Читать книгу Governess To The Sheikh - Laura Martin - Страница 12

Chapter Three

‘Enough,’ Rachel proclaimed.

Three sets of dark eyes looked at her with surprise. It was eleven in the morning and they still had another hour of lessons to go until they broke for lunch.

‘I think we need a change of scenery,’ she declared.

None of the children moved. Insistently Rachel stood up and gathered one or two things from her desk. She needed fresh air and she needed to see some proper daylight. The palace was magnificent, there was no denying it; cool whitewashed rooms were never far away from bubbling fountains or beautiful mosaics, but the schoolroom had something to be desired. It was plain and boring, there was no way of getting round it. Rachel supposed the Sheikh or one of his aides had thought it best to keep the room as dull as possible so as not to distract the children from their studies. The result was a room Rachel was dying to get out of after just two hours.

‘Come, children, we will finish our lessons outside.’

She had reached the door before anyone moved, but as she stepped outside into the bright sunlight she heard the scraping of the wooden chairs against the floor.

Rachel made a beeline for a shaded area, arranged her skirts around her, and sat down. The children followed awkwardly and stood looking down at her.

‘Now to finish off the morning we are going to work on developing your imaginations.’

One of the toughest things Rachel was finding was tailoring her lessons to three children of different ages and abilities. Aahil was intelligent and probably the most confident of the three when it came to answering her questions. Little Hakim was still so very young, but Rachel could see that under his shy exterior he had a quick mind. Ameera had refused to answer any of Rachel’s questions, instead preferring to scuff her feet along the floor and sigh loudly whenever Rachel spoke.

‘Between us we are going to tell a story,’ Rachel explained. ‘I will go first, set the scene and introduce a character or two. Then we will all take it in turns to add to the story.’

It was a game Rachel had played many times with her school friends on cold, wet, winter afternoons. For a moment Rachel pictured herself back at Madame Dubois’s School for Young Ladies and felt a pang of homesickness. She wondered how Joanna was faring in Hertfordshire. Of all her friends Rachel was most concerned for quiet, kind Joanna. Found abandoned on the steps of the school when just a baby, Joanna had never had a family, never known who her parents were. Rachel’s friend wanted so much to belong somewhere and had been excited about the prospect of becoming part of the family she was being employed by, but Rachel just hoped they treated her kindly and not like a servant. Joanna had so much love and warmth to give, she deserved happiness.

Pulling herself back to the present before Aahil could protest this wasn’t educational enough or Ameera could vocalise whatever criticism was making its way from her brain to her lips, Rachel began the story.

‘Once upon a time there was an old woman who lived in a small cottage in the woods.’ She turned to Hakim and smiled gently at him. ‘Why don’t you add something next, Hakim?’

The young Prince frowned and started to chew on his thumb.

‘You can add anything you like,’ Rachel said encouragingly.

‘She had a pet,’ Hakim said after a minute or two.

‘What kind of pet?’ Rachel asked.

‘A pet dragon.’

Ameera snorted. Rachel ignored her for a second and focused on Hakim.

‘That’s very good, Hakim. Once upon a time there was an old woman who lived in a small cottage in the woods. She had a pet dragon.’

Rachel was delighted when Hakim gave her a small, shy smile. She’d have to remember he liked dragons, work it into one of their lessons soon.

‘Ameera, it’s your turn next.’

Rachel watched as the young girl’s lips moved, but no sound came out. After a few seconds she spoke, a sly smile crossing her face.

‘The old woman liked to eat children for breakfast,’ she said. ‘And her name was Miss Talbot.’

Ameera sat back triumphantly, crossed her arms across her chest and levelled a challenging stare at Rachel. Rachel held her gaze. She had heard titbits of conversation from some of the servants about Ameera’s behaviour with her previous tutors. The young girl had been rude, naughty and sometimes downright mean, but despite her previous shenanigans, Rachel knew she was still just a child. A child acting up most likely because of the loss of her mother.

Rachel hadn’t spent years at a boarding school with lots of other girls not to learn how to deal with difficult characters. Ameera might be a little terror, but she was no match for Rachel.

