Читать книгу Medical Romance August 2016 Books 1-6 - Sue MacKay, Amalie Berlin - Страница 22

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

LANDING IN LONDON, Adele told herself that she should be looking forward to seeing her mother; instead, she was resisting listening to a message that Zahir had left on her phone.

There was also one from the estate agent, informing her that the flat was hers.

That call she returned.

And then, before she went to the underground to take the tube home, she rang the nursing home and told them that she was home.

‘Hi, Adele,’ Annie said. ‘We weren’t expecting you back till tomorrow. How was your holiday?’

‘It was wonderful, thank you,’ Adele said. ‘How’s Mum?’

And she waited for the familiar answer—that she was comfortable and that there was no change. Instead there was a pause.

‘You need to come in, Adele.’

No, her mother wasn’t dead, but there was something that Annie needed to discuss and not over the phone.

Adele went straight there.

She didn’t even stop to drop her suitcase back at the flat and she sat with it beside her in the nurses’ office.

‘When she had her hair washed last week, the nurse noticed a lump on her neck. We spoke with her GP and a biopsy was done. Adele, we did discuss telling you...’

‘I understand why you didn’t.’ Adele said. She was grateful for the thought they had put into it. Of course she would have rushed back and for what? To sit by her mother’s bed and await results.

She wouldn’t have had the time with Zahir, even if it had come to such an embarrassing end.

‘When do the results come in?’

‘Dr Edwards expects to have them back tomorrow when he does his rounds.’

Adele sat by her mother’s bed and held her hand.

‘I’m back,’ she said, but of course there was no response.

There never had been since day one.

And then, only then, did Adele allow herself the bliss of listening to Zahir’s voice as she turned on the message he had left on her phone.

‘Call me when you land,’ he said in his lovely deep voice that felt like a caress. ‘Let me know how you are.’

She didn’t, because she needed him so much now and it would not be fair to tell him so, knowing there was nothing he could do.

No, she had no faith in the desert offering a solution.

And she sat by her mother’s bed.

‘Call me when you land... Let me know how you are.’

She played it over and over and over some more.

And the next day, after picking up the keys to her new home and signing the lease, she listened to it again before she went back to the nursing home for Dr Edwards’s round.

‘It isn’t good news, Adele.’

He was terribly kind and as Adele sat in the office he gently explained that it would be wrong to send her mother for invasive tests and treatment.

Nature would take its course.

‘I want her to have pain medication,’ Adele said.

‘Of course.’

‘I want to be sure that she’s not in any pain.’

‘We’ll do all we can to ensure she’s comfortable.’

It was Adele who was the one in pain. There was a wash of guilty relief that finally there was an end in sight and that was so abhorrent to her that she was propelled to her feet.

‘I’m going to go and sit with her,’ she said.

And as she did she held her phone to her ear.

‘Call me when you land,’ Zahir said in his lovely deep voice that felt like a caress. ‘Let me know how you are.’

Adele hit delete.

And then she gave her mother a kiss and headed out to the office. ‘Annie, I need to update my contact details.’

She had deleted his number and blocked him and by tomorrow she would be at a different address.

And the day after that she would be back at work.

* * *

‘Wow!’ Helene said as a suntanned Adele came into the changing room. ‘How was Paris?’

‘Fantastic.’ Adele smiled.

‘Good God, how hot was it?’ Janet said as she took in Adele’s sun-bleached hair and brown limbs.

‘Pretty warm?’

‘Are they having a heatwave?’

‘I think they were.’

‘Where’s our postcard?’ Janet checked.

‘It must be on its way.’

She didn’t tell them about her mother and she certainly didn’t tell them she had been in Mamlakat Almas.

Instead she was brought up to date.

‘Zahir didn’t renew his contract,’ Janet informed her as they walked around to the nurses’ station, ‘so we’re rather short-staffed, though what’s new?’

Everything, Adele thought.

The place felt different without him, though her home life was better, of course, now that she lived alone.

The days just seemed to limp by, though.

* * *

For Zahir they did too.

She had been gone almost a month and there was no progress that Zahir could see.

In any direction.

He was working with Nira, the architect, and she had some wonderful suggestions but his father just knocked back every one and it incensed Zahir.

‘Why are you so opposed to this?’ he demanded of the King.

‘Our scholars are the basis of your system. We were the forerunners, and that wisdom I refuse to lose. I consult with the Bedouins and the elders, not with you.’

