Chapter 43: Home

The ship made its way slowly towards the port of Split for the necessary repairs, the Admiral was relaxing on the bridge, amusing himself by watching the Princess sunning herself, naked, with one finger buried in the arse of her latest toy, the solicitor's wife, Kate. Then Charles alerted him to a radar contact, quickly followed by a message. A naval patrol boat was coming along side to check their papers. Of itself, this posed no problem, but naked royalty on the deck could prove embarrassing, though he doubted if the Princess cared who saw her naked.

Henry sent a young sailor to the Princess to present compliments and warn her that it would be wise if the women retired to their suites until the Imperial Voyager sailed again late on the morrow, after the repairs were completed.

True to form, the Princess Elaheh stood up with no trace of embarrassment over her nakedness. She grabbed hold of the other girl's lower jaw and pulled her along as they went below.

Henry had to stop himself daydreaming about what they might be doing in the privacy of their suites, and busied himself dealing with the formalities of entering Split harbour, complicated as they were by the existence of their destroyer escort.

When the formalities had been completed, and the ship was heaved to, waiting for a pilot, the Radio Officer came to the bridge with a message. This surprised Henry because a rating would usually have been sent, no matter how important the signal.

"It is a message for the Princess, from His Magnificence, the Emir Mahmoud Abdullah, may he live for ever, and I don't know the protocol for passing it over," the Radio Officer said.

"Don't worry. I'll deliver it," said the Captain.

Going below he knocked on the door of the Princess's suite and went in. As he rather expected, Elaheh was being pleasured by two of her women, but pushed them away and stood, still naked, to greet the Captain.

"Henry," she said, "How nice to see you, but what brings you here?"

The note was passed to the Princess, who read it and passed it back to the Admiral with her eyebrows raised, but all it said was:

Please telephone the Emir, may he live for ever.

"You can telephone from here in the suite, Mistress," said the Admiral.

Fearing bad news about her father's health, Elaheh asked to be connected to the Emir. Obviously he was waiting for her call, because she was speaking to him in under fifteen seconds.

"Father, what's the matter?" she asked, as the Admiral left the cabin, not wishing to be in the Princess's line of sight if she were to be angered by the call.

He returned to the bridge, from whence he was summoned to the Princess's suite a matter of a few minutes later, where the transformation from the sexually voracious girl of the afternoon, and the previous evening, into the imperious Princess could not have been more startling.

She rapped out a series of orders, "Arrange for us to get back to Venice in the helicopter, and I want a plane to meet us at Marco Polo International. I am going back to Kobekistan. You can take this ship wherever you need for whatever repairs are necessary, but I want it back in Mayia Asrag in two weeks time."

Henry thought for a moment and decided he would help her if he could, "Mistress, it will be done as you wish; but has the Mistress considered that it would almost certainly be quicker to arrange a flight from Kastel Stafilic Airport in Split direct to Kobekistan, as the helicopter's return would take several hours?"

"I leave the details to you; just get me back to Kobekistan as soon as possible."

"It shall be done with all possible speed, Mistress," Henry saluted and left the room.

The moment ship tied up in port, there was a black Rolls-Royce on the dock side, with a people carrier beside it, presumably for the lesser members of the Princess's party. With the minimum of fuss Elaheh and her Kate-toy walked down the gang plank to the waiting cars. Bundling Kalyn, Mi Lee, Kate and Amina before her, the Princess climbed into the second car. The entourage made its way to the airport, leaving the Rolls-Royce chauffeur at a loss as to what he should do. The Admiral shrugged his shoulders and felt relieved that the Princess was gone; now he could set to to restore good order and discipline to a crew who had been thoroughly unsettled by her behaviour.

'She gives a whole new meaning to the phrase naked power, ' he thought, chuckling to himself.