Heart of the Dragon

  He was the reason her body felt tender and her emotions were drained. She gave him a pensive smile. “The dragon’s thinking. He can’t decide how to get out of the fix he’s in.”

  “What’s that?” Kash sat down gracefully and slipped his arms around her. She leaned against him and stroked his hair back from his forehead. It was a loving gesture. “He’s stuck in the middle of a tropical forest with a woman he can’t help anymore.”

  He frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Madame Piathip has made it clear that she’s through with me. I’ll never get to see Mayura.” Rebecca hesitated. “Unless you take me to see her.”

  He didn’t answer. They looked directly into each other’s eyes. She searched his for the reason behind his silence. “She was in Switzerland under the protection of people who work for me. But when I broke my contract with Madame Piathip, I broke my obligation to protect Mayura from the Nalinats.”

  “What did they threaten to do, exactly?”

  “They said they’d kidnap her and force her to marry their son. To save face. It was a perfectly honorable plan, in their minds.”

  “You won’t throw Mayura to the Nalinats, no matter how angry you are at Madame.”

  His eyes glowed with quiet gratitude. “You doubt my cold-blooded instincts?”

  “Yep.”

  “All right, you know me too well. I haven’t told my people to desert her.” He lifted his head and glanced toward the narrow dirt road disappearing into the forest.

  Rebecca tapped his chest impatiently. “Will you take me to her?”

  “I don’t have to. Listen. Good Lord, Traynor has the most incredible timing. We’d better go put some clothes on.” Bewildered, Rebecca turned her good ear toward the road and strained to hear. She caught the sound of a vehicle approaching. Her lips parted in an Oh! of understanding. She whirled back to Kash. He nodded. “I’ve brought Mayura to you.”

  • • •

  They sat at opposite ends of a long bamboo bench in the cottage’s main room, looking at each other awkwardly. Rebecca had barely had time to rush indoors and change clothes. She’d put on a pale pink shirtwaist dress and scandals, then brushed her hair into a semblance of neatness. She knew her appearance was disheveled and unsophisticated.

  But then, to her delight, so was her sister’s.

  Mayura Vatan was almost as tall as Rebecca, just as slender, and the ends of her short brown-black hair curved in different directions. She wore a baggy cotton top and a loose print skirt that hung unevenly around her calves. Her tilted eyes in a pretty face were framed by wide wire-rimmed glasses. She was curious, intelligent, and clumsy. The sense of kinship and recognition was so powerful that Rebecca was speechless.

  “You may be my relative?” Mayura asked in beautifully accented English.

  “Yes.”

  “Mr. Santelli has told me what my aunt did to you. You must forgive her, if you can. She’s an eccentric person but a very loving one, in her own way. Her husband left her when she was young, because she couldn’t have children. So I am like a daughter to her, you see. And she’s very overprotective.”

  “I understand. I had an overprotective father.”

  They shared a look of growing fascination. “My aunt has always expected me to take control of Vatan Silk someday,” Mayura continued. “But I’d rather be an artist. A painter.” She sighed. “It’s difficult to break free of tradition. I must honor my aunt’s wishes.”

  “I’m an artist too,” Rebecca said in amazement. “Well, sort of. A cartoonist.”

  “I know. Mr. Santelli told me all about you. I’m so impressed! But why is someone so beautiful and talented still unmarried?”

  “Good taste. High expectations. And very few offers, frankly. I’m a loner.”

  Mayura was nodding fervently. “Yes, yes! I understand! Me too!”

  Thinking pensively about Kash, Rebecca glanced toward an open window. He had changed into trousers and a thin white shirt, and outside, he was embroiled in deep conversation with the man who’d escorted Mayura from Switzerland. Traynor was a giant, redheaded, ruggedly handsome man whose permanent expression seemed to be a mysterious scowl.

  “I wish I had proof that you and I are related,” Rebecca told Mayura wistfully. “And I wish your aunt would explain why she wants it kept secret.”

  Mayura drew herself up proudly. “I want all of this explained, yes. I want the feud with the Nalinats ended too.” She flashed Rebecca a grin. “So I’ve invited my aunt and the Nalinats here for a meeting.”

