“I’m not staying here like a prisoner,” she snapped to the empty room. She tossed the file down onto the bed and turned around, heading right back for her body guards. She found both of them outside of the suite they’d led her to, standing at attention of course.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t really know what to do with myself at the moment. This change has all been extremely sudden so I’m a bit out of my element. Could either of you take me on a tour of the city? Just so I can get to know the area and see what Silaria is like? ” she asked carefully and with a smile. She hated being bored and couldn’t stand inactivity. She needed to get out and do something and the best way, in her mind, was to see what needed to be done.
Both of them looked at the other, then one reached behind him. Isla was initially alarmed that he was about to pull a gun and force her back into her room, but he pulled out a radio and pressed a button, speaking into the receiver. He quickly relayed the question to what Isla assumed was his commander.
Apparently, she received permission and the two men nodded back to her. “This way,” the older one said. He was very serious about the mission, looking grim at the possibility of something happening but he was willing, which was a very nice surprise. She had to give the guard credit for a spur of the moment request like this. She knew the dangers he was facing but considered them to be minimal at the current time since not many people knew that she was even in the country, and even fewer might suspect her future role with Hussan.
Good grief, even she wasn’t sure she believed what her future role would be.
It had been a confusing day, she thought with a sigh.
Isla followed them through the hallways once again and was surprised when she was led through an exit and then right into a large, black SUV. There were actually three of them and she was led to the first one. She climbed into the back of the truck and made herself comfortable, wondering what she was going to see. She braced herself for the worst, but remembered the sights from the helicopter. Hopefully, she was wrong about her impressions. But how could she be? Too often, she’d tended to those who had been having problems with the local authority figures, most of whom weren’t legitimate officers but simply thugs who had taken over in the power vacuum.
Unbidden, Isla’s mind tripped to the picture of Hussan as a sort of superhero who flies out of the sky and knocks the thugs out of the picture. She shook her head, wondering where that crazy idea had come from. One kiss and she was smitten? Not by a long shot! The man might not be as ugly as she’d thought, or as bad as the older pictures portrayed him to be, but that didn’t mean she liked him. Or that he wasn’t one of the bad guys. Lucifer was supposed to be a lovely chap, but there wasn’t any getting around the fact that he was the devil.
Although, she had to admit that the man knew how to kiss.
She put her forehead in her palm in order to hide her face, wishing she could stop the blush that formed on her cheeks just at the memory of how that kiss had affected her body. Dammit, she wished she’d never done that. Or at a minimum, she wished she could stop her reaction to his touch or his kiss.
As they drove through the city, she noticed the same thing she’d seen from the air. Everyone was working hard, some were laughing, many people cleaning up, but there was a general sense of diligence with everyone milling about and going around the city, efficiently doing their business. “Can you take me to a school?” she asked. The schools were the heart of a country’s future. She’d seen the conditions of a few schools, but they weren’t the main focus of her team’s work. She tried very hard to stay out of politics, but now that she was going to marry the man, or so he says since she still hadn’t wrapped her mind around that nightmare, she wanted to see what was happening inside the schools in the capital city.
The body guards looked back at her with their blank stares which probably meant that they thought she’d just made a crazy request, then respectfully nodded once again. She wasn’t sure if they were reluctant to drive her to her desired location, or just doing what she asked because they had absolutely no expression on their faces while she asked, nor when they replied.
She was driven to the nearest grade school and told to wait in the car. One of the guards entered the school with menacing strides and a moment later, what Isla assumed was the school administrator came rushing out of the building, the guard behind her looking to his right and left as if he were constantly scanning the perimeter.
As the administrator approached, Isla assumed that it was safe to get out of the vehicle. Since no one stopped her as she reached for the door handle, she took that to mean she was okay to proceed. Isla stepped out of the truck and greeted the woman warmly.
The administrator was in her mid fifties with salt and pepper hair, sparkling brown eyes and a grandmotherly figure that was encased in a loose fitting, all black dress with almost no accessories. There were small, pearl earrings on her earlobes, but the softening effect was negated with her no-nonsense, robber soled shoes. “Your Highness! This is such an honor. We had no idea you would be arriving today. Goodness! We didn’t even know that our Sheik was getting married so this is so exciting! Very exciting, indeed!” the woman gushed.
Isla took the woman’s hand, lifting her up when she tried to awkwardly curtsy. “Please don’t be alarmed. And if this is a bad time, I can appreciate your busy schedule. The children’s schedule and education are much more important than my unannounced visit. This was a spur of the moment trip and I just wanted to see what the people were up to. But I don’t want to disrupt the children’s schedule so please let me know if this time is inconvenient.”
The administrator quickly shook her head, one hand moving to her throat while the other waved in front of her to allay Isla’s fears. “Goodness! Of course you can come in and see what we’re doing. We’re honored by your presence and thrilled to have you interested in what we do here! The kids will have a fabulous story to tell for the rest of their lives because of your visit!” The woman was so flustered Isla had to work hard to help her calm down. As they moved slowly into the building, Isla asked about the curriculum, the number of students that attended, the school year and anything else that would put the administrator at ease. The woman was knowledgeable and proud of her school, singing the praises of El-Hamin. Unfortunately, hearing good things about the man she hated wasn’t what she was hoping to hear.