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Izzy blinked rapidly, her eyes dazed, because she was certain she had to have either misheard or misunderstood that instruction.
‘Try to relax, Your Royal Highness, I fully intend to bring all three of your family safely through this experience,’ Mr Abbas informed him as the doors of the theatre swung open and an entire medical team trooped in to join them and a series of checks was carried out.
Rafiq squeezed the life out of her hand. He looked terrified.
‘A lot of women have to have this,’ Izzy felt it incumbent on her to state.
‘This is you,’ Rafiq rebutted hoarsely. ‘There is only one you.’
A sheet was erected, cutting off her view of her lower body. Her fingers went numb in Rafiq’s fierce hold. She felt that she was being touched and then there was a little pressure but absolutely no pain. What seemed like only a few minutes later a baby’s wail broke through the silence and a cross little face topped with a shock of dark hair appeared for an instant before disappearing again.
‘That’s Leila,’ Izzy whispered in total awe.
‘She’s...’ Words seemed to fail Rafiq entirely at that point.
‘And that’s Lucia,’ Izzy added when a second baby made a brief appearance above the sheet.
She wasn’t able to hold them. The operating theatre was too cold for them and the babies had to be checked and wrapped up warm to be borne off. As she turned to comment on the fact to Rafiq, there was a crashing sound and she caught a narrow glimpse of him sprawled on the floor before aides rushed to lift him and help him out.
‘He will be fine, Your Royal Highness,’ Mr Abbas murmured gently. ‘The emergency was a little too much for your husband’s nerves. The Crown Prince has been very concerned throughout your pregnancy.’
‘Has he?’ Izzy muttered in surprise, because she genuinely hadn’t realised that Rafiq was actively worried, had simply assumed that he viewed caring for the needs of a pregnant wife as his duty and responsibility.
‘A not unexpected reaction from a man who saw his mother die after his brother’s birth. That delivery was a sadly botched business and I’m sure it left a mark on our future King to have witnessed such a tragedy as a young child.’
She was moved into the recovery room and asked if she required anything for pain. She didn’t, and when two nurses came in wheeling tiny cribs that held her babies, she was entranced. Leila had Rafiq’s hair and Lucia was blonde, a sort of sandy strawberry blonde that might or might not turn red. Izzy cradled each baby to her in turn and smiled, so very relieved that everything had gone well and quite in awe of her children. When Rafiq appeared in the doorway, still looking pale, she beamed and extended a hand to him encouragingly. ‘Come and see them properly,’ she urged.
‘I’m sorry,’ he breathed tautly, his stunning dark golden eyes full of regret. ‘I wasn’t able to be there for you as I should have been.’
‘No, I’m the one who should be apologising,’ Izzy told him ruefully. ‘It never crossed my mind that you could be so wound up about this.’
‘I didn’t want to alarm you with my fears. My anxiety was better kept to myself,’ Rafiq pointed out stiffly.
‘I didn’t know that yousawyour mother die,’ she muttered with regret. ‘I wish you had told me that.’
‘Notwhile you were pregnant. All I could do was ensure that you had the very best medical care available,’ he countered gravely. ‘And look after you.’
And look after her hehad, continually fussing over what she ate and how much she rested and how she felt, she acknowledged, reckoning that she had been blind not to suspect the very real fear that he was concealing on her behalf.
‘I won’t tell anyone that you fainted,’ Izzy murmured, reaching out to close a hand over his.
‘With the number of staff that witnessed my collapse, it will be a well-told story the length and the breadth of Zenara,’ Rafi responded in a wry tone of acceptance. ‘I am simply grateful that both my wife and my daughters are safe and healthy.’
‘Would you like to hold them now?’ Izzy proffered.
Rafiq sank down in the chair beside her bed and Leila was placed in his arms. He studied the tiny face under the pink beany hat and Izzy watched him swallow hard and blink rapidly, but the sheen in his lustrous gaze was unmistakeably emotional. He touched a careful fingertip to her little cupid’s bow mouth. ‘So tiny...’
‘I’ll have you know that they are both a very good weight and isn’t it wonderful that, even though they’ve arrived a little early, they don’t need to be put in incubators?’ Izzy proclaimed with pride. ‘We’ll be able to take them home with us as soon as we’re ready.’
‘I would like you to spend two nights here within the care of trained personnel...just to be safe,’ Rafiq admitted quietly as Leila was returned to her mother and Lucia was brought to him.
‘So precious,’ he muttered with deep appreciation. ‘I think they are going to have blue eyes and this little lady may even have inherited your hair. My uncle and aunt and Zayn would like to visit this evening. Do you feel up to that? Feel free to ask them to wait until tomorrow.’
‘No, I’ll be fine. I want to show my daughters off,’ Izzy admitted with a rueful grin. ‘But I have to phone my own family first.’
‘Perhaps I could contact your parents for you, and you could take care of your sister. I hope that she will come to meet her nieces. I know you have been worrying about her and that you would enjoy that,’ he completed thoughtfully.
It was one of those moments when she almost dropped her guard and told him that she loved him but she swallowed the words, recalling the guy who had been trapped for ten years in an unhappy marriage and who had settled, for the sake of his children, for a second loveless marriage without complaint. If she told him how she felt about him, he would feel that once again he wasn’t delivering what his wife wanted and needed because he didn’t love her back. She couldn’t do that to him, she justcouldn’tdo that, not when he already made such an effort to be caring and supportive. She must have imagined those instructions he had given the doctor about making her safety a priority during the birth. Surely the children, his heirs, must always have come first on his scale? Obviously she had got it wrong because he could never have uttered such a heresy, she reflected, not when their entire relationship was based on the importance of the babies she had conceived.
