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“Damn,” came Ashraf’s fervent voice. “Damn, damn, damn.”
The was a silence. “And she knows nothing about the Rose?”
“So she said. But she is living in a place she certainly did not buy on a translator’s income. In Kensington.”
Ashraf cursed again. “You think she sold the Rose? Who to?”
Naj shook his head, his lips pursed. “No guesses there. Depends how much she knew.”
“She knows enough to deny the kid is Jamshid’s.”
“And maybe when she’s had a little time to absorb the facts she’ll stop denying it. She naturally assumed we all knew about the exchange of letters and left her to swing in the breeze. And God knows what she thought Jamshid’s motives were.”
“Naj, if he gave her the Rose she can’t have doubted his sincerity.”
“True. Well, maybe she sold it because Grandfather’s letter killed off any sense of loyalty.”
“It’s not fitting together,” Ash said.
“She’ll tell me eventually,” Naj said, though he wondered whether it would be himself who cracked. “It may take her time to get up the courage to confess.”
“We don’t have that luxury, time,” Ashraf pointed out. “We have to bring the boy here, and we have to do it yesterday.”
“I know.”
“Can you handle it, Naj? Want any backup?”
He thought of her eyes in that odd, fleeting moment when life had seemed different. There had been a promise there, of a kind he had been waiting for all his life without realizing it.
“I’ll handle it,” he said.
Sam and Rosie sat on the sofa, Rosie cuddling her son as she read him a story from a book they had chosen from the library and he told her about the pictures. It was something they did nearly every day.
But he was making do with less than her full attention today. Rosalind stroked her son’s head, kissed his hair, and murmured approvingly as he talked, but her eyes kept dropping to the beautiful ring, and her mind kept slipping back to her meeting with Najib al Makhtoum.
Her head was buzzing with questions. Why had Jamshid never told his grandfather about the marriage? Why had he not told her he was from such a rich family? Had they really only found the will recently, or did the family have some reason for suddenly being willing to part with her inheritance?
If so, that reason centred in the possibility that Jamshid had an heir. He had spoken about a jewel, but how likely was it that they really believed Jamshid would have given her anything so valuable? She looked at the diamond Najib had put on her finger. She knew little about precious stones, but this one had to be two carats at least. Bigger than this one—what were they talking about? The Koh-i-Noor? Why would Jamshid have given it to her when he hadn’t even told her about his wealthy background?
He had given her gifts, of course. But nothing more valuable than an ordinary man would give his fiancée. He had bought her a leather jacket she had admired, and given her a gold chain with a heart on her birthday. Rosalind’s eyes drifted down to the coffee table. And the little antique crystal ornament when she told him she thought she was pregnant. That was absolutely all.
She stared at the diamond ring Najib had just given her. She still could hardly believe it. Was it even real? But the light caught it as she moved her hand, and her question was answered. There was unmistakable fire in the heart of the stone.
Someone somewhere was very disturbed, that much was clear. Najib al Makhtoum had come, not so much to right an old wrong, not to see that she got her inheritance after five years, but to discover if Jamshid had a son.
She wondered if Najib had asked his sister about her. But anything Lamis might have told him was now overshadowed by the fact that he had seen Sam. He would be back, of course. She would have to plan what to say to him when he came.
Four
“Hello again, Rosalind.”
Rosalind tilted her head in a small nod, marvelling at how strong the family likeness was, especially around the eyes. They were Sam’s eyes.
“Najib. You do have a knack with the security guard. What is it, a Cloak of Invisibility?”
He gave her a look. “May I come in?”
“Do you think you might have phoned first?”
“Would you have been here if I had done so?” he asked dryly.
She lifted a cool eyebrow to let him know what she thought of that. “What do you want at this hour on a Sunday?”
Najib looked at Rosalind without answering. Her bare legs seemed too long under the unbleached cotton of her shirt, her hair was tousled, her lips vulnerable without any makeup, her eyes slightly swollen, and with a blow that rocked him he understood clearly that the answer to that was, I want you.
He clenched his jaw, because he almost spoke the words on the thought. Instead he said urgently, “Let me in. I have to tell you—”
She moved to block the doorway. “How did you get past the doorman, and this time I want to know?”
