The Sultan's Virgin Bride: A story of lust, loyalty and passionate resentment. (14 page)

“You just said his helicopter crashed.”

“We don’t know why... Crews are out looking for him now.”

“I don’t understand,” she said with a shake of her head. “Why was he flying…?”

“He does this. He likes to fly on his own.”

“No security on board? No co-pilot?” She demanded fiercely, illogical rage firing through her. “Of all the idiotic, barbaric, stupid… idiotic…” she blinked, rubbing a hand across her head. “When?”

“His last check in was about an hour ago.”

She nodded. “If he’s alive, I’m going to kill him.” Her eyes flew wide as she realised what she’d just said. “Oh, God. Ryan. He’s alive, isn’t he? He is going to be alive?”

Ryan’s hand was shaking. “He’s a tough son of a bitch. If anyone can survive something like that, it’s Aki.”

“Where can I go? I want to be there. I need to see.”

He shook his head. “No. You can’t. You have to stay here.” He winced. “I’m sorry. But I know Aki would expect me to keep you safe until… until we know.”

“No!” She screamed, jumping up and pushing her fists into Ryan’s chest. “No!” And tears were streaming down her cheeks as she realised that her husband, her beautiful, vibrant, strong handsome husband might be crumpled dead somewhere in the desert. “No!”

If she’d had any doubts about the strength of her feelings, they were thoroughly answered now. “Oh, God. No.”

“Come with me.” He put an arm around her waist and propelled her inside the large glass doors. “You can wait in his office. I’ll make sure the Captain relays information to you as soon as we have it.”

“Where are you going?”

He fixed her with a look that brooked no opposition. “I’m taking a chopper out.”

She stopped walking and slammed her hands against her hip. “Like hell. If you get to go and find him, then so do I.”

“No, Ellie. We don’t know yet what the story is. All we know is that he should have been back half an hour ago, and that there were reports from one of the nomadic tribes that a silver aircraft came down about ten miles south of their location.”

His insinuation was instantly clear to Eleanor’s quick mind. “You suspect foul play?” She asked, askance.

“We don’t know.” He shrugged. “But if there’s some maniac out there taking pot shots, then I can’t risk your life.”

“Or yours,” she pointed out quietly.

He shrugged. “Your role is unique. Mine isn’t. Besides,” he said, taking hold of her hand. “If you weren’t Emira… if you were me, what would you do?”

She lowered her eyes, knowing the answer to that question. “Find him, Ryan. Please find him.”

He nodded. “I’m going to do my best.”

Ryan disappeared, and the most tension filled moments of Eleanor’s life began. Her body was shaking in uncontainable waves. Sitting still was impossible. She moved from one end of Aki’s office to the other in a non-stop motion. After perhaps twenty minutes, she poured herself a measure of scotch and threw it back. It reminded her of her wedding night. The words he’d spoken, and the hurt she’d felt.

She could barely reconcile the husband she now knew and loved with what he’d said then. She cradled the glass in her hands and began to pace again. She knew that if he was dead, her life would never feel that it mattered. That her desolation wouldn’t fade, no matter how much time passed. “Please be okay,” she whispered into the empty space.

The sound of footsteps came from a great distance, but her ears were especially attuned to any noise.

She flung the door of the office open and saw two uniformed guards approaching her. And somehow, she managed to stand still, and stay silent, until they reached her. “What is it?” She demanded, her voice cold, her mind closing over as she wondered if this was the moment her life would effectively end.

“He’s alive,” Ryan said, running up from behind. “He’s in bad shape, but he’s alive.”

“Oh.” She sobbed, clutching a hand to her mouth. “Please, Ryan, please let me see him now.”

He nodded. “Yeah, of course. Let’s go.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her through the palace with him, running as fast as they could. Eleanor didn’t care that she was presenting an entirely un-regal spectacle. What did that matter, when her husband’s body was broken? “Where is he?”

“In surgery in the hospital in Kalidad.”

He was still in surgery when they arrived, and Eleanor’s pacing resumed. “When will they know something?” She pleaded to Ryan after more than an hour had passed.

“Soon,” he said reassuringly, though Ellie could tell he was as frantic as she. Somehow, he was holding it together though, in a manner Eleanor could only admire.

A doctor appeared, finally, his white coat pristine despite the fact he’d just been up to his elbows in the Sultan’s blood.

“What is it?” She asked, not bothering with any formalities. Ryan stood behind her.

