Chapter Two - Motivations
Audrey El-Fadir did not question her father's wisdom. When he had announced that the entire family would be relocating to Cairo, Regina and Lindsey had balked, throwing screaming fits and refusing to eat. Audrey had simply packed. Thus when Saeed decided to post a guard of ten Med-jai warriors in and around the house, Audrey had nodded, kissed her father, and resigned herself to living with a bevy of strangers. After two months she hardly noticed the Med-jai and longer. They rarely spoke and certainly not to her. Ardeth Bay, the handsome warrior she'd been introduced to that first week in Cairo seemed to be the de facto commander of the group. He was only at the El-Fadir home about half of the time but he had a greater access to the house and those in it than the other men.
Ardeth, Audrey found quite fascinating. The tattoos that adorned his face were the same as her father's but where Saeed wore tailored European style suits and blazers, Ardeth was garbed exclusively in ethnic robes as dark as sin itself. He was silent a vigilant like the others but, somehow, his presence conveyed a deeper power, a more tangible danger. That was, Audrey supposed, why men so instinctively followed him.
He was, in a word, magnetic.
Audrey's sisters shared her opinion, if to a more limited degree.
"Those eyes," Lindsey sighed happily. Sitting perched on the edge of Regina's bed, Lindsey looked older than her 18 years. The sisters had gathered, as they did every night, to talk, giggle and gossip in that irreverent sisterly way they had always shared. "I love the way he looks at me."
Rolling her eyes, Audrey interjected, "Ardeth Bay almost always looks angry."
Regina laughed knowingly, "You're such a child."
"Actually, she's right." It was always that way: Regina and Lindsey on one side, Melanie quick to defend Audrey and vice versa.
As usual, Lindsey did not let Melanie dissuade her. "I wonder what he must feel living in a house with so many unmarried white women."
"Unlucky," Audrey ventured.
"You don't know anything!" Regina enjoyed treating Audrey as if she were still in pig tails. Just so long as no one else tried the same thing.
Audrey just rolled her eyes again. "I know that Mr. Bay has never ever looked at you or Lindsey in any way that wasn't completely dutiful."
"But you, I suppose, he has."
"No," Audrey admitted easily, "I don't believe he's ever looked at me at all."
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While the El-Fadir girls engaged in verbal skirmishes over the width and berth of his intentions toward them, Ardeth Bay concentrated on not focusing on the seeming endlessness of his current task. The El-Fadirs were polite, discrete, appreciative, and utterly outside the realm of his understanding.
Also weighing heavily on his mind was the conversation he'd had with Saeed that first day in the study. In a way, the old Med-jai had been right. Ardeth should have taken another wife by now, fathered a son. He was in his thirty-first year, he needed a son soon or the title of Med-jai chief would have to be passed on to another. Afterall, the child would have to have time to achieve maturity.
The thought simply left him cold.
Not the thought of children, so much. That idea he enjoyed - took comfort in. But the thought of taking another wife...Noura, his first wife, had grown up in the same tribe as Ardeth. He could not easily remember a time when he had not known her. Somewhere during his sixteenth year, Noura's father had started a dialogue with Ardeth's grand-father. Six months later, he and Noura were married. When Noura became pregnant almost immediately, the entire tribe had rejoiced. The tribe had rejoiced. Their young leader would have an heir far before his twentieth year.
It was not to be. Complications during the seventh month of pregnancy had taken both Noura and the child before the year mark in their marriage. Noura had been fifteen.
Ardeth could not say for sure that he had loved her. He had agreed to the marriage when his grand-father approached him because it seemed logical, dutiful. However, his heart had been empty since her death. His passion rested solely in his obligation to his people.
Being inside the El-Fadir household forced Ardeth to face the fact that there were many facets in his life where a deep nothing lurked. There was a genuine sweetness in the way that Roslyn and her children related to one another. It was the kind of bond that Ardeth could not be said to share with another living being. Increasingly, he was beginning to realize that he might never share such closeness.
His duties often kept him in Cairo but, even when he was in his village, he found very few moments for matters of a personal nature. Even if he did find time, his choice of women had dwindled over the years. When he was young, there had been several dozen young women who he had looked on favorably. . After Noura's death, the options had been even great - young women coming of age, women Ardeth's own age who had yet to become brides, and older widows of fallen warriors who were still of child-bearing years. But, after a prolonged mourning period, Ardeth found the marriageable women were few and far between.
There were still many offers. Fathers would place the entire family fortune into a dowry in order to tempt the great Med-jai ruler. Over the last years, any time the elders gathered, Ardeth's bachlorhood was discussed and eligible women offered up. Beautiful girls of good breeding who would happily devote their live to his care and pleasure.
Not one of them was a bit older than the youngest El-Fadir daughter.
