She stilled to listen to the muffled sounds of the encampment coming to life for another day. She could hear voices calling somewhere in the distance and cooking vessels clanking against each other, and then there was the gentle pop and fizz of the water in her bathing pool as it bubbled up from its warm underground source. Everything was designed to soothe the senses. Everything was in tune with her sleepy, mellow mood. She wasn't too warm or too cold, and her body felt deliciously well used by a man who made every day a special day, an exciting day.
Yes, she was a contented woman this morning, Britt reflected as she stretched languorously on her silken bed, and she couldn't ever remember feeling that way before-
She jumped up when the phone rang.
'Leila?'
She sat bolt upright. When her younger sister called it was invariably good news. Leila didn't have a grouchy bone in her body and had to be one of the easiest people in the world to get along with, and Britt was bursting to share the news about her growing closeness with Sharif. 'It's so good to hear your voice-'
An ominous silence followed.
'Leila, what's wrong?' Britt realised belatedly that if it was dawn in the desert it was the middle of the night in Skavanga.
'I don't know where to start.' Leila's voice was soft and hesitant. 'We're in trouble. You have to come home, Britt. We need you.'
'Who's in trouble? What's happened?' Britt pressed anxiously. Her stomach took a dive as she waited for Leila to answer.
'The company.'
As Leila's voice tailed away Britt glanced at the empty side of the bed. 'Don't worry, I'm coming straight home.'
She was already off the bed and launching herself through the curtains with her brain in gear. 'Hang on a minute, Leila.' Grabbing a couple of towels from the stack by the pool, she wrapped them around her and ran to the entrance of the pavilion where she saw a passing girl and beckoned her over. Smiling somehow, she gestured urgently for her clothes, before retreating back into the privacy of the pavilion.
'Okay, I'm here,' she reassured her sister. 'So tell me what's going on.'
The pause at the other end of the line might have been a few seconds, but it felt like for ever. 'Leila, please,' Britt prompted.
'The consortium has taken over the company,' Leila said flatly.
'What?' Britt reeled back. 'How could they do that? I had the confidence of all the small shareholders before I left.'
'But we don't have enough shares between us to stave off a takeover, and they've bought some more from somewhere.'
'The consortium's betrayed our trust?' Which meant Sharif had betrayed her. 'I don't believe it. You must have got it wrong-'
'I haven't got it wrong,' Leila insisted. 'Their money men are already here.'
'In the middle of the night?'
'It's that critical, apparently.'
While she was in a harem tent in the desert!
Had nothing changed? Had she learned nothing? Sharif had walked away from her again-distracted her again. And this time it all but destroyed her. For a moment she couldn't move, she couldn't think.
'I'm sorry if I shocked you,' Leila said.
Shock?
'I'm sorry that you've had to handle this on your own,' Britt said, forcing her mind to focus. 'I'll be there just as soon as I can get a flight.'
She had been stupidly taken in, Britt realised. Sharif had betrayed her. By his own admission, nothing was signed off without the Black Sheikh's consent. He must have known about the share deals all along.
'There's one thing I don't get,' she said. 'How can the deal be done when the family holds the majority shareholding? You didn't sell out to him, did you?'
'Not us,' Leila said quietly.
'Who then?'
'Tyr...Tyr has always had more shares than we have. Don't you remember our grandmother leaving him the golden shares?'
Shock hit her again. Their grandmother had done something with the shares, Britt remembered, but she had been too young to take it in. 'Is Tyr with you? Is he there?' Suddenly all that mattered was seeing her brother again. Tyr had always made things right when they were little- Or was that just her blind optimism at work again? She couldn't trust her own judgement these days.
'No. Tyr's not here, Britt. Neither Eva or I has seen him. The only thing I can tell you is that Tyr and the Black Sheikh are the main forces behind this deal,' Leila explained, hammering another nail into the coffin of Britt's misguided dream. 'The sheikh has got his lawyers and accountants swarming all over everything.'
