When we last saw our heroes, Steven and Renata had just
inserted themselves awkwardly into Ramon and Mandy’s surprise proposal dinner.
So no proposal for Ramon…
I’m beginning to think that Renata in fact doesn’t fit the
typical profile of the ‘Other Woman’ that we saw in Winspear’s novel. She does
serve as a foil for the heroine in terms of Mandy’s own insecurities about herself
– Renata is glamorous whereas Mandy isn’t, intellectual whereas Mandy gave up on university. And Mandy does think that Steven is in love with Renata pretty
much throughout the entire novel. But…she’s actually kind of nice? She’s just a
fabulous woman who is always well-dressed, likes to throw fancy parties,
hobnobs with directors and sheiks, and is just good friends with Steven. Just
an all-round nice woman. Props to Elizabeth Hoy for this characterization and
not making the only women in the book enemies!
After the aborted proposal, Mandy learns from Steven and Renata
that Ramon is actually already in the process of becoming betrothed to the
beautiful daughter of a neighbouring oil sheikh. So it seems like his interest
in Mandy could cause a lot of trouble, especially with his father. Mandy begins
to wonder how she got into this and why Ramon is taking it all so seriously! “Hadn’t
he ever before had a seaside holiday friendship?” (112).
She breathes a sigh of relief, however, when she
doesn’t hear from Ramon for a while. She returns to correcting the Professor’s
page proofs for his manuscript. The Professor goes off on another expedition to
some ruins, but Steven stays behind because he’s worried about Mandy being
alone in the villa with all the potential drama with Ramon and his father
swirling about. Mandy is angry because she feels like Steven has been spying on
her and also desolate because she’s beginning to realize that she cares for Steven
and she thinks he’s uninterested in her romantically.
And frankly, I’m not surprised. Why doesn’t he just say, ‘I’m
interested’ instead of doing things like sighing loudly at her behaviour and saying that sometimes “I’m
tempted to wish you were young enough to be taken across my knee and spanked”
(117)? And not in a sexy way?
But their time together alone at the villa is actually quite
pleasant. They swim together, recite Yeats at each other and visit some
beautiful mosaics. This peacefulness is interrupted by the arrival of two
rather intimidating men come to take Mandy to see the sheikh. Luckily Steven arrives
just as they are about to bundle her into the car and insists on going along
with her.
The men take them to Sheikh Hassan’s apartment in Tunis,
which is furnished ‘in ultra-modern style’, including “strangely twisted steel
wire ‘mobiles’ holding light bulbs shaded with large tropical sea shells, [and]
a huge incomprehensible piece of scultputre in honey-coloured wood” (138). It’s
an interesting choice, given that most houses or apartments in sheik romances
are usually described in the same ‘Oriental’ fashion. Although I’m not
completely convinced by the romance (more on that later), I think Elizabeth Hoy
is actually pretty interesting writer.
Well, as everyone expected, the Sheikh plays the heavy and
warns Mandy off of his son. In fact, even though she declares herself
uninterested in Ramon romantically, the Sheik tries to buy her off, offering to
give her money if she flies back to England immediately and signs a paper ‘relinquishing
all claim’ to Ramon. Wow.
Mandy is offended. And then Steven announces to Sheikh Hassan
that he has just dealt both of them a ‘mortal insult’ because… they are
actually engaged!
Surprise!
Well, it’s a surprise to Mandy too, but she plays along. And
Steven somehow convinces her that this fake engagement makes total sense and
that it’s something that he’s really only doing to help her out. If they’re not
engaged, apparently Ramon will never believe she doesn’t want to marry him. Apparently
he is simply a love-sick mad young man who will never listen to reason. Really.
They even put an announcement in the paper and lie to the Professor.
Renata, ever reasonable, frames Ramon’s
infatuation in terms of his own struggle to gain independence from his father
and the conflict between Ramon’s new ideas and his father’s old-fashioned
ideas. And then she throws Steven and Mandy an engagement party, just to really
make their story seem real!
Two unexpected guests appear at this party and I bet you can
all guess who they are:
The marabout! He tells Mandy that “the snares still lie
about your feet, but if you keep close to Steven all will be well. Great joy
awaits you” and then disappears (178). Presumably to go find the canapés.
Ramon! He’s haggard and upset. Stereotypically, Steven
suggests that “passions can be fierce in these latitudes” (180). Ramon tries to
whisk Mandy away to Paris, refusing to believe that she’s become engaged to Steven
of her own free will, until she blurts out her actual feelings for Steven: “It’s
Steven I love […] it will always be Steven” (184). Chagrined, Ramon leaves
immediately to go make peace with his father. And that’s that.
Mandy feels sorry for Ramon and awkward about her pretend engagement
with Steven, especially now that she’s blurted out her love for him. Steven
asks her if those things she said were really only ‘amateur dramatics’ and she
reveals that she does indeed love him. Only then does he say that he loves her
too. In fact, he never actually says it outright, only referring to “the way I
feel about you” and “you got me right from the day you went for me saying you
have red hair”. And then that’s it. They’re engaged for real. The End.
Well, what do you think? I'm not sure about the pacing of this book and the romance is resolved much too quickly for my liking, but it was an enjoyable read. We should be reaching the era of books with actual Arab heroes soon, though... Maybe the next one?
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