la la,’ Helene said as she joined the group. ‘Will you go topless?’
‘I might.’ Adele said. ‘And I might find myself a nice French man...’
‘What about Paul?’ Janet checked.
‘Oh, yes.’ Adele said, her voice a touch deflated.
‘You’ve got your hot date tonight!’ Janet reminded her, and Adele rolled her eyes. ‘Where’s he taking you?’
‘No idea.’ Adele shrugged.
Zahir tried to ignore the conversation. Adele was going out on a date, well, of course she was.
She was beautiful, seriously so, and it had nothing to do with him what she did in her free time.
But this wasn’t her free time.
‘Is it appropriate,’ Zahir said tartly as he hung up the phone, ‘to be discussing topless bathing and dating in a corridor.’
‘Er, Zahir.’ Janet, who knew a thing or three, and had been enjoying winding him up, answered with her own version of tartness. ‘There are absolutely no patients around. I can handle my nursing staff, thank you.’
She smiled as Zahir stalked off.
Oh, yes.
She knew full well that he liked Adele.
IT WAS A busy morning and lunchtime soon came around. Adele made good on her promise to visit Leila.
‘You are looking so much better.’ Adele was delighted to see the other woman sitting up and that she had some colour in her cheeks. Her hair was up and, despite wearing a hospital gown, she looked amazing.
‘I am feeling it,’ Leila agreed. ‘Thank you for all your help yesterday. Honestly, I shudder to think what might have happened. We could have been at afternoon tea!’
‘Don’t think like that.’ Adele smiled.
‘It’s hard not to,’ Leila sighed. ‘There’s not much else to do here. It is so nice to have you come and see me. I am used to being very busy. To just lie in bed is so frustrating. Zahir and Dakan have been in, of course, and the nurses here are very kind, but I am so bored.’
‘Will your husband come and visit you now that he knows you’re having surgery?’
‘No.’ Leila shook her head. ‘He does not like hospitals.’
It must be lonely for her, Adele thought.
‘He was going to send one of my handmaids but I have told him not to. I have asked Dakan to bring my embroidery from the hotel. That will take my mind off things.’
Leila was so easy to talk to. She was the complete opposite of Zahir, who, Adele guessed from the little she had gleaned, took after his father. Leila was more open and outgoing, rather like Dakan.
‘So you have days off this weekend?’ Leila asked.
‘I do.’ Adele nodded. ‘Then I’m on night duty for a fortnight.’
‘They must be tiring,’ Leila said, and then looked at Adele and saw the smudges under her eyes and her pale features. ‘Though you look tired now, even before you have started your night duty.’
‘I am tired,’ Adele admitted, and not just to Leila but to herself. It had been an exhausting few years and Janet was right to insist that she take her leave. ‘I’ve got a holiday coming up.’
‘That’s exciting. Are you going anywhere nice?’
‘I haven’t decided yet. I’ll have a think about it this weekend.’
As they chatted Adele revealed that she was going on a date that evening.
‘A first date.’ Leila beamed.
‘I’m actually not looking forward to it,’ Adele admitted. ‘I’m thinking of cancelling but I can’t come up with a good enough excuse.’
‘What do your parents think of him?’ Leila asked.
‘They...’ Adele paused. ‘I think your idea of a first date and mine are a little bit different, we’re just going out for dinner.’
‘Oh, yes.’ Leila nodded. ‘I sometimes forget. By the time I had my first date with Fatiq he was already my husband.’ She laughed.
‘Had you met him before you married?’
‘Yes, there was a selection ceremony two months before the wedding. I knew though that I would be chosen. Or rather I hoped. From when I was a little girl I always knew who I would marry. I told him that I came with conditions, though,’ Leila said, and tapped the ruby at her throat.
Adele guessed Leila meant she had told Fatiq that she must be kept in splendour.
‘Well, I can’t see myself ever marrying Paul,’ Adele admitted. ‘I can’t even picture getting through dinner.’
‘Your parents haven’t met him, then?’
‘No.’ Adele shook her head. ‘My parents divorced when I was very young and my father has never had anything to do with me.’
‘And your mother?’
‘She was in an accident,’ Adele said. ‘She’s very unwell and is in a nursing home. I see her every day.’
‘And you’re visiting me too!’
‘No, I like visiting you,’ she said, and then closed her eyes on the sudden threat of tears.
Adele never cried but she was suddenly close to it now as she had practically admitted the truth—she didn’t like visiting her mum.
Leila’s hand went over hers.
It was unexpected and also terribly kind, given what she had just said.
‘She can’t talk or react,’ Adele told Leila. ‘She’s just a shell of herself. I don’t even think she knows that I’m there.’
‘You know that you’re there for her, though,’ Leila said. ‘That’s the important thing.’
Finally, someone who understood, Adele thought.
Her family, friends and colleagues all encouraged her to step back. Even the nursing staff at the home gently implied that Adele didn’t need to visit quite so much.
Adele knew that she had to sort out her life—she didn’t need to be told that but it was so nice to have someone understand.
‘I’m worried about going on holiday,’ she admitted.
‘Can I
