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‘Oh, I would. I would stop at nothing to get my way on this. Believe me when I tell you that—even if that is the last thing I want to do. Because you are testing my patience just a little too far.’
‘You’re a fine one to talk about testing patience!’ she flashed back. ‘Think about it! It’s not just me and Cameron you’re strong-arming back to your country—there’s Morag, too, over whom you have no power at all! What has she done to deserve all this? Don’t you think that the first opportunity she gets, she’ll be on the phone to the Foreign Office telling them what you’ve done and demanding they get us back home as soon as possible? And they’ll come after you—you can bet your sweet life they will! The British government will lock you up and throw away the key. Hopefully for ever! Because kidnap is kidnap—no matter how high-born and mighty you are!’
‘Your imagination is remarkably vivid but essentially flawed—since I suspect you might find that Morag’s sympathies are very much in tune with my dilemma. She has certainly been very accommodating thus far,’ he mused. ‘Which begs the question: Can’t you do the same—at least for the time being? Don’t alarm our son by an unnecessary display of hysteria, Caitlin. Accept the situation for what it is and try to make the best of it.’
‘How can I possibly do that?’ she demanded. ‘When I don’t know even what “the situation” is!’
‘But you will. In time,’ he said smoothly. ‘There are many issues we need to address about the future and they will be discussed in more detail when we arrive at my royal palace.’
She stared at him. ‘So I don’t really have a choice, do I?’
He shook his head. ‘No, Caitlin. I’m afraid you don’t.’
CHAPTER SIX
‘YOU ARE PALE, CAITLIN.’
‘Of course I’m pale! I’ve just had a severe life shock! I wasn’t expecting to be hijacked while I was in the air and then flown to some wretched hellhole of a place against my will!’
‘I would not describe the royal palace of Xulhabi as a hellhole and we are not going to conduct this conversation in an inflammatory manner, if that’s what you’re hoping.’
Kadir’s voice was as soft as the warm air which scented the courtyard—the rustle of his robes the only sound Caitlin could hear above the distant tinkling of a fountain. Outside the sky was the most beautiful she’d ever seen, a deep indigo canopy punctured by stars so bright, it almost dazzled the eye to gaze upon them. But gaze on them she did, because anything was better than having to look Kadir in the eye and try to pretend that he wasn’t making her pulse-rate soar with anger, outrage and that annoying ever-present throb of desire. She needed to concentrate on what he had actually done, which was an affront, by anyone’s standards. And didn’t his high-handedness and outrageous flexing of power cancel out a little of the understanding she’d been starting to feel towards him?
‘What I’m hoping,’ she spat out, ‘is that you see sense. That you’ll understand you can’t just go around kidnapping people like some despot. If you let the three of us go home, before any irretrievable damage is done, then we’ll just draw a line in the sand and move on.’
‘I think you need to compose yourself,’ he said, with infuriating calm. ‘Did you like the clothes which I arranged to have sent to your suite?’
Caitlin wished he wouldn’t try to change the subject, especially one which was difficult to answer without sounding grateful. Yet how could she fail to like the delicate tunics she’d found neatly lined u
p in one of the wardrobes? In rainbow colours, the fabrics were so fine that they felt like a cloud to the touch. As a gesture of defiance she had wanted to ignore the whole lot of them and just dress normally—but, despite the palace’s super-efficient air-conditioning, she couldn’t possibly wear her trademark sweater and sensible tweed skirt in this hot climate. So she had reluctantly slipped on one of the tunics while silently despairing at the way it managed to make her feel so ethereal and so...feminine. And much more aware of her own body than was usual, which, given the company she was in, could be regarded as distinctly dangerous. ‘They’re okay, I suppose,’ she said ungraciously. ‘Or at least they’ll do for the time being.’
But Kadir didn’t react to her clumsy rejection of his offerings, he just slanted her another devastatingly cool smile. ‘Look, why don’t we take a walk around the palace gardens before dinner?’ he suggested. ‘The grounds are very beautiful when they’re floodlit and a little fresh air might make you feel better.’
‘I’ll tell you what would make me feel better—getting someone to drive me back to the airfield so that I can jump on a plane and not have to keep looking at your smug face!’
‘Oh, Caitlin, Caitlin,’ he murmured. ‘Repetition is never an attractive quality. You really are going to have to find something different to talk about. No harm is going to befall you, Morag, or our child, of that I give you my word. And you wouldn’t really want to fly back tonight, would you? Not when Cameron is tucked up so peacefully in bed.’
Caitlin’s pulse accelerated. She wished he wouldn’t do that either. Talk to her in that cool and measured way, as if she were an out-of-control hysteric and he were Mr Reasonable—when actually he was the one who was guilty of kidnap. An accusation she had flung at him on more than one occasion but which seemed to keep washing over him. In fact, he hadn’t actually responded to anything she’d said to him, so far. It was like trying to demolish a brick wall by hitting it with a feather.
Maddeningly, Kadir had been nothing but diplomatic from the moment their motorcade had arrived at his impressive palace, whose soaring towers, golden cupolas and domed windows had taken her breath away yet also managed to daunt her with its sheer size and majesty. Not wishing to distress Cameron, she had forced herself to behave with exaggerated politeness towards the man who had brought them here without permission—and her own acting ability had taken her by surprise. Why, to the casual observer, she and the Sheikh might have seemed like a pair of amicable partners as he led her through the seemingly endless marble corridors and pointed out the many attractions of the royal palace along the way, sounding once again a bit like the seasoned tour guide he had seemed back in London.
‘This is the recreational library, and in here are volumes in English of just about every classic book ever written, but my staff will always be able to get their hands on anything you can’t find.’
‘Thank you,’ she had replied stiffly, though her eyes had widened with anticipation on seeing rows and rows of beautifully bound books in a stunning room which overlooked a dramatic sculpture garden.
‘And here is the film room.’ He had opened the door so that Caitlin could peer in at a luxurious space with twenty comfortable seats and a screen as large as her local cinema at home. ‘I have arranged for many suitable children’s movies to be available for Cameron, that’s if you are happy for him to watch them.’
‘Thank you,’ she had repeated, because it had seemed churlish to do otherwise. But that thin veneer of civility she was presenting to the outside world didn’t hint at the bitter truth which was raging inside her like a boiling cauldron.
That she felt as if she had walked into a living nightmare...forced into unwilling proximity with a man she resented and desired in equal measure.
Yet, Cameron had shown no such reserve, happily greeting whoever passed him and generally behaving as if to the manor born. As if he were used to being surrounded by a gaggle of doting servants. As if, on some fundamental level, he understood that one day all this would be his. How could she, his mother, have then created a scene—grabbing at the arm of the first senior official they met and demanding to be allowed to call the British Ambassador before being ferried home?
To Caitlin’s fury, Kadir had also been right about Morag, who hadn’t reacted to being spirited off to a far-off desert country with any of the indignation Caitlin might have expected from the middle-aged matron. In fact, she had actually smiled and remarked that nothing like this had ever happened to her before and she was quite enjoying the adventure—not to mention the prospect of spending an unspecified amount of time in a royal palace, especially one which had such beautiful gardens.
‘But we’re being kidnapped!’ Caitlin had snapped as they had been shown into the large part of the palace which had been given over to them and whose north-western light Kadir had insisted was the best.
‘Well, you keep saying that and I suppose that is one way of looking at it, dear. But Cameron doesn’t seem to mind and neither do I. And the boy really should get to know his father, Caitlin, especially since he’s a king.’ Morag had given a sigh which had sounded positively girlish. ‘And a desert king, at that. Why, it’s like something out of a fairy story!’
