Читать книгу Medical Romance August 2016 Books 1-6 - Sue MacKay, Amalie Berlin - Страница 25
ОглавлениеIT WAS TO be the tiniest of weddings.
The staff at the nursing home would be their witnesses and Adele and Zahir would marry by Lorna’s bedside.
When Zahir made a decision, it was made, and he wanted Adele as his wife. The problems that the marriage might create he would deal with in the fullness of time.
Right now all he wanted was for their union to be official.
He had informed his father, who had terminated the call, as Zahir had expected him to. The formal invitation that Zahir had had delivered to the palace would have been torn up, he was quite sure.
He pulled up outside the nursing home at ten to two in the afternoon and was told by a smiling Annie that Adele wouldn’t be long and that the photographer was already there.
They had worked so hard to ensure that even though this wedding was small it was beautiful.
Lorna’s hair was back to brunette and her nails had been done and she was wearing a gorgeous nightdress. The room was decorated with flowers and after the brief service there would a lavish meal for the nursing-home staff and guests.
And, whatever the consequences, it would be done.
As was right.
‘Lorna’s ready to be mother of the bride,’ Annie said.
‘Could I speak with her, please?’ Zahir asked, and Annie nodded and pulled the curtains around them.
Zahir sat down by Lorna’s bed. He understood how poor her condition was yet he understood Adele a little better because he spoke to Lorna as if she could hear him.
Just in case she could.
‘Today I am marrying Adele,’ Zahir said. ‘I know that you must have your reservations, as at some point I will be a king and there will be many demands on both myself and Adele. I want you to know that I will do everything I can to support your daughter with that transition. I know that she will be a wonderful queen. I want you to know that I am not taking her from you. You need your daughter now and Adele needs to be here with you. We are so looking forward to the baby’s arrival. Know that I shall take the best care of them.’
And Zahir understood Adele a little better still.
There was no response, no flicker of the eyes, no squeeze of the hand to say that she understood.
Poor Adele, Zahir thought, and poor Lorna.
‘You have my word that I shall take care of her,’ Zahir said.
And his word was worth a lot.
He came out from behind the curtains and startled, for there, instead of his bride, stood two very unexpected guests.
His mother and father had come.
Not to protest, Zahir quickly realised, for his father was wearing a suit and his mother embraced him.
They had heard all that he had just said to Lorna.
‘Adele is pregnant! That is so wonderful!’ Leila was beaming and always she surprised Zahir, because in her own way she fought for change. Her acceptance of the news made her husband step forward and shake his son’s hand.
‘We want to show that you have our support,’ the King explained. ‘And you do.’ The King looked at his son. ‘It is time for change.’
He had waited so many years to hear those words yet right now Adele was his top priority.
‘I cannot come back just yet,’ Zahir explained. ‘Adele’s mother is very ill.’
‘We heard. Tomorrow an announcement will go out that you have married and that there will be a formal celebration back home, when the time is right...’ Leila said.
‘Who is in residence?’ Zahir frowned, because his mind never moved far from duty. ‘Is Bashir acting...?’
‘No, Dakan is in residence,’ Leila said. ‘And he has full rule. Your father and I are taking a holiday together. Our first...I remember saying to Adele that I hadn’t had one.’
And then Leila stopped talking as the bride arrived.
She wore a slip dress in pale ivory and flat shoes, and she was carrying a bunch of jasmine that Zahir had had sent for her from his home. She was a bride fit for a king.
‘Leila!’ Adele said. ‘Fatiq!’
Oh, she broke with protocol, she was so grateful to them for being here.
Her eyes filled with tears as Leila embraced her and congratulated her on the wonderful news that she was expecting a baby and Fatiq, handsome in a suit, smiled too.
‘I hope it’s a girl,’ Leila said. ‘A boy would be wonderful but I love to shop for girls.
And, in her own unique way, Leila had removed any pressure on Adele to produce a suitable heir.
‘Our people will be very surprised,’ Leila said, ‘but they will be happy.’
‘Our people will be surprised too,’ Adele said, and Zahir smiled.
They hadn’t told anyone at work.
That news would be shared on Monday and she could not wait to see Janet’s expression when she explained the need for a new name badge.
Yet she wouldn’t have to wait, for there were two more guests at this very special wedding.
Janet and Helene, dressed to the nines, had just arrived too.
‘They worked it out,’ Zahir said.
‘Of course we did.’ Janet smiled at Adele. Then she went to see Lorna, who she had nursed on such a black day.
Leila clapped her hands to get things under way. ‘I have brought a gift for your mother, and also something that you should wear on your wedding day,’ Leila said. ‘There are certain traditions that must be upheld.’
And it would seem there was going to be a delay, as the bride, according to Queen Leila, was not quite ready.
