The Sheikh's Contract Bride: Theirs was an ancient debt, and the time had come to settle it... (The Sheikhs' Brides Book 1)

by Clare Connelly

  Contract bride! The words stung in a way he could never have imagined. “Because I know you. I understand you. I know that you carry an enormous weight of guilt over marrying Anna, over ending our betrothal the way that you did, over using her, over disappointing your father. I know that you feel guilt now at my pregnancy and the fact you feel you’ve used me. But you haven’t. You haven’t. You’ve fallen in love with me just as much as I have you. You’re just ignoring what your heart’s telling you.”

  He laughed softly. “I do not have a heart. Not one that could be turned to anything other than my country.”

  “You’re being obtuse,” she said quietly.

  “Love was never on the cards for us, qalil,” he rebuffed with such a gentle kindness that it hurt more than if he’d yelled it. “Never.”

  He stood and skirted the table, coming to stand directly in front of her. He pressed his finger beneath her chin, lifting her face towards his. “I do not believe love exists within a void. You will stop loving me when you give up the hope of my loving you back. Our marriage will work then.”

  And with that dire pronouncement, he left the terrace.

  * * *

  Violet slept without dreaming. It was the first night since arriving in Kalastan that thoughts of Anna, Zahir or Lilly hadn’t taken up her unconscious. So exhausted and drained, and perhaps fearing what nightmares her brain might construct out of her life, Violet slept in complete peace. But when she woke up, her first thoughts were of her conversation with Zahir.

  His determination that he didn’t love her. His shrewd understanding of her emotions.

  And the way he’d made her feel like any other silly girl who’d come before her, with a wild, unreasonable crush on the country’s ruler.

  Her hand dropped to her stomach and she frowned as she ran her fingers over her abdomen. But that wasn’t the case. She loved him with all of her heart, and it was based on what they’d shared. The first month of their marriage, yes, but also an ancient link between them. A sacred love bonded them.

  Why didn’t he understand that?

  She stood wearily despite her deep sleep and showered, then allowed her attendants to complete her dressing. There were some days when it was more arduous to dismiss them than to simply comply, but as she sat in the chair she thought of Zahir’s claim that she was too malleable and compliant and wondered if perhaps he was right.

  Was she a pushover? Did believing her to be a pushover make him less likely to credit her feelings with truth?

  “Thank you, that’s fine,” she met her attendant’s eyes in the mirror and forced a smile to her face. “I have something to do now.”

  It was far better to focus her attention on Lilly rather than Zahir. The situation with Lilly could be fixed. She could start listening and being the sister Lilly needed.

  She slipped her shoes on and moved through the palace quickly, to Lilly’s suite of rooms. She knocked before entering.

  When she swept into the room, one of Lilly’s junior maids stood from an arm chair, a look of surprise on her features.

  “Your Highness,” she bowed low and spoke in Kalasi. “Good morning.”

  “Hello,” Violet nodded distractedly, using the servant’s native language. “Is my sister awake yet?”

  “No, madam. She still sleeps.”

  Violet smiled fondly. That was Lilly to a tee. Violet crossed the room and paused on the threshold. There was silence from Lilly’s room. She pushed the door inwards, tiptoeing to the bed. The covers were rumpled, the still-sleeping shape of Lilly completely covered by the duvet.

  Violet intended to leave her sleep, but she reached down to pull the cover back just enough to expose Lilly’s forehead. And found only cushion! With a sound of confusion, she pushed the covers lower and saw that Lilly wasn’t in the bed at all. Rather the pillows had been artfully arranged to form a body shape.

  Anxiety swum inside of Violet. She was fire and ice. She pushed the pillows aside and a piece of paper fluttered to the floor with them. She rounded the bed and scooped it up, her fingers trembling slightly as she read Lilly’s scrawled declaration:

  I’m going home. I’ll never be happy here and I’m just ruining your life. Please don’t follow me.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Violet stared out of the window without seeing. The city was passing in a blur as they neared the airport. Surely Lilly couldn’t simply jump on a flight. There must have been security measures in place to prevent that. She was the sister of the Sheikha, for goodness sake!

