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‘I have had my moment. It is your turn now.’
Augustine sighed. ‘Freddie is pregnant.’
‘Your PA? How is that your problem?’
‘The baby is mine.’
There was a very long silence.
‘Ah,’ Khalil said at last. ‘I was going to ask how that happened, but then realised in the time-honoured fashion, I suppose.’
‘A case of mistaken identity,’ Augustine said. ‘You know how it is.’
‘No,’ Khalil murmured. ‘I do not know how it is.’
‘You’re going to make this difficult for me aren’t you?’
‘Sounds as if you are already making it difficult for yourself.’
Augustine bit down on a retort. Khalil wasn’t being judgmental, he knew that. His reputation as a playboy was one he’d carefully cultivated to cover a multitude of sins, but it did mean everyone would have an opinion on his pregnant PA and that wasn’t a good look for him. He didn’t care about people’s opinion of him, but he did care about their opinion of Freddie. Gossip wasn’t what he wanted. Yet another reason, if he needed one, for marrying her.
‘It was during your marriage celebration as it happens,’ he said finally. ‘She somehow ended up in my room and I thought she was someone who was supposed to meet me later. The light was off and when I touched her...’ He sighed again. ‘She didn’t say no.’
There was another long silence.
‘And you didn’t know it was her?’ Khalil asked.
‘No.’
‘How could you not?’ Khalil sounded mystified. ‘You see her every day.’
‘Because I’ve never seen her that way. Not once. And in the dark...she was different.’ Even to himself it sounded like an excuse. ‘Anyway, she’s pregnant and the child is mine.’
‘You are marrying her?’ That it was the first question Khalil would ask said a lot about him and his own opinions. Then again, Augustine supposed Galen would have the same views, especially as Galen was already a father.
They were all of them kings. Responsibility was in their nature as was protectiveness.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘That’s my intention. She’s not happy about it, though.’
‘Hmmm. That sounds horribly familiar.’
It would. Khalil had had problems convincing Sidonie to be his bride. In fact, Augustine could still remember the advice he’d given his friend. It made him wince to think of it now.
‘As I recall,’ Khalil went on, his thoughts obviously following the same track. ‘You told me to take her to bed and she would be begging for my ring by morning.’
Astute as ever.
Augustine ignored the thought. ‘Was I wrong?’
‘No,’ Khalil said unexpectedly. ‘Though it didn’t happen quite like that. Have you thought of trying the same thing?’
But Augustine didn’t want to discuss what had happened between him and Freddie. He didn’t want to discuss her fear with anyone either. It felt too private to him, a betrayal.
‘Perhaps I should,’ he said lightly. ‘I mean, she certainly wasn’t complaining—’
‘She matters to you, doesn’t she?’ Khalil interrupted.
The question brought him up short. ‘What makes you say that?’