Without changing the tone of her voice Rachel repeated the story so far. ‘Once upon a time there was an old woman who lived in a small cottage in the woods. She had a pet dragon. The old woman liked to eat children for breakfast and her name was Miss Talbot.’

Serenely Rachel turned to Aahil and motioned for him to continue the story. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ameera’s face fall.

Aahil was quiet for a moment whilst he observed the interaction between his sister and his governess, then he realised what Rachel was doing and started to speak.

‘One day a brave prince was riding through the forest and he stopped outside the old woman’s cottage.’

Rachel turned to Hakim.

‘And he saw the pet dragon.’

She smiled encouragingly, then motioned for Ameera to carry on.

‘He killed Miss Talbot with his sharp pointy sword. The end,’ Ameera said firmly.

Rachel clapped her hands together.

‘What a wonderful story. We had an evil villain, a brave prince, a happy ending, and of course a dragon—everything a good story needs.’

‘Did you hear what I said?’ Ameera asked, no longer able to contain herself.

‘Yes, Ameera, I did.’

The young girl looked as if she were about to say something else when a shadow fell over them. Rachel looked behind her to see the Sheikh standing over them. She shivered slightly, telling herself it was because he was blocking out the sunlight and not because his dark eyes held hers for just a moment longer than was necessary.

‘How are your lessons going, children?’ he asked.

‘We’ve been making up a story,’ Hakim said, his face shining with pleasure.

Rachel saw the Sheikh’s surprised look as his youngest son spoke without prompting and felt a stab of pride. Just a few more days and most of Hakim’s shyness would be a thing of the past.

‘It had a dragon in it.’

The Sheikh frowned. In the two weeks since Rachel had arrived at the palace she had barely seen him. Apart from the rather surreal meal on the rooftop he had been busy with state business. Sometimes she would glimpse him talking quietly with some advisor or discussing something animatedly with Wahid, but he had not approached her since their dinner together.

Not that she expected him to want to talk to her, of course, but seeing as she spent most of her day with his children, she was pretty sure he hadn’t spoken to them either.

Rachel didn’t profess to be an expert on how royalty normally interacted with their children, but she had experienced first-hand the heartbreak indifference from a parent to a child could bring. Her parents had always been kind towards her, they’d never beaten her, or even told her off. She had been well clothed, decently fed and well educated. All in all she’d had more than many children could expect. What she hadn’t received was their attention. They’d always been more interested in each other than in her. Sometimes they hadn’t even noticed when she had entered the room. As a child she’d craved their attention, their approval, and when they didn’t do anything more than glance at the picture she’d painted or smile distantly when a governess paraded her in front of them on a Sunday, it had hurt more than if they’d slapped her face.

She wouldn’t let the same happen to these children. She could tell the Sheikh loved them, she could see it in his eyes, but he just didn’t know how to act around them. No doubt he had been brought up to focus fully on running his kingdom and didn’t know how to engage properly with the three young children who loved him so much.

‘A dragon,’ the Sheikh said.

Hakim nodded. ‘A pet dragon.’

‘I’m not sure...’ the Sheikh started to say.

‘Doesn’t Hakim have a wonderful imagination?’ Rachel said lightly.

The Sheikh stopped speaking and nodded, smiling down at his son.

‘Really wonderful.’

Rachel watched as father ruffled his son’s hair and Hakim smiled shyly.

‘Miss Talbot was in it,’ Ameera said, stepping forward between Rachel and the Sheikh. ‘She was the villain. I made sure she was stabbed with a really sharp sword.’

Rachel knew she was just doing it for attention so she smiled serenely and inspected her nails. She hoped the Sheikh would similarly ignore his daughter’s provocation and Ameera would soon realise nothing was to be gained from this sort of behaviour.

‘Ameera,’ he said sharply, ‘apologise at once.’

Ameera crossed her arms mutinously.

‘No.’

‘Apologise to Miss Talbot.’

‘No.’

Rachel closed her eyes briefly and steeled herself for the disaster this was about to become.

