And later, Adele sat with Esther, who was awake now, distressed and crying.
‘I don’t know what happened,’ she said. ‘I need to know how the children are.’
‘I honestly don’t know,’ Adele said. It was the truth. Janet had said she was to stay with Esther. She hadn’t sought information; truly it was easier not to know what was going on than to have to withhold it from her patient.
It sounded as if the department was calming down.
There had been the sounds of crying and frantic parents arriving but the only person who had been bought into Resus since Esther’s admission was a cardiac patient not related to the accident.
It could be good, or there could be other hospitals dealing with injuries.
For now, Adele focused on Esther.
Her toxicology screen was back. It would seem no drugs and certainly no alcohol had been involved.
Sometimes accidents happened.
Terrible, terrible things happened and there wasn’t always someone to hang the blame on.
Except ourselves.
She thought of Fatiq and was quite certain now that he blamed himself for the death of his son.
For years she had beaten herself up over what had happened with her mother.
Now she ached for Esther.
One of the security guards called out that the news cameras had arrived and Esther closed her eyes in dread and fear.
‘I can’t face this...’
‘You can,’ Adele said.
She had.
Adele remembered seeing the images of her accident on the evening news as she’d sat waiting to find out if her mother would make it through surgery.
‘Four members of a family have been taken to hospital and another woman is in a critical condition after a learner driver...’
Adele went with Esther while she had an EEG and she sat with her for a long time until finally she fell asleep.
Janet left her alone.
She was a healer too and knew Adele needed this.
Later, much later, Adele heard the sounds of police radios and them asking Zahir if they could speak with the driver now.
‘Adele.’ Janet put her head around the curtain.
‘It’s time to go home.’
Adele shook her head.
‘Yes, Adele, it’s time to go home.’
Esther opened her eyes as Adele stood.
‘I have to leave now,’ Adele said. ‘But I’ll come and see you in the morning.’
Moving forward didn’t necessarily mean pulling away.
Whatever the outcome.
Tomorrow Esther would know a friendly face.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ADELE STOOD IN the summer rain at the bus stop and waited.
Not for the bus.
She let two go past.
It was like standing in a warm shower and she was drenched right down to her underwear.
But finally she saw his silver car indicate and turn and Zahir drove towards her. She hung off the bus stop and swung her bag.
She saw the whiteness of his smile and then he slowed down and stopped. The window slid down and she walked over and stood there.
‘Get in.’ he said, as he had wanted to for so long.
She lowered her head and peered into his lovely plush car and then at the lovely, sultry man.
‘You might not be able to afford me,’ Adele said.
‘Get in,’ he said again.
She did.
And the world, and all that was going on in it, could wait for now.
This was about them.
About two stars who belonged, who connected, and together they shone brighter.
She was soaking wet and her clothes clung to her and he undid his seat belt and kissed her hard against the soft leather.
She dripped water all over him and the windows steamed up.
His hands roamed over her breasts and went up her wet skirt and between her legs. Then he peeled her wet body from his and started the car.
‘That’s what would have happened had I stopped that night.’
‘Pity you didn’t,’ she retorted.
They drove through wet streets and the air was thick and potent. She asked no questions so he could tell her no lies.
Adele didn’t want to know about the palace just yet and she didn’t want to speak of her mum, or find out about Esther.
Tonight had been waiting so long.
And he asked no questions either.
Zahir had only one thing on his mind.
She discovered his home was a very plush apartment and she sat in the passenger seat as he got out. She wondered how he might have explained her arrival that wet, stormy night.
Zahir, she soon found out, explained himself to no one.
He greeted the doorman and told him that the keys were in the ignition and would he please park his car. He walked a very bedraggled Adele through the foyer.
There was another couple in the lift, and he wished them goodnight as they got out at the fifth floor. He pressed the button again for the eighth floor, the only sign of his impatience for he had pressed it once already.
He opened the door to his apartment but as they stepped in he asked but one question.
‘Would you still be here now had I stopped the car that night?’
He deserved an honest response.
‘I’d have been on my knees by now.’
For being so crude she was hauled over his shoulder and marched through his apartment and thrown onto his vast bed.
He removed her knickers and skirt and kissed her up her thigh with a rough unshaven jaw. Adele dealt with her top half herself. He kissed her very deeply, and there were a couple of fingers there too as he explored her intimately and so thoroughly that her feet pressed into his shoulders.
And she thought of that night and that he had not stopped and she shouted it this time.
‘Pity you didn’t,’ she sobbed.
He kissed her again and when she came to his mouth he made her his again, and not gently.
Jacket on, tie on, he just unbuckled and unzipped and took her hard. He was fully dressed, she was naked and it was utterly divine.
There was not a thought in her head except how she loved this man and how the world could disappear when it was just them.