  But Lilly was so smart, and so believable.

  She was also terrifyingly determined. If she wanted to get on a flight to London then she would undoubtedly have done so.

  But Zahir could stop that. A single call would make it impossible for Lilly to leave Kalastan. Wouldn’t it?

  He must have got Violet’s message by now, though God only knew in what form it had been received. She’d barely paused to thrust the note at the servant and ask her to give it to Sheikh Al’Eba, and to explain that she was going to the airport in search of Lilly, before rushing to the garages.

  Had he stopped the flight?

  Had he made sure Lilly was detained?

  The car drew to a stop and she saw the airport was just across the road. But there was traffic and it would take time. She leaned forward, speaking to the driver and bodyguard through the glass. “I’m going to walk the rest of the way.”

  She pushed out of the car before either could repond and darted across the street. She heard the slamming of a door that signalled her bodyguard was following her and she turned to him and shouted, “I want to go alone! Please.” The last thing she needed was for Violet to feel strongarmed into returning to the palace.

  Violet needed to be sensitive; to handle this with kid gloves.

  When the bodyguard continued to move towards her she lifted her hand. “That’s an order. Go. I’ll contact you afterwards.”

  She turned then and ran into the airport, grateful for the dress she wore that was long and the scarf she’d wrapped around her distinctive blonde hair as she’d scrambled into the limousine. At least she might have a chance of passing incognito.

  There were several flights leaving for London, with several different airlines, all leaving from different terminals. With a sound of frustration, she moved towards an information counter.

  “Excuse me, madam,” she said in Kalasi, too anxious to smile.

  The young woman appeared bored but she nodded, prompting Violet to continue.

  “I need to find my sister.”

  “We are not a lost person’s bureau,” the woman responded.

  Violet narrowed her eyes, in no mood to be derided by a stranger. “Let me be clearer,” she said a little louder, so that the woman’s colleague turned around. “I am Her Royal Highness Sheikha Violet Al’Eba and I am demanding that you locate a passenger for me at once.”

  The effect was immediate. The woman behind the counter began to shake and was apparently incapable of speech. That mattered little as an older man pushed her aside and bowed to Violet in the same motion.

  “Your Majesty,” he nodded. “It is my pleasure. Who? Who do you seek?”

  She expelled a soft sigh of relief and gave Lilly’s name. It took only moments to have her flight identified.

  “How do I get to her?”

  “I’ll take you.”

  He beckoned over his shoulder and a vehicle arrived. Violet climbed into the seat and was being driven through the airport at a rate of knots. She held the handrail tight, her eyes scanning the airport in case Lilly had outsmarted her and chosen not to board the flight after all. But when the little car stopped outside a gate and the airport official shepherded her through security and into the lounge, she saw her sister.

  Lilly was sitting by a window, her head bent forward, her cheeks stained with tears.

  Violet didn’t look at her accomplice. “Thank you. That will be all.”

  She weaved through the lounge, her
eyes on her sister while Lilly stared at the floor. When Violet reached Lilly, she crouched down in front of her, cupping their hands together. “Dearest,” she said quietly. “I’m here.”

  “Oh! Vi!” Lilly sobbed and practically fell forward, wrapping her arms around her sister and squeezing her tight. “I’m so sorry. I’m such an idiot.”

  “Hush, hush, hush, you’re not an idiot. I’m the one who’s sorry.”

  “What for? You’re right about everything. You’re always right.”

  “No, don’t say that. I have failed you these last two months. I haven’t been sensitive to how hard it has been for you to leave everything you know and love. I should have understood.”