  Rebecca gestured numbly toward the window, where Kash and Traynor were studying a piece of paper. “Do they know?”

  “No. I’m being independent. Next to rejecting Somsak Nalinat’s marriage proposal, this is the most adventurous thing I’ve ever done. What do you think of me?”

  Rebecca was worried, but she couldn’t help laughing. “We must be related.”

  Rebecca’s first impression of the three Nalinats was that they were undeniably handsome people, with their smooth, delicate features and regal bearing. There was Wasun, the father and head of internationally known Nalinat Silks, Sujima, the socially powerful mother, a cousin of the Thai royal family, and Somsak, the son, an unusually tall man with flashing black eyes and an arrogant smile.

  They sat on plush cushions around a low ebony table, facing her and Kash. Madame Piathip sat in queenly splendor at the head of the oval table. She was the only one not dressed in Western clothes. A gold-and-pink silk sarong exposed one of her strong shoulders. Small porcelain teacups sent steamy, strong vapor into the air. Madame tapped her fingernails on her cup, for attention. Mayura sat at the other end, proudly ignoring Somsak’s heated glares.

  “My guest, Miss Brown, has not had a pleasant visit in our country,” she told the Nalinats. Her voice was polite, but her face was a mask. “Someone has done terrible things to frighten her, as I’m sure you’ve heard.”

  “We’ve heard,” Wasun Nalinat said stiffly. “It’s shocking. Who would do such a thing to an innocent foreigner?”

  Rebecca bit her tongue to keep quiet. You would, you cold-blooded lizard. “I could take a guess,” she said politely.

  Kash rubbed his knee against hers under the table, signaling her to hold her anger. He’d warned her to say as little as possible. In the hierarchy of social customs, a foreigner should be seen and not heard.

  Somsak had been examining her openly ever since she and Kash had walked into the room. Now he leaned toward her across the small table and said, “I’m convinced. You are Mayura’s half sister.”

  She blinked in surprise. “Yes.”

  “No,” Madame Piathip retorted. She looked furious. “She is mistaken. I now believe she’s made an innocent mistake. She can’t help that her father lied to her. So many foreigners would like to claim a connection to a fine family such as mine. But she is not my niece’s relative.”

  “I don’t agree,” Wasun Nalinat said. “Look at her. There’s a resemblance.”

  “Yes, there is,” Mayura interjected eagerly.

  “We’re sisters,” Rebecca blurted. “My father wouldn’t lie.”

  “Silence!” Madame Piathip ordered. Kash took Rebecca’s arm in a meaningful grip. Patience, it urged. “Excuse me,” he said to the Nalinats in a gracious tone, “but perhaps the only important question is, Why do you care whether this American is or isn’t related to Mayura?”

  “Mayura’s relatives owe us a debt of honor, just as she does,” Sujima Nalinat said with great dignity. “Mayura agreed to marry my son. Everyone knew it. The merger of the Nalinat family’s silk company and the Vatan Silk Company was a matter of great discussion in all the important homes of our country. Now we are shamed. Our family company is shamed. We demand that the Vatans honor the engagement of Mayura and our son, and therefore the merger of our businesses.”

  Rebecca’s head whirled with the information. So there was more than family honor at stake. There was money and power too.

 
She glanced at Kash. He’d been listening with a pleasant, solemn expression on his face. Now he nodded as if in agreement but said, “The Vatan family has instructed me—as I’ve told your representatives before—that there was never any formal engagement between Mayura and Somsak, only friendship. This is a regrettable misunderstanding, but no breach of honor.”

  “There was an engagement,” Somsak protested. “And there will be a marriage!” He pointed to Rebecca. “If not to Mayura, then to this one.”

  Madame Piathip gave a loud gasp. “I don’t care if you marry this foreigner, but you’ll never claim Vatan lineage through her!”

  Rebecca stared at the Nalinat family speechlessly. She was dimly aware of Kash’s hand tightening like a vise on her forearm. Switching her stunned gaze to him, she watched his expression harden into fearsome anger. A muscle popped in his jaw. She knew he was struggling with his emotions, and she fought an urge to grasp his hand in warning. Suddenly the smooth, cool man had become the dragon, ready to attack.