'He didn't waste any time,' Britt said numbly. While she had been in bed with Sharif, he had been seeing the deal through and speaking to her brother. This had to be the ultimate betrayal, and was why Sharif hadn't been at her side when she woke this morning. He was already on his way to Skavanga. What could she say to Leila-to either of her sisters? Sorry would never cover it.
'It's such a shock,' Leila was saying. 'We still can't believe this is happening.'
There was no point regretting things that couldn't be changed, Britt reasoned as she switched quickly to reassuring her sister. 'Don't worry about any of this, Leila. Just stay out of it until I get back. I'll handle it.'
'What about you, Britt?'
'What about me?' She forced a laugh. 'Let me go and pack my case so I can come home.'
She had been betrayed by her feelings, Britt realized as she ended the call. She was to blame for this, no one else. And now it was up to her to make things right.
She spun around as the tent flap opened, but her hammering heart could take a break. It was the smiling women with her clothes. And whatever type of man their master was, these women had been nothing but kind to her. Greeting them warmly, she explained with mime that although she would love to spend more time with them, she really couldn't today.
* * *
It was as if she had never been away, Britt reflected as the cab brought her into the city from the airport. But had the streets always been so grey? The pavements were packed with ice and with low grey cloud overhead everything seemed greyer than ever. After the desert, she reasoned. This was her home and she loved it whatever the climate might be. This harsh land was where she had been born and bred to fight and she wasn't about to turn tail and run just because the odds were against her. Nothing much frightened her, she reasoned as the cab slowed down outside the offices of Skavanga Mining. Only her heart had ever let her down.
Her sisters were waiting for her just inside the glass entrance doors. Whatever the circumstances she was always thrilled to see them. Knowing there was no time to lose, she had come straight to the office from the airport with the intention of getting straight back in the saddle. Thank goodness she'd had a non-crease business suit and stockings in her carry-on bag. She needed all the armour she could lay her hands on.
'Together we stand,' Britt confirmed when they finally pulled apart from their hug.
'Thank God you're here,' Eva said grimly. 'We're overrun by strangers. We have never needed to show a united force more.'
'Not strangers-people from the consortium,' Leila reassured her. 'But he's here,' Leila added gently. 'I just thought you should know.'
'Tyr's here?' Britt's face dropped as she realised from Leila's expression who her sister was talking about. 'You mean Sharif is here,' she said softly. Better she face him now than later, Britt determined, leading her sisters past Reception towards the stairs. 'With his troops,' Eva added as a warning.
Britt made no response. Troops or not, it made no difference to her. She would face him just the same. She could only hope her heart stopped pounding when she did so.
How the hell had he got here ahead of her?
His private jet, of course-
Get your head together fast, Britt ordered herself fiercely. She was strong. She could do this. She had to do this. She had always protected her sisters and the people who worked for Skavanga Mining. That was her role in life.
Without it what was she?
Nothing had changed, she told herself fiercely.
'Don't worry,' she said. 'I can handle this.'
Eva was right. The first-floor lobby was bustling with people Britt didn't know. Sharif's people-the consortium's people-Sharif had moved them in already. Her temper flared at the thought. But she had to keep her cool. She had lost the initiative the moment she allowed her emotions to come into play, and that must never happen again.
* * *
So, Tyr definitely wasn't coming. Sharif had tried to persuade him, but now he put his phone away. Their conversation had been typical of the type Sharif had come to expect from the man who was a latter day Robin Hood. If a worthy cause had to be fought Tyr would drop everything and swing into action. He couldn't blame the man, not with everything that was going on in Tyr's life, but his presence here today would have softened the blow for Britt, whose arrival was imminent. Britt's campaign to save the company was on track, but a happy reunion with the brother she hadn't seen for years was not on the cards. So now she would just be bewildered by what she would see as Tyr's betrayal and his.