The Sheikh's Convenient Princess

by Liz Fielding

  ‘Ya habibi...’

  * * *

  ‘Ruby... My soul... My life...’

  There was a slow, continuous beeping noise, the familiar hospital smell and wooziness as she surfaced from unconsciousness. Panic...

  ‘Daisy,’ she croaked. ‘Is Daisy hurt?’

  ‘Ruby...’

  She opened her eyes, saw Bram, felt his hand, warm and strong, in hers and, certain that she would be safe, she let the darkness drag her back.

  * * *

  ‘Has she come round?’

  Bram looked up as his mother reached his side, put her hand on his shoulder. ‘She stirred a while ago.’

  ‘She is strong. She will live to bear you many children.’ She bent and kissed him. Kissed Ruby.

  * * *

  The beeping was back, insistent, annoying. Ruby wanted to tell someone to turn it off but when she opened her eyes the light was so bright that she closed them. Then opened them again. She had not been mistaken. Bram was on his knees beside her, his forehead resting against their joined hands, whispering words that she did not understand.

  ‘Bram?’ She made the words with her lips but there was no sound. ‘Bram...’ she repeated, trying harder. Her voice sounded rusty and it hurt her chest when she tried to catch a breath but he raised his head and she saw that his eyes were sunken, with dark shadows beneath them.

  ‘Ruby.’ Her name was layered with exhaustion, relief, emotions that she was too tired to unravel. ‘Ruby, my soul, my life, how can you ever forgive me?’

  Forgive him? What had he done?

  ‘Could I have some water?’

  He poured a little water into a glass, supporting her head as he touched it to her lips so that a little trickled into her mouth.

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Don’t.’ He looked as if he was the one in pain. Was he? Had he been hurt? ‘Don’t thank me.’

  ‘I’m in hospital...’ That beeping was a machine measuring out her vital signs. ‘What happened to me? Was there an accident?’ She tried to sort through the jumble of images in her brain. ‘We were in the car.’ She remembered a kiss. Or had she dreamed that?

  ‘There was a hold-up. A collision at the entrance to the harbour.’

  ‘Yes.’ She remembered the blaring horns.

  ‘You’re smiling.’

  ‘Yes.’ The kiss had been real. But then... ‘We were running.’ Running, laughing as they’d run back to the boat, laughing as he’d drawn her into the shadows, unable to wait another moment to touch each other, hold each other. ‘You asked me if I was sure.’ She frowned. ‘What did I say?’

  ‘You don’t remember?’

  She remembered his arm about her waist, his fingers in her hair, the scent of steel and salt water and oil. The darkness of Bram’s eyes, the anticipation of a kiss that would change her world and then something else. ‘There was someone in the shadows. I saw a flash...’

  ‘You saved my life, Ruby.’ His hand tightened over hers. ‘You cried out and, as I turned, Ahmed Khadri’s knife missed me and hit you below the collarbone. You’ve lost a great deal of blood but there is no permanent damage, insha’Allah. If you had been taller...’ He caught himself as if simply saying the words was to tempt fate. ‘This is my fault. I should have stayed away.’

  ‘There is only one person to blame.’ She felt like lead, her shoulder was aching and the anaesthetic lingering in her bloodstream was dragging at her eyelids. ‘The man with the knife.’

  ‘You warned me. I did not listen.’

  ‘Did he hurt you?’ she asked.

  He shook his head. ‘When he saw what he had done he dropped the knife. I was yelling at him to call an ambulance while I tried to staunch the bleeding but he just stood there, useless for anything, but Khal heard me.’

  ‘Where is he now? Ahmed Khadri?’

  ‘He is at the majlis, waiting for the Ruler’s justice. Waiting for my justice.’

  ‘Your justice?’ Woolly-headed, it took her a moment to realise what that meant. ‘No!’ She tried to sit up but she was hampered by wires hooking her up to the machinery and an IV tube in her hand. ‘No, Bram...’

  He caught her as she tried to pull them away, sending the machine into a frenzy, held her against his chest for a moment before easing her back against the pillow. Brushing her hair back from her face, he said, ‘Who is Daisy?’

