Silk and Secrets(71)

"Ferengi men allow their women to behave in such a fashion?" he asked doubtfully.

Not wanting to undermine Ross's authority, she said only, "Khilburn is not like other men, nor am I like other women."

His gaze went to her bright hair again, this time with patent admiration. "Truly you are not."

Juliet tucked her braid inside the back of her robe, then lifted her tagelmoust and began wrapping it around her head and face. "It seemed safer that you not know about me, but since fate has decreed otherwise, it will simplify matters for us all."

Murad nodded absently. Then a new thought shocked him. "You defeated Habib!"

"Of course," she said coolly as she finished the complicated winding of the veil. "I am better with a knife than he, so I won. The fact that I am female was of no importance."

The young Persian did not look as if he accepted that, but his next question was, "What is your true name?"

"Juliet."

Murad blinked. "Like Khilburn's camel Julietta?"

"They are forms of the same name," she said shortly, thinking that Murad was regrettably quick-witted. Picking up her black mantle, she set off through the rushes. Murad followed, still shaking his head in astonishment.

When they rejoined the others, Juliet announced in English, "Murad caught me with my veil down, so I confessed all."

Ross made a rueful face. "I was afraid that might happen when I saw that he had gone off to look for you. Well, we'll just have to make the best of it."

"You didn't trust me," Murad said accusingly to his master.

Ross gave the young man his full attention. "It was not so much that I did not trust you, Murad, as that a man should be very careful where his wife's safety is concerned."

Seeing that the comment had soothed the young man's sense of ill-usage, he continued, "Now that Juliet's identity is no longer a secret, we might as well take advantage of the four of us being private to discuss what to do in Bokhara."

At Ross's gesture, all four settled down in the shade of a willow. Saleh asked, "Do you have a plan?"

"Bokhara is a city of spies and suspicion. As a ferengi, I will be very conspicuous," Ross said. "It will be better if the three of you take separate lodgings from me. Besides being able to move about more freely, you will be less likely to attract the amir's wrath."

Saleh frowned. "There is some truth to that. I have family in Bokhara, and through them I might discover useful information. But someone must stay with you, for your rank requires that you have a servant. Also, if you are alone it will be more difficult and dangerous for me to communicate with you."

Ross considered. "That makes sense. Juliet will stay with you and Murad with me."

"No," Juliet said immediately. "Where you go, I go."

As the three men looked at her, she felt a moment of acute embarrassment. Her protest had been as irrational as it was powerful. Half an hour earlier she had been telling herself that she needed to be apart from Ross, yet the very thought of that now made her insides churn. Fortunately, Murad spoke up while she was still trying to think of a logical reason for her remark.

"I agree," the young Persian said slowly. "Madmen are considered holy fools in Islam and as such have great liberty."

He gave a quick smile. "While 'Jalal the Targui' is not mad, the Lady Khilburn plays the role of half-wild desert man most excellently. Knowing that Jalal is unpredictable, our fellow travelers keep their distance and think no more about him. Her. In Bokhara she will be able to come and go scarcely noticed, like a nomad's dog." His smile broadened meaningfully. "Besides, should not husband and wife be together?"

Ross glanced at Juliet. His brown eyes had darkened to near black and in his face she saw the same ambivalence she felt herself. Both of them might wish the other at the opposite end of the earth, but until this mission was done, they were bound together. They were like two people sharing a bed that was too small for comfort, yet which could not be escaped.

"Very well," he said at last. "If you want to play Ruth, so be it. Now, what can we expect at the Bokharan customhouse? I want to know if we'll be able to take our guns into the city."

"There should be no problem with the pistols," Murad said thoughtfully, "but if you try to take those two beautiful rifles into the city, they will be confiscated."

"Perhaps the rifles could be wrapped and left outside the city," Saleh suggested. "My brother still owns my family's estate, and it lies very near the caravan road. I think your weapons could be safely concealed in one of the outbuildings."