her voice gathered strength, ‘But I will not marry Jourdan. I’d rather starve!’
The moment the words left her mouth Danielle realised how childish they sounded; how prejudicial they were to her intended claim that she was old enough by far to decide the course of her own life.
‘Mummy, surely you can understand?’ she pleaded.
‘Of course, darling,’ her mother soothed, glancing anxiously towards her husband. ‘But Hassan merely wants to do what is best for you.’ She touched her daughter gently on the arm and smiled faintly. ‘You know, Danny, you’ve had such a sheltered life that your father and I only wanted to protect you…’
‘Oh, Mother’ Danielle sighed, unconsciously deliberately not using the more childish ‘Mummy’, ‘you can’t keep me wrapped in cotton wool for ever, you know—and besides, from what I’ve already heard of him marriage to Jourdan would be far from a bed of roses.’
‘You must take what Philippe Sancerre told you with a pinch of salt,’ her stepfather said calmly. ‘While I cannot attempt to speak for Jourdan’s past, Danielle, like all men of good sense he knows that marriage is a serious business, and once married…’
‘It doesn’t matter how seriously he takes it,’ Danielle interrupted swiftly, ‘and it wouldn’t alter my views in the slightest if we were talking of some other man; personalities do not enter into my argument, object to the principle of the arranged marriage, no matter how or why it arises. Oh, I know you have only my welfare at heart, but such a marriage is abhorrent and repugnant to me. I could no more agree to it than I could… fly!’
‘I understand how you feel, darling,’ her mother said gently. ‘Hassan, try to understand,’ she appealed to her husband. ‘Although Danielle has had a sheltered upbringing, she is not a Muslim girl trained from birth to accept male dominance and her role in life unquestioningly.’
‘And nor should I wish her to be,’ Danielle’s stepfather agreed, smiling fondly at the downbent darkened head and rebelliously taut body of his stepdaughter.
‘Then you accept that there can be no marriage between your nephew and myself?’ Danielle asked him.
‘If that is your wish, but I cannot pretend that I am not disappointed. It would have been a good marriage. Jourdan will have to be told, of course…’
‘I’m sure he’ll soon find someone else,’ Danielle said grimly, remembering the girl Corinne had mentioned.
‘When it becomes known in our family that he is not to marry you, he will lose face,’ her stepfather said sombrely, ‘but the fault is perhaps mine. I forgot that for all I consider you to be my daughter, you are not, as your mother does well to remind me, a daughter of the East…’
He looked so cast down that Danielle was moved to comfort him. ‘I know you were trying to secure my future, but when I marry I want it to be to a man I can respect and share my life with, not a man who looks to me only to bear his children. Besides,’ she added firmly, ‘I’m not ready for marriage…’
For the second time in a very short span of hours her stepfather’s wryly encompassing scrutiny of her slender, determined form filled her with embarrassment.
‘Perhaps not yet,’ he agreed. ‘But the time is not far off… If you will not marry Jourdan, then will you at least visit my family as my emissary? As you know, I shall shortly have to go to America on business. Your mother will come with me, and it would please me greatly, Danielle, if you would use these weeks before you start college—if that is what you are determined to do—to show my family how beautiful and chaste a daughter I have.’
‘You mean fly out to Qu‘har?’ Danielle asked. ‘Oh, but I couldn’t…’ Couldn’t live with complete strangers, was what she meant, strangers who disapproved of her mother and her marriage to their relative; strangers who included the man she had just refused to marry!
It was later when she was preparing for bed that her mother entered her room, so quietly that at first Danielle didn’t hear her.
‘Danielle,’ her mother begged softly, sitting down on Danielle’s bed, and watching her daughter brush the gleaming cloud of darkened curls clustering on her shoulders, ‘please go to Qu‘Har. It means so much to Hassan—far more than he has told you. You have compassion and imagination, surely you can understand how bitter has been his own lack of children, especially in view of his position? To claim you as his daughter, albeit by marriage, is one of his greatest joys. Do not deny him the pleasure of showing you off to his family…’
‘A family who don’t want anything to do with us as long as Daddy continues to make money for them,’ Danielle protested rebelliously, putting down her brush and turning to face her mother. ‘I can’t do it. I can’t pretend the way I would have to…’
‘Not even for the sake of your father?’ her mother prodded gently. ‘It would be a compromise, Danny. I know Hassan mentioned that Jourdan will lose face over your refusal to marry him, but so will Hassan…’
Her sympathy aroused in spite of her own feelings, Danielle stared reluctantly at the floor, knowing what her mother was asking of her and yet unwilling to commit herself to visiting Qu‘Har.
‘I can understand Daddy,’ she said at last. ‘But you… surely you knew that I would never agree to such a marriage?’
‘I knew, but Hassan was so sure he was doing the right thing, so convinced that he was protecting you that only your own reaction could convince him. Having gained so much surely you can afford a little compromise now, darling?’
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