One day he would have to marry one of these perfectly acceptable girls and produce at least one son. Until then, he would stay in Cairo, perform the duty to which he was born and hope to find someone with whom he could share a measure of true warmth in marriage
Audrey El-Fadir did not question her father's wisdom. When he had announced that the entire family would be relocating to Cairo, Regina and Lindsey had balked, throwing screaming fits and refusing to eat. Audrey had simply packed. Thus when Saeed decided to post a guard of ten Med-jai warriors in and around the house, Audrey had nodded, kissed her father, and resigned herself to living with a bevy of strangers. After two months she hardly noticed the Med-jai and longer. They rarely spoke and certainly not to her. Ardeth Bay, the handsome warrior she'd been introduced to that first week in Cairo seemed to be the de facto commander of the group. He was only at the El-Fadir home about half of the time but he had a greater access to the house and those in it than the other men.
Ardeth, Audrey found quite fascinating. The tattoos that adorned his face were the same as her father's but where Saeed wore tailored European style suits and blazers, Ardeth was garbed exclusively in ethnic robes as dark as sin itself. He was silent a vigilant like the others but, somehow, his presence conveyed a deeper power, a more tangible danger. That was, Audrey supposed, why men so instinctively followed him.
He was, in a word, magnetic.
Audrey's sisters shared her opinion, if to a more limited degree.
"Those eyes," Lindsey sighed happily. Sitting perched on the edge of Regina's bed, Lindsey looked older than her 18 years. The sisters had gathered, as they did every night, to talk, giggle and gossip in that irreverent sisterly way they had always shared. "I love the way he looks at me."
Rolling her eyes, Audrey interjected, "Ardeth Bay almost always looks angry."
Regina laughed knowingly, "You're such a child."
"Actually, she's right." It was always that way: Regina and Lindsey on one side, Melanie quick to defend Audrey and vice versa.
As usual, Lindsey did not let Melanie dissuade her. "I wonder what he must feel living in a house with so many unmarried white women."
"Unlucky," Audrey ventured.
"You don't know anything!" Regina enjoyed treating Audrey as if she were still in pig tails. Just so long as no one else tried the same thing.
Audrey just rolled her eyes again. "I know that Mr. Bay has never ever looked at you or Lindsey in any way that wasn't completely dutiful."
"But you, I suppose, he has."
"No," Audrey admitted easily, "I don't believe he's ever looked at me at all."
************************
While the El-Fadir girls engaged in verbal skirmishes over the width and berth of his intentions toward them, Ardeth Bay concentrated on not focusing on the seeming endlessness of his current task. The El-Fadirs were polite, discrete, appreciative, and utterly outside the realm of his understanding.
Also weighing heavily on his mind was the conversation he'd had with Saeed that first day in the study. In a way, the old Med-jai had been right. Ardeth should have taken another wife by now, fathered a son. He was in his thirty-first year, he needed a son soon or the title of Med-jai chief would have to be passed on to another. Afterall, the child would have to have time to achieve maturity.
The thought simply left him cold.
Not the thought of children, so much. That idea he enjoyed - took comfort in. But the thought of taking another wife...Noura, his first wife, had grown up in the same tribe as Ardeth. He could not easily remember a time when he had not known her. Somewhere during his sixteenth year, Noura's father had started a dialogue with Ardeth's grand-father. Six months later, he and Noura were married. When Noura became pregnant almost immediately, the entire tribe had rejoiced. The tribe had rejoiced. Their young leader would have an heir far before his twentieth year.
It was not to be. Complications during the seventh month of pregnancy had taken both Noura and the child before the year mark in their marriage. Noura had been fifteen.
Ardeth could not say for sure that he had loved her. He had agreed to the marriage when his grand-father approached him because it seemed logical, dutiful. However, his heart had been empty since her death. His passion rested solely in his obligation to his people.
Being inside the El-Fadir household forced Ardeth to face the fact that there were many facets in his life where a deep nothing lurked. There was a genuine sweetness in the way that Roslyn and her children related to one another. It was the kind of bond that Ardeth could not be said to share with another living being. Increasingly, he was beginning to realize that he might never share such closeness.
His duties often kept him in Cairo but, even when he was in his village, he found very few moments for matters of a personal nature. Even if he did find time, his choice of women had dwindled over the years. When he was young, there had been several dozen young women who he had looked on favorably. . After Noura's death, the options had been even great - young women coming of age, women Ardeth's own age who had yet to become brides, and older widows of fallen warriors who were still of child-bearing years. But, after a prolonged mourning period, Ardeth found the marriageable women were few and far between.
There were still many offers. Fathers would place the entire family fortune into a dowry in order to tempt the great Med-jai ruler. Over the last years, any time the elders gathered, Ardeth's bachlorhood was discussed and eligible women offered up. Beautiful girls of good breeding who would happily devote their live to his care and pleasure.
Not one of them was a bit older than the youngest El-Fadir daughter.
One day he would have to marry one of these perfectly acceptable girls and produce at least one son. Until then, he would stay in Cairo, perform the duty to which he was born and hope to find someone with whom he could share a measure of true warmth in marriage
