‘And this isn’t the best of times?’
Irony dripped off his every word. Sitting up straight, she came to a decision. No one could accuse her of being a coward. She had stood on her own two feet for long enough; she was about to become a mother. Not only had her stepfather failed to crush her spirit, she refused to run scared, and would do whatever it took to protect both her child and her mother, and when it came to defending herself she would fight. Drawing a deep breath, she said, ‘I’ve got something to tell you.’
‘You’re pregnant,’ Tadj stated without emotion.
Shock sucked the breath from her lungs. He’d guessed before she’d had chance to say anything. ‘How did you know?’
‘I know you,’ he said. ‘Three months?’
‘Yes.’
‘So my child,’ he confirmed.
‘Well, no other,’ she said hotly.
The realisation that Lucy was expecting his child had hit him like a punch in the gut. He was about to become a father. What did he know about that? Precisely nothing. If he followed the example set by his socialite, uncaring father, the future of his child was grim.
Memories flooded back as he remembered how it felt to be the only child left sitting on his suitcase when the school holidays came around. Staff at the boarding school he’d attended had always done their best to make up for the neglect of his parents by calling Abdullah, a man who had cared for Tadj since Tadj was one of many in the nursery, to collect him from school. Being welcomed into Abdullah’s happy family home had proved how children could live, not in palaces, but surrounded by love. How he’d longed for Abdullah to be his father, rather than to have been born a royal prince to parents who couldn’t care less about him. Horror filled him at the thought that he could ever do that to a child. Stifling the dread, he moved on to practicalities that called for decisions, rather than maudlin recollections. He could have everything he wanted, including a ready-made family and a woman who had engaged his attention from the start, but this child would bind them together for life, which he hadn’t planned for.
Lucy’s face was pale and creased with worry as she waited for his reaction. His world had been jolted, but his logical mind had quickly kicked in. Safeguards must be put in place immediately for both mother and child. Three months ago, sex had been the only thing on his mind. He and Lucy had been lost in an erotic jungle, but they were back with far more than they’d set out with. He had no trouble accepting that he was the father of Lucy’s child. No birth control was one hundred per cent effective. And on a positive note, the position of mistress was filled. He hadn’t reckoned on a pregnant mistress, but putting Lucy and the child under his protection was vital, so the sooner he could get her away from here, the better.
Decision made, he stood. ‘We’re leaving,’ he said, waiting for her to join him.
‘Leaving?’ Lucy flashed a glance outside, where another sleek black limousine had drawn up at the kerb.
‘For my country house, and then on to Qalala,’ he explained. ‘We need to talk, and I’m not prepared to do that here.’
‘Your country house?’ Lucy queried, her voice shaking as if she was not quite in command of it. ‘And then Qalala?’
Was he mistaken, or had she brightened at the prospect of leaving the country? No...she wasn’t just pleased, she was relieved, he thought, as suspicion twisted inside him. ‘We travel to my country house first, so that plans can be made for your arrival in Qalala. My staff need prior warning.’
Don’t rock the boat, Lucy thought, though Tadj’s tone was chilling, and hardly boded well if she went with him now, but however cold he felt towards her for leaving him three months ago, and however shocked he might be about the baby, leaving the country was a priority, to keep her mother and her baby out of danger. What could be safer than leaving under the protection of the Emir of Qalala? Diplomatic protection would provide a safeguard from her vicious stepfather, leaving no loopholes for him to snake through.
Decision made, she stood, but then saw black-clad figures stepping out of the shadows. For a moment she thought her stepfather’s thugs had found her, but when Tadj sent them off with a nod she realised they were his men. Out of the frying pan into the fire? she wondered.
‘You don’t need guards to make me come with you,’ she told Tadj. ‘I’ll come quietly,’ she added in a lame attempt at the humour they’d once shared.
Tadj said nothing, and seemed, if anything, more remote than ever. She had to give him a chance to get over the shock of learning she was expecting his baby, Lucy reminded herself. She wasn’t the only one who’d been sent reeling with shock this evening.
‘Now,’ he prompted in a quiet, firm tone, glancing at the door.
She wasted a few more seconds, searching in vain for some sign of the warmth they’d once shared. Leaving the safe and familiar with a man she thought she knew, but suddenly couldn’t be sure of, was quite an intimidating prospect. It was one thing knowing that Tadj was the Emir of Qalala, and quite another to feel the brush of his power.
‘Get in,’ he snapped when his chauffeur opened the door of the official limousine.
He joined her in the luxurious interior, but sat with his face averted as if he couldn’t bear to look at her. Or, maybe he was deep in thought, Lucy reasoned. ‘Are you kidnapping me?’ she asked in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere.
‘Are you over-dramatising?’ he asked coldly as his driver closed the door.
No amount of luxury could soothe her in this confined space with a man who seemed so hostile. It takes two to tango, she wanted to tell him, but, so soon after her mother’s alarming phone call, Lucy couldn’t afford to rock the boat. This was the perfect opportunity to leave the country, and she couldn’t allow anything to get in the way. His manner suggested that trust was a huge issue for Tadj, and if he suspected she was using him to escape her stepfather and keep her mother safe, she doubted he would ever forgive her.
‘What have you been doing these past three months?’ he demanded.
Jolted rudely back to the present, she turned to face him, and held his harsh stare steadily. ‘I’ve been working...studying.’ The moment she’d found out she was pregnant, she’d secured a second job at the restaurant close by the laundry, and was working hard to complete her studies at college. Her schedule didn’t leave much spare time, but she’d needed the extra money for the deposit on a small garden flat she’d found close to King’s Dock. With a tiny garden, this was where she had hoped to raise her child, but now her stepfather was free, she had to change her plans.
Everything had happened in such a rush, with Tadj appearing out of the blue and Lucy leaving with him. She would have to contact her employers, and talk to them both to explain that she was going away for a while. Luckily, college had broken up for the holidays, so that was one problem out of the way.
‘Why, Lucy?’
‘Why what?’ Tadj’s voice had shocked her tense and upright.
‘Why did you walk out on me? Why have you taken so long to tell me about the baby? I thought we trusted each other.’
‘We did—we do,’ Lucy insisted.
Tadj’s
