They did so.
He put it into his deep pocket.
He made his way back to the palace and he saw his mother sitting in the lounge, taking tea.
Leila was doing her sewing and, despite the tension in the palace, she was looking forward to tonight. It had been six weeks since her surgery and she and Fatiq had a romantic meal planned.
Maybe when they shared a bed again it would be easier to communicate and his mood would improve.
All was seemingly well and yet she could not relax. She looked up when she heard Zahir stride through.
‘Zahir?’
‘I am going into speak with the King.’
And her heart sank because she had dreaded this moment and yet she had anticipated its arrival.
Two proud, immutable men, both of whom thought they were right.
And she loved them both.
The huge wooden doors to the study were closed and the guards were outside and she gave them a look that told them they had better not attempt to halt her.
One bowed and opened the door and she stepped into a heated exchange and listened as his son stated his case.
‘Even the healer has opened his mind. He and the attar have liaised with Mr Oman and they have worked well together to return the Queen to full health.’
‘She wouldn’t have been so ill were it not for the surgeon. You have never had a day’s ill health in your life,’ the King again pointed out.
He refused to understand and Zahir shook his head.
‘I will not sit back and do nothing. If you refuse to implement the changes I have suggested then I am returning to London. At least in England I can save lives. I will return when you either give me the authority I need, or on your death...’
‘Zahir,’ Leila said in a shocked tone, and he turned and looked at his mother.
‘Tell me another choice,’ Zahir said.
Leila had spent many nights awake, trying to come up with one, and she gave a sad shake of her head.
Zahir had not finished, though.
‘I shall be taking this stone and asking Adele to marry me.’ He held out his palm to his father, who should now place his palm over the stone, in acceptance of Zahir’s choice.
Fatiq did not.
‘Adele would make a wonderful queen.’ Zahir fought for her, for them.
‘She brings nothing,’ Fatiq said.
‘Adele was like a breath of fresh air to this palace,’ Zahir countered. ‘She has emotional charity and that is a rare gift indeed.’
‘I will never endorse that marriage.’
‘Well, I don’t need you to.’ He did not look at his father as he answered; instead, he turned to his mother when she asked him a question,
‘You love her, don’t you?’
‘Very much,’ Zahir said. ‘And she loves me.’
The King had other ideas, though. ‘Adele only wants you for your riches. She persists because...’
Zahir closed his eyes and still did not turn as he spoke.
‘Adele does not persist. She has cut off all contact. She has blocked me from calling her. I had somebody go to her home but she has moved. Anyway, her mother is very sick so she cannot be here.’
‘So this is just an excuse for you to turn your back on your people?’ Fatiq said.
Leila addressed her husband then.
‘Zahir has never made an excuse in his life,’ Leila told him, and she gave her son a small smile.
‘Is that why you did not stop for her when you were driving because you knew where it might lead?’
Not just bed, Zahir could have handled that. It had been more that it would lead to this.
To standing in his father’s office and being told he could not marry the woman he loved.
‘I loved her then,’ he said to his mother.
‘And is this love the reason you did not want her to come here and be my nurse?’
Zahir nodded. ‘It was. But I have found out that she is essential to me.’
And they were the words from the desert.
Zahir was so angry at his father but as he went to walk out he remembered what Adele had said, and the sympathy she had shown for his father.
‘I spoke to Adele about Aafaq,’ Zahir told his mother and he saw her face flinch.
‘I told Adele it was not to be discussed with you,’ Leila said.
‘She did not tell me anything. When I asked her a question she said I should speak with you, and I did. And when I visited my brother’s grave, as I do every time I return to the desert, I again sought a solution. When I returned to the tent I said how angry I was about the health system here and how frustrated I was by the complete lack of progress. Adele said that she understood my father’s plight.’
Now he turned around.
‘This is not to be discussed,’ the King warned.
‘Then we won’t discuss it,’ Zahir said, ‘but you will listen.’
‘No, I saw what your machines did to my son.’
‘They kept him alive till you got there,’ Zahir said, and he now fought to be gentle for he could see his father’s pain. ‘My mother had a condition called pre-eclampsia. The only treatment is delivery. That is it. They can try to hold off delivery for a few days, but by the time she arrived at the hospital it was too late for that.’
‘Zahir,’ Leila said, ‘please don’t.’
‘Yes,’ Zahir said. ‘He needs to hear this. Had she got there earlier they would have given my mother steroids in the hope of maturing the baby’s lungs and they would have given her treatment to bring her blood pressure down to avoid her having a stroke. And though my mother cannot remember much more about what happened, I know that had the pregnancy continued she would have had a stroke or a seizure. I know, from all I have studied, that had my mother been here she would have died. She would have been buried in the desert with her son in her womb. I know that. You would have lost them both,’ Zahir said. ‘You would have lost your Queen.’
