Desert King, Pregnant Mistress(31)

'He's not our usual man,' the nanny at her side told her. 'I haven't seen him at the palace before.'

'Great.'  Beth tightened her grip on Hana. Had she brought them all into  danger?  Now she knew why Khal had been so concerned. He hadn't wanted  to  frighten her, but she had gone about things in her usual stubborn  way.  If this was some clumsy kidnap attempt, then they were all in  danger,  even Khal. She had to warn him, and she must protect Hana and  the nanny.  But what could she do when she had no weapons to defend  them, and  wouldn't have known how to use them if she had? She was a  stranger to  the country and the driver could be taking them anywhere.

'He's taking the road to the border,' the nanny whispered, as if reading her mind.

'Then  we must stop him,' Beth murmured back. All she knew was that they  were  in the wilderness somewhere between the palace and the airport.  She  rapped on the glass. When the man still ignored her, she resorted  to  panic measures. 'I have to change the baby's nappy now!' Beth yelled   down the intercom. 'I can't do it on this bumpy road, so I suggest you   stop unless you want a mess back here. Stop!' she said again, when he   didn't answer. 'I think my baby's ill. You'll be held responsible if   anything happens to her!'

There was a second when the limousine  didn't waver, and then the brakes  went on, and it slewed terrifyingly  from side to side before finally  screeching to a halt.

'That  stone memorial,' Beth whispered to the nanny. 'Can you see it?  When we  stop I want you to hide Hana under your clothes, and then make  for those  bushes. Don't run, just walk calmly, as if you want some  privacy, and  don't be distracted by anything.' The woman was shaking,  but Beth had to  trust her now. 'Keep Hana safe until I come for you.'  While she was  talking, Beth was making a bundle of Hana's spare  clothing, which she  then wrapped in a shawl so it appeared she still  had the baby. 'My maid  needs to relieve herself,' she told the driver  when he stopped the car.                       
       
           



       

'Good idea,' he agreed, and got out too.

It  was the best opportunity she was going to get. Taking the driver's   seat, Beth gunned the engine, making for the stone memorial where she   could see the nanny crouching down, hiding Hana. Beth's heart was   hammering as she attempted to manoeuvre the big car but she wasn't used   to driving on sand. The door snapped back on its hinges as the vehicle   jerked forward, and then it careered across rocks and gullies until   finally she lost control of the wheel and the tyres started to spin.

Leaping  out, Beth could see the tyres were buried to the wheel-wells.  There  wasn't a chance she could manoeuvre the limousine out of the sand  now.



He  changed his mind about a Jeep and took a helicopter. That way he  could  reach the airport before the limousine and bring Beth and Hana  back to  the palace without fuss.

He gazed down, as he always did when he  reached that part of the desert  where his guilty past lay in a patch of  sand-a reminder of mistakes  he'd made in his youth, mistakes that could  never be repaired. It was  then that he saw something moving on the  ground, and hovered lower.



Wading calf-deep in sand, Beth  was cutting across some scrub-land, with  Hana in one arm and her other  arm around the nanny, urging her to move  faster, when she heard the  helicopter flying overhead. She couldn't  lose time staring up at it to  discover if it was friend or foe. Fear  was draining her strength like  water through a grid, and her chest felt  about ready to explode. Risking  a quick glance behind them, she saw  their driver who had returned to  the limousine flip open a mobile  phone. They wouldn't be alone in the  desert for long. She had been  heading back to the road hoping to flag  someone down. There wasn't much  of a chance, but it was all she had.



He  planted the big machine on the road between the on-coming truck and  the  fleeing women. Beth didn't know it, but she was heading straight  into  trouble. There wasn't time to land and pick them up safely, so he  had  opted to stop the insurgents first and hold them until his troops   arrived. He carried guns onboard his helicopters and wouldn't hesitate   to use them.



She stopped running when she saw the dust  thrown up by the helicopter  as it landed. The driver was back inside the  limousine now, and with  impatient stamps on the accelerator was trying  to blast it out of the  sand.

That should keep him busy, Beth  thought, wiping her face on her sleeve.  'Are you all right?' she asked  the nanny, gazing intently at her  charges. To her relief, Hana was sound  asleep, but the young nanny was  close to hysteria. She couldn't ask  more of her, Beth realised, she'd  asked too much already; she had to  make their stand here. 'We're going  back to that memorial,' she said  firmly. 'And I'm going to leave you  there, hidden in the bushes, where  you'll be safe while I get help.'

'Don't leave me,' the girl begged, clinging to her.

'I  have to go and get help. You can do this. I know you can.' There  were  no certainties, but Beth wasn't about to share her fears. The only  thing  she did know was inaction wasn't an option.

Crouching low, Beth  ran towards the helicopter. Seeing Khal standing  outside was so much  more than she had hoped for, her legs almost gave  way beneath her, but,  seeing the gun in his hand, she struggled on. It  was a stark reminder  that this was not a fairy story or a package tour  to Q'Adar, but that it  was a country in the throws of rebirth, with all  that that entailed.  Khal was a king, Sheikh of Sheikhs, a defender of  his people. She just  hadn't seen the big picture before. She had judged  him as she would  judge some nine-to-five worker, when in reality Khal  was holding a  country on his shoulders, and dealing with all the new  emotions Hana had  brought into his life at the same time. No wonder he  seemed hard. He  had to be.



Swinging the gun up, he shouted, 'Beth! I  could have shot you!'  Grabbing hold of her, he hustled her towards the  open door. 'Get in  now-don't ask questions!' He could see army trucks  descending on them  in a pincer movement. Time to leave. He had to keep  Beth and Hana  alive, whatever it took. 'Where is she?'                       
       
           



       

'With her nurse in the bushes, by that memorial.'

'We'll pick them up.'

'And the driver?'

He  angled his chin to the Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters, flying fast  and  low across the sand to intercept the convoy. 'They'll take care of   him … '

It was a terrifying situation, but with Khal's hands steady  on the  controls Beth felt safe. She was seeing a new side to him. This  was  someone in another league to the entrepreneur who had built a  business  empire-this was a warrior king, a true hawk of the desert, a  man  playing out the hand fate had dealt him with a hero's instincts.  Just  like his ancestors before him, Khal would fight to keep his country   safe. He would fight to keep his people safe, and those he loved too.   The magnitude of his responsibilities had only just hit home. All the   riches and outward show didn't mean a thing compared to the riches   inside a man, and she felt a great swell of love for him, this man who   was a protector, as well as the ruler of Q'Adar. Her part in his life   seemed miniscule by comparison to the challenges he must face.

She  mustn't be selfish, Beth thought, fighting the agony inside her;  she  must let him go when this was over. She clutched his arm, seeing  they  were hovering above Hana's hiding place. Fleetingly she wondered  how she  could have thought him unworthy to be a father, when he was the  best  father Hana could ever have.

'Here?' His voice sounded metallic through the headphones, but even so she heard the purpose in it.

'Yes.'

He brought the helicopter swooping down.

'Bring  her back to me safely-' But Khal had already gone. He'd barely  landed  the helicopter before he leapt out, and, ducking low beneath the  deadly  blades, sprinted away. She could do nothing now but wait  tensely in her  seat.


It was the longest few seconds of Beth's life, before  air blasted into  the cockpit and Khal was back with Hana in his arms and  the young nanny  clinging to him. Tears of relief poured down Beth's  face when Hana was  safe with her again. Khal helped the young nanny into  the back of the  helicopter, seeing her safely strapped in with her  headphones in place,  before springing in next to Beth. There was no time  to reassure her,  he just hit some switches, grabbed the controls, and  they lifted off.