Adele went back, with the Queen, to the room she had dressed in.
‘I can’t believe that you’re here,’ Adele said, as Leila took out a sheer veil and started to arrange it.
‘I can,’ Leila answered. ‘Believe me, Adele, I choose my battles wisely.’
‘Battles?’
‘There are some advantages to being a queen. When I get angry, I get very, very angry, and I told Fatiq that things were finally changing, that I never thought that I would see the day that I was absent from my son’s wedding, that I had played by the rules but no more, that I had collapsed and still he would not consider a modern health system.’
‘And he listened?’
‘Not at first,’ Leila said.
‘But Zahir had spoken to him about Aafaq. Adele, he blamed himself, he was holding onto so much guilt and grief. We cried together for the first time and I think he came to understand that he would have lost us both and it was not his fault that Aafaq died. But, Adele, he is a very proud man—he had to be the one to make the decision and yet he is stubborn. I wanted my family to be together again so I decided to move things along.’ Leila smiled a secret smile. ‘Do you want to be my nurse for two more minutes?’
Adele frowned.
‘You said I could confide in my nurse.’
‘I’d love to be your nurse for two more minutes.’ Adele smiled.
Leila nodded. She would say this once and once only. ‘The day Zahir left was six weeks after my surgery. We had a romantic dinner planned but of course I was very upset that night. Well, six weeks turned into seven...’
Adele let out a gurgle of laughter.
‘And if you ever say that to Zahir...’
‘Oh, I never shall,’ Adele said.
‘Well, Fatiq asked if there was anything I could think of that might help me to feel better. I had just turned to my sewing and remained in my own room at night. I said perhaps a cruise, some time away, and that maybe a little romance might help me to return to my once happy self. But, of course, Zahir had gone and Dakan said he would only step in if he had free rein with the hospital. And then seven weeks turned to eight and the King suggested that maybe Dakan should take over, maybe a new system was in order! It had to be his idea, of course.’ Leila rolled her eyes and then smiled. ‘And now here we are and we are about to take a long overdue honeymoon!’
Adele was delighted. Leila had gone on a sex strike, and it was perhaps the funniest thing she had ever heard.
‘You are no longer my nurse now,’ Leila warned.
There would be no more confiding but Adele felt as light as a feather as she set to join a wonderful family, one with a very powerful queen!
Leila laughed too but then she became serious.
‘I will do all I can to guide you too,’ she said. ‘I have never had a daughter and my mother did little to prepare me for the role. I shall not let that happen to you.’
It meant so much to hear that.
‘Are you going on honeymoon too?’ Leila asked.
‘Not yet,’ Adele said. ‘I don’t have any annual leave until September and Zahir has only just come back, but anyway...’
‘You have this time with your mother,’ Leila said. ‘I have a gift for her. One thing you must understand is that when a favour is done or something precious is given...’ She faltered. ‘You are a precious gift to our family, Adele.’
‘I see,’ Adele said, though she didn’t.
Leila left her then and Adele took a moment to breathe.
Their parents were here, together, to witness this day, and she felt as if the earth had moved just for her. And her friends were here too.
She walked out and her eyes should have first gone to Zahir but they were drawn to her mother’s bed. The quilt that Leila had been working on for so many years, each stitch created with love, was over her mother’s bed. The gorgeous silks, the complex beauty, and Adele knew that Lorna was wrapped in love for ever.
Adele wore a veil when she hadn’t expected to and as she stood before Zahir and he pulled it back, her smile was wide.
There was love and peace in this room and she felt it all around.
She looked into Zahir’s eyes as he made his vows in English. He more than met her gaze now.
He held it and it felt like a caress as he told her he loved her.
‘I will do all I can to provide for your heart and to hold your trust as we share the journey ahead.’
He looked deep in her eyes and saw there was still pain, but he was patient and would work to see it lessen.
And Adele made her vows to him.
‘You made me believe in love at first sight.’ She believed in magic too now, for how could she not? ‘I have and always shall love you.’
And that was it. They were husband and wife and Zahir, very thoroughly, kissed his bride.
They posed for official portraits and Adele knew they were important ones. Without the King smiling at their side, it would have sent a message of disapproval to his people.
Oh, Fatiq smiled beside his wife.
They were finally off on their honeymoon tonight!
There was a little party afterwards, and the oldies put on some music. Annie had hung up a disco ball so that light bounced off the walls.
Janet and Helene sat on Lorna’s bed and told her about the magic being made.
The King and Queen were dancing dreamily, and a few of the residents too.
And, of course, Adele and Zahir danced.
The lights flickered and they felt again as if they were bathing in the sky.
Two stars locked in eternal orbit.
They were simply meant to be.