He glared at her. Her distrust of him suddenly infuriated him. “I got in because I am officially a resident of this building. I have bought an apartment here,” he explained with irritated emphasis.
She goggled at him. “You—you what? I don’t believe you!”
“Money can do many things. You know it, so what is there to surprise you? Now let me in.”
He put his hand on her arm, and that was a mistake. His skin seemed to glue itself to hers. Impelled by the urgency in his eyes, the heat of his flesh, she stepped back, and he followed her inside, his foot pushing the door shut behind him.
Electricity from his touch rushed along her arm and through her body. What a fool she was not to have recognized this attraction for what it was before! But it had needed this combination of morning, being taken by surprise, and a sense of her own vulnerability, apparently, to show her what should have been totally obvious: it had a potency that was frightening.
And just her luck she couldn’t even trust him.
She glared down at his hand, strong on her bare flesh, and wished it were her fate to give in to such strength, to be protected by it instead of threatened. “Let go of me,” she said hoarsely.
He was standing close, too close. Another mistake. He could smell the perfume of her skin, and worse, he could smell bed on her mussed hair, the drowsy smell of a woman newly climbed from the sheets.
“Let go,” she said again, her voice weaker, barely a whisper.
He willed his hand to lift from her warmth, but it only tightened on her. With almost overwhelming urgency, he wanted to pick her up and carry her back to her bed, undress her, make love to her, make her his before she could decide against him. His body leapt with the hungry need to lose himself in her.
“I am sorry,” he said.
He lifted his free hand to her cheek, slipping his fingers under the fall of her hair to cup her head, and bent his head to the dangerous, inevitable kiss.
In a sudden burst of paranoia, Rosalind thought, He’s trying to use sex as a weapon. She stepped back abruptly, breaking his hold, and his lips touched only air. And the same pang of regret pierced them both.
“What are you here for?” she demanded coldly.
He abruptly lost patience.
“I have seen your son, Rosalind. Why have you lied to me about so grave a matter?” he demanded fiercely.
As the dark eyes burned accusingly into hers, Rosalind felt the hairs lift all over her body. “I have not lied to you!” she snapped. “And what is grave about it?” She was beginning to wish she had never told him the truth. What harm would it do to let the family believe that Jamshid had left an heir?
“Shall we sit down?” he said grimly.
“I am not going to have this conversation with you now!” Rosalind cried. For answer he simply strode over to the sofa and set his briefcase on the table. Weakly, she followed him, demanding, “Why didn’t you phone?”
“Sit down, Rosalind,” he commanded softly, and to her own fury she could not resist the authority in his voice.
She sat and crossed her legs, shifting uncomfortably. The thick, woven cotton shirt she used as a bathrobe was longer than lots of dresses, but she felt naked as he sat beside her.
Rosalind opened her mouth to say she was going to get dressed first, but Najib bent forward and clicked his briefcase ominously open, and the sounds of the locks were like neat little bullets into her spine, paralysing her.
He drew out a long, narrow piece of buff paper, a printed form neatly inscribed in black ballpoint, straightened and held it in front of her.
Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, she read, and though she knew exactly what it was, her eye automatically glanced over the particulars. Name—Samir Jawad… Sex—Male…
She looked up into the eyes that were gravely watching her.
“Well?” she said.
“In the summer you were pregnant with Jamshid’s child. The following spring you gave birth.”
“Did I?” It was ridiculous to expect him to believe her word against this, but she was angry with him nevertheless.
A long, well-shaped forefinger ruthlessly underlined a column as he looked at her. “Mother—Rosalind Olivia Lewis,” he read.
Rosalind heaved a breath and tried to get control. “This is not going to get you anywhere,” she told him. “I—”
“Father—Jamshid Bahrami.”
“What do you want?” she demanded in exasperated tones. “What do you care? It’s been five years! What do you care whether my son inherits Jamshid’s property or not?”
Najib turned his head sideways to look at her. He did not answer, and she felt a shiver of real alarm. So grave a matter, he had said. But how grave could money be? If a will and an unknown heir are belatedly found, that might be very inconvenient to some, but grave?
Why had the discovery that Jamshid had a wife brought his cousin all this way in person? The question was obvious and she should have seen it before. Why hadn’t they just sent her a solicitor’s letter informing her of the inheritance, asking if there was a child? Why did they care so desperately about it?
