The sheikh's chosen wife(22)

'Hello, Hashim.' She smiled gently. They had met before but she was sure  the small boy would not remember. 'Does that thumb taste very nice?'

He nodded gravely and stuck the thumb just that quarter inch further between sweetly pouting lips.

'My name is Leona,' she told him. 'Do you think we can be friends?'

'Red.' he said around the thumb. looking at her hair. 'Sunshine.'

'Thank you.' She laughed. 'I see you are going to be a dreadful flirt, like your papa.'

Mentioning his papa sent the toddler over to Raschid, where he begged to  be picked up again. Raschid swung him up without pausing in his  conversation with Hassan, as if it was the most natural thing in the  world for him to have his son on his arm.

Tears hit again. Leona blinked them away. Hassan gave a tense shift of  one shoulder and in the next moment his arm was resting across her  shoulders. He was smiling at Evie, at her baby, at Raschid. But when  Leona noticed that he was not allowing himself to so much as glance at  Raschid's son it finally hit her what was the matter with him. Hassan  could not bear to look at what Raschid had, that which he most coveted.

Her heart dropped to her stomach to make her feel sick again. The two  men had been good friends since-for ever. Their countries lay side by  side. And they shared so many similarities in their lives that Leona  would have wagered everything that nothing could drive a wedge between  their friendship.

But a desire for what one had that the other did not, in the shape of a  boy-child, could do it, she realised, and had to move away from Hassan  because she just couldn't bear to be near him and feel that need pulsing  in him.

'May I?' she requested of Evie, holding out her arms for the baby.

Evie didn't hesitate in handing the baby over. Soft and light and so  very fragile. It was like cradling an angel. 'How old is she?' she  asked.

'Three months,' Evie supplied. 'As quiet as a mouse, as sweet as  honey-and called Yamila Lucinda after her two grandmothers, but we call  her Lucy because it's cute.'

At the sound of her mother's voice, Lucy opened her eyes to reveal two  perfect amethysts the same as Evie's, and Leona found herself swallowing  tears again.

You're so lucky, she wanted to say, but remarks like that were a  potential minefield for someone in her situation. So she contented  herself with lifting the baby up so she could feel her soft cheek  against her own and hoped that no one noticed the small prick of tears  she had to blink away.                       
       
           



       

A minute later and other guests began appearing on the shade deck to  find out who else had joined them. Sheikh Raschid earned himself looks  of wary surprise from some. From all he was awarded the respect accorded  to a man who held absolute rule in his own Gulf state of Behran. His  children brought down other barriers; the fact that Evie had achieved  what Leona had not, in the shape of her small son earned her warm smiles  instead of stiffly polite ones that conveyed disapproval. Still, most  of the tension from the evening before melted away in the face of the  newcomers, and Leona was deeply grateful to them for succeeding in  neutralising the situation.

When it was decided that they would move up to the sun deck, with its  adjoining salon, to take refreshment and talk in comfort, Leona quickly  shifted herself into hostess mode and led the way upstairs with her  small bundle in her arms and her husband walking at her shoulder.

He didn't speak, and she could sense the same mood about him he had  donned when he'd come face to face with Raschid and his son. It hurt.  Though she strove not to show it. But his manner made such a mockery out  of everything else he had said and done.

They arrived on the upper deck as the yacht slipped smoothly from its  moorings and began making its way towards the mouth of the Suez Canal.  Medina Al-Mahmud suddenly appeared in front of Leona and politely begged  to hold the baby. She was a small, slight woman with nervous eyes and a  defensive manner, but as Leona placed the little girl in her arms  Medina sent her a sympathetic look which almost broke her composure in  two.

She did not want people's pity. Oh, how she had come to hate it during  her last year in Rahman when the rumours about her had begun flying.  With a desperate need of something else to do other than stand here  feeling utterly useless, she walked into the salon to pick up the  internal phone and order refreshments.

