no idea. Figure something out. Mentally she crossed her own arms. Bring it on. Never hassle a woman off night duty.
He didn’t. On the brink of refusal he hesitated, gave her a mocking smile that actually made her feel more uncomfortable than a flat refusal—almost a promise of retribution—and annoyingly her satisfaction at the win dimmed.
She didn’t like that look. Or the feeling it left her with. Who was this guy?
‘I shall return,’ he said to his cousin with a stern glance in Carmen’s direction, ‘when your midwife is finished with you, Fadia.’
Fadia nodded, twisted her hands, and Carmen inclined her head politely. She couldn’t wait to ask Fadia what the problem was.
‘We won’t be long,’ she said sweetly as she opened the door for him. The lock shut with the heavily finality hotel doors had and thankfully the room returned to a spacious suite.
Amazing how much breathing space one man could take up. Carmen looked at her patient. ‘You okay?’
‘Yes.’ The young woman hunched her shoulders and tightened the grip on the baby in her arms. Fadia didn’t look okay. She looked shattered, on the brink of tears, and Carmen just wanted to hug her.
‘And your babies?’
‘Fine.’ Fadia glanced across at her other baby asleep in the cot and visibly shook. ‘I can’t believe he actually left. You told him to go!’
‘Of course.’ She wasn’t wasting time on him, she was worried about her patient. Something was badly wrong here.
‘Zafar wasn’t listed as next of kin?’
‘I didn’t know if the family recognised me.’
‘So his arrival was unexpected?’
‘Yes. No.’ She lowered her voice. ‘I wrote to my grandfather last week but Tom said I would be sorry when the family took over my life. But I’m glad Zafar is here while I decide what I wish to do.’
‘Well you have a few days to think about it before you have to go anywhere.’ She took Fadia’s pulse. It was faster than normal, she hoped just down to agitation and not a postnatal problem. ‘I’m surprised to see they allowed you out of hospital so soon after birth.’
‘They said I could come across to the hotel today as long as I brought the mothercraft nurse. My cousin visited me soon after you left this morning and arranged one when I asked.’
Carmen glanced around the otherwise empty room but didn’t comment on the fact the mothercraft nurse was nowhere to be seen.
Fadia shrugged. ‘We did not get on. So she left.’
‘Oh.’ Not a lot she could gather from that. ‘That’s very quick transfer for twins. Because of your overextended uterus you’re at risk of bleeding. We need to watch for that. And you’d get much more help if you stayed on the ward. I could have you readmitted back there.’ Especially if your cousin helped you leave, she thought.
Fadia shook her head. ‘Now that he’s found me, I’d prefer to be here. Apparently the paediatrician will visit me as well. I hate hospitals, which is why I was so late coming in. Zafar wants me to have private nurses. I said I knew you and was comfortable without.’ She looked up and pleaded, ‘That is my biggest concern. I want to care for my babies myself, not with some nurse taking control as soon as they cry. Which is why I am unsure if I wish to return to Zandorro.’
Carmen could understand that but she wasn’t so sure Fadia knew how much work two small babies could be. ‘Well good for you, but it will be exhausting, even if it’s a great way for a mother to feel.’
Fadia nodded with relief. ‘Access to the baby hotel is why I chose your hospital. Tilly said you were working here today so I wanted to come across now.’
‘Okay, I can understand preferring to be here than hospital.’ But that didn’t explain her cousin’s agreement when most people would realise the twins needed more observation too.
‘I do feel a little less alone now Prince Zafar has arrived.’
‘Prince Zafar.’ Carmen blinked. Prince of what? ‘Like Prince Charles?’
‘From the desert. Zafar is fourth in line to the throne of Zandorro.’
‘A sheik?’ That explained a lot. ‘So you’re from this Zandorro, too?’
‘My family were from a small but powerful country in the desert. My father is dead, my mother left five years ago and brought me to Australia with her, but she sadly passed away not long after we arrived.’
So much drama and tragedy for one woman to cope with. But why was Fadia so unsure it was a good thing her cousin had found her?
She’d known Zafar was someone out of the ordinary, but it wasn’t an everyday occurrence to run into a prince. Or be trapped in a lift with one. Or be almost kissed by one.
No wonder he expected to be obeyed. And she’d coolly told him to leave. She struggled not to smile. Too funny.
She needed to think about this. ‘So if he’s your cousin,’ Which made Fadia…? ‘Does that make you a princess?’
‘Yes.’
She pointed to her sons. ‘I’m guessing they’re princes too, then?’ She looked at the babies. ‘And you walked into the hospital at the last minute alone to deliver twins?’
A cloud passed over Fadia’s face and her voice lowered until Carmen strained to hear her. ‘Unfortunately, when my husband died, I was alone and pregnant and the only help I’ve had has been from friends of my husband, but I’m starting to think I don’t really trust them.’
‘Tom told me I was being followed and I moved out of my flat close to the hospital into a hotel for what turned out to be the last day of my pregnancy. The poor driver was beside himself that I would have my babies in his taxi.’
Carmen could imagine it. She’d bet he was terrified. ‘You were lucky they weren’t.’ Crikey.
Fadia’s eyes filled. ‘I think Tom didn’t want Zafar to find me. Zafar is here to take me back to his country, and I am starting to think that is a good thing, but it will separate me from the memories of my husband and mother. Yet my sons need their heritage. Tom said he will help me stay in Australia.’ Her voice became a whisper. ‘But I’m not sure that is what I want.’
‘So when is your husband’s friend—Tom, is it?—coming?’
‘Today. And I’m scared for my sons.’ Fadia began to shake and Carmen frowned as the woman struggled to pull herself together. ‘I hate being weak. But I seem to have lost my strength since my husband died.’
Poor Fadia. And, boy, she was really in the middle of something here, Carmen thought. Then the twin in his cot screwed up his face and let out a blood-curdling wail as if aware of the tragedy of his mother. At least she could do something while her brain raced.
She unwrapped the little boy and checked his nappy before she re-wrapped and lifted him out of the crib. ‘Don’t
