Read Sold! A Romance In The Sudan for Free Online

looked
horrified.
    “Darfur is in the west. We’re in Port Sudan. We’re
quite far from the war,” Hafiq soothed her.
    “I should phone someone,” Lilly worried.
    “Why? You’ve got no family. Who would you
tell?”
    Lilly looked surprised. “Well, I have to tell
the tour company for a start. They must be awfully upset. And the
British embassy.”
    Hafiq shrugged and made a suggestion he was
sure would divert her attention. “Getting you some clothes is more
important. I’ll get you some things in the local market tomorrow
and we can go to town on Monday. You’ll like the boutiques on the
waterfront.”
    To his surprise, she wasn’t that interested.
“I can’t go to the embassy in a towel but I’ve got no money,” Lilly
worried.
    “I’ll give you some.”
    “I’ll pay you back.”
    It was Hafiq’s turn to be shocked. “Don’t be
silly, Green Eyes.”
    “I’m not being silly,” Lilly said defiantly.
Suddenly shy, she laid a hand on his arm. “I can’t ever pay you
back for rescuing me but I won’t take your money.” She smiled at
him. “You know what, I never asked you how much you paid for
me.”
    “One thousand dollars.”
    “American dollars?” Lilly converted it into
British pounds sterling and frowned. “Why that’s terrible! I’m
worth much more than that!”
    Hafiq burst into laughter. “Lucky you’re not
a blonde or the price would have tripled!”
    “It’s outrageous,” Lilly sniffed. “I’m going
to tell the embassy exactly what happened and I hope they catch
them.”
    Hafiq shrugged. “I wouldn’t bother. Nobody
will care very much.”
    Lilly considered this carefully. “I suppose
you’re right,” she conceded. “From all those stories on the news,
kidnapping and stuff is normal here.” She smiled at him. “But we
should tell them anyway, I mean, you can’t have girls being sold in
the marketplace!”
    “It happens all the time,” Hafiq said
absently. “There’s complaints of course but it’s not always a bad
thing. My father’s women were all quite happy.” Instantly he knew
he should have kept his mouth shut.
    “You buy slaves?” Lilly was aghast.
    “No, of course not!” Hafiq back-pedalled
furiously. “My father was a very traditional man but I’m very
English.”
    Lilly considered him carefully. “You don’t
seem very English to me.”
    “I was brought up by my father’s last wife.
She was an English woman from Kenya.”
    Lilly was fascinated. “His last wife? How
many did he have?”
    “Fourteen,” Hafiq said simply.
    Lilly was speechless. Hafiq decided not to
mention the dozens of concubines who’d come and gone over the
years.
    Seeing Lilly’s worried frown, Hafiq decided
to cheer her up. Her pulled her into his lap and gave her a
kiss.
    “Don’t worry. Things are very different now.
I ‘m not like that.” He kissed her again. “If you want to talk to
your people, I will take you into town. There’s no embassy here but
there’s Robinson. He’s an honorary consul.”
    Perversely Lilly decided she didn’t like the
idea at all.
    You should stay, her inner self urged her.
He’s everything you’ve always dreamed of. Kind, smart, strong and
gentle. Why are you fighting this? Take him back to bed! He’s a
keeper!
    But her brain told her that it would never
work. She’d better go home, go to college and make a life for
herself.
    “Anyway, we can’t do anything now because
everything is closed. You’ll have to wait until Monday,” Hafiq said
cheerfully.
    Lilly instantly felt happier. It wasn’t her
fault if she had to stay a few days. “I really want to do something
to contribute,” she said seriously. “I can start by doing the
dishes.”
    “No, no, I have people to do that,” Hafiq
said dismissively. He wasn’t having his woman slave in a kitchen.
Then he brightened. “But there is something you can do for me.”
    “Anything!”
    “Do you know how to make those English
chocolate cakes?” Hafiq mused. “Little