‘Ameera, you will apologise.’

‘I won’t.’

‘I am your father. You will do as I say. Apologise to Miss Talbot immediately.’

Ameera stared at him silently, fury flashing in her eyes.

‘Apologise.’

‘Never.’

‘Go to your room. You won’t be allowed out until you apologise.’

‘Good. Then I won’t have to see her annoying face ever again.’

Ameera stalked off towards her room, not sparing a glance for her father or Rachel, making sure the door slammed loudly behind her once she was inside.

The Sheikh ran a hand through his hair and for a moment he looked beaten, but Rachel couldn’t bring herself to feel sorry for him. He’d brought the whole episode on himself.

‘Could we have a word, Your Highness?’ Rachel asked excessively politely.

‘I need to be getting back.’

‘This can’t wait. Boys, why don’t you go and get cleaned up for lunch.’

As Aahil and Hakim scurried away Rachel saw the Sheikh turn as if he was about to leave, too. She caught him by the arm and proceeded to pull him into a little alcove that was sunk into the courtyard wall.

He was so surprised to be touched in this way that for a moment he followed her without any protest. Rachel saw the instant he rallied, but did not care if he was angry at being manhandled. She was angry at how he’d handled the situation.

‘That was poorly done,’ she hissed.

The Sheikh recoiled from her slightly and she wondered for a second when the last time he had been criticised to his face was.

‘Ameera needs discipline.’

‘She needs to see acting out will not get a reaction from us.’

‘She needs to learn she cannot be so rude.’

‘She’s testing the boundaries, seeing what she can get away with.’

‘And you would let her get away with that sort of behaviour?’

They were both talking in muted voices, but the anger was apparent in both sides. The Sheikh drew himself up to his full height and Rachel suddenly wished she hadn’t brought him into such a small, enclosed space. His body was only inches from hers, his face so close she could reach out and touch his cheek without stretching.

Rachel felt a tingle of anticipation run through her body. She was angry with him, there was no denying it, but there was something else lurking inside her, too. She saw the passion flashing in his eyes as he spoke about his children, passion that matched her own, and she felt drawn to him. Even though they were arguing she wanted to reach out and pull him closer, to feel his body up against hers.

She rallied, trying to push all inappropriate thoughts from her mind and focus on the real issue.

‘Ameera is craving attention,’ Rachel said, forcing herself to speak calmly. ‘She needs to realise that acting out will not get her attention, but behaving well will.’

The Sheikh looked as though he was going to say something more, but as he digested Rachel’s words he fell silent.

‘So you were just going to ignore her rude comments?’

Rachel nodded. ‘And praise her when she did something well.’

‘And eventually she will stop being rude.’

The Sheikh sank back against the wall. For a moment he looked just like a man, just like an ordinary father struggling with a difficult child.

Rachel watched as different emotions flitted over his face: sadness, helplessness and finally acceptance. She had another overwhelming urge to reach out to him, this time to comfort him, but just as she was raising her hand she stopped. He might look like an ordinary man right now, but she had to remember he was royalty. He was the ruler of a kingdom and so far above her in social status she probably shouldn’t even think about speaking to him directly.

As she let her hand fall back to her side the Sheikh surprised her by catching her fingers in his own. For a moment Rachel thought there was a slight longing in his expression, but after a second it was gone and the façade he presented to the world was back. Quickly he released her hand and stepped out of the alcove.

‘I’m sorry for interfering,’ he said. ‘In the future I’ll leave such decisions on discipline up to you.’

Rachel felt him slipping further away and knew if she were not careful he might feel like it were best if he disengage from his children completely. Thinking quickly she spoke.

‘This afternoon I was planning on taking over the kitchen for a few hours with the children. I know they would love for you to join us for a little while if you have the chance.’

Rachel saw him hesitate and then to her surprise he nodded without any further persuasion.

‘I’ll see if I can manage to join you for a short while in between the land disputes this afternoon.’

As he walked away Rachel sagged back against the wall. She had invited him to join them for the sake of his children, but she could not deny the flutter of excitement she’d felt when he’d agreed.