Zahir got up on his elbows and thrust faster and she moaned and held his face in her hands, just because she had to. His hips thrust harder and he moved into that delicious point of no return and she watched his grimace and felt the rush of his release. She was rigid to the very soles of her feet as she came.
He did not collapse onto her afterwards, he just stared deep into her eyes. Sometimes she felt as if he was looking deep into her soul.
He was.
There was pain there still, but there was the shine of fresh happiness and a little ray of hope.
And he would make it grow.
‘You haven’t paid me,’ she teased as he stood and zipped up.
‘Here.’ He went in his pocket and tossed her a diamond. If it had come from anyone other than Zahir she would have known it was false.
She slipped between the covers and sat there examining it, too stunned for words. He went out for a few moments and returned with two very welcome mugs of coffee.
‘I really am getting the royal treatment,’ she said, as he put a mug down by what was now her side of the bed and he undressed and joined her in it.
‘We’re getting married,’ Zahir said.
‘Has your father given his permission?’
He shook his head.
‘We can’t, then...’
‘We can. I’m going to be here with you in Eng
land. I’ve signed a new contract.’
‘No...’ It was Adele who now shook her head. ‘You belong there.’
‘And one day I shall be, but for now I will do what I must do and that is to marry you. I can’t live in a jewelled palace and live a charmed life when I cannot help my people. I shall return when I am able to do so and I hope that when I return it will be with you as my Queen.’
It had become, to Zahir, as simple as that.
He would do what he felt was essential and trust that patience would serve him well and that the answers would unfold in time.
‘Dakan can fill in for me until then. I am prepared to wait it out. I was speaking to him at the hospital today just as the alert came. He’s not best pleased.’
And the rest of the world trickled in.
‘How’s Esther?’
‘She’s doing well. It would seem it was her first epileptic seizure. Thankfully there was no one seriously injured...’
He watched as she closed her eyes in relief and knew that today would have brought up a lot for her.
‘How is your mother?’ he asked, and he expected to hear that there had been no change.
‘She’s dying,’ Adele told him. ‘And please don’t say sorry because I don’t deserve it. To be honest, I feel a bit relieved.’
It was the most terrible admission and she felt his hand take hers.
‘Who do you feel relieved for?’
‘Myself,’ and then she thought harder. ‘I feel relieved for her too. She’s had no life since the accident.’
He took her in his arms and his hand explored her flat stomach. It was wonderful to think there was a life starting in there.
‘Did you tell your mother she was going to be a grandmother?’
‘How do you know?’ She turned in his arms. ‘I think I forgot to take my Pill when I got hit—’
‘Adele,’ he interrupted, ‘I took you to the fertile waters by the royal tent...’ He smiled. ‘No Pill was going to save you.’
‘Were you trying to get me pregnant?’
‘Truth?’ He looked at her. ‘That night there was nothing on my mind but you.’ He kissed her long and slow. ‘But, yes, in taking you to the desert I knew one way or other that it would bring things to a head.’
‘You’re okay with it.’
‘I am thrilled,’ he said, and he kissed her again.
‘Did I tell you how much I love you?’ he asked. ‘And how much I always will?’
He didn’t have to.
She already knew.
Zahir took the stone and held it in his palm. ‘In my country, when the choice is made, the Prince holds the chosen diamond in his palm. The King is supposed to place his palm over the stone.’ He held out his hand. ‘I don’t need his acceptance, Adele, just yours.’
It was overwhelming.
Centuries of tradition she could wipe away with a sweep of her hand. But then she looked from the stone into his silver-grey eyes.
Zahir was better than that. Even now, loving her, he was preparing to one day return to his people, but with her by his side.
‘I thought the desert hated me when I arrived,’ Adele admitted. ‘I felt, if it found out about us...’
‘We made love in the desert, Adele, and it has given us the greatest gift.’
She looked up and smiled.
‘I’m not just talking about the baby, Adele. We returned and we were caught, yet our night together confirmed our love. There’s no need to be scared for the future.’
She wasn’t now.
There was hope and there was excitement and there was a love that had proved to be undeniable so she lifted her hand and placed her palm over Zahir’s.
They were together now.
‘You don’t belong on the palace wall.’ He told her what he had been thinking that day as they had walked on the beach. ‘You belong on the inside, as my Queen.’
And one day you will be, Zahir hoped.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
IT WAS TO be the tiniest of weddings.
The staff at the nursing home would be their witnesses and Adele and Zahir would marry by Lorna’s bedside.
When Zahir made a decision, it was made, and he wanted Adele as his wife. The problems that the marriage might create he would deal with in the fullness of time.
Right now all he wanted was for their union to be official.
He had informed his father, who had terminated the call, as Zahir had expected him to. The formal invitation that Zahir had had delivered to the palace would have been torn up, he was quite sure.