‘I don’t believe that,’ Fatiq said.
‘Then I can’t help my people. I shall return when my hands are untied.’
He put the stone into his pocket. He felt the sand from the desert and, as had been promised, yet not in neat order, the answers came to him.
He thought of Adele and what she had said, that maybe his father was scared to be wrong.
For if he was wrong, didn’t that then mean his pride had killed his own son?
‘Father, I don’t believe modern medicine could have saved Aafaq back then. Maybe now, twenty-five years on, he might have stood a better chance. I have seen the photo of him, and from my mother’s dates most babies born at that stage died back then.’
Fatiq said nothing.
‘You could make Aafaq’s death mean something. He could be the catalyst for change—’
‘Go,’ the King interrupted. ‘Go to the woman who you put before your people.’
‘If that is your opinion then you don’t know me.’
Zahir was done.
Fatiq remained in his office, but Leila walked with her son to the royal jet.
‘It had to be said,’ Zahir told his mother, and he put his arm around her as they walked.
‘I know it did,’ Leila agreed. ‘I have been trying to keep the peace and it has got us nowhere.’
‘You’ll come and see me in London?’ Zahir checked.
‘Of course I shall.’ Leila smiled. ‘Give my love to Adele.’
‘I will.’ He looked at his mother. ‘You’ll be okay?’
‘Zahir, I am not scared of your father. The only thing I fear is that I have lost him. I love him so much. I am angry at his resistance to change, but now maybe I can see why he resists. Your father and I need to talk about Aaf
aq, and you need now to be with Adele.’
Zahir nodded.
He did.
Finally his patience had run out.
There was no answer, he could not fight for a solution any more.
He looked down at the desert as he flew over it. He wished he were down there, just for one more day.
There was so much guidance he needed and now he had his parents’ marriage to add to an increasingly growing list.
And his upcoming marriage.
He reached into his robe and took out Adele’s stone.
There was but one regret with Adele.
The night he had left her alone in a storm.
It had gone against everything he believed in.
How he wished he could take that night back.
And yet, would she have been ready for the strength of his desire?
At least then, by the time his mother had fainted, they might have faced the upcoming problems as a couple.
Then again, things had unfolded in time.
A word came to him.
Resolution.
There could be resolution at least for him and Adele.
He would focus on that for now.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ADELE SAT BY her mother’s bed and held her hand.
The room was silent and, apart from the diagnosis, nothing had changed.
Yet everything had.
‘You’re going to be a grandmother,’ Adele told Lorna. ‘I found out this morning...’
She wanted to cry.
Yet she was scared to.
She was terrified to break down only to have no reaction from her mother. She was scared that Lorna might fail the final test Adele had set long ago—that desperate tears might awaken her.
She didn’t want to know the answer and yet she couldn’t hold it in any more.
She started to cry from the bottom of her soul and she rested her head on her mother’s chest and held her hand as she wept.
There was no reaction from her mother, no arms went around Adele, and there was no attempt to reach out to her daughter in her plight, no tiny squeeze of her hand.
Adele lifted her head and watched her own tears splash on her mother’s face and crying brought her no comfort.
None at all.
So she stopped.
‘I’m going to be okay,’ she said to her mum. ‘I know that I shall be. It’s good news really...’
It was.
A baby was good news.
Yet it was so scary too and she did not know how to tell Zahir.
She simply did not know.
* * *
It was a rainy summer day and she got off the bus and went into work to start her late shift.
The department felt different without Zahir there. It just did. Adele put her bag in her locker and closed it and then rested her head on the cool metal. She straightened up when Helene came in.
‘I’ve lost my pen,’ Helene said.
‘Here.’ Adele handed her one.
‘How did Hayden do on his driving test?’ she asked, because she had heard Helene saying he’d taken it yesterday but she had stopped talking when she’d seen Adele.
‘He passed.’
‘That’s good.’
They had avoided the subject and sort of danced around it but Adele refused to play life like that any more.
And she was healing because as she walked around with Helene Adele felt her warped humour seeping back.
‘Hey, Helene,’ she said. ‘Now that Hayden’s passed, would you maybe give me some lessons?’
And she watched Helene’s slight bulge of the eyes at the thought of Adele behind the wheel and then Adele laughed.
‘You’re wicked.’ Helene smiled.
‘I am.’
‘Oh, by the way,’ Helene said, ‘Zahir called this morning. He wanted to speak to you.’
‘Probably something about his mother.’ Adele shrugged and feigned nonchalance but her cheeks went bright pink.
She couldn’t hide for ever, but she did not want him calling her at work and if he did so again Adele would tell him not to.
Before or after she told him that she was pregnant?
Maybe she would be his London love after all, she thought.
She just could not see any other solution.
