Diamond in the Desert(2)

'Really?' Eva mocked. 'Whether she can or not remains to be seen.'

'I won't let you down,' Britt promised, knowing her sisters' concerns  both for her and for the business had prompted this row. 'I've handled  difficult people in the past and I'm well prepared to meet the Black  Sheikh. I realise I must handle him with kid gloves-'                       
       
           



       

'Nice.' Eva laughed.

Britt ignored this. 'We would be unwise to underestimate him,' she  said. 'The ruler of Kareshi is known as the Black Sheikh for a very good  reason-'

'Rape and pillage?' Eva suggested scathingly.

Britt held her tongue. 'Sheikh Sharif is one of the foremost geologists in the world.'

'It's a shame we couldn't find any photographs of him,' Leila mused.

'He's a geologist, not a film star,' Britt pointed out. 'And how many Arab rulers have you seen photographs of?'

'He's probably so ugly he'd break the camera,' Eva muttered. 'I bet he's a nerd with pebble glasses and a bristly chin.'

'If he is he would be easier for Britt to deal with,' Leila said hopefully.

'A ruler who has moved his country forward and brought peace sounds  like a decent man to me, so, whatever he looks like, it doesn't matter. I  just need your support. Fact: the minerals at the mine are running out  and we need investment. The consortium this man heads up has the money  to allow us to mine the diamonds.'

There was a silence as Britt's sisters accepted the truth of this and  she breathed a sigh of relief when they nodded their heads. Now she had a  chance to rescue the mine and the town of Skavanga that was built  around it. That, together with all the fresh challenges ahead of her,  made her meeting with the so-called Black Sheikh seem less of a problem.

* * *

She was feeling slightly less sanguine the following day.

'Serves you right for building up your hopes,' Eva said as the girls  gathered in Britt's study after hearing her groan. 'Your famous Black  Sheikh can't even be bothered to meet with you,' Eva remarked, peering  over Britt's shoulder at the email message on the computer screen. 'So  he's sending a representative instead,' she scoffed, turning to throw an  I-told-you-so look at Leila.

'I'll get some fresh coffee,' Leila offered.

Eva's carping was really getting on Britt's nerves. She'd been up since  dawn exchanging emails with Kareshi. It was practically noon for her,  Britt reflected angrily as Leila brought the coffee in. Her sisters  loved staying in the city with her, but sometimes they forgot that,  while they could lounge around, she had a job to do. 'I'm still going to  meet with him. What else am I going to do?' she demanded, swinging  round to confront her sisters. 'Do you two have any better ideas?'

Eva fell silent, while Leila gave Britt a sympathetic look as she  handed her a mug of coffee. 'I'm just sorry we're going back home and  leaving you with all this to deal with.'

'That's my job,' Britt said, controlling her anger. She could never be  angry with Leila. 'Of course I'm disappointed I won't be meeting the  Black Sheikh, but all I've ever asked for is your support, Eva.'

'Sorry,' Eva muttered awkwardly. 'I know you got landed with the  company when Mum and Dad died. I'm just worried about what's going to  happen now all the commodities are running out. I do realise the mine's  sunk without the diamonds. And I know you'll do your very best to land  this deal, but I'm worried about you, Britt. This is too much on your  shoulders.'

'Stop it,' Britt warned, giving her sister a hug. 'Whoever the Black Sheikh sends, I can deal with him.'

'It says that the man you're to expect is a qualified geologist,' Leila  pointed out. 'So at least you'll have something in common.' Britt's  degree was also in Geology, with a Master's in Business Management.

'Yes,' Eva agreed, trying to sound as optimistic as her sister. 'I'm sure it will be fine.'

Britt knew that both her sisters were genuinely concerned about her.  They just had different ways of showing it. 'Well, I'm excited,' she  said firmly to lift the mood. 'When this man gets here we're another  step closer to saving the company.'

'I wish Tyr were here to help you.'

Leila's words made them all silent. Tyr was their long-lost brother and  they rarely talked about him because it hurt too much. They couldn't  understand why he had left in the first place, much less why Tyr had  never contacted them.

Britt broke the silence first. 'Tyr would do exactly what we're doing.  He thinks the same as us. He cares about the company and the people  here.'

'Which explains why he stays away,' Eva murmured.

