‘You? Find me a wife?’
‘If only as a temporary measure, if it pleases you.’ He raised one pen-laden hand as if he were being perfectly reasonable and Rashid only had to see it. ‘It would simply be a matter of convenience.’
‘And then?’
‘And then you can divorce the woman and she can go her own way and you would retain custody of Atiyah. Please be assured when I say that both marriage and divorce in Qajaran are arrangements that require not much more than the stroke of a pen.’
‘You said the same about adoption,’ Rashid growled, ‘and yet it seems needlessly complicated.’
The older man had the grace to smile ruefully as he held up his hands. ‘Some strokes of the pen are more straightforward than others, but if you want to protect Atiyah, this is the only way.’
Rashid found it hard to argue the point, put like that, but he had his doubts about Kareem choosing him a bride, for however long or short this marriage was to be. Just because he had never entertained the concept of marriage was no reason to hand over the responsibility of selecting a wife. ‘This wife I need—what would she be required to do?’
‘She would have to perform as your wife in the public arena. She would have to be by your side during the coronation, if you go through with it, of course. Similarly at any public appearances where a mixed audience is in attendance—’
‘And night times, Kareem. What would she be expected to do then?’
And for the first time Kareem looked somewhere approaching nonplussed. ‘A wife populates her husband’s bed at night. What else would you expect of her?’
‘Of course,’ Rashid said, frowning for added gravitas, while absolutely determined now that Kareem would have no part of choosing him a wife. Someone to escort him to official functions was one thing, but someone to take to his bed—only he decided who that would be. ‘That is how it should be.’
‘So you would like me to arrange a wife?’
‘No. That won’t be necessary. I’ve got a better idea.’ One that would show a certain woman that when he said he did not want her for his sister’s carer she should pay heed, that she was far better off agreeing with him and vanishing from his life just as silently as she had done from his bed this morning, or he might just think they had unfinished business.
A temporary wife to populate his bed could be some kind of compensation for this whole crazy scenario.
‘Perhaps,’ Kareem prompted, ‘you would care to share this better idea?’
Rashid suddenly swung his head around and caught Tora watching him and he smiled.
Because although it seemed the train his life was on hadn’t just changed tracks, it had changed planets, for the first time in a mad day he felt as if he was back in the driver’s seat.
‘I’m going to marry Victoria.’
‘Ms Burgess?’ Kareem forgot how to be serene and fairly spluttered. ‘When you were so against her caring for Atiyah?’
‘I know,’ he said, unable to explain because the reason he was against her coming was the reason that made her most qualified to be his temporary wife. ‘It’s perfect.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘TIRED, MS BURGESS?’
Tora came to with a start to see Rashid leaning down before her, as attentive and seemingly caring as any of the flight attendants as he held what looked like a pot of coffee in one hand and a cup in the other, and it wasn’t the coffee she could smell. He hadn’t bothered to exchange two words to her since she’d walked out of that lawyer’s office in Sydney. Something was definitely up.
‘I must have dozed off,’ she said warily, sitting up straighter and checking her watch. No, she’d only been asleep a few minutes and one glance towards the bassinet beside her was enough to tell her that Atiyah was still sleeping, her little arms flung back either side of her head.
‘Anyone would think you’ve been working too hard.’
Her eyes snapped back to his. There was a cunning gleam there that had her on alert. ‘Anyone except you, you mean.’
‘Come, come, Ms Burgess,’ he said as he put the coffee down on a small table. ‘I brought you coffee.’
She looked around the cabin but it was deserted, the cabin crew all discreetly tucked away wherever it was they waited between being called upon. Even Kareem had disappeared somewhere. ‘Yes, I can see. What’s with that? Did you sack all the flight attendants or something?’