* * *
Zahir could.
To Dakan’s utter shock.
Zahir had just come back from Admin, having signed a new six-month contract, and they sat in the canteen of the hospital and Dakan shook his head as Zahir spoke.
‘You can deal with it if you so choose,’ Zahir said. ‘I have an architect lined up. Her name is Nira and you are to meet with her next week.’ He looked at his brother’s taut features. ‘Or not.’
‘Why not you?’
‘I am tired of speaking with architects, only to have every suggestion they make knocked back by our father.’ Then he told his brother what he had done. ‘I will no longer be returning to cover any royal duties. Not until our father backs down. I have told him that that role now falls to you.’
‘I have a life here.’
‘Your duty is back there,’ Zahir said calmly. ‘I have always returned at short notice, but no more. You will now fill that role.’
‘I never thought you would turn your back on our people,’ Dakan said.
‘And I never would,’ Zahir replied. ‘I shall rule when it is my time but until then it falls to you, or not...’ He would wait this out, Zahir had decided. His silence and removal would hopefully force change. Dakan was the royal rebel, charming, funny and yet, Zahir knew, more than capable of filling the role of Crown Prince in his absence.
‘You can’t just swan in here, meet me for coffee and tell me...’ Dakan started, but then halted as they heard the emergency chimes.
‘Major incident. Could all emergency staff and the trauma team make their way to Emergency.’
It went on repeat and Zahir stood.
‘You don’t work here.’
‘As of half an hour ago,’ Zahir corrected him, ‘I do.’
He strode down the corridor, and ambulances were already pulling up and patients were being wheeled in.
Most of them were crying children.
He headed straight into Resus, where Janet was busily setting up.
‘What’s coming in?’
‘I’m not sure. We’ve been told it was a car versus school bus,’ Janet explained. ‘We haven’t got a clear idea of the number of injuries or their severity yet, but given that it’s a school bus I didn’t want to wait and see.’
‘Good call,’ Zahir said as he put on a paper gown.
‘You’re back?’
‘I just signed my contract. I’m fine to be here.’
Janet didn’t really care right now whether or not he had signed it. Zahir’s hands were more than welcome, today especially.
The driver of the car arrived and she was extremely agitated and distressed,
‘Try and stay calm,’ Zahir said, but the woman kept crying and trying to sit up despite the fact she was wearing a hard cervical collar.
‘Adele.’ Janet called for Adele to come in and take over as she needed to be out there, triaging.
Adele walked into the resuscitation area and she saw him, his shoulders too wide for the paper gown. He looked up and just for a second their eyes met and this time he smiled and greeted her.
‘Adele.’
And she wanted to run to him, to ask how and why he was there, but right now the patient was the priority and required all her attention.
The rest would all simply have to wait.
‘I don’t know what happened..
.’ The driver was sobbing. ‘A school bus. Oh, my God—oh, my God...’
‘You’re going to be okay,’ Adele told her, and asked her name.
‘Esther!’ she said through chattering teeth, but it was an irrelevant detail to her right now. ‘How badly are they hurt?’ she begged. ‘Please tell me how many are hurt?’
‘We don’t have that information, Esther,’ Adele said. ‘We’re taking care of you.’ She started to undress the woman. ‘Zahir...’ Adele said as she undid Esther’s jeans.
Esther had wet herself.
‘Can you open your mouth for me?’ Zahir said, and he shone a torch inside. ‘She has bitten her tongue. Esther?’ he said in that lovely calm voice. ‘Do you suffer with seizures?’
‘No,’ Esther said. ‘Please can someone find out how many are hurt...?’ And then she stopped begging for information and gave an odd, terrified scream, which Zahir recognised. Patients often experienced an aura before a seizure. It might be a terrible smell, at other times a feeling of impending death and fear, and often they let out a scream as they dropped, though Esther was already lying down.
‘Help me roll her onto her side,’ Zahir said.
And they did just that as Esther started to seize.
They hadn’t worked together often, Zahir had made sure of that, but he found out now that they worked together very well.
He suctioned the airway as Adele pulled up drugs and soon Esther was postictal and snoring loudly while being closely watched.
And information was starting to emerge.
Paul, the paramedic, came in.
‘We’ve just brought in the passenger. Apparently she and Esther were chatting when she let out a scream and started to fit.’
‘Thank you,’ Zahir said.
And other information was revealed.
He saw a worried look on Adele’s face when the radiographer stated the usual—that if anyone was pregnant they should step outside.
And he thought of a night in a desert and of the magic the desert had made, whether you believed or not, and of course there might be consequences.
‘Adele,’ he said. ‘I’ll stay with Esther.’
Zahir was here and though there was no time to catch up or to ask how or why, her world just felt better knowing he was near.
Seduced by the Sheikh Surgeon Page 13