  ‘Daisy?’ she repeated, distracted.

  ‘You asked about her.’

  ‘Daisy was the first pony I rode in competition. I was over-ambitious at a jump, she dumped me in it and I broke my collarbone.’

  ‘Was she hurt?’

  ‘No. Bram—’

  ‘The nurse is here to sort you out,’ he said but, aware that he had attempted to distract her, she hung onto his sleeve, coughing in an attempt to clear her lungs of the anaesthetic, pull herself up...

  ‘Don’t do it, Bram.’

  He did not pretend not to know what she meant. ‘It’s what he would do in my place.’

  ‘You are not like him.’

  ‘You do not know me,’ he said, his face expressionless as, with a formal little bow, he backed away.

  ‘You will start a war. Undo everything you sacrificed yourself for.’

  ‘Some things cannot be left unanswered. I’ll send Noor to you.’

  ‘I know you!’ she shouted after him. ‘Bram!’ But it was a doctor who appeared, a starched white coat over her sari, a jangle of bracelets at her wrist.

  ‘Please, Princess, calm yourself or you will undo all my good work.’

  ‘I have to get out of here.’

  ‘We’ll have you out of bed this evening and see how you feel then. Maybe you can leave tomorrow. You will be well cared for at the palace.’

  ‘Not tomorrow. Now.’ Ruby began pulling off the pads connecting her to the machine, holding out her hand with the IV to the nurse who had been attempting to reattach them. ‘Remove this, please.’ The nurse looked at the doctor but Ruby didn’t wait for them to gang up on her. ‘You do it or I will.’

  The doctor lifted her eyes to the ceiling but nodded to the nurse.

  ‘Where are my clothes?’

  ‘Sitti?’ Noor appeared in the doorway, white-faced, shaken. ‘I heard the alarms...’

  ‘It’s nothing. I need my clothes. And a car. I have to see the Emira.’

  ‘She said she would come back later—’

  ‘Now...’ It didn’t come out as the sharp command she’d intended but Noor was already rushing to her side to support her as she slid her feet over the side of the bed, holding her until the room stopped swimming.

  ‘You should lie down, sitti.’

  ‘Ruby. Call me Ruby...’ Still hanging onto the night table, she pulled herself upright. ‘Have I got any clothes or will I have to go to the palace with my backside hanging out?’

  Noor helped her out of the hospital gown and into a nightdress and wrap she’d brought from the boat. Wrapped her in her own abbayah.

  A wheelchair was summoned and by the time they were at the door a car was waiting with Khal at the wheel.

  Ten minutes later they were at the entrance to the family quarters of the palace.

  ‘Khal, find Bram and tell him I want to see him now. Immediately. Do you understand? Noor, take me to the Emira.’

  ‘Rabi!’ The Emira stood as Noor pushed her into the sitting room, filled with the same women who were there yesterday when they had been strangers. His sisters, Safia, all looking grave. No children.

  ‘You have to stop him, my lady,’ she said without ceremony. She had no strength to waste on unnecessary words. ‘Please.’

  The Emira rapped out words in Arabic, hands caught her as she slipped sideways, lifted her gently onto a sofa. A blanket was wra
pped around her. The sharp, head-clearing scent of smelling salts was waved beneath her nose.

  ‘Rabi...’ Safia knelt beside her. ‘Can you ever forgive me?’

  ‘You wanted to help your sister.’

  ‘No. Before that. Long before that.’ She looked across to the Emira. ‘The last time that Ibrahim came home, when you sent for him to make the wedding arrangements he saw...’

  ‘Saw what?’ she asked sharply.

  ‘He saw that I loved Hamad.’

  The Emira said something, sank into a chair.

  ‘We were never alone, sitti,’ she said quickly. ‘We never did anything that you would disapprove of, anything shameful, but I spent so much time at the palace with you, learning how to be an Emira, that I knew him like a brother. He cared for me like a brother. Never angry, always kind, always there. Ibrahim was a stranger.’

  ‘What did he see?’ the Emira demanded.

