‘WILL you take care of Azizah for me?’ Felicity asked when Karim said it was time for them to leave.
‘Are you sure I’m responsible enough?’ Georgie responded tartly, but she could not sustain her anger, for she knew how much being apart from Azizah would hurt Felicity. ‘She’ll be fine.’ Georgie said and she took her sister in her arms and gave her a cuddle. For the first time she felt like the older one. ‘She’ll be completely fine.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Felicity was, but Georgie didn’t need her to be.
‘I hurt you,’ Georgie said. ‘All those years I was sick, I know how much it hurt you, and I was too weak then and too fragile for you to say how you felt. I’m not now.’ She gave her sister a smile. ‘Better out than in, so they say.’
‘Felicity,’ Karim called, and as together as Georgie felt, she didn’t go out and face her brother-in-law just yet.
‘You’d better go.’
‘There’s my milk…’
‘I know,’ Georgie soothed. ‘You just head out there and do what you have to do without worrying.’
‘I really am sorry…’ Felicity shivered ‘…for all the things I said.’
‘They’ve no doubt been building for a long time,’ Georgie said. ‘We’re fine now and you don’t have to worry about Azizah and neither do you have to worry about me any more.’
Except Felicity knew that she did have to worry, at least for a little while longer. She could see her husband’s clenched jaw and Ibrahim’s stern features and knew that Ibrahim had been told.
A fully dressed, blushing Georgie forced herself out of her room to say farewell to Karim and Felicity and she and Ibrahim stood in silence as they watched the helicopter leave.
‘I must get back to Azizah,’ Georgie said. ‘How long will the drive take?’
‘A helicopter is being sent.’ He did not, could not, look at her. ‘I need to get back to the people as soon as possible.’ He felt it descend then, the weight of responsibility. ‘I am to stand in as ruler. Decisions need to be made swiftly. There will be a lot of anxiety, a lot of unrest.’
‘You’ll be wonderful,’ Georgie said, and went to touch his arm, but he moved it away. ‘I’ll help in any way I can.’
‘You?’ He could not keep the mirth from his voice.
‘Yes, me.’
‘A four-week course and you’re an expert suddenly in the ways of the desert?’
She couldn’t understand the change in him. ‘I wasn’t applying for the job of your advisor!’ Georgie snapped back at him. ‘So I’m good enough to sleep with, but not good enough to stand by your side.’
‘The people would never accept it.’
‘Oh, please.’ Georgie was sick of it. ‘The people don’t mind Felicity.’ She let out a mocking laugh. ‘Oh, yes, but she was pregnant with a possible heir.’ She watched as Ibrahim briefly closed his eyes, his strong features paling a touch at how very careless they had been. ‘I’m not going to fall pregnant. Don’t panic. I’m on the Pill.’
‘Of course you are.’ And that was the bit for Ibrahim that hurt, really hurt. This was a girl who carried condoms in her make-up bag for just in case, who waited on the street outside nightclubs. This was the divorced woman who could not be his princess, and he was angry, and it showed. ‘Don’t tell me—you’re on the Pill for medical reasons.’
She could have slapped him.
Gone was the tender man who had held her. Back now was the scathing one and she didn’t understand why. As the helicopter hovered, as she turned her head and covered her eyes with a scarf, as they ran beneath the blades and climbed inside and Georgie put on her headphones, she watched the tent where they had found each other disappear in the distance, and all too soon she saw the palace come into view, but not once did he look at her, not once did he attempt conversation.
As they stepped out and walked to the palace, he still refused to communicate. Elders and advisors were waiting for him and Georgie stood in the hallway a moment as Rina spoke in rapid Arabic, unsure how to behave without Ibrahim or Felicity to guide her. Briefly he glanced in her direction and only then did he speak.
‘She asks if you want a room next to Azizah. If they should move your things?’
‘Please.’ Georgie nodded. ‘Can you tell her for me?’
‘Of course.’ He spoke to Rina and to another maid for a brief moment, and then he turned back to her.
‘All is taken care of. I have asked that they move Ms Anderson’s things.’ He hissed the word so savagely that there could be no mistake. He had been told that she had been married, and for a second she was angry at her sister for telling Karim, but she knew the fury was misdirected.
She was angry at herself.
As for Ibrahim, he still hoped his brother was mistaken, wanted her to tell him he was wrong. ‘Is it Miss or Ms?’
‘Ms.’ She croaked the word out, then tore her eyes away, but not quickly enough to miss his look of disgust.
It should have been she who told him first. At least she could have explained things better. Now, looking at his cold black eyes, Georgie wondered if she’d ever get that chance. ‘Ibrahim…’ There were people everywhere, there was nothing she could say, but she willed him to give her one moment of his time, willed him to pull her aside, for a chance to explain, but he gave her nothing. ‘Can we talk? Just for a moment.’
‘Talk?’ Ibrahim sneered. ‘I have nothing to talk about with you—there is nothing to discuss.
‘And never can there be.’