And Tom had been in on that? Who were these people they could discuss death and murder so easily? ‘So you didn’t pay him off?’
‘It was suggested he leave my cousin alone. But I believe we have not seen the last of his family. They are eager for a chance at the kingdom.’
She was coming to understand that. ‘But what if Fadia decides to return to Australia?’
He dragged an exasperated hand through his hair. ‘For the moment she needs to stay here.’
‘You can’t make her stay if she’s unhappy.’
‘A woman’s view.’ He looked away and again she felt there was something he was keeping from her. ‘Now, I do not know why I am discussing this with you.’
She straightened. ‘Because I’ll tell you the truth when everyone else is too scared to.’
‘That’s right, Carmen.’ The way he said her name lifted the hairs on her neck. His words were gentle but his eyes darkened as he closed the gap between them. ‘You are not afraid of me.’
Just a tinge of danger and perhaps she should choose her next words a little more carefully. It was different here. Marcus had suggested she tread carefully until she understood the culture more. She should have listened. Zafar wasn’t finished.
‘Not afraid from the first moment we met, were you?’
And suddenly it was back. That tension between them, like the glow from a hundred candles slowly lighting a room, like a storm overhead in a picnic shed, a moment in a lift, the brush of his lips on the inside of her wrist. ‘But, then, you have not been in Zandorro long enough to learn our ways.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
HE’D made her uneasy. Zafar understood her more than she realised, had learnt a lot while he’d attended university in Sydney about Western women, had enjoyed the company of many before he’d married. But this woman was different.
He could see her zeal for her work, her integrity, and most of all he could see the fire within her. Perhaps a fire she had no idea she held or the passionate woman she could become for the right man. A fire that matched his in a way he had not expected.
He watched her search for words to lessen this pressure between them and it amused him that she who lived by defusing tension had momentarily lost her touch. Bravado was all she had left.
‘No. I’m not afraid of you.’ She only just held eye contact and they both knew it a lie. ‘You were the one who said the strength of an empire would not overpower me if I felt strongly enough. I do feel strongly about protecting Fadia. That’s why I’m here.’ Her voice remained firm—on the outside anyway.
He stepped closer. ‘Perhaps you should be. Afraid of me.’ A slow, leisurely perusal of her—head to foot—her posture taut with defiance, and he wondered just how angry he could make her, and what would happen if he did. ‘Are you not here for the money?’
Her eyes flashed. ‘Apparently money was the only way you could get me here!’ There it was. So she had given up holding her tongue.
He watched her regret the words as soon as they left her mouth. What had happened to the usually placid Carmen? It seemed he did something to her too. Incited her. Well, she incited him, and he could barely keep his hands by his sides with the need to pull her against him and quieten that mouth of hers with his.
She hurried into speech. Aware of more peril now. Happy to clutch at any straw to avert a difficult situation. ‘Your friend, Marcus, said you were a man of honour.’
‘That was in Australia.’ His eyes travelled over her again with deliberate scrutiny, watched the pink rise in her neck, watched her lick her lips for the taste of danger. ‘We are not in your country now. Here honour and law interchange. Here my word is law.’
He closed the last space between them, captured her gaze with his and held it with the easy power of generations of royalty.
Carmen could feel her heart pound. He’d stopped a hairsbreadth away, just short of the fabric of her shirt, fabric she could suddenly feel caress her breasts as she breathed in and out more quickly to calm the agitation caused by his invasion of her space.
‘Your law is not my law.’ Some foolish pride, some devil inside, refused to allow her to step back.
His voice hardened. Became emphatic. ‘You are in Zandorro now. It is my law.’ Then softly, ‘Come here.’
She blinked. Was he kidding? ‘I doubt I could get much closer without bumping into you.’ And some evil twin inside urged her into his arms. She wasn’t sure who was the more dangerous to her safety—him or her inner temptress.
He raised his brows. ‘Indeed.’
She could feel the aura between them. The air shimmered, thick with vibration that wasn’t all words and power struggle, more at stake here than pride and stubbornness. Her brain screamed of danger and her body dared her to walk into him. Give in. Submit.
She unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth. ‘You might be living under ancient rule but I am not.’ She stepped back. She met his eyes unflinchingly and then, to her eternal gratitude, Harrison cried. Actually, almost lifted the roof of the palace with his demands. Thank you, dear, dear baby Harry.
She took the few steps to the ornate cradle, picked up the baby and lifted him like a shield. ‘If you’ll excuse me, Prince Zafar—’ her voice was very dry ‘—I will take Prince Harrison to his mother.’
He watched her, even with a glimmer of a smile,and nodded once. ‘We will return to this subject another time.’
‘I don’t think so.’ She said it as she walked away but she had no doubt he had heard her and she could feel his eyes on her back until the swish of his robes told her he was gone.
She looked back and the room was empty. She leant heavily against the doorframe with a sigh of relief and clutched the baby. What had she fallen into? Just how reliable was his honour? And how reliable would hers be if he took her into his arms again?
