'Maybe … Maybe you have,' Beth agreed.
Taking hold of her hands, Khal brought them to his lips. 'I'm asking you to come back with me … for good, this time. I know it can't be an easy decision for you, and I know I've been selfish and blinkered.'
'No,' she argued fiercely. 'You're a man who became a king, a man thrown out of his world into a dangerous situation, where you must work against the clock to bring order to Q'Adar or be destroyed in the attempt.'
'You're so wise, little Beth.'
'Not so much of the little, if you don't mind,' she said, gathering her Liverpool spirit around her. As they stared at each other, they both found it hard to hold back the warmth and relief in their eyes that said they were sharing the same space again.
'Beth Tracey Torrance, I love you,' Khal said, holding her gaze. 'And I always will, whether you agree to come back with me or not.'
'You really mean that, don't you?'
His shoulders eased in an accepting shrug. 'Fate means us to be together.'
'Fate didn't take account of my terms,' she interrupted pragmatically.
'No, but I did … '
She paused and grew serious. 'What are you saying, Khal?'
'I'm saying I let you go once before, and I will never do that again. I'm saying that I want you at my side always, and that I will meet your terms in order to achieve that.'
'But how?' Beth bit down on her lip, wanting to believe life could give them a break. But how could it, when Khal was a king and she was no one, and when she wouldn't, she couldn't, sacrifice her principles?
'If I can't live without you, what do you suggest we do?' Khal said.
Beth made a gesture of helplessness. 'I give up.'
He smiled. 'Now, that's not like you.'
'I know I couldn't live close by you in Q'Adar and see you with another family, your official family. It would break my heart.'
'My official family?' He cut across her. 'Beth, you and Hana are my family.' Closing his eyes, Khal spoke her name as if he wanted to brand it on his soul. 'You don't know how much I love you,' he said.
'Not enough to sacrifice your country, and I wouldn't ask you to.'
'All I need from you is to know you feel the same way I do.'
'You know I do,' Beth said passionately. 'I can't live without you, but I must. However hard we wish for things, we can't always have what we want.'
'Why can't we?' Khal demanded, bringing Beth's hands to his lips.
'It's just not our fate, our karma-'
'Rubbish!' Khal said fiercely. 'Show me a perfectly smooth path where love is concerned and I'll believe in miracles!' Cupping her chin, he made her look at him. 'Don't let me down now, Beth Tracey Torrance.'
'I don't have an answer for you.'
'But I have a question for you.'
'Tell me,' she said, ready to help him in any way she could.
'Will you marry me, Beth? Will you give your heart to me, and to Q'Adar?'
Beth's lips worked, but no sound came out. She tried to fathom it in her mind. She couldn't. 'So Beth Tracey Torrance, of no known background, can marry His Majesty Khalifa Kadir al Hassan, Sheikh of Sheikhs, Bringer of Light to his People in Q'Adar?' she said at last.
'We can marry wherever you like,' Khal said dryly.
'You're serious, aren't you?'
'Of course I'm serious. Why do you doubt me?'
'Because the picture you paint is not only improbable, it's impossible,' Beth said sensibly.
'Who says it's impossible?'
Beth shook her head as Khal drew himself up. 'Well, clearly not you, Your Majesty.'
'So, why doubt yourself?' Khal demanded.
'Because I'm no one.'
'No one?' Khal laughed as he stared down at her.
'You can't just laugh this off,' Beth protested. 'The whole world will know that I'm a shop girl from Liverpool who came to the desert and fell in love with a sheikh-they'll say I'm your plaything.'
'Not when you're my wife.'
'They'll say I slept with you and had your baby.'
'Do I care?' Khal interrupted. 'Do you care what people say?'
'I care what they say about you. It's so undignified.'
Khal's lips tugged. 'Loving you is undignified?'
'They'll say I got pregnant on purpose.'
'They can say what they like and be deeply envious. You can't have that much fun without getting pregnant.'
'Khal, please, this is serious-'
'No one will say anything derogatory about you in my hearing. We love each other, and that's enough. I never took you for someone who would crumble if people said unkind things about you, and I still can't imagine you allowing your life to be governed by what other people think. So if that's all that's holding you back, Beth-Or are you afraid at the thought of life with me?'
'No!'
'I understand if you are,' he said. 'I hope the dangerous times are over in Q'Adar, but there are no guarantees.'
'I can't expose Hana to ridicule.' Beth bit her lip as imaginary newspaper-headlines unfolded in her mind.
'Hana won't be exposed to anything unpleasant when we're married. I'd rather have someone true and honest and real at my side than any princess you care to name. I know I'm asking a lot of you, Beth. If you marry me you're condemning yourself to a life in the spotlight, but when the world sees you as I do, and realises how wonderful you are … '
'Beth Tracey Torrance, Queen of Q'Adar?' Cocking her head to one side, Beth stared at Khal incredulously.
'You don't see yourself as I do. You're like a breath of fresh air, and you have so much to give. You're the only person who remains to be convinced, Beth. You're never going to please everyone, so don't even try. Just do what you know to be right. And this is right, you know it is.'
'I'll bring you down.'
'Bring me down?' Khal looked at Beth. Far from bringing him down, she lifted him up. 'Strength isn't centred in wealth and power, it's in here, Beth.' He touched his heart. 'I need your strength, as you need mine. I'm so much more with you than I can ever be without you. You make me feel, and you make me see things differently. You give me love and laughter, and an enthusiasm for life. You took the black and white of my world and painted it in vivid colours. You make me hurt and wish and long and hope … You gave me Hana,' he finished softly.
As Khal's arms closed around her, Beth saw his tears, and was even more astonished when he knelt at her feet. 'Beth Tracey Torrance … Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?'
'It can be a quiet wedding,' Beth suggested, now she was starting to plan something in her mind that had always seemed impossible. 'No one needs to know except us. And I'll stay in the background when we're married-' Seeing the expression in Khal's eyes, she broke off. 'What?'
'That's not what I have planned for you at all.'
That irresistible crease was back in his cheek, Beth noticed. 'What have you got up your sleeve?' she demanded as Khal stood up and embraced her.
'You'll have to wait and see. But far from hiding you away I have something quite different in mind. When I show off my beloved wife, and our precious baby daughter, the whole world is going to know.'
Just as Khal had promised, the world's press had assembled for the wedding of His Majesty Khalifa Kadir al Hassan to Beth Tracey Torrance from Liverpool. And as the ceremonial horn of Q'Adar sounded, the Nafir, made out of copper with its single piercing note-Beth hurried to the window to enjoy the sight of the Sheikh of Sheikhs' loyal subjects gathered in a tented city that housed hundreds of thousands of people on the vast desert plain
'You look absolutely beautiful,' Khal's mother told her, as she made the final adjustments to Beth's gauzy veil.
Then Faith carried Hana up to Beth for a kiss, and as Hana crowed with happiness the three women shared a conspiratorial glance. Only they and Khal knew that Beth and Khal were already married; a small, private ceremony for just the two of them with plain wedding bands and no guests, other than Faith and Khal's mother, who had acted as their witnesses. The rest was between Beth and Khal and the fate that had brought them together. But this grand wedding was at Khal's insistence. They didn't need the pomp and ceremony, but he wanted to show Beth off to the world, and to his people …
Her people now, Beth thought, gazing out of the window at the kingdom she loved. Her gaze lingered on the mountains and the monument in front of them where she had gone earlier that morning with Khal, just the two of them on horseback, to lay her wedding flowers as a wreath of remembrance and love on his sister's grave. She sensed it had been a cathartic moment for Khal, and had brought them even closer together.