Читать книгу Midnight in the Harem: For Duty's Sake / Banished to the Harem / The Tarnished Jewel of Jazaar - Люси Монро, Carol Marinelli, Люси Монро - Страница 15

ANGELE woke to the sound of Zahir talking in rapid-fire Arabic in the other room. He’d insisted she lie down while he took care of having dinner delivered.

A glance at the alarm clock beside her bed showed that a little over two hours had passed, startling her. She hadn’t been sleeping well since returning from Zohra and had been positive she would not fall asleep when she’d acquiesced to Zahir’s concern.

The man was far more adept at hovering than she would ever have suspected.

He didn’t sound like a concerned husband-to-be right now, though; he sounded like a man who was brainstorming spin on the announcement of her pregnancy.

She surged to her feet, thankful the dizziness that had plagued her off and on for the past weeks was not showing itself. The need to pee, however, was. And no matter how urgently she wanted to speak with Zahir, it took precedence. She made a quick trip to the bathroom before going to find her stubborn fiancé.

His robes of office nowhere to be seen, his suit jacket and tie lying over the back of a nearby chair, Zahir sat on the sofa. An open laptop was on the coffee table in front of him, the screen showing a website dedicated to the care and feeding of pregnant women.

The indulgent smile that caused slipped right off her face as his words registered. He was still discussing how best to announce Angele’s pregnancy, but now she knew who he was talking to. His father.

He’d told his father. Which meant her parents would know soon, if they didn’t know already.

Her knees going weak, she stumbled to sit on the sofa.

Zahir jerked to face her, his expression going concerned in a moment. He hung up faster than she’d ever heard him end a conversation with the man who was both father and king.

“Are you well?” He leaned toward her, examining her with all the intent of doctor on a house call. “I thought you would be better after a rest, but you are looking peaked.”

“Thank you,” she said with pure sarcasm. “Every woman wants to hear she looks like death warmed over.”

“But I am concerned.”

“Not so worried you hesitated to tell your father about my pregnancy though you knew I didn’t want you to.”

“It is a blessed event. Naturally I told him.”

“That’s not the way you reacted in the car.” He hadn’t seemed even remotely blessed then.

“I saw the potential problems first. It is in my nature.” His tone was pure shrug even though his shoulders remained immobile.

She used to tease him about that trait. Right now, she found it more frustrating than funny. “We also agreed in the car that we would wait to announce my pregnancy.”

“Actually we were out of the limo when you expressed your opinion in that direction.”

She made a sound of pure frustration at his attempt to tease around the issue. “You didn’t argue with me.” She took a deep breath and released it slowly, praying her earlier nausea would not return. “Silence is an implication of agreement.”

“Clearly it is not.”

“You knew I would assume you would wait to tell our families until we had spoken further about it.” “I did not tell your family.”

“You think your father hesitated to share the news with King Malik and my father?”

Zahir shrugged, looking far from repentant. “It is good news worth sharing.”

“You are a manipulator.”

“I prefer master of circumstances.”

“Call it what you like, I won’t be tricked that way again.”

“I did not trick you. I avoided unnecessary conflict so as to prevent further upset.” “I am upset now.” “Why?”

“I wanted to wait to tell anyone.” She glared. “And I heard you—it’s not just your family. You want to tell the world.”

“I explained my viewpoint earlier.”

“And that’s it? We disagree and you do whatever you please?”

“Would it make you feel better if I claimed otherwise?”

“It would make me feel better if you said it and meant it.”

“It will not always be as I wish it.” “Oh, really?”

“You left Zohra, did you not?”

“You’re saying you would not have prevented me if you had been able to?” She made no attempt to temper her skepticism.

“You gave me no such opportunity.”

“So?”

“So, you are intelligent and resourceful. I will not always get my way.”

“I need to know that you won’t act without thought to my feelings. I don’t want a marriage based on a series of one-upmanship competitions.”

“We are not children.”

“Agreed.”

“I did consider your feelings.” “And yet you still called your father with the news.”