He pulled up outside the nursing home at ten to two in the afternoon and was told by a smiling Annie that Adele wouldn’t be long and that the photographer was already there.
They had worked so hard to ensure that even though this wedding was small it was beautiful.
Lorna’s hair was back to brunette and her nails had been done and she was wearing a gorgeous nightdress. The room was decorated with flowers and after the brief service there would a lavish meal for the nursing-home staff and guests.
And, whatever the consequences, it would be done.
As was right.
‘Lorna’s ready to be mother of the bride,’ Annie said.
‘Could I speak with her, please?’ Zahir asked, and Annie nodded and pulled the curtains around them.
Zahir sat down by Lorna’s bed. He understood how poor her condition was yet he understood Adele a little better because he spoke to Lorna as if she could hear him.
Just in case she could.
‘Today I am marrying Adele,’ Zahir said. ‘I know that you must have your reservations, as at some point I will be a king and there will be many demands on both myself and Adele. I want you to know that I will do everything I can to support your daughter with that transition. I know that she will be a wonderful queen. I want you to know that I am not taking her from you. You need your daughter now and Adele needs to be here with you. We are so looking forward to the baby’s arrival. Know that I shall take the best care of them.’
And Zahir understood Adele a little better still.
There was no response, no flicker of the eyes, no squeeze of the hand to say that she understood.
Poor Adele, Zahir thought, and poor Lorna.
‘You have my word that I shall take care of her,’ Zahir said.
And his word was worth a lot.
He came out from behind the curtains and startled, for there, instead of his bride, stood two very unexpected guests.
His mother and father had come.
Not to protest, Zahir quickly realised, for his father was wearing a suit and his mother embraced him.
They had heard all that he had just said to Lorna.
‘Adele is pregnant! That is so wonderful!’ Leila was beaming and always she surprised Zahir, because in her own way she fought for change. Her acceptance of the news made her husband step forward and shake his son’s hand.
‘We want to show that you have our support,’ the King explained. ‘And you do.’ The King looked at his son. ‘It is time for change.’
He had waited so many years to hear those words yet right now Adele was his top priority.
‘I cannot come back just yet,’ Zahir explained. ‘Adele’s mother is very ill.’
‘We heard. Tomorrow an announcement will go out that you have married and that there will be a formal celebration back home, when the time is right...’ Leila said.
‘Who is in residence?’ Zahir frowned, because his mind never moved far from duty. ‘Is Bashir acting...?’
‘No, Dakan is in residence,’ Leila said. ‘And he has full rule. Your father and I are taking a holiday together. Our first...I remember saying to Adele that I hadn’t had one.’
And then Leila stopped talking as the bride arrived.
She wore a slip dress in pale ivory and flat shoes, and she was carrying a bunch of jasmine that Zahir had had sent for her from his home. She was a bride fit for a king.
‘Leila!’ Adele said. ‘Fatiq!’
Oh, she broke with protocol, she was so grateful to them for being here.
Her eyes filled with tears as Leila embraced her and congratulated her on the wonderful news that she was expecting a baby and Fatiq, handsome in a suit, smiled too.
‘I hope it’s a girl,’ Leila said. ‘A boy would be wonderful but I love to shop for girls.
And, in her own unique way, Leila had removed any pressure on Adele to produce a suitable heir.
‘Our people will be very surprised,’ Leila said, ‘but they will be happy.’
‘Our people will be surprised too,’ Adele said, and Zahir smiled.
They hadn’t told anyone at work.
That news would be shared on Monday and she could not wait to see Janet’s expression when she explained the need for a new name badge.
Yet she wouldn’t have to wait, for there were two more guests at this very special wedding.
Janet and Helene, dressed to the nines, had just arrived too.
‘They worked it out,’ Zahir said.
‘Of course we did.’ Janet smiled at Adele. Then she went to see Lorna, who she had nursed on such a black day.
Leila clapped her hands to get things under way. ‘I have brought a gift for your mother, and also something that you should wear on your wedding day,’ Leila said. ‘There are certain traditions that must be upheld.’
And it would seem there was going to be a delay, as the bride, according to Queen Leila, was not quite ready.
Adele went back, with the Queen, to the room she had dressed in.
‘I can’t believe that you’re here,’ Adele said, as Leila took out a sheer veil and started to arrange it.
‘I can,’ Leila answered. ‘Believe me, Adele, I choose my battles wisely.’
‘Battles?’
‘There are some advantages to being a queen. When I get angry, I get very, very angry, and I told Fatiq that things were finally changing, that I never thought that I would see the day that I was absent from my son’s wedding, that I had played by the rules but no more, that I had collapsed and still he would not consider a modern health system.’
Seduced by the Sheikh Surgeon Page 14