* * *
Zafar walked away. He was annoyed with Carmen, annoyed with himself for playing cat and mouse and having a ridiculous argument when what he wanted to do was feel again the rapport they’d had in the park in Australia. All he’d succeeded in doing was alienating her. Of course she was there to stand up for Fadia if she thought her badly done by. What did he expect?
But he was doing the best he could. Had used all his persuasive powers with his grandfather. He would just have to try harder for Fadia. And be more patient with Carmen—and with himself.
* * *
Fadia went to bed early. Carmen decided bed was a safe place, a haven, and a good option for herself as well. She didn’t sleep well.
The next morning after breakfast she received a message via Yusuf that Prince Zafar wished to see her. The manservant and the midwife eyed each other and she thought of her little can of dye. Yusuf smiled grimly.
She was taken to the library off the huge tiled entry and through a massive studded door. The room had long, arched windows that opened onto a terrace and inner courtyard with the largest fountain she’d seen yet. The tinkling of falling drops filled the room with a background symphony as she crossed more carpets that shimmered and glowed like pools of coloured light, each more beautiful than the last. At the back of the room ceiling-high bookshelves circled the wall.
It could have been an overpowering room with murals and giant urns, except none seemed to have the magnificence of the man standing front of her in full traditional robes. He suited the room too well.
‘How did you sleep?’
How did he think? After the first two hours it had taken her to banish their last encounter. ‘Fine, thank you.’
‘And the boys?’ So he was to be solicitous this morning?
She answered calmly. ‘We have a routine. Necessary with twins that are breastfed. They sleep longer at night.’
Still he watched her. Did she have a smut
on her nose? ‘And they are growing well.’
She glanced around the room, looking for clues to this conversation. ‘They certainly seem to be. I don’t have scales but as long as they’re giving us plenty of wet nappies a day, they’re fine.
He nodded decisively. ‘I will have scales sent to the nursery.’
‘As you wish.’
He allowed himself a small smile. ‘Now, was that so hard to say?’
She glared at him. ‘Am I allowed to ask what happened with your communication with the King this morning?’
‘The king has agreed to leave Fadia in my hands for the moment. Which is why I have summoned you.’
She let him get away with summoned because this was much more serious. ‘Does she know?’
‘I will inform her this afternoon before our audience.’ He walked to the window and looked out. ‘We meet to postpone our tour tomorrow. Of necessity our time away from the boys will be short. I wish to know if you have a preference for the souks or a drive around the city to see a broader example of the sights?’
‘Perhaps the sights, and at least then I may understand the city better.’
‘As you wish. The city, then. Taqu, my friend, wishes to accompany us. Do you mind?’
‘Why should I mind? But I’m not sure about Fadia. Does she know him?’
‘No. Though he was originally betrothed to Fadia before her mother left. He is a good man and wishes to see her.’
‘So at least she knows him?’
‘They have never formally met and since then he did marry but is now a widower like myself.’
‘So he’s the one her mother returned the bride price for? Is this a trick to have them meet?’
‘What little faith you have in me.’ She did have yesterday. Before their discussion.
Then he calmly said, ‘No. This allows my grandfather some face and to take pressure off Fadia.’
‘What’s he like? What makes you think she’d even talk to him?’
‘He is not old or unsavoury.’ He smiled as he turned back to face her. ‘Though, in fact, as a friend of mine, perhaps he is a little old in my cousin’s eyes.’
She had to smile back. ‘Not too old, then.’
‘My thanks. Prince Taqu lost his wife in childbirth, which for someone in our profession is perhaps just as horrific as a hijack.’
Her breath sighed out. She wondered where Zafar’s tragic hijack had happened but she should be thinking of Taqu and his loss. ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ She watched his face. ‘When you say “our profession”, is Prince Taqu a doctor too?’
‘He is. But I was referring to your midwifery as well. Taqu has taken over the running of my children’s hospital. He also has a young daughter who needs a mother and he knows Fadia is a kind woman.’
Carmen’s brain connected to the next thought. ‘Should the unlikely happen, and Fadia and this Taqu fall in love and marry, then have children, doesn’t that mean you will be further from the throne? Fadia’s new husband would act as guardian of her sons, and your brother Prince Regent until Harry comes of age?’
‘That is correct.’
‘And you don’t mind?’
‘Not at all. It places me another step further from the throne. A step closer to return to my work. Zandorro has already lost a future king. Now, when the time comes, if Fadia does not remarry, my brother will act as regent until Harrison is fit to be king in his twentieth year. When Harrison has children then I am further removed.’
‘Don’t you want to be ruler?’
He shook his head. ‘It was never my place. If my country needs me I will be there, of course, but I long to return to my work.’ She watched his face change.
His eyes brightened and she felt a kinship towards him for a passion shared. ‘One day soon I would like to show you. I have great plans for my oncology research. Sick children can never have enough chances of cure. If it is my destiny I will be able to return to the world I love.’
Then he became a prince again and the light died. He pinned her with his gaze. ‘So tell me how you think Fadia will take this?’
‘Unimpressed.’
