‘Because I have a surprise for you,’ she told him, feeling her tension hit its highest point, and feeling yet more tension coming at her in waves from inside the living room. She wondered what Rafiq was thinking, feeling—doing!
‘A surprise?’ Robbie prompted.
‘Yes.’ She smiled and straightened, then took hold of his hand. ‘A really marvellous surprise. Come and see.’
With that she led him towards the living room, heart in her mouth as she brought him to a halt in the open doorway. She felt Robbie look up, felt him stiffen, then felt her own deep sinking sensation as she looked up into Rafiq’s carved face. He was still standing where she had left him in the middle of the room, with the firelight flickering behind him. The air crashed with tension. It was sheer motherly instinct that made her swing her son to stand in front of her with his back to her, her arms wrapping themselves around him so she could feel his little heart pounding like a hammer drill.
‘Rafiq, th-this is Robbie.’ She made that first stammering introduction.
‘Robbie,’ she murmured gently to her son, ‘this is—’
‘My daddy,’ the little boy said.
No one could have predicted he was going to say that. Melanie wasn’t even aware how he knew what his father looked like; Rafiq just looked shell-shocked.
‘I saw you in a picture William showed to me,’ Robbie enlightened them. ‘You were in Egypt with a lady, but you weren’t dressed like that, though.’ He frowned at the smart Italian suit. ‘You had Arab clothes on and the lady had on a red frilly dress.’
As her son built a host of vivid pictures in his mother’s head he also began slipping through her fingers, drawn towards Rafiq as if he’d known him since birth and had simply been waiting for him to come. Through eyes gone glassy with tears and a heart almost too swollen to manage to beat, she watched Rafiq observe with bottomless black fascination as his son approached him with his head tipped back so his eyes could maintain contact with his.
Move! Melanie wanted to shout at him. Make a response! Can’t you see how brave he is being, coming to you like this? As if she’d shrieked the words out loud the stiffness faded from Rafiq’s body and he lowered his big frame to his son’s level.
‘Hello,’ he murmured rustily.
‘Hello,’ Robbie replied gravely. Black eyes searched black eyes for a few seconds. Then Robbie made his next courageous move and lifted up a hand and offered it to his father. Rafiq took it. Melanie watched through her tears as his large hand closed around her son’s tiny one.
It was the first touch, first contact. She saw Rafiq’s mouth move in response to it, then saw no more as tears blurred the rest of the tableau, and the silence throbbing all around them threatened to suffocate all three.
Then Robbie spoke again. ‘Can you ride a camel?’
A camel, Melanie repeated to herself numbly as she listened to Rafiq’s thickened reply. ‘Yes.’
‘William said you would know how. William said…’
She took the coward’s way out, turned and made a dash for the kitchen, where she gave her legs permission to fold and slid into a huddle on the floor in a corner. She pressed her face into her knees, covered her ears with her hands and waited in trembling agony for the emotions trampling through her to subside.
The telephone began to ring, cutting through everything like an unwelcome intruder. She leaped up, wiped her eyes with trembling fingers, and made herself answer it.
It was Sophia, ringing to tell her she had decided to stay the weekend in Manchester with friends. ‘How’s it going?’ she asked.
‘Robbie is with his father in the o
ther room,’ she announced huskily.
‘So he remembered to turn up.’ Sophia had called Melanie every day to check on progress and had become more hostile with every day that Rafiq hadn’t put in an appearance. ‘If he hurts that boy, I’ll—’
‘They came together like long-lost friends!’ Melanie said with a choke. ‘Give them both a few minutes and they will have me all trussed up and labelled as the bad guy for keeping them apart!’
‘Then don’t let them do it,’ Sophia said firmly. ‘You know why you kept Robbie a secret from him. Just keep on reminding yourself that the rat dumped you without cause, on the hearsay of some very twisted people, and then left you alone and damn near destitute to carry his can of oats!’
His can of oats. Melanie couldn’t help it; she laughed. ‘Thanks,’ she murmured.
‘Don’t mention it,’ Sophia dismissed. ‘I can still remember what you looked like when you turned up on William’s doorstep as fat as a pig and looking like the original bag lady. Homeless, loveless and still trying to get a line of communication through to that arrogant fool sitting comfortably on his billions.’
‘He doesn’t know that.’
‘Well, tell him!’
‘No.’ The stubborn lip protruded. ‘That belongs in the past and I am determined to concentrate only on the future.’ She paused, then decided to get the really bad news over with. ‘We—we’re getting married,’ she added reluctantly.