Chapter 20: Meeting Over

Safely in the car, the Emir said, "That was very naughty of you."

"What was?" she asked, puzzled.

"Making him speak in his broken, or at least badly bent, English when you speak fluent Arabic. It was also stupid."

She digested this comment for a moment, and then said, "I accept that it was a little unkind, but why stupid?"

"Magnificence?" she added as an afterthought.

"Because I speak Kobekistani and he of course knows that, so nothing could be said in his native language to anyone that I would not understand. Therefore you would not have learned anything from any comment he may have made to the wife or the son that was unpalatable to me. I could not leave you alone with him, despite referring to you as a man, because he would have assumed that you were a present, or at least on loan, from my harem. As it is I shall have to send him a concubine for tonight, as I have accepted his wife for the night."

"Why did you do that?" Sharon asked, glancing at the woman, but under the abaya it was impossible to see if she understood what was being said.

"Politeness mostly. I can't descend on someone without them offering a gift, and I can't refuse the gift without giving offence, and I can't accept a gift without returning the compliment. My name will be mud in the harem. Whoever is sent to that hovel, however junior she is in the hierarchy, will not be amused at all."

"That's exactly what I mean by women not being equal. She should be able to refuse to go," Sharon almost crowed in triumph.

"And no American wife ever does anything her husband or protector wants her to do unless she is fully enthusiastic?" he responded, "And what of me? I have to sleep with this woman, who may but probably will not be worth looking at, out of politeness, just because I wanted to satisfy your curiosity?"

They sat in silence for some minutes, before the Emir spoke again.

"Do you want to inspect her in the harem before she is prepared for my bed? Do you want to ask her if she is willingly sleeping with a man she has never met before?"

Clearly he was now annoyed with her.

"Would it annoy you to know that even now that cobbler is holding court in his house on the strength of my visit and is recounting that it happened because I fancied his wife? Do you realise that you have changed his life, probably for ever?"

"How so, changed his life?" she riposted.

"As of now he has more shoes to mend that he has ever had or dreamed of. Who would not have their shoes mended by a man who rubs shoulders with the Emir, on the off chance that I will visit again? That will last a long time, months probably. And if he is a half-way competent cobbler he will do them well enough that those customers will come back. What's more he will be charging a little more than he did before. There may even be a new sign – 'Shaban the cobbler, visited by the Emir' outside his hovel very soon."

Back at the Golden Palace, Sharon said, "I think I'll take you up on your offer, if you were serious that is?"

"Offer? Oh, to inspect my temporary bed warmer. Fine."

Turning to the Chief Eunuch he ordered, "Clean up the woman. She is on loan for tonight, and Maktum can return her tomorrow, with an escort. He can take a hostess now on loan for one night. Sharon here wants to talk to the woman before you clean her up."