  “I couldn’t do it,” Lilly cried, nodding at the plane. “I thought I just wanted to go back to England but I don’t. I don’t want to leave you. And I kind of like it here. I was just so angry …”

  “Because I didn’t listen. I know.” Violet stood and then took the seat beside Lilly. “You know, I have been so focussed on keeping you safe that I haven’t realised you’re miserable. That’s my fault. I should have asked you what you wanted. I should have talked to you about your options. Can we start our life here again?”

  Lilly’s face was pale, her eyes red rimmed. She nodded, and sobbed, so that it came out like a muffled wail. “I have been such a bitch to you.”

  “Shush, shush, no you haven’t. You’ve been trying to make me understand, in your own teenage way, that I am riding roughshod over you. I won’t do that again, Lilly. I thought I had to be either your guardian or your sister. I think I can be both. Come back to the palace now and we will talk about what’s important to you.”

  Lilly nodded, and the tears were streaming down her face. “I’m so tired,” she laughed and cried at the same time. “I haven’t slept all night.”

  “Yes,” Violet murmured, wrapping an arm around her sister. “You’re going to have to tell me how you managed to escape the palace.”

  “That part was easy,” Lilly smiled, but still her eyes were welling up. “But I didn’t think it through until I got here. And then I just kept imagining how hurt and worried you’d be. I don’t want to make you feel like that. I’m sorry, Vi. I should have talked to you.”

  “It’s okay. We’ll talk later. Let’s just get you home.”

  * * *

  “Where did you get this?” Zahir spoke to Syed as though they were the only two people in the darkly panelled board room, rather than being surrounded by politicians for a breakfast meeting.

  “An extremely agitated servant handed it to me a moment ago.”

  I’m going home. I’ll never be happy here and I’m just ruining your life. Please don’t follow me.

  Zahir stared at the paper with a growing sense of bewilderment. “Excuse me,” he said as he stood and strode from the room, Syed following behind him.

  “What did the servant say?”

  “Only that Violet had left, crying, for the airport.”

  Zahir stopped walking and closed his eyes against the imagery that picture painted. “It’s not possible.”

  Syed nodded. “I have asked security to investigate. We will know something any moment.”

  But Zahir was staring at the note once more. I’ll never be happy here. I’m just ruining your life. Please don’t follow me.

  He swore angrily and lifted his gaze to his brother. “I will be on the way to the airport. Patch any calls through to me. Make it known that she is not to leave the country.”

  Syed nodded, a frown on his face as Zahir tore down the corridor.

  Unlike Violet, when Zahir arrived at the airport less than an hour later, it was with a degree of fuss that drew keen attention. His security detail numbered three men, but Zahir on his own was a fierce and instantly recognisable man.

  He strode confidently through the airport and a man approached him from behind the information counter.

  “I beg your pardon, sir. Are you meeting Her Highness?”

  Zahir’s eyes narrowed.

  “I took her to the gate earlier. Would you like me to …?”

  “Show me,” he said with a curt nod of his head.

  They moved quickly through the airport and when he arrived at the gate, Violet and Lilly were just standing up and gathering their bags. He stared at his wife and hardened his resolve.

  “Violet,” he spoke with a quiet authority that resonated through the waiting area. Violet froze, her face lifting to his with an expression of guilt that was a death knell to his hopes that he had been mistaken, somehow.

  “What are you doing here?” She demanded, wrapping an arm around her sister’s shoulders. Violet hadn’t wanted Lilly to feel pressured and here was Zahir with his entourage of henchmen come to shepherd them back to the palace.

  “What do you think?” He hissed, striding across the waiting area and fighting the urge to lift his wife over his shoulder and take her home.

  He turned to the airport official who’d led him to Violet. “Where can we speak privately?”

  “This way,” the man said, pointing towards a grey wall on the other side of the waiting area.

  “I beg your pardon,” Violet said, “But right now I’m talking to Lilly.”

  Zahir’s eyes narrowed and he turned to his bodyguards. He spoke in rapid fire Kalasi, and though Violet caught most of the words, she couldn’t compute their meaning.