  ‘Ibrahim saw me look at his brother, saw that there were tears in Hamad’s eyes. That was all.’

  ‘And he left without a word, without signing the contract.’

  ‘He gave Nadiya a note for me. She thought it was a love letter but he said that when Hamad and I had looked at one another it was as if we were the only two people in the room. He said he would remember that look all his life.’

  Unaware that behind her, in the doorway, Bram, Hamad and the Emir were listening, she said, ‘He said he would fix things so that I could marry Hamad.’

  ‘Safia...’ Hamad crossed to her, held her, then turned to his father. ‘Ibrahim staged the incident in the fountain, arranged for someone to film it and put it on the Internet, to call the police and the press in full knowledge of the consequences.’

  ‘When you’re faking a scene you have to pay attention to detail,’ Ruby murmured as Bram crossed to her, took her hand. ‘You are so good at the details.’

  ‘Hush, ya rohi.’

  ‘I did not know what he’d done,’ Hamad continued. ‘I believed he had dishonoured the woman I loved. I was the one who cut his face.’

  There was an audible gasp from the Emira and her daughters.

  ‘I would have told you the truth years ago,’ he said, ‘but Bram forbade it.’

  ‘And Ahmed Khadri let everyone believe that he was the hero who’d avenged his daughter’s honour?’ Hasna gave a snort of disgust. ‘What a loser.’

  ‘My son—’ his father took Bram’s hand ‘—if I’d known...’

  ‘If you’d known you would have been in an impossible position. I knew what I was doing. I’d do it again.’

  ‘What can I do?’ he said.

  ‘Give me a moment alone with my wife.’

  The Emira cleared the room with a gesture. ‘Just a moment, Ibrahim. Ruby is exhausted.’

  He nodded, then, as the door closed, leaving them alone, he knelt beside her, took her hand. ‘I left you safe in hospital.’

  ‘You left before I had finished talking to you.’

  ‘Shouting at me,’ he said, but he was smiling. ‘You sounded exactly like a wife.’

  ‘I sounded like a woman who was afraid that you’d do something you would regret.’

  ‘If I’d had a knife in my hand when he struck you, I would certainly have killed him where he stood, but in cold blood? He expected it but it seems, ya habati, that you do know me.’

  ‘Yes, Bram. I know you.’ The painkillers were wearing off and the dull ache in her shoulder had sharpened into something darker. ‘What will happen to him?’

  ‘The court will decide on his punishment.’

  ‘Well, good.’ She coughed, winced.

  ‘Your hand is freezing,’ he said, rubbing it between his to get some warmth into it. ‘I have to get you back to the hospital.’

  ‘No.’ She shook her head, wished she hadn’t. ‘I want to go home, Bram.’

  ‘You’ll have to wait until you’re strong enough to travel to the fort.’

  ‘Not there.’ She was feeling faint, knew that she wouldn’t be able to talk for much longer, but this was important. ‘Not there. I want to go home to London. To my flat. It’s over, Bram. You are back with your family. You don’t need me any more. Tell them the truth. Annul the marriage.’

  ‘You must rest. We’ll talk when you’re stronger.’

  ‘No!’ She tried to tighten her grip on his hand, but the message wasn’t getting through and he tucked it beneath the blanket. ‘You don’t have to explain, Bram. I understand.’

  She’d wondered why Safia was so certain that he’d stay away from his father’s birthday majlis, give up the chance to return home, give up everything that mattered to him for her sister. She knew because he’d done it for her and there was only one reason a man would do that for a woman—because he loved her more than life itself.

  ‘I knew there was something off about that scene in the fountain.’ She was struggling to keep her eyes open. ‘It was out of character.’

  ‘And last night?’ His voice was barely audible above the thrumming in her ears. ‘What was that?’

  Last night. When he’d kissed her and all the barriers she had built around her had come crashing down.

  ‘That was...’

  A dream, a moment when she had thought her world had been turned the right way up. A fantasy.

  ‘That was just...’ She gave up the struggle to keep her eyes open—it was easier to lie when she wasn’t looking at him. ‘Just sex.’