Zahir walked out.

His father was right. His culture had contributed so much to modern medicine. Surely they could marry ancient and modern. Other countries managed it and yet his father blocked him at every turn.

He found himself on the beach, and he strode in the pristine white sand and looked out to the stunning gulf and he did not know the solution.

He looked up at the palace and saw that a long ladder was resting against the wall that led to the suite where Adele had resided.

Up the ladder a man went, and beneath it were the elders, all watching as the small ceremony occurred.

From early times the elders, with little evidence, had believed that Mamlakat Almas was a land of diamonds. Rubies and other precious stones had been panned from the rivers and later mined. So convinced were they, despite evidence to the contrary, that the kingdom held the most precious stones, that when the palace had been built it had been named Diamond Palace. Its walls had been dotted with precious stones with the promise that one day diamonds would be discovered. They had been and now, when a guest stayed at the palace, they were presented with a stone from the wall and it was replaced with a diamond.

There were rare exceptions.

On the night of the selection ceremony the Sheikh Prince would meet with the elders and the King. A diamond would represent each bride and when the Sheikh Prince had made his selection he would hold the diamond in his palm and show his choice to the King. If the King endorsed the decision he would place his palm over the chosen stone and it would then be presented to the future bride.

That should be Adele’s stone.

Zahir strode over, and his shout halted proceedings and he told them to hand over the stone.

Adele’s stone.

The elders frowned and tried to argue with him but Zahir was having none of that.

‘I am the Crown Prince of Mamlakat Almas,’ he reminded them. Not that it counted for much as his father had the final word after all, but for now he put his hand on the hilt of his sword. ‘You can take it up with him later, but for now you are to give me the stone.’

They did so.

He put it into his deep pocket.

He made his way back to the palace and he saw his mother sitting in the lounge, taking tea.

Leila was doing her sewing and, despite the tension in the palace, she was looking forward to tonight. It had been six weeks since her surgery and she and Fatiq had a romantic meal planned.

Maybe when they shared a bed again it would be easier to communicate and his mood would improve.

All was seemingly well and yet she could not relax. She looked up when she heard Zahir stride through.

‘Zahir?’

‘I am going into speak with the King.’

And her heart sank because she had dreaded this moment and yet she had anticipated its arrival.

Two proud, immutable men, both of whom thought they were right.

And she loved them both.

The huge wooden doors to the study were closed and the guards were outside and she gave them a look that told them they had better not attempt to halt her.

One bowed and opened the door and she stepped into a heated exchange and listened as his son stated his case.

‘Even the healer has opened his mind. He and the attar have liaised with Mr Oman and they have worked well together to return the Queen to full health.’

‘She wouldn’t have been so ill were it not for the surgeon. You have never had a day’s ill health in your life,’ the King again pointed out.

He refused to understand and Zahir shook his head.

‘I will not sit back and do nothing. If you refuse to implement the changes I have suggested then I am returning to London. At least in England I can save lives. I will return when you either give me the authority I need, or on your death...’

‘Zahir,’ Leila said in a shocked tone, and he turned and looked at his mother.

‘Tell me another choice,’ Zahir said.

Leila had spent many nights awake, trying to come up with one, and she gave a sad shake of her head.

Zahir had not finished, though.

‘I shall be taking this stone and asking Adele to marry me.’ He held out his palm to his father, who should now place his palm over the stone, in acceptance of Zahir’s choice.

Fatiq did not.

‘Adele would make a wonderful queen.’ Zahir fought for her, for them.

‘She brings nothing,’ Fatiq said.

‘Adele was like a breath of fresh air to this palace,’ Zahir countered. ‘She has emotional charity and that is a rare gift indeed.’

‘I will never endorse that marriage.’

‘Well, I don’t need you to.’ He did not look at his father as he answered; instead, he turned to his mother when she asked him a question,

‘You love her, don’t you?’

‘Very much,’ Zahir said. ‘And she loves me.’

The King had other ideas, though. ‘Adele only wants you for your riches. She persists because...’

Zahir closed his eyes and still did not turn as he spoke.

‘Adele does not persist. She has cut off all contact. She has blocked me from calling her. I had somebody go to her home but she has moved. Anyway, her mother is very sick so she cannot be here.’

‘So this is just an excuse for you to turn your back on your people?’ Fatiq said.

Leila addressed her husband then.

