter and granddaughter were similarly wanton. If he had been able to see them at that moment, in their husband's bedroom one on each side of the bed, dresses bunched up to the waists, the Emir's fingers in each cunt, licking opposite sides of their husband's prick in perfectly synchronised movements, he would have had little doubt.

Zeinab helped him out of his dress suit and led him into the bathroom, where she handed him over to the bath girls with a quick burst of Arabic. Then he was bathed and dried by the four girls, whose attentions brought him to a perfect erection as he was shepherded into the bedroom where Zeinab waited kneeling on the floor at the foot of the bed. The bath girls helped him on to the bed and under the duvet, the most daring of them kissing the helmet of his prick as she did so.

"And where did you come from, young lady?" asked the Earl.

"If it pleases the Master, I am Zeinab, mother of one of the Emir's sons. I was a virgin gift to the Emir five years ago by my grandfather Ramzy El-Najjar. My Master the Emir has kindly agreed that I may bear a son for you, if that pleases you, my Master."

"Oh," said the Earl, somewhat at a loss, "Why would the Emir offer that?"

"Master, he knows it is my wish to bear another son, and I have failed with the Emir. He has said that when a sufficiently noble visitor was here I could bear a child for him."

"And an English Earl is sufficiently noble?" he asked.

"It is the same as a Comte in France, n'est-ce pas?"

"Yes, that is so. Have you tried with anyone else?"

"Master, no; my efforts have all been with the Emir. Alas others have borne him children recently, but not I."

"Well. I cannot guarantee anything, but it will be enjoyable to try, I'm sure."

Moving over to the bed, Zeinab piled some of the pillows at a carefully judged spot; then she slipped gracefully out of her harem gown and stood before him naked and beautiful. Moving over to the eunuch she took a riding crop from him and handed it to the Earl.

"Why the whip?" he asked puzzled.

"It is the tradition here that before attempting to fill a woman for pregnancy to follow, the blood must be encouraged to flow faster round her body. It is that which the whip ensures, Master. If the Master does not wish to do this, the eunuch will apply the instrument for him."