  ‘Just sex?’ Bram thumbed away the tear that had spilled down her cheek, gently kissed her cheek and pulled the cover up to her chin as the door opened behind him.

  The doctor rested the back of her hand against Ruby’s forehead, checked her shoulder. ‘The wound has reopened, Sheikh. We need to get her back to the hospital.’

  * * *

  ‘The doctor told me that you’ve been asking her when you can leave,’ Bram said.

  ‘They’ve been wonderful, Bram.’ Ruby was standing at the window, looking out over the sparkling blue water of the Gulf, not trusting herself to look at him. ‘You’ve all been wonderful, but I’m ready to go home.’

  He joined her at the window and the sleeve of his robe brushed against her arm as he stood beside her. ‘We will stay here until you are stronger.’

  She had expected that, prepared herself. ‘No—’

  He turned to her. ‘You are determined to return to London?’

  His expression was unreadable. It had been unreadable since she’d lost consciousness on the sofa in his mother’s drawing room. Since she’d denied that there had been anything between them but a rush of emotion-fuelled lust.

  Just sex...

  His close-cut beard had grown, there were shadows beneath his eyes and his cheeks were hollow. She’d told him that he looked a wreck, worse than she did, but he had been stubbornly deaf to her plea for him to go back to the palace and rest.

  For two days she’d drifted in and out of consciousness but every time she’d opened her eyes he had been in the chair at her side or wrapped in a cloak lying on the floor beside her bed, waking the moment she stirred.

  In the week that followed he’d had food specially prepared for her at the palace, brought little treats to tempt her to eat. He’d been attentive, endlessly caring, always there and yet as distant as a star.

  He had not touched her, not even to hold her hand. Had not murmured soft Arabic endearments that she did not understand. Why would he?

  There was no further need to pretend that this was anything but an arrangement that had run its course. It was guilt, duty, honour that was keeping him a prisoner at her side and if she had learned anything from him it was that when you loved someone you let them go.

  She lifted the arm that had been pinned up in a sling. ‘I’m not going to be much use to you as a PA
, Bram.’

  ‘As I recall,’ he said, ‘I fired you.’

  ‘Rubbish. I resigned.’

  For a moment she struggled to keep the mask in place, act as if that kiss had never happened, keep it strictly business. ‘I’ll ask Amanda to send you a replacement.’

  ‘You think that anyone could replace you?’ His face, voice, remained unreadable.

  ‘Please...’ There was a lump in her throat as big as a rock and she had to swallow hard before she could carry on. ‘You are home. Reconciled with your father. You need to move on.’

  ‘While you run back to your hiding place?’ he asked, a flicker of annoyance breaking through.

  ‘No. I’ve had a lot of time to think in the last few days, Bram. I’ve been looking at courses on the Internet.’

  ‘Courses?’

  ‘I’m going to train as a riding instructor.’

  His face softened. ‘Reclaiming a little of your past.’

  ‘No. I’m not looking back, Bram. I’m building a new future and I have you to thank for the courage to do that.’

  ‘I suppose it’s pointless asking you to stay at my house, where there are people to take care of you until you are fully recovered?’

  ‘That’s very generous of you, but I want to be in my own home.’ She needed to have her familiar things about her. Get back to normality.

  ‘If that is what you wish, I have to honour it. My plane is at your command.’ He turned back to the window, the distant horizon. ‘I regret that if you insist on leaving today I will not be able to travel with you. The Emir has summoned his Council and has asked me to attend.’

  ‘Then you must,’ she said. ‘This is why we went through this, Bram. So that you can be here to support him.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Will you tell them the truth?’ she said.

  ‘About you?’ He looked at her then and for the first time in days he was smiling. ‘Yes, Ruby, I will tell them.’

  ‘And you will arrange for the marriage to be dissolved?’

  ‘Fayad sent a copy of the contract to your lawyer, with an English translation. My lawyers will deal directly with them. Being lawyers, they will no doubt take their time. You are not in any hurry?’ he asked. ‘Our agreement was until September.’