“Look. Sam is—” she began, but broke off with a gasp when Najib al Makhtoum released the birth certificate and grasped her wrist.
“Do not lie to me, Rosalind!”
The paper floated in graceful swoops to the floor. They were still for an electric moment of staring into each other’s eyes, and again were disturbed by the nearness of that other potential behind the moment. Then Rosalind tore her hand out of his grip and stood up. Whatever thoughts she had entertained about maybe giving in were lost in her fury.
“Don’t accuse me of lying! You know nothing about my life!”
“I know that you registered this birth,” he said, picking up the birth certificate from the floor and dropping it into his briefcase before getting to his feet. “In doing so you swore that Jamshid was the father of your son. Now you tell me otherwise. Which of your statements am I not to say was a lie, Rosalind?”
He had a powerful aura, and she felt overwhelmed. She strode away, into the dining area, crossed her arms and stood looking out at the grey, damp street. A Bentley cruised by below in silent luxury.
“In this country a woman’s husband is deemed to be the father of her children,” she said, “whether he is the biological father or not. Jamshid is not Sam’s biological father.”
He followed her to the window, his mouth tight.
“You were pregnant and you gave birth to a child, Rosalind. There was no miscarriage. True or false?”
She glared at him.
“Either you lied to Jamshid and my grandfather five years ago, or you are lying to me now. There is no other possibility.”
There was another possibility, but she could not tell him what it was. She had to forcefully resist the crazy impulse that said it would be safe to tell him the truth. Najib was the last person she could tell, and what a stupid twist of fate it was that it should be he who had come here.
“You know nothing!” she exploded harshly.
“A woman does not have a miscarriage and then give birth a few months later,” he said remorselessly. “Tell me the truth!”
What was it all about? Rosie’s skin began to creep with a dread of the unknown. There was much more here than she knew. Thank God she had not just taken the easy way out. Whatever this was, she had to keep Sam out of it.
“I have told you the truth. I am not going to repeat myself,” she said stonily.
“Why did you not put his father’s name on the birth certificate, then?” He did not pause for an answer. “Jamshid is the father. That is why you put his name on the birth certificate. You did not lie to my grandfather. You are lying now, and it is a foolish, dangerous lie.”
“You know nothing about anything in my life,” she said with angry emphasis, her hands clenching on air. Furious with him, and yet knowing that there was nothing else for him to think.
“Shall I believe that my grandfather was justified in the words he used to you in his letter, after all, Rosalind? Shall I believe that, not certain who had fathered your child, you chose to trick Jamshid into marriage?”
Rosalind straightened, head back, staring at him, her mouth tight with fury. Her hand lifted of its own accord, and she slapped him across the cheek with a violence fuelled by five long years of bitter hurt.
His eyes blackened as if this ignited feeling he had been keeping under precarious control. His hands closed roughly on her upper arms and he grabbed her close to ram his face down into hers. “Do not use violence with me!” he warned.
There was silence as they stared into each other’s eyes from point-blank range. She watched in almost detached fascination the angry quiver of the thick black lashes, the expansion of his pupils, the flame of danger. She counted the pounding of her blood in her temples, heard the little ragged pants of her breathing. As if from a distance she realized that Najib al Makhtoum was not a man to cross.
They both surfaced from the trance. He dropped his hands from her. Each turned away. Rosalind crossed her arms over her breasts, her hands involuntarily massaging her upper arms where he had gripped her.
“Get out,” she said.
“He is the living image of my grandfather,” Najib said, behind her. “I am sorry. I accuse you of nothing except being bitterly hurt and too angry to forgive. But this must be put aside for the sake of the boy. The res—”
“Get out of my house and get out of my life!”
Najib gave an indignant half laugh as the strange, soft possibility of deeper communication between them evaporated.
“I cannot do that,” he said, and at his tone chills raced up her spine.
“Why?”
“You force my hand, and no doubt you will spend many hours regretting it. Rosalind, your son is in danger. He must go into hiding for a period. Only in this way can we protect him effectively.”
“Danger?” She felt as though he had smashed the side of her head, sending all coherent thought flying. “Danger from what?”