‘Zahir has never made an excuse in his life,’ Leila told him, and she gave her son a small smile.

‘Is that why you did not stop for her when you were driving because you knew where it might lead?’

Not just bed, Zahir could have handled that. It had been more that it would lead to this.

To standing in his father’s office and being told he could not marry the woman he loved.

‘I loved her then,’ he said to his mother.

‘And is this love the reason you did not want her to come here and be my nurse?’

Zahir nodded. ‘It was. But I have found out that she is essential to me.’

And they were the words from the desert.

Zahir was so angry at his father but as he went to walk out he remembered what Adele had said, and the sympathy she had shown for his father.

‘I spoke to Adele about Aafaq,’ Zahir told his mother and he saw her face flinch.

‘I told Adele it was not to be discussed with you,’ Leila said.

‘She did not tell me anything. When I asked her a question she said I should speak with you, and I did. And when I visited my brother’s grave, as I do every time I return to the desert, I again sought a solution. When I returned to the tent I said how angry I was about the health system here and how frustrated I was by the complete lack of progress. Adele said that she understood my father’s plight.’

Now he turned around.

‘This is not to be discussed,’ the King warned.

‘Then we won’t discuss it,’ Zahir said, ‘but you will listen.’

‘No, I saw what your machines did to my son.’

‘They kept him alive till you got there,’ Zahir said, and he now fought to be gentle for he could see his father’s pain. ‘My mother had a condition called pre-eclampsia. The only treatment is delivery. That is it. They can try to hold off delivery for a few days, but by the time she arrived at the hospital it was too late for that.’

‘Zahir,’ Leila said, ‘please don’t.’

‘Yes,’ Zahir said. ‘He needs to hear this. Had she got there earlier they would have given my mother steroids in the hope of maturing the baby’s lungs and they would have given her treatment to bring her blood pressure down to avoid her having a stroke. And though my mother cannot remember much more about what happened, I know that had the pregnancy continued she would have had a stroke or a seizure. I know, from all I have studied, that had my mother been here she would have died. She would have been buried in the desert with her son in her womb. I know that. You would have lost them both,’ Zahir said. ‘You would have lost your Queen.’

‘I don’t believe that,’ Fatiq said.

‘Then I can’t help my people. I shall return when my hands are untied.’

He put the stone into his pocket. He felt the sand from the desert and, as had been promised, yet not in neat order, the answers came to him.

He thought of Adele and what she had said, that maybe his father was scared to be wrong.

For if he was wrong, didn’t that then mean his pride had killed his own son?

‘Father, I don’t believe modern medicine could have saved Aafaq back then. Maybe now, twenty-five years on, he might have stood a better chance. I have seen the photo of him, and from my mother’s dates most babies born at that stage died back then.’

Fatiq said nothing.

‘You could make Aafaq’s death mean something. He could be the catalyst for change—’

‘Go,’ the King interrupted. ‘Go to the woman who you put before your people.’

‘If that is your opinion then you don’t know me.’

Zahir was done.

Fatiq remained in his office, but Leila walked with her son to the royal jet.

‘It had to be said,’ Zahir told his mother, and he put his arm around her as they walked.

‘I know it did,’ Leila agreed. ‘I have been trying to keep the peace and it has got us nowhere.’

‘You’ll come and see me in London?’ Zahir checked.

‘Of course I shall.’ Leila smiled. ‘Give my love to Adele.’

‘I will.’ He looked at his mother. ‘You’ll be okay?’

‘Zahir, I am not scared of your father. The only thing I fear is that I have lost him. I love him so much. I am angry at his resistance to change, but now maybe I can see why he resists. Your father and I need to talk about Aafaq, and you need now to be with Adele.’

Zahir nodded.

He did.

Finally his patience had run out.

There was no answer, he could not fight for a solution any more.

He looked down at the desert as he flew over it. He wished he were down there, just for one more day.

There was so much guidance he needed and now he had his parents’ marriage to add to an increasingly growing list.

And his upcoming marriage.

He reached into his robe and took out Adele’s stone.

There was but one regret with Adele.

The night he had left her alone in a storm.

It had gone against everything he believed in.

How he wished he could take that night back.

And yet, would she have been ready for the strength of his desire?

At least then, by the time his mother had fainted, they might have faced the upcoming problems as a couple.

Then again, things had unfolded in time.

A word came to him.

Resolution.

There could be resolution at least for him and Adele.

He would focus on that for now.