It was really very bad timing for Hassan to follow her. 'I must offer  you my deepest apologies,' he announced so stiffly it was almost an  insult. 'When I arranged this surprise for you I did not expect the  Al-Kadahs to bring their children with them.'

She was appalled to realise that even Hassan believed her an object of  such pity. 'Oh, stop being so ultra-sensitive,' she snapped. 'Do you  really believe that I could resent them their beautiful children because  I cannot have them for myself?'

'Don't say that!' he snapped back. 'It is not true, though you drive me insane by insisting it is so!'

'And you stop burying your head in the sand, Hassan,' she returned.  'Because we both know that you know it is you who lies to yourself!'

With that she stalked off, leaving him to simmer in his own frustration  while she went to check that the accommodation could stretch to two more  guests than they had expected. Faysal already had the matter in hand,  she discovered, finding several people hurriedly making ready a pair of  adjoining suites, while others unpacked enough equipment, brought by the  Al-Kadahs, to keep an army of young children content.

On her way back upstairs she met Rafiq and Samir. Rafiq studied her  narrowly, his shrewd gaze not missing the continuing paleness in her  face. He was probably questioning whether one sniff at suspect milk  could upset her stomach for so long when in actual fact it had never  been the milk, she had come to realise, but sheer anxiety and stress.

Samir, on the other hand, noticed nothing but a target for his wit. By  the time the three of them had joined the others, Samir had her laughing  over a heavily embroidered description of himself being put through the  agonies of hell in the gym by a man so fit it was a sin.

After that she played the circulating hostess to the hilt and even  endured a whole ten minutes sitting with Zanna listening to her extol  the virtues of her daughter, Nadira. Then Evie rescued her by quietly  asking if she would show her to their room, because the baby needed  changing.

With Hashim deciding to come with them, they went down to the now  beautifully prepared twin cabins and a dark-eyed little nurse Evie had  brought with them appeared, to take the children into the other room.  The moment the two women were alone Evie swung round on Leona and said,  'Right, let's hear it. Why did Hassan virtually beg and bribe us to come  along on this trip?'

At which point; Leona simply broke down and wept out the whole sorry  story. By the time she had hiccuped to a finish they were curled up on  the bed and Evie was gently stroking her hair.

'I think you are here to make me feel better.' She finally answered  Evie's original question. 'Because anyone with eyes can see that the  Al-Mahmuds and the Al-Yasins wish me on another planet entirely. Hassan  doesn't know that I've always known that Nadira AI-Yasin is the people's  preferred wife for him.'

'I've been there. I know the feeling,' Evie murmured un-derstandingly. 'I suppose she's beautiful, biddable and loves children.'                       
       
           



       

Leona nodded on a muffled sob. 'I've met her once or twice. She's quite sweet,' she reluctantly confessed.

'Just right for Hassan, I suppose.'

'Yes,'

'And, of course, you are not.'

Leona shook her head.

'So why are you here, then?' Evie challenged.

'You tell me,' she suggested, finding strength in anger and pulling  herself into a sitting position on the bed. 'Because I don't know!  Hassan says I am here for this reason, then he changes it to another. He  is stubborn and devious and an absolute expert at plucking at my heart  strings! His father is ill and I adore that old man so he uses him to  keep me dancing to his secret tune!'

'Raschid's father died in his arms while I held Raschid in my arms,'  Evie told her sadly. 'Wretched though it was, I would not have been  anywhere else. He needed me. Hassan needs you too.'

'Oh, don't defend him,' Leona protested, 'It makes me feel mean, yet I  know I would have gone to his father like a shot with just that request.  I didn't need all of this other stuff to make me do it.'

'But maybe Hassan needed this other stuff to let him make you do it.'

'I'm going to sit you at the dinner table between Mrs Yasin and Mrs  Mahmud tonight if you don't stop trying to be reasonable,' Leona said  warningly.

'Okay, you've made your point,' Evie conceded. 'You need a loyal  champion, not a wise one.' Then, with a complete change of manner, 'So  get yourself into the bathroom and tidy yourself up before we go and  fight the old dragons together.'