He smiled cynically at her. ‘Succinct.’ And paced some more.
Carmen sighed. ‘She’s brilliant with the boys but she is worried about how much control she will have over her life.’
He stopped and considered her words and tried to see what she was seeing. He remembered Fadia as a quiet but cheerful girl, watching him from afar, with shy smiles and even shyer laughter. There had been a time when they had been close.
Before he’d had to learn to be a man. Before his mother had left. ‘She was always a happy little thing.’ His cousin had suffered the same pain he had and he didn’t want her to suffer more. He just wished he knew the right thing to do.
Carmen rubbed her forehead. ‘This could really upset her.’
He knew that and he needed Carmen to watch over her more than ever. ‘Then it is for you to be vigilant.’
He sighed and as if in slow motion his hand came up and he tucked a strand of thick black hair behind her ear. ‘Between us we will see if we can return the smile Fadia’s face. But for today my grandfather wishes to see his heirs. I will send ceremonial robes for them to be dressed in before lunch. The audience is at one o’clock.’
She’d bet that wouldn’t be fun. ‘Of course. I will see they are dressed.’
‘I would like you to come.’
Carmen smiled and he felt the day improve with just one lift of her mouth. ‘If you wish,’ she said, tongue in cheek.
‘As you appear to be compliant this morning, is there any chance you would wear the clothes in your room?’
She glanced down at her tailored slacks. ‘Not appropriate for a royal audience?’
‘I’m sure my grandfather would understand if necessary. Of course that is your choice. The palace seamstress was glad of the extra income. If you do not wish to accept clothing from me, you could always wear them while you are here and leave them behind when your tenure is complete. We would donate them to the needy. I will have her informed you do not wish the rest that I ordered.’
‘So if I don’t wear them I ruin a poor working woman’s wage with my pride.’ She looked at Zafar and he wasn’t smiling so why did she think he was amused? ‘Of course, if I may leave the clothes here, I’m happy to fit in with everyone else.’
He didn’t look at her as he replied, ‘You may even find our style of apparel is better suited to our climate than yours. Everything has a reason in Zandorro.’
Dryly. ‘I’ll remember that.’
‘Tonight you are both expected to dine with the women, who are all anxious to meet you. They are very happy to dress well for the event.’
The women. The harem? Or the female relatives? Either way, she was the hired help. Oh, goody. ‘And you?’
‘I?’
She raised her brows. ‘Who will you be dining with?’
He smiled as if he knew she wouldn’t like it. ‘Of course I will be dining with the men.’ He inclined his head.
She kept her face bland and saw he was even more amused. ‘After the meal tonight, I will bid goodnight to my nephews and I expect you to be there. There are things we need to discuss.’
And she was expected to wait around for that? ‘Perhaps it could wait until tomorrow?’
‘Tomorrow we will see the sights we discuss tonight.’
* * *
The King sat on a gilded throne at the end of a long hall. From the breadth of his shoulders Carmen gathered he must have once been a warrior like Zafar but his hands and wrists were twisted and thin with the passage of years beneath his flowing black robe.
To her surprise, his face, though lined, looked wise a
nd compassionate. She hadn’t expected that.
Two guards, surely Yusuf’s twin brothers, stood on either side of him, wearing the curved swords she’d always thought Yusuf lacked.
Zafar headed their party. Fadia stood proud and tall beside him. Zafar carried Harrison and Fadia carried Bailey.
‘Show me the heirs!’
The king gestured for them to approach and much of what followed Carmen didn’t understand.
Zafar took Bailey from Fadia so that he held both. He stood tall and imposing, with a tiny baby in flowing gold robes in the crook of each arm. The twins blinked and gazed about as if searching for each other. Fadia watched her sons. Carmen watched Zafar. She saw the fleeting shadow of pain as he held the boys up.
Of course he would feel his own loss, his own investment in the future gone with his family, and she almost took a step forward to comfort him before she remembered where she was. That would not have gone over well.
Carmen closed her eyes. So much pain in this family. It seemed she didn’t hold the franchise on that one.
After a few minutes of discussion with Zafar and Fadia in their native language the King waved his hand at the boys.
‘Hmph.’ The old man sighed. ‘I congratulate you on your fine sons, granddaughter. They look healthy but must be renamed. In respect of your wishes and in honour of their father I name the future king Hariz, meaning strong, a ruler’s name, and for the second born Ba Leegh, meaning eloquent and level thinking, to support his brother.’
He waved his hand at Zafar. ‘They may go.’ Zafar signalled to Carmen to approach and between them she and Fadia carried the boys from the throne room.
‘I will see you later,’ he murmured before he returned to the King’s side.
So it was over, great-grandsons checked and accepted, and she and Fadia could just toddle off while the big boys talked. How her life had changed since she’d met these people.
So how much input had their mother had into her son’s names? Perhaps Fadia did wield some power. An effort had been made to compromise. Hariz for Harrison and Ba Leegh for Bailey. She wondered whose idea that had been and hoped secretly it had been Zafar’s.
Falling for the Sheikh She Shouldn't Page 11