  “She’s not available,” he said in a lethal tone. “And even if she were, an arranged marriage is out of the question.”

  “A half sister to the Vatan family is better than no Vatan at all,” Wasun Nalinat told them. “But we have proof that this woman is related to Mayura. We have her lotus necklace.”

  Rebecca gasped. “The one you stole from me in a brothel!”

  “It belonged to Mayura’s mother. We have a photograph of her wearing the necklace.” He stared hard at Madame Piathip, who suddenly looked worried. “We also suspect why Rebecca Brown is important to Vatan Silk.”

  Rebecca felt as if she were spinning off into space. She clasped her forehead and looked at Kash again. He met her gaze with eyes shadowed in urgency and regret. Regret. He knew something that he hadn’t told her. She recoiled as if he’d threatened her. His lips parted in dismay, and he started to speak, but she shook her head bitterly and looked at Madame. The matriarch’s half-shut eyes and guarded expression spoke volumes.

  The truth hit Rebecca like a slap. “You and Kash have been hiding something from me. Both of you.”

  Kash twisted to face her. “I’ve never been Madame’s confidant. What I know, I’ve learned on my own.”

  “Tell me what you know. Tell me what you were hiding,” Rebecca demanded grimly.

  “Not hiding, just holding for the right time. I wanted to confirm what I suspected. I don’t deal in rumors and half-truths.”

  “No, you deal in secrecy,” she accused in a soft, bitter tone.

  Madame sputtered and slapped her teacup down. “Secrecy is a useful tool. Yes! I had my reasons for keeping family secrets! It was no concern of yours, Mr. Santelli.”

  “As your security coordinator, it was entirely my concern. You endangered Ms. Brown and deceived me.”

  “Don’t question my decisions, Mr. Santelli. You did what you were hired to do—investigate a stranger who caused trouble. Why should I apologize for using my own methods, especially since they didn’t work! She wouldn’t leave! What an obstinate, barbaric woman!”

  Mayura leaned forward eagerly. “Then you’re saying she is my half sister?”

  “Yes,” Madame Piathip replied in a deflated voice.

  “Good. I’ll accept her as a wife,” Somsak repeated.

  Mayura made a sound of disgust. “What are you scheming about this time, Somsak? What purpose would it serve for you to marry my half sister? She’s not a Vatan. She owns nothing in the family company.”

  “Oh?” Sujima Nalinat retorted. “Ask your aunt for the truth again, Mayura.”

  Rebecca stared hard into Kash’s troubled eyes. “You know too.”

  “I didn’t want to discuss my suspicions about Madame’s motives until I had proof.”

  “So you let me worry, and think that my father was a criminal. Did you make up that story about my father and the art thief?”

  “No. The man told me about your father and himself. I believed him. But”—Kash turned swiftly and looked at Madame Piathip, who coughed and fanned herself delicately with one hand—”I imagine Madame set up that interview for her own purposes. It was staged.”

  “You’ve disgraced me, Aunt,” Mayura interjected in despair.

  “Oh, you Vatans are so deceitful,” Wasun Nalinat said victoriously. “This proves it.”

  Madame Piathip threw up her hands. “This has nothing to do with Mayura and your son. There was no engagement. You haven’t been deceived.”

  Numbly Rebecca sorted through the muddled details. “Why didn’t you want to admit that I’m Mayura’s half sister?” she asked Madame Piathip. She avoided Kash’s dark scrutiny, feeling too bewildered and hurt to risk looking at him. “What makes me such a threat?”

  “Let Mr. Santelli tell you. He’s entirely too good at his work. ” Madame glared at him reproachfully.

  Rebecca met Kash’s eyes again. “Tell me what was so important it was worth hurting me for.”

  Denial and frustration darkened his expression. “I was protecting you.” He gestured for Traynor, who’d been waiting in a chair near the door. Traynor took a folded, yellowed document from an inner pocket of his sports jacket and brought it to Kash. Rebecca watched in bewilderment.

