by Penny Jordan
'I'm not going anywhere with you,' she told him, beginning to panic. 'So you can tell the driver to turn this car round and—'
'You have two choices, Katrina. Either you step out of the car willingly or…' He looked meaningfully at the impassive sentries standing several feet away.
Reluctantly Katrina got out of the car, casting a fulminatingly furious look at Xander as he ushered her towards and then up the flight of steps.
'You don't look well. It was extremely foolish of you to discharge yourself from the hospital. When the consultant telephoned me he was extremely concerned,' Xander announced as he guided her through the doors as they were flung open with faultless timing. They passed through them and into a cool, high-ceilinged room with an intricately carved staircase that led up to a gallery that ran the full length of the inner wall. Several doorways led off both the gallery and the ground floor, but Xander made no move towards any of them.
'The consultant had no right to discuss me with you,' Katrina told him.
'On the contrary, he had every right,' Xander corrected her. 'Since I am your husband!'
Katrina almost staggered with shock, as though she had been dealt a physical blow as well as an emotional one.
'That's not true,' she denied shakily.
'My brother chooses to think differently,' Xander informed her coolly. 'Especially now that his wife has spoken to him of a conversation she had with you during which you pleaded for me to be shown mercy and compassion—'
'That was before I realised that you weren't Xander, the thief, but Sheikh Allessandro, the liar,' Katrina stopped him bitterly, still shocked that he'd heard about her conversation with the Sheikha.
'Come with me,' Xander said. 'The hallway of my brother's palace is not the place to discuss this!'
A palace! This place was a palace! She should perhaps have guessed, Katrina recognised, half dazed by the intensity of the conflicting emotions swamping her.
Xander had said he was her husband. But he wasn't. Not really. He couldn't be! Could he?
He had taken hold of her arm and she had no option other than to walk alongside him as he took her through one of the doors, and then along a long corridor, and then through a doorway, which opened out onto a small private garden.
As Katrina tried to focus on her surroundings through the blur of her angry tears she could hear Xander telling her grimly, 'This is my brother's private garden and he has allowed me the privilege of bringing you here so that we may talk in private.'
'We don't have anything private to talk about,' she shot back at him immediately.
'No? Why did you beg my sister-in-law to intervene on my behalf?'
'I'd have done the same for anyone I knew who I thought was going to face a harsh sentence. I thought you were a thief, but not a murderer. I didn't do it because of…of anything else! But of course you weren't facing treason charges, were you? Not that your sister-in-law told me that! No! I was left to find out when I saw you on television.'
She could feel and hear the bitterness and shock leaking from her heart into her voice.
'My sister-in-law pre-empted my own plans by visiting you before I could speak with you myself.' His voice was stiff—with regret or with lack of interest? It had to be lack of interest, Katrina decided.
'I couldn't say anything to you whilst we were in the desert,' he continued. 'I had to put my half-brother's safety first.'
'Your half-brother,' Katrina repeated bitterly. 'You even lied to me about that as well, didn't you?' When he remained silent she burst out, 'Do you really think I would really want to be married to someone like—a man who…who is everything I despise?'
She was shaking so badly she could hardly stand, but to her relief Xander had released her to turn away from her so that he couldn't see how agitated and distressed she was. 'Besides, you told me yourself that the ceremony we went through wasn't binding or legal. You are not my husband, Xander.'
'Unfortunately for us, it is not what you or I want that matters in Zuran. My brother is far from being a despot, but he does have certain beliefs, a certain stubbornness, if you wish to put it that way, that comes with being Ruler. He considers the traditions of our tribal ancestors to be a sacred trust, which he has a moral duty to respect. You and I were married according to one of those traditions and thus he feels…'
'How does he know that?' Katrina asked fiercely.
Caught up in her own feelings, Katrina was too agitated to notice Xander's small but telling hesitation before he answered her.
'El Khalid was held for questioning by Zuran's security forces.'
'And he told them? But such a ceremony can't possibly be legally binding!' Katrina protested.
'No, not in the eyes of the wider world, which is why my brother has arranged for us to go through a civil marriage ceremony discreetly and immediately.'
'No. No way, and what do you mean, "immediately"?' Katrina queried warily.
Xander inclined his head. 'I mean immediately,' he said evenly, ignoring the small sound of distress she made. 'The appropriate officials are waiting for us as we speak. My brother's wife has expressed her own disappointment that she cannot organise a more fitting ceremony for us—but my brother is adamant.'
'You can't do this! You had no right to bring me here! You can't make me marry you, Xander,' Katrina protested shakily. 'I am a British citizen and if I want to leave Zuran, which I do, I can right now…'
'According to Zuran law you are my wife, and as such a member of the Zurani royal family. No member of his family is allowed to leave the country without my brother's approval!'
Katrina stared at him. 'Why are you doing this?' she demanded in a shaken whisper. 'You must find the thought of a marriage between us as abhorrent as I do. You can't want to marry me any more than I want to marry you!'
'It is my duty to do as my brother commands me and, besides, since I took your virginity…' He gave her a look that made her stomach plunge nauseatingly.
'You're marrying me because of that! But that's… that's archaic…medieval…' Katrina protested in a distraught whisper.