“Waiting to do so would only cause you further stress and upset. Prolonging a thing of this magnitude only invites more complications as it becomes more likely the opportunity to act on your own timetable will be taken away.”

“No one knew I was pregnant until I told you.”

“You have not been examined by a doctor?” he asked with clear censure.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, of course, I have and everything is normal and as it should be.”

“Good. I will expect the family physician to conduct his own exam however.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

“So, this doctor knows that you carry my child.”

“She knows I am pregnant, not who the father is and she is bound by laws of confidentiality.”

“And you claim you are not naive.”

“This isn’t Zohra, Zahir. Dr. Shirley has no reason to believe the father of my child is a person of interest to the media. I’m hardly one of the glitterati myself.”

“Perhaps that was once true, but things have changed since Amir’s wedding.”

That was putting it mildly. “You mean the very public courtship you were supposedly engaged in?”

“Supposedly?” he prompted, sounding none-too-pleased.

“I left Zohra six weeks ago. Today is the first time I have heard from you.”

“I sent daily gifts for the past few weeks.” “Without a single phone call.” “This did not please you.”

“Of course it didn’t, but it didn’t surprise me, either.”

“I cannot claim the same. Your actions after our single night together astounded me.” “I told you my plans.”

“I thought you were doubting the existence of passion between us.”

“And when you gave me proof it existed, you assumed I would go forward with the plans to marry?” she asked, unable to hide her disbelief at his assumptions.

“Yes.”

“You only hear what you want to hear.” “It is a failing.”

“But not one you are often accused of.”

“This is true.”

“Yet, you don’t deny it.”

“How can I? Clearly, in this instance, I did hear what I deemed probable and acceptable.”

“Lina walked away from the marriage arranged for her with your brother. What’s improbable about that?”

“You are not Lina.”

“No, I am not. She was raised with a much stricter sense of responsibility to her family’s position.”

“Lina was not in love with my brother.”

Angele could not argue that point. Lina and Amir had barely known each other, despite growing up in the same circles.

“I see you do not deny loving me.”

“What would be the point?”

“In the car, you intimated your feelings were not involved with your decision to marry me. It is only natural then to question if they have changed.”

“My feelings for you were not a deciding factor in my decision to marry you. Our child’s future was.”

“Do you still love me?” he asked bluntly.

“Does it matter?”

“I prefer to know.”

He’d been honest with her to this point, she could offer no less. “Yes, but I consider my love a detriment to this situation, if you must know.”

“But of course it is not. Surely our life together will be eased because of it.”

“You think I’ll let you have your way because I love you?” she asked suspiciously.

“I am not that foolish, but it is my hope you will be content in our marriage because of it.”

More likely it would cause her nothing but pain, but admitting that was just one step on the open and honest communication highway, her pride wasn’t about to let her take.

The buzzer sounded and Angele gave Zahir a look meant to maim. “Two guesses who that is and the first one does not count.”

“Dinner,” he said with smug assurance.

She hoped he was right, because she was so not up to playing happy families with her parents right now. She was still annoyed with her father for not giving her a heads-up on Zahir’s plan to publicly court her. Angele had zero doubts Cemal had been in the know on that score, if not a major instigator.

And while her mother had said she’d forgiven Angele for breaking the contract, initially Lou-Belia had been hurt and very angry. They were talking again, but things were still a little stilted between them.

Zahir’s bodyguard answered the summons from the doorman and then dispatched one of the security detail to retrieve their dinner.

One brow raised, Zahir smiled.

“Don’t be so smug. They’ll show up sooner than later.”

“And you do not wish to see them? To share the happy news in person?”

“What part of I don’t want to tell anyone isn’t sticking with you, Zahir?”

He frowned, his eyes dark with disapproval. “It seems to me, you are the one regretting the advent of our child.”

She opened her mouth to reply that of course she regretted becoming pregnant, but snapped it shut again on the words. Words, once spoken, could never be unsaid.

And she would never say such a thing about her baby, no matter the change in circumstances it brought to her life. The truth was, Angele had spent more years believing she would one day marry Zahir than the few months determined not to do so.

