Desert King, Pregnant Mistress(34)

'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.