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He walked with her one way, he walked back the other, but there was no settling her. ‘Atiyah,’ he said, ‘little sister, you must stop this.’ And on impulse, when he could not think of anything else that might help, he started humming the tune, the lullaby he’d heard Tora sing to her, the lullaby that had been dredged up from the depths of his memories. And eventually, somewhere along the line, the notes filtered through to the tiny infant and Atiyah’s cries became more brief, staccato bursts between the listening moments, bursts that became hiccups. Until finally she fell silent apart from a low whimpering sound.
‘Is she asleep?’ Yousra whispered in awe. And he shook his head as he sang that soft lullaby, because, while her face had unscrunched, she was wide awake and staring up at him, a frown knitting her brow as she focused intently on his face, almost as if she recognised him.
He stared back at her, equally fascinated until he came to the end of the song and he smiled, and the little girl wiggled in his arms and smiled right back.
And his world turned on its axis and he knew it would never be the same.
‘Like the world lights up and wraps you in love.’ Tora had said that.
And yet he should have known that, because that was exactly how he’d felt when Tora had smiled at him. When she’d come apart in his arms. When he’d seen tears in her proud eyes at his coronation.
Those tears... Had she been scheming even then? How could she have known he’d turn to her in that moment? How could she have faked those tears? Tora had been the one who had got him through the coronation. Knowing she was there had been his one constant. Having her in his corner had lent him strength and made him wonder if their relationship could not be more permanent.
She’d made his duty more possible, more bearable, more palatable.
She’d made him wish she could stay by his side for ever.
She’d said she’d never betray him.
She’d said she loved him.
Oh, God, and arresting her was how he repaid her? He’d been so angry, had felt so betrayed, so manipulated, as if he’d been played for a fool from the start.
And the rank, horrible feeling in his gut told him that they had got things very wrong, and that he’d been the fool all along, he hadn’t needed anyone to play him.
He had to find the truth—find the story behind the email to her cousin—there had to be proof. He owed her that much. There was an email this morning, she’d said, saying her friend was dying. It would be easy enough to check. Surely there would be something to prove or disprove her story one way or another. ‘Yousra,’ he said, the child still held close in his arms. ‘Get me Kareem.’
* * *
An hour later, he had what he needed. A small stack of printed emails. ‘Innocuous,’ Kareem had labelled them. ‘There was no mention of any amount of money.’
And Rashid believed him. Innocuous by themselves, but together with her story they painted a different picture... You’re a lifesaver... Next stop, Germany! And the kick to the heart he deserved with the subject header on the email that had come overnight—Prayers needed!—and he knew with an icy cold rush down his spine that she’d been telling the truth.
And he dropped his head into his hands.
What the hell had he done?
And how was he ever to make amends?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
TORA’S HEAD JERKED up from her pillow when she heard the sound of the door opening. For a moment she hoped it was Rashid so she could tell him exactly what she thought of him. She got out of bed and ran her fingers over her cheeks. Her tears had dried in the heat of her growing anger, but her skin felt tight, as if it were crusted with salt.
But it wasn’t Rashid returning, but two young women, smiling shyly and holding baskets. They bid her to sit down and fed her honey tea while they brought out warm towels to wash her face and hands, and a hairbrush to brush her hair. There was even a freshly laundered gown to wear, and Tora didn’t know what it meant but it was so blissful to clean the salt from her skin that she went along with it.
‘Come with me, Sheikha Victoria,’ the guard said, when she was feeling refreshed and human again and the women had vanished.
‘What’s going on?’ she asked. ‘Where are you taking me?’ But he said nothing, just turned and led the way out.
Only one guard, she thought as she followed him. There had been four outside her doors and now only one—what did that mean?
