CHAPTER SEVEN
‘THERE’SALREADYCONJECTUREabout Ms Nilsson.’
‘So soon?’ Ashraf met Bram’s eyes. The rumour mill around the royal court was more efficient than any modern communication software. ‘I should have expected it.’ Yet he’d convinced himself they had more time.
He rolled his head from side to side, feeling the ache in his neck from too many sleepless hours. They faced a full-blown public scandal when the truth of Tori’s and Oliver’s identities were known. Yet he had no regrets. How could he have done anything other than bring Oliver and his mother here?
Bram spread his hands. ‘Once the Minister for the Interior heard you had a female companion—’
‘He manufactured a reason to meet the plane.’ The Minister had been a friend of Ashraf’s father. He’d absorbed the old Sheikh’s disdain for Ashraf and now waited—daily, it seemed—for his new King to take a false step.
Ashraf wasn’t naïve. He knew the powerful men who’d formed his father’s innermost clique still harboured hopes that something would go wrong. Thathe’dgo wrong and then his brother, Karim, would return to take the crown.
That would never happen.
Karim’s reason for rejecting the crown was insurmountable. Karim would return to Za’daq one day, but only to visit. He’d made that clear. Only the two brothers knew the real reason for his refusal to become Sheikh, and Ashraf cared for Karim too much ever to betray that secret. Not even to squash the machinations of those trying to destabilise his rule.
He was more than capable of dealing with them. Life had made him more resilient and determined than those waiting for him to fail. As for being underestimated...they’d learn. Ashraf wouldn’t countenance failure. He’d never been good enough for his old man but he was determined to be the Sheikh his country needed, no matter what the political establishment thought.
‘If it’s any consolation,’ Bram went on, ‘we discovered who leaked the news that you had a travel companion. Someone in the palace administrative team. He’s been dismissed.’
Bram paused, frowning, presumably at the knowledge that it was someone in his own unit who’d breached confidentiality.
‘But this morning I offered him an alternative job, in the outer provinces, coordinating the infant immunisation campaign. It will give him a chance to put his talent for disseminating information to good use.’
Ashraf felt a smile tug his mouth. ‘You think he’ll do well there?’ The rural location would challenge someone used to city life.
Bram spread his hands. ‘I said if he did an outstanding job, meeting all our targets for immunisation over the next three years, Imightbe able to persuade you not to prosecute him for breach of privacy.’
Ashraf’s smile became a grin. ‘Trust you to turn a problem into an opportunity.’
His old friend was an expert at that—possibly because he’d had so much experience at picking himself up and moving on, no matter what life threw at him.
Bram shrugged. ‘He’s got talent. It would be a shame to waste it. As for fixing problems—that’s what you pay me for.’
‘We need to change your job title from Royal Secretary to Chief Troubleshooter!’
Ashraf would have sacked the palace employee and washed his hands of the man. But then, as his father had enjoyed pointing out, Ashraf was his impulsive son.
Over the years he’d changed that, learning in the military to think strategically as well as quickly. But sometimes his desire for swift action led to complications. Like taking a too-quick security assessment at face value, riding into bandit territory and getting kidnapped...
He rubbed a palm around the back of his neck.
‘The news is contained for now,’ said Bram. ‘No one knows the truth about Ms Nilsson or the boy. Just that they’re here.’
Ashraf nodded. ‘I want it to stay that way as long as possible.’ And it wasn’t just that he needed time to persuade Tori into marriage. ‘We need to suppress the story of how we met. Permanently.’
‘Of course. Admitting you were kidnapped within our borders—’
‘It’s not just that.’ Though such news wouldn’t do his standing any good. ‘She’d be horribly embarrassed if all the world knew just when and where our son was conceived.’
Ashraf’s time with Tori had been a pure blessing in the midst of what he’d imagined would be his final painful hours on earth. He didn’t want the press or his father’s cronies discovering the details and turning them into salacious gossip, so the world could picture Tori giving herself to him in that foul prison filled with the stink of past torture and brutality.
A shiver scudded down his spine and Ashraf’s mouth firmed. If nothing else, he’d save her that.
‘When the time comes the world can know that we met and I fathered a child. But as for anything else—’ He sliced the possibility off with a swift lopping motion.
‘You’re shielding her?’