'I will not have my child born without my name!' Xander told her coldly. 'You are already my woman, now you must become my wife!'
Katrina's mouth had gone dry. 'What child?' she demanded recklessly. 'There isn't going to be any child,' she told him, looking deliberately at a point to one side of his shoulder instead of into his eyes. And then she held her breath, half expecting him to accuse her of lying, because the truth was that she could not say as yet whether or not she was carrying his child. To her relief, though, he didn't challenge her. Instead he simply told her curtly, 'Come…the officials are waiting.'
She didn't want to go. Apart from anything else, the pain in her arm had intensified to the point where she was having to grit her teeth against it. But the look on his face told her that he was all too likely to pick her up and carry her to her wedding bodily if she refused to walk there herself.
She was hardly dressed as a bride, Katrina admitted fifteen minutes later as she and Xander stood in front of the government official marrying them and legalising their desert ceremony. She certainly did not feel like one either. Neither did Xander look anything like a deliriously happy bridegroom.
He was reaching for her hand, as the official had instructed him to do, and to her chagrin it trembled frantically in his hold.
He had obviously come prepared because he produced a shiny new wedding ring to slide onto her ice-cold ring finger. Her fingers might be cold, but her arm was throbbing hotly and so was her head, Katrina acknowledged as she fought against the increasingly intense surges of pain washing over her.
'You may kiss the bride.'
Katrina felt herself shudder as she saw the downward movement of the dark head. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see Xander's face, not able to endure facing the reality of her own shattered dreams.
His lips barely touched her own. The kiss he was giving her was a parody of what a man's kis
s for his new bride should have been. Pain, both emotional and physical, seized her, clawing and tearing at her as she tried to pull away.
'You are my wife, you will not recoil from me as though my touch is tainted,' she heard Xander hiss savagely against her ear.
Immediately she opened her eyes, bewildered both by his fury and his misinterpretation of her reaction. She snatched a brief glance at his face. It was set as hard as granite fused with marble—and just as cold and forbidding.
His hands were gripping her arms tightly and the pain in her injured one shot through her, making her cry out. But the sound was lost as Xander covered her mouth with his, taking it in a kiss of savage anger, his mouth burning her like a brand.
She could hear a buzzing in her ears, feel a dizziness in her head. Her body went weak and limp; only the grip of Xander's arms supported her as she slid into a dead faint.
CHAPTER TEN
« ^ »
Katrina opened her eyes, and then moved her arm very cautiously. No pain!
'Good, you are awake. I will send someone to inform Xander. He is worrying himself sick and wearing out my new carpet by pacing the floor outside the women's quarters.'
Xander worrying himself sick about her! Katrina turned her head so that the Ruler's wife wouldn't see her expression.
'Our good chief consultant is very upset that you discharged yourself without his authority. He wanted to re-admit you to hospital but Xander wanted you to stay here.'
So that she couldn't escape from him, Katrina reflected dully.
'You should not be experiencing any pain now, because the consultant has seen to it that you have been given some medication, but if you are you must let me know and I shall tell Xander so that he can instruct the consultant to call and see you.'
'There isn't any pain,' Katrina told her woodenly. It wasn't true, of course. Her arm might not be hurting her, but the kind of pain she was now experiencing could not be cured by medical means, and would be with her for ever, she acknowledged.
'My husband is so pleased that Xander has finally met the right woman! A woman who loves him, and yet who understands the complexity of his mixed heritage,' the Sheikha announced.
Too late Katrina remembered the Sheikha's parting comment to her when she had visited her in hospital—about Katrina being a woman in love! Valiantly she tried to protect herself. 'I think there has been some mistake,' she began firmly, but immediately the Sheikha stopped her, saying gently, 'My husband, our beloved Ruler, does not make mistakes. He loves and knows what is best for all his family, but Xander has a special place in his heart. Not only is Xander his half-brother, but it was Xander's mother who taught my husband when he himself was young, when he was without a mother himself. It has long concerned him that Xander does not have a wife. But he knows he need not concern himself over Xander's marriage any longer!'
'That is all very well, but what about my feelings?' Katrina couldn't stop herself from protesting.
The Sheikha frowned slightly as she looked at her. 'But you love Xander,' she told Katrina. 'You pleaded with me to ask my husband to show him mercy!'
'That was before I knew who he was! He lied to me,' Katrina told her bitterly. 'He allowed me to think he was a…a thief and a…'
'He had no other option! It was his duty to put my husband's safety first,' the Sheikha continued. 'You should be proud of him for his loyalty to his brother and to Zuran. And besides, after hearing what happened at the oasis, my husband has decreed that your marriage must be legalised. As you are a young woman alone in our country my husband considers that you are under his protection, and naturally he is concerned to protect your reputation and act in your best interests. It would have been impossible for him to permit Xander to abandon you after what had happened. You have lived with him as his wife!'
'He told me that the ceremony meant nothing!' Katrina told her despairingly. But she could see that she was wasting her breath. In the Sheikha's eyes it was obviously unthinkable that she should not be legally married to Xander, and the woman was obviously relieved and grateful that she should be! But with her own eyes, all she could see was a future filled with pain and misery!