  Kash, his face rigid, opened the document and placed it on the table in front of her. She read it with disbelieving eyes. It was a signed agreement spelling out her father’s investment of ten thousand dollars in the Vatan Silk Company.

  Kash said brusquely. “Thirty years ago, when he was stationed in Thailand with the army, your father invested his life savings in the silk company his wife’s family had started. The family had almost no money and only a handful of employees.”

  Rebecca looked up at him. She raised a hand to her throat. “My father bought stock in the company?”

  “Yes.” Kash’s troubled eyes were riveted to hers. “Fifty-one percent.”

  Her breath stalled in her lungs. “The controlling interest?”

  “Yes.”

  “But he didn’t have any stock certificates. And he never mentioned them.”

  Madame Piathip exhaled wearily. “He was a very obstinate and proud man.”

  “You mean he wouldn’t take bribes from the family who’d stolen his daughter.”

  “Ungracious foreigner! Don’t speak to me that way!”

  Mayura was staring at them all in shock. “You mean I’m not the heir of Vatan Silk? I’m free to do what I want?”

  “You are heir to almost half the company’s stock,” Madame told her proudly. “And your father’s other child, his barbarian child, will never take what’s yours. I swear it.”

  “I don’t want my share of the stock,” Rebecca said, and shoved the document away. She felt bone-weary and defeated, even though she’d won everything and more. Kash had let her worry and grieve over her father’s story, when the truth—even a tentative truth—would have meant the world to her. His secrecy wounded her more than ever, because this time it hurt not only him, but her. She’d thought him incapable of hurting her. “I’ll give my stock to Mayura. All I want is to be accepted by her.”

  “Oh, no, you must not do this to me!” Mayura cried. She reached over and grasped Rebecca’s hands. “I don’t want to be in charge. I only enjoy designing the artwork on the silks. I’m an artist, not a businesswoman. Please, please, don’t give the stock to me!”

  “I think you should give it to us,” Somsak said pompously. “We’ll take it in payment for a broken engagement.”

  Kash bent his head close to Rebecca’s ear. “Keep it,” he ordered. “It’s a small fortune. You can travel, meet exciting people, do whatever makes you happy—”

  “I tried that already,” she told him in a low, icy voice. Her body was stiff with rejection. “It wasn’t all I’d hoped it would be. Someone took advantage of my faith in him. I’m ready to go back to Iowa and forget everything that happened here. Except for meeting Mayura.”

  Choking back tears, she looked at Mayura. “Why don’t yo
u come to Iowa and stay with me for a few weeks? I’ll show you our father’s mementoes, and you can meet his friends. You and I can get to know each other.”

  Mayura’s eyes lit up. Madame slapped a hand on the table. “I forbid it.”

  Mayura looked at her with ruffled dignity. “I honor you, and I love you, but now it’s time for me to undo the damage you’ve done. I want to know my other family. I want to see the world for myself. I’m going.”

  Madame Piathip looked chastised as never before. “I will take this under consideration.”

  “Thank you. I would appreciate your best wishes.”

  “What about our honor?” Wasun Nalinat said hotly. “We have no wedding and no business merger.”

  Rebecca shook her head. “You have a partnership with Vatan Silk. I swear it. No merger, but an alliance. I’m sure Madame Piathip will do business with you. I’ll give her the controlling share of stock, if she’ll agree to that.”

  Madame looked stunned. “Why? Why would you do that for me?”

  “Because I want to settle the feud. Because you’re part of my family, and I take that bond seriously, even if you don’t.”

  Madame’s eyes filled with tears. She bowed her head over a respectful wai. “I will never call you a barbarian again.”

  “It is done,” Wasun Nalinat announced. “The feud is ended.”

  “And I’ll go to America to visit with my sister,” Mayura said happily.

  Kash stood up. “I’d like to talk to Rebecca in private, please. Excuse us.”

  Rebecca nodded to the group and left the cottage at Kash’s side. They walked beyond a curve in the forest for privacy, not speaking a word during the tense journey. He stopped her with a firm hand on her arm. “I was only waiting until I had proof, before I told you everything I knew about your father and Vatan Silk. The stock agreement was that proof. Traynor brought it to me when he brought Mayura.”