It was time to put her big girl panties on and deal with it. She was going to be Princess Angele bin Faruq al Zohra, and one day—God willing far into the future—she would be queen.

“No matter what the complications, I do not regret this baby.” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “But I’m not up to presenting pure joy and celebration for my parents’ sake, either. At the very least, I’m fighting a constant battle with nausea and an on-again-off-again vertigo that is truly disturbing.”

He nodded, his handsome face set in lines of concentration. “I have been researching how best to treat morning sickness that has the poor manners not to confine itself to mornings.”

“I’ve tried ginger and soda crackers. It helps a little, but I’m still not holding my food down.”

“There are other options I read about. And according to our family physician, Vitamin B6 apparently helps a large percentage of women who suffer morning sickness.

He also recommends acupressure wristbands used for antinausea as the result of motion sickness.”

“I’m not sure I can hold a vitamin down long enough to do any good.”

“There is also a combination medication that can be administered orally, or in a prepared hypodermic, but it can make you tired.”

While that wouldn’t thrill her, it had to be better than being sick. “I’ll survive.”

“It would make it difficult for you to do your job.”

“Today was my last day.” She’d given a month’s notice soon after confirmation she was pregnant.

Shock widened his eyes. “You’ve already worked out your notice?”

“Yes.”

“I expected argument about the need for you to leave your job.”

“No.” “I see.”

There would have been no point. It would be ridiculous for an editorial assistant to come to work with a bodyguard detail and she wasn’t kidding herself. Angele knew that as soon as Zahir was made aware that she carried his child, security around her was going to be a 24/7 reality.

Besides, once they were married, she’d no doubt they could and would visit the States often, but no way could she continue to live here.

“You reconciled yourself quickly to your changed circumstances,” he mused.

“I had a lot of years to plan what our eventual marriage would require.”

“This is true.” He looked lost in thought for several moments and then asked, “So, you do not refuse to live in Zohra?”

“I only said that for the press release. While I will not pretend to have been raised there, or stifle who I am for the sake of conformity, I love Zohra. But I told you I wouldn’t allow you to be blamed.”

“I was very angry when I read that press release. I do not think I have ever been angrier in all my life.” He said it so dispassionately that it would have been easy to dismiss his words as overkill.

Except for the look in his eyes. The color of molten metal, they shimmered with remembered rage at odds with the rest of his calm exterior. She was beginning to realize that for all her hero worship of the man, she didn’t know Zahir as well as she thought she had.

Seeing even a remnant of that furious reaction shocked her to her core and something told her it shouldn’t. That she should have realized he would never see her defection the way she intended it to be taken.

Regardless, she wasn’t completely buying the story he’d never been so mad. “Not even when you realized your former lover with a seriously questionable reputation was threatening to out your liaison to the press?”

The slightest movement that could have been a wince showed on his features when Angele said the words seriously questionable reputation, but other than that, Zahir didn’t show any further emotion to the words. Certainly he didn’t exhibit that latent anger he had in regard to Angele’s actions.

“You knew it was Elsa?” he asked with just a tinge of surprise. “Your letter was careful not to point fingers.”

“I didn’t know if you still cared for her.” And she hadn’t wanted him hurt any more than he would be by knowledge of the pictures and blackmail itself.

“She’ll never attempt to hurt you again.” The flat truth in his voice didn’t allow Angele to doubt it.

She nodded. “I assumed you neutralized the threat to your good name.”

“My name and reputation were a secondary consideration in this instance.”

She found that hard to believe, but didn’t call him on it. They had more important things to discuss. “So, when are we getting married?”

He didn’t blink at the change in topic. “Since you are already six weeks along, there is no hope of a quick marriage stifling future rumors.”

“Hence your insistence on announcing my pregnancy before our official engagement?”

“The announcement will be a joint affair.”

“How lovely.” The entire world would think he was marrying her because she carried his child and potential future heir.

But then, was that any different than the knowledge they were marrying as the result of a political contract between two kings? Probably not. It was her own fault that she’d always considered the other as less important because of her feelings for Zahir.

Talk about burying her head in the sand. “I’d make a fine ostrich,” Angele muttered.

