“Good,” Lisbeth said, excitement coursing through her.
Abbas nodded to the women, bringing out a plethora of food. “The village elders want to celebrate the finding of the map.”
Rafe grinned. “An excellent idea.”
*
Thomas stuffed himselfwith the food the villagers had laid out. He was so full that he felt as if he wouldn’t need to eat for days. One of the village elders, Omar Al-Sayed, sat next to him, and, in Arabic, he asked, “Who is she?”
“She is a titled lady from England,” he responded in the same language.
The man smirked at him. He shook his head. “Who is she to you?”
“We’ve known each other almost our whole lives.”
“Tarek says she is your Layla.”
Thomas sighed. Rafe was such a bloody gossip. He glanced at her. She was beaming and attempting to speak with one of the women in the village. “She is someone I care about, but not my Layla. She hasn’t turned me into a madman.”
The man chuckled as if he didn’t believe him, but didn’t say anything more. Rafe joined them, and the village elder left, going to speak with Abbas. He skewered his friend with a glare. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t spread gossip about me.”
Rafe sighed. “He is an elder. Did you want me to lie to him? He asked me about Lisbeth. He is curious because you’ve never brought a lady down here besides Rose.”
“Why would I?”
His friend shrugged. “Lisbeth is a beautiful woman.”
Thomas scowled. “When did you start addressing her so informally?”
“Benson said she is a widow. Why not pursue her?”
He looked at him in shock. “We have nothing in common and took very different paths. That is a preposterous idea.”
“Why? You are alone, and she is as well. What is in the way?”
He didn’t say anything but glanced at the woman he’d once thought would be his wife. Maybe Thomas had lied to Lisbeth. The hurt should be long gone after a decade, but it flared within him. “Today, I decided I can forgive her and hold no grudgesabout the past, but I don’t think I can ever open my heart to Lisbeth again.”
Rafe didn’t argue with him. “Did she tell you why she left?”
“She didn’t want to discuss the past in detail.”
His friend glanced at her. “I think it would benefit both of you to talk through it. You may not want to love her, but there is something between the two of you.”
Thomas snorted, not wanting to believe anything existed between him and Lisbeth.
Rafe gave him a knowing glance. “Or you can continue to be the madman.”
“I’m not the Majnun.”
“And I’m not the imbecile.”
A chuckle escaped Thomas. “I may disagree. Who is the woman you haven’t moved on from?”
While Thomas had slept his way across the globe, Rafe had flirted but abstained as far as he knew. Rafe sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Perhaps you should take your own advice.”
Rafe grinned and smacked him on the back. “We are a bunch of melancholy fools. Enough of this. What do we really have to complain about?”
