“I am serious,” Heidi said. “I need to know where to buy the veils, and I need a video or something to learn the Dance of the Seven Veils.”
Fatima shook her head. “You must have misunderstood him. That dance was invented by Hollywood years ago. There’s no such thing in real life. Open that box, child, and start separating the roses for me. There’s a good girl.”
Heidi smiled. At times Fatima still thought of her as twelve or thirteen. If only life were that simple now.
“I know what he said,” she told the queen. “I was standing very close to him so it’s not as if I couldn’t hear. He distinctly said the Dance of the Seven Veils.”
Fatima looked at her. “Such nonsense coming from my own grandson. He’s just trying to get your clothes off.”
Heidi opened the box of roses and began laying them out on the table. They were long and perfect. The creamy blossoms gave off a lovely fragrance, which was unusual for long-stemmed roses. But then Fatima probably had them grown just for her.
“I’m pretty clear on his goal,” she admitted, trying not to think about actually being naked in the presence of a man. “What I don’t know is what to do.”
“What do you want to do?”
Heidi had been thinking about that as well. It would be easy for her to call Jamal and tell him she knew he was trying to get her naked. Except he thought of her as an experienced woman of the world. No doubt he was, if not testing her, then finding out how far she would go. It was a question she hadn’t answered herself yet.
“Can I learn something similar? Maybe modify a dance to include the veils.”
Fatima looked at her over the flowers. “Oh, they all include veils. It’s the taking off of the veils that is going to be different.” Thin, dark eyebrows raised slightly. “I take it things are going well?”
Heidi handed her three roses. “Yes…sort of.”
“That’s not a definitive response.”
“I know. I find it all confusing.” She tried to form an accurate answer. “I like Jamal. He’s being good to me.” Briefly she recounted how Jamal had brought her information on the general she’d been researching. “He’s funny and considerate and I like being with him. But it’s very strange being his mistress and his wife.”
“Sounds to me as if you have the best of both worlds. Don’t wives always want to be mistress and vice versa?”
Heidi shrugged. “I don’t know about that. I’m afraid he’s more interested in Honey than in me.”
“He can’t be. You’re the same person.”
“I know…” Her voice trailed off.
Heidi didn’t know how to explain that so far Honey was seeing a lot more action. She’d been the one getting the passionate kisses while Heidi, as the patient wife, received little more than a peck on the cheek.
“I like the idea of being his mistress,” Heidi said slowly. “But being married to him as well makes it confusing. I don’t know that I like that he’s with someone else.”
“But he’s not.”
“Isn’t he?” She shook her head and handed over more flowers. “That’s where I start to lose my mind.”
Fatima placed the roses in the vase and shifted them slightly. “You can decide about your mind later,” the queen told her. “Right now you have a bigger problem.”
“What’s that?”
Fatima smiled. “You can buy veils at the marketplace easily enough, and I’ll find you a dance video. But that’s just the logistics. What are you going to do about the rest of it?”
“The rest of what?” Heidi asked, truly confused. “If I have the costume and a dance, I’ll be fine.”
“Will you? How intriguing. Because if I remember correctly you were going to make Honey a woman of the world.”
“She is.”
“Then won’t Jamal be surprised when he finds out his woman of the world happens to be a virgin.”
Heidi opened her mouth, then closed it. Words failed her, but then so did her brain. It shut down completely. Fatima’s words echoed over and over again in her head. A virgin.
“Oh,” she said at last.
“Yes. Oh. So you see, my dear, the issue of the veils is small potatoes when compared with your real problem. Which means before you can go any further with him as his mistress, you’re going to have to find a way to make love with him as his wife.”
Heidi felt herself blush. “Oh, Lord, what do I do?”
“Simple enough. You seduce him.”
Two days later Heidi prepared to sneak out of the palace and head down to the souk for an afternoon of shopping in the centuries-old marketplace.
She was less concerned about buying herself anything new than about her need to find veils and practice with them. Fatima had come through with a video that Heidi could modify to include a Dance of the Seven Veils, but without the sheer lengths of fabric, she hadn’t figured out what she wanted to do yet.
Not that she didn’t need a few things for herself, she thought as she fingered the plain, blue-gray dress she wore. While she didn’t especially like the “Honey” styles of overt sexuality, she was ready to try something more flattering for herself. Maybe a few tailored dresses and pantsuits. Not to mention evening clothes. She was going to have official functions to attend in the next few months.
But for now, veils were her main concern, she thought as she left the suite she shared with Jamal and made her way toward the front of the palace. Veils and a growing sense of panic at the thought of having to seduce her own husband.