Zahir gave her a quizzical look, but she waved it off and said, “We could do something small fairly quickly.”

Lou-Belia was going to pitch the fit of a lifetime when she realized her only child’s wedding plans had to be rushed and scaled back.

“Small?” Zahir said the word as if doing so pained him. “For the Crown Sheikh of Zohra? I think not.”

“Everything doesn’t have to be done on a world leader scale.” Really, really, it didn’t.

Only the look on his face said it did. “Learn to accept the inevitability of it. We are political leaders, not celebrities to indulge in a secret ceremony on some private island. Our people will expect and deserve the opportunity to celebrate our joy with us.”

“Not to mention assorted world leaders and their hangers-on,” she grumbled as the reality of her change in circumstance began to make itself felt.

“It is inevitable.”

“So, what do you suggest? I would prefer not to waddle down the aisle nine months pregnant.”

“Be assured, it will not be that bad.”

“How bad are you proposing it be?”

“You would be best past this nausea.”

“Agreed.” Fainting on her walk down the aisle was not the impression she wanted to leave with dignitaries and world leaders, much less her future family.

“We are in luck. Usually trying for any event of this magnitude with any less than an entire year of planning would be impossible. Two years would be preferable, but my father is hosting a summit to discuss world oil reserves in two months time. Were we to coordinate the wedding celebrations to coincide with the summit, the important political guests would already be in Zohra.”

There was no room for sentimentality in that scenario, but she accepted that was her own fault. She couldn’t help wondering if they had followed the contract and a regular schedule of engagement and marriage, if it would not have been the same, though.

“Our wedding is a political event.” Which she’d known somewhere in the back of her mind, but had not really given thought to what that meant in the grand scheme of things.

She’d always looked at the Zohra-Jawhar connecting, never considering the further implications to her life.

Zahir was not one of his brothers. He was in fact a Crown Sheikh, uncontested heir to the throne of both an oil and mineral rich country.

“I’ve really messed up, haven’t I?”

He didn’t deny it, but quoted another favorite Arabic proverb. One that was pretty much the equivalent of, it is what it is.

“For all my fantasies and daydreams, I never really considered what being married to you meant,” she admitted.

“Had you attended finishing school rather than university, you would have had training in that regard.”

She forced herself to remember what he’d said on their night together, that an observation was not a criticism. “But you supported my decision to go to university.”

“I knew what marrying me would mean to you.” Again, the shrug was in his voice rather than his shoulders.

“Wouldn’t that make you even more determined I learn my future role?”

“I wanted you to have a chance at a normal life before we wed.”

“But …” Unsure what she wanted to say, she let her voice trail off.

“My mother and aunt have both promised to mentor you in your new role.”

“You’ve accomplished an awful lot in the two hours I slept.” Not that she was surprised by that.

She did know him well enough to know how efficient he was and how very adept at making things work, whether it be a property rights negotiation or a family dinner. It had always been a pleasure to watch him finesse those around him.

She could hardly complain he was doing it to her now.

But he shook his head. “I made the request years ago, when you decided to go to university in America.”

“It’s no coincidence that every trip to Zohra and Jawhar in the past several years has included significant time with the queens.” She’d been flattered, a little nervous and ultimately happy to spend time entertaining others with the respective women.

Though she would have traded that time for time with him in a heartbeat. That wasn’t something she needed to admit to right now, though.

“No coincidence,” he confirmed.

“I thought your mother was just getting to know me.”

“She was, but she was also teaching by example and trying to share knowledge of your future life with you.”

“Sneaky.”

“I prefer subtle. I did not want you overwhelmed by the realities of what your life would be, though I wonder now if we were too subtle.” His expression had gone contemplative. “You have too little understanding of what the role should and will mean for you.”

She couldn’t deny it, but it was still uncomfortable acknowledging that truth. “Maybe you didn’t want me getting cold feet and backing out of the contract.”

“Interestingly enough, I never once considered you would break the contract.” He shrugged and said a word she was pretty sure meant fool in French.

“You are not a fool.”

“I misjudged the character of two important women in my life.”