  “Lilly will go back to the palace ahead of us.”

  “I’m staying with my sister,” Violet responded darkly.

  “Fine. Then we will all go back to the palace.”

  It was a challenge he expected her to take. He had prepared for her to refuse to leave the airport. But she sighed and shook her head with obvious exasperation. “Fine.”

  She lifted her shoulder and he realised belatedly that she had a heavy looking duffel bag there. He reached for it but she flinched away.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Violet,” he said throatily, a threat in the words. “Give me the damned bag.”

  Lilly looked from one to the other with a sinking heart. “Can we just go back to the palace, please?”

  Her voice was thready with tears and Violet was instantly contrite. “If that’s what you really want, Lil.”

  Zahir clenched his hand into a fist inside of his pocket. He was too angry to speak in that moment. He was a dark, silent force accompanying the two women through the airport. At the car, though, he grabbed Violet’s wrist.

  “Let Lilly take this car.” He nodded to the limousine behind it. “That is for us.”

  “I’m fine,” Lilly said to Violet, her expression earnest. “I promise.”

  Violet looked from her sister to her husband, not knowing which she felt more frustrated with. “Fine. Lilly? When you get back to the palace, please wait for me in your room. We need to speak about this.”

  “I know.”

  Violet walked with Zahir to the second limousine and moved into its plush interior. She was reminded of that hot day in London when he’d surprised her by suggesting they get married.

  “Zahir,” she said, once he’d settled himself into the seat beside hers.

  He lifted a finger to his lips then reached forward and pressed a red button. A dark glass screen lifted between them and the driver. He turned to face her, lifting an arm along the back of the seat so that his body almost fully encircled hers.

  She breathed in the power of his fragrance, the heat of his body, and she felt love lurch painfully in her chest. For it was a love that would never be answered.

  “You shouldn’t have come to the airport,” she muttered, angling her face away and staring out of the window.

  “You must be kidding?” He retorted angrily, his face ashen beneath his tan. “What choice did you leave me?”

  “I thought you might make a call at most,” she muttered. “This dramatic kidnapping seems a bit uncalled for.”

  “You were going to leave Kalastan, carrying the royal heir; you were going
to walk out on me, and our marriage, without so much as a word of explanation, and I am the one who is being dramatic and uncalled for?”

  She whipped her head around, her eyes searching his to comprehend. “I don’t understand.”

  “That’s exactly what I said when I read your note.” His eyes narrowed. “You are so unhappy that you think running away is your only choice? Did you really think I would let you go?”

  The world was tipping strangely off its axis. She frowned and shook her head, and the emotion of the morning caught up with her, bringing tears to her eyes easily.

  “How dare you leave me a note like that!” He said with a barely controlled anger. “Were you trying to blackmail me into saying that I love you? Were you hoping to bully me into a response I wouldn’t otherwise give?”

  Her eyes were overflowing now. She gave into the darkness of her feelings and wept openly, not caring that it was a display of emotions she would usually avoid at all costs. “Not at all, I promise.”

  “What did you hope to achieve then? Did you think you could just slip back into your old life? Move into your apartment, have our baby, that I would allow you to leave me?”

  She shook her head and lifted a hand to her temple. “Please stop shouting at me,” she said quietly, swallowing back a sob. “You’ve misunderstood my intentions.”

  “Have I, Violet?” He made a point of lowering his voice but rage still throbbed from his every syllable. “A three sentence ‘goodbye’ note coupled with your disappearance seems impossible to misunderstand. I have believed you to be young and innocent but not childish and selfish to this degree.”

  She gasped at him and lifted a hand to his chest. He stared at the gesture as though she was burning him with acid.

  “I didn’t write that note,” she said quietly, her eyes not meeting his for the hurt she knew she must be displaying.

  Zahir was silent. Only Violet’s quiet crying filled the limousine. The words formed an oddly discordant statement – one that was at odds with every possibility he’d considered that morning.