'Xander will be pleased that you are feeling better. He wishes to leave for the mountains tonight so that you can travel whilst it is cooler. I have instructed one of my maids to pack your things. I hope you like the clothes I had sent to the hospital for you. Xander will of course establish accounts for you with the designers of your choice once you return to Zuran. It is our custom that a newly married couple spend a month together on their own, getting to know one another, and I am sure you will love the villa in the mountains, which Xander's father left to him. He had it built for Xander's mother.'
Katrina wanted to protest that the only place she wanted to go was home to England, but she knew it would be no use.
Wearily she closed her eyes, wishing that there were a magic carpet on which she could fly away from the unwanted and unendurable life that lay ahead of her.
'You are quite sure you are well enough to travel?'
'The consultant has said so,' Katrina answered Xander's curt question as they stood facing one another in the open courtyard where she had been taken to meet him by the Sheikha and her husband, Zuran's Ruler.
Katrina had been caught off guard by the Ruler's genuine display of warmth towards her, almost as though he was really pleased to welcome her into his family.
Now as he watched them he told Xander jovially, 'She is your wife now, Xander, and you may kiss her. In fact I would recommend that you do. The poor girl looks badly in need of some reassurance.'
'You are making her blush, my love,' the Sheikha joined in the conversation, linking her arm through his and smiling up at him as they dispensed with protocol and formality. 'Katrina is a very new bride and probably does not wish to share the tender intimacy of Xander's kiss with any onlookers.'
'Do you wish me to kiss you?' Xander asked Katrina promptly.
The Sheikha laughed. 'Oh, Xander. How very unromantic! Of course she does, but you must not expect her to tell you so!'
'Then she must wait for my kisses until she does,' Xander announced coolly. The Sheikha was still laughing, but Katrina felt more like crying. Her face was burning with a mixture of anger and humiliation and, although she hated admitting it even to herself, it would have been wonderfully comforting and reassuring to have Xander take her tenderly in his arms and hold her close. To have him whisper secretly to her that he loved and wanted her.
What foolishness was this? He was never, ever going to do that! And she suspected the only reason he had agreed to the convention of them spending a month together in private was so that he did not have to play the loving husband in public!
Xander might show her coldness and a lack of any kind of tenderness or loving emotion, but that was definitely not the way he behaved towards his family, Katrina noted. One by one, the Ruler's children presented themselves for a loving 'goodbye' hug from their uncle. And whilst he did not kiss the Sheikha, the warm, brotherly embrace he exchanged with her husband made Katrina feel very envious of their family closeness. No one watching them could dispute the strength of their love and respect for one another. But despite the love he had for Xander, the Ruler was still forcing his half-brother into a marriage he did not want, Katrina reminded herself.
'I pray your marriage will be a happy and a fruitful one,' the Sheikha told Katrina warmly as she embraced her. Her eyes burning with the pain of her unshed tears, Katrina tried to smile in response.
When the Sheikha released her Katrina saw that Xander was waiting. Wordlessly she walked with him across the courtyard. Two uniformed servants opened the gates for them, and Katrina caught her breath as she saw what was waiting for them in the much larger outer courtyard. There was not a car, as she'd expected, but a helicopter.
'We're travelling in that?' she asked Xander hesitantly.
'The villa is in the mountains and over twelve hours' drive away. You will be
perfectly safe. I have held my pilot's licence for well over ten years and have never had an accident yet!'
'You will be flying the machine?' She couldn't control her surprise.
'I prefer to fly myself when I can.'
Silently Katrina digested his comments. There was so much about him that she did not know!
He was already striding towards the helicopter, obviously looking forward to flying it—no doubt far more than he was looking forward to his incarceration with her, Katrina reflected wryly as she hurried to catch up with him.
Katrina knew about the range of mountains inland and to the north of the city, but she had never imagined she would visit them, and certainly not under circumstances such as these.
Which reminded her… 'My colleagues—' she began.
'Their head office has been informed of your safety and our marriage.' His mouth hardened. 'Your colleagues returned to the UK within hours of your kidnap.'
'You forced them to return before the project was completed?' Katrina demanded angrily.
'I? I was in the desert with you, if you remember! The decision was made, I understand, following an urgent request from Richard claiming they wanted to return as he did not consider it safe for them to remain here following your kidnap.'
Katrina digested his information in silence. She had never liked Richard, but it still shocked her that he and the others had actually left the country without securing her own safety.
They had been travelling in darkness, the only illumination that of the stars against the inky dark sky and the thin sickle crescent of the new moon. Suddenly, up ahead of them, Katrina could see the illuminated sheer escarpment of what looked like a Moorish fortress, its turrets and fretted windows thrown into magical relief by the clever lighting.
'What's that?' she asked Xander, unable to contain her awe.
'That's our destination—the villa,' he answered calmly.
The villa? Unable to stop herself, she swung round to stare at him. 'That isn't a villa. It's…'
'It's the shell of a Saracen stronghold. My mother fell in love with the ruined building, apparently, and as a surprise for her my father had the villa built within the original outer walls. My parents spent as much time here as they could. It was their favourite home.'