'He's still one of us,' Britt insisted. 'We stick together. Remember  that. The discovery of diamonds might even encourage him to return  home.'                       
       
           



       

'But Tyr isn't motivated by money,' Leila piped up.

Even Eva couldn't disagree with that. Tyr was an idealist, an  adventurer. Their brother was many things, but money was not his god,  though Britt wished he would come home again. She missed him. Tyr had  been away too long.

'Here's something that will make you laugh,' Leila said in an attempt  to lift the mood. Pulling the newspaper towards her, she pointed to an  article in the newspaper that referred to the three sisters as the  Skavanga Diamonds. 'They haven't tired of giving us that ridiculous  nickname.'

'It's just so patronising,' Eva huffed, brushing a cascade of fiery red curls away from her face.

'I've been called worse things,' Britt argued calmly.

'Don't be so naïve,' Eva snapped. 'All that article does is wave a flag  in front of the nose of every fortune-hunter out there-'

'And what's wrong with that?' Leila interrupted. 'I'd just like to see a man who isn't drunk by nine o'clock-'

This brought a shocked intake of breath from Britt and Eva, as Leila  had mentioned something else they never spoke about. There had long been  a rumour that their father had been drunk when he piloted the small  company plane to disaster with their mother on board.

Leila flushed red as she realised her mistake. 'I'm sorry-I'm just  tired of your sniping, Eva. We really should get behind Britt.'

'Leila's right,' Britt insisted. 'It's crucial we keep our focus and  make this deal work. We certainly can't afford to fall out between us.  That article is fluff and we shouldn't even be wasting time discussing  it. If Skavanga Mining is going to have a future we have to consider  every offer on the table-and so far the consortium's is the only offer.'

'I suppose you could always give the sheikh's representative a proper welcome, Skavanga style,' Eva suggested, brightening.

Leila relaxed into a smile. 'I'm sure Britt has got a few ideas up her sleeve.'

'It's not my sleeve you need to worry about,' Britt commented dryly, relieved that they were all the best of friends again.

'Just promise me you won't do anything you'll regret,' Leila said, remembering to worry.

'I won't regret it at the time,' Britt promised dryly. 'Unless he truly  is a boffin with pebble glasses-in which case I'll just have to put a  paper bag over his head.'

'Don't become overconfident,' Eva warned.

'I'm not worried. If he proves difficult I'll cut a hole in the ice and send him swimming. That will soon cool his ardour-'

'Why stop there?' Eva added. 'Don't forget the birch twig switches. You  can always give him a good thrashing. That'll sort him out.'

'I'll certainly consider it-'

'Tell me you're joking?' Leila begged.

Thankfully, Britt's younger sister missed the look Britt and Eva exchanged.





CHAPTER TWO

BRITT WAS UNUSUALLY nervous. The breakfast meeting with the Black  Sheikh's representative had been arranged for nine and it was already  twenty past when she rushed through the doors of Skavanga Mining and  tore up the stairs. It wasn't as if she was unused to business meetings,  but this one was different for a number of reasons, not least of which  was the fact that her car had blown a tyre on the way to the office.  Changing a tyre was an energetic exercise at the best of times, enough  to get her heart racing, but the circumstances of this meeting had made  her anxious without that, because so much depended on it-

'I'll show myself in,' she said as a secretary glanced up in surprise.

Pausing outside the door to the boardroom, she took a moment to compose  herself. Eva was right in that when their parents were killed Britt had  been the only person qualified to take over the company and care for  her two younger sisters. Their brother was... Well, Tyr was a maverick-a  mercenary, for all they knew. He had been a regular soldier at one  time, and no one knew where he was now. It was up to her to cut this  deal; there was no one else. The man inside the boardroom could save the  company if he gave a green light to the consortium. And she was late,  an embarrassment that put her firmly on the back foot.

Back foot?

Forget that, Britt concluded as the imposing figure standing  silhouetted against the light by the window turned to face her. The man  was dressed conventionally in a dark, beautifully tailored business  suit, when somehow she had imagined her visitor would be wearing flowing  robes. This man needed no props to appear exotic. His proud, dark face,  the thick black hair, which he wore carelessly swept back, and his  watchful eyes were all the exotic ingredients required to complete a  stunning picture. Far from the bristly nerd, he was heart-stoppingly  good-looking, and it took all she'd got to keep her feet marching  steadily across the room towards him.