Standing beside their small suitcase, Caitlin waited patiently while Cameron said his final goodbyes, but she could do nothing about the twist in her heart as the Sheikh gently disengaged Cameron’s arms and crouched down to look d
eep into his son’s eyes.
‘We will see each other again very soon, my boy,’ he said gently. ‘I promise.’
Cameron nodded fiercely and before Caitlin knew it, the limousine was outside waiting and ready to go.
She was quiet during the journey to the airfield, where the plane was waiting to take them back to Edinburgh—and the fact that the aircraft was much bigger and shinier than the one they’d flown in before obviously cheered Cameron up. But Caitlin’s heart remained heavy as they were taken through to a roomy cabin at the back of the aircraft and told to make themselves comfortable. Busying herself, she buckled up her son’s seat belt, then watched as he gazed through the window at the thick clouds outside.
As the engines began to power into life, she turned to Morag, needing some kind of reassurance. Wanting someone to tell her that everything was going to be okay—because why was some inexplicable sinking sensation in her stomach making her feel strangely doomed? ‘That didn’t go so badly,’ she observed quietly, more in an effort to convince herself. ‘Considering how difficult it might have been.’
‘No. Not bad at all. I like him,’ Morag added, and then, after a pause, her brogue grew very gruff. ‘I like him a lot.’
Caitlin wondered if she was imagining the faint reprimand behind the nanny’s praise, or was that just her own paranoia getting the better of her? A childish urge to grit out a litany of complaints about the Sheikh was making her face feel hot and flushed, but she suspected that Morag would have no truck with her objections. Why, she’d even been understanding when Caitlin had briefly explained that Kadir’s wife had been in a coma for most of their short marriage, though she didn’t explain why. If she had been expecting the middle-aged nanny to make a negative judgement about his illicit night with her, then she was destined to be disappointed.
‘Poor man,’ had been Morag’s only comment.
Poor man? What about her? Caitlin had wanted to ask. Didn’t her feelings come into it? Didn’t Morag realise how difficult it was going to be to adapt their lives in the light of the Sheikh’s dramatic reappearance? Already she was fretting about how many days of the year Kadir would expect to see his son.
But Morag’s words forced Caitlin to take a step back and try to look at the matter from a different perspective. It had made her realise that Kadir was not all bad, just as she was not all good. And that insight didn’t sit particularly comfortably with her. As soon as she got back to the island, she resolved to contact him. She would tell him that they needed to work out—in as civilised a way as possible—a timetable for future meetings. She needed to get past her own feeling of having been duped by his omission to tell her about his marital status. She had to move on from the way it had made her feel when she’d discovered it. They all did.
Yet still her nagging feeling of disquiet wouldn’t shift. The plane provided every conceivable luxury and they were offered delicious drinks, fruit and pastries—but although Cameron and Morag tucked in with alacrity, Caitlin had no appetite for hers. Instead, she found her gaze wandering around the cabin, noticing the exquisite surroundings of the royal aircraft. It was fitted out with sandalwood furniture adorned with Xulhabian insignia and featuring those two striking sitting cheetahs.
A glossy US magazine was lying on one of the tables with the Sheikh’s stark image dominating the cover and Caitlin could do nothing about the sudden leap of her heart as she picked it up. Enigmatic and darkly regal, Kadir was wearing a traditional white garment, and on his arm sat a falcon—its beady eyes gleaming with faint menace at the camera. Caitlin flicked through the pages and started reading the article, which heaped praise on the ‘notoriously private’ ruler’s attempts to establish a peaceful state in the desert region after so much warfare. It spoke of his fierceness and his bravery in battle. It was hard not to be impressed and she didn’t want to be impressed. In an attempt to distract herself from the glowing accounts of his diplomatic triumphs, she found herself studying a map of Xulhabi, and realising for the first time just how big a country it was. What must it be like to be King of such a place? she wondered. To have grown up knowing that, one day, all that would be yours—along with the weight of responsibility which came with such a role.
And Kadir expected Cameron to share that weight! For a boy of not yet five, surely that was too great a burden for him to have to carry?
They were over an hour into the flight before Caitlin began to sense that something was wrong and it all began with a polite enquiry made to one of the beautiful Xulhabian stewardesses, whose response was mystifying. Did she really not understand a simple question about what time they were expected to land in Edinburgh? Instead, the woman flashed a non-committal smile before scuttling off towards the front of the plane and Caitlin was left feeling perplexed. Moments later she glanced out of the cabin window to discover that now the clouds had cleared, her view was unimpeded, but instead of the russet tones and undulating views of Scotland, she could see...
She remembered a long-ago holiday before her son had been born and her breathless wonder as she had gazed out of the cabin window.
She closed her eyes as if to convince herself that her vision must be playing tricks on her, but when she opened them again, the scene outside was exactly the same.
She told herself not to be so stupid. Of course those snow-capped mountains weren’t the dominating peaks of the Alps. How could they be?
But it was funny how you could convince yourself something wasn’t true even when you knew it was. She allowed another fifteen minutes to pass, but the stunning vista below them showed no sign of magically giving way to the much lower peaks of home.
Caitlin felt dizzy.
Sick.
She wanted to blurt out her fears to someone—anyone—but Morag was busily doing some colouring with Cameron and she didn’t want to alarm him. Besides, what if her fears were unwarranted? What if...?
But you wouldn’t need to be an aviation expert to realise that they were way off course and Caitlin rose unsteadily to her feet. Walking to the front of the plane, she found the stewardess in a cabin almost as large as the one in which she’d left Cameron and Morag. Her head had been so full that she hadn’t really noticed it while passing through at the beginning of the journey, but now she became aware that this area of the plane was almost palatial. It boasted rich velvet sofas and lacquered lamps. And a very old writing desk on which sat a beautiful emerald and silver paper knife, which was fashioned to look like a dagger.
‘Could you please tell me what’s going on?’ Caitlin said, her crisp question belying the growing dread at the base of her stomach.
The stewardess’s stunning eyes became shuttered. ‘Going on?’ she echoed.
Caitlin bristled because it was adding insult to injury to have the woman treat her as if she were some kind of idiot. ‘I know we’re flying off course,’ she accused, keeping her voice deliberately low. ‘And I’d like an explanation of just what is happening!’
‘I’m afraid I cannot—’
‘It’s okay, Rania. You can leave us now.’
The velvety voice from behind them could have come from only one source and Caitlin whirled round—shock and fury washing over her, along with something else. Something powerful and all-consuming. Something which felt uncomfortably like desire as her disbelieving gaze took in the dominating figure who was standing in the doorway.
Kadir Al Marara, all-powerful and muscular, his hawklike features enigmatic.