“He did an excellent job of breaking bones, but none of them will lead to permanent damage,” he said with what was intended to be a reassuring tone. “In fact, he’s extremely fortunate that he didn’t damage his spinal chord.”

“What’s the prognosis for recovery?” Ryan asked, when Eleanor said nothing.

“Excellent. He’ll require casts on both legs, and one arm. Something he vehemently assured me he would despise, but which I informed him is essential.” He grinned. “His ribs will be sore, but there’s nothing we can do about that. His Royal Highness also suffered a concussion, so I’m going to keep him in for at least one night, to monitor his head and be sure there is no ongoing injury. But, on the whole, I am confident to say he’ll be absolutely fine.”

“Wanna bet?” Eleanor responded with a grimace. “Can I go to him now?”

“Of course, your highness,” he said with a small flicker of amusement. “He’s still groggy, and I would like you to limit your visit to a couple of minutes at most.”

“That should be fine,” she said with a scowl. “I think I can chew him out in two minutes flat.”

“Ellie,” Ryan laughed despite the seriousness of the situation. “Why are you so furious?”

She was shaking like a leaf, something which caused the doctor to frown. On instinct, he lifted a hand and rested his fingers over her wrist. “Your heart rate is very high. Perhaps you should sit for a moment.”

“No. I don’t need to sit. I need to see Aki.” She turned to Ryan. “Why am I furious? Because he had no business skipping around the desert like it’s his own personal air strip.”

“He’s probably a better pilot than anyone in his service, Ellie. The preliminary report is that a flock of birds got caught in the blades. There’s nothing anyone could have done about that. It was just sheer rotten luck. And I don’t have a single clue how he managed to land that thing in one piece.”

“Don’t defend him,” she muttered, and turned back to the doctor. “Take me to him.”

The surgeon led the way, down a linoleum corridor that made squeaking noises with every step they took, and through two beige doors.

For the second time in the space of a week, she saw someone she loved pale and weak against a hospital bed. Her stomach lurched at the sight of Aki, strong, beautiful Aki, pale, covered in tubes, arms in white bandages, bruised face averted.

She swore. “What the heck were you thinking?” She demanded, storming across to him and standing right in his line of sight.

“What are you doing here?” He asked softly, his eyes sparking with some unknown emotion.

“What do you think? I’m your wife. You had no business setting off on a joyride over the desert. Why would you take that risk?”

“It is nothing I have not done hundreds of times before,” he retorted quietly. “And I do not want you here.”

It stopped her dead in her tracks. “What?”

His voice was thick with emotion, and hoarse from the tubes that had been inserted down his throat. “I do not wish you to be here. Please leave.”

“What?” She repeated, pulling a chair over and sitting down, so that she was at his eye level.

He turned his head away from her. “I don’t want you. I don’t want you here.”

She frowned, scanning his face. “The doctor did say you might have some brain injury…”

His smile was tersely sarcastic. “I don’t, I assure you. I’m fine. I simply do not wish you to play nursemaid when I’m in this condition.”

Understanding dawned. “You’re embarrassed? You think that seeing you like this might make me perceive you differently? Might make me perceive you as weak? Am I right?”

He didn’t respond immediately.

“I’ve got news for you, Sultan Aki Katabi. You married me. And like it or not, I took our vows seriously. For better or worse.”

He levelled her with a dismissive glare. “That was not in our ceremony. That is a western pledge.”

“So? I believe it.” She reached out and put her hand in his. “Look at what we’ve been through already. What we’ve done together. Do you really think I’m going to wait until you’re back to normal, and then just pick up where we left off? No. That’s not a marriage. It’s a sham.”

“This
is
a sham,” he muttered, removing her hand. “You married me to save one man from misery, and now you’re trying to save another. You cannot keep sacrificing your own life to save someone else.”

“Jeez. How dramatic are you?” She stood up and pushed fingers that shook slightly through her hair. “I’m not sacrificing anything. I chose this life with my eyes wide open.”

“I don’t believe you,” he said without meeting her eyes. “And I’d like you to leave.”

“Tough.” She put her hands on her hips, delivering him her most no-nonsense stare. “You’re stuck with me.”

“I don’t
want
to be stuck with you,” he responded through gritted teeth.

“You really want me to go?” Her heart was squeezing in on itself.

“Yes. Go. Go. Go.” He closed his eyes to block her out, and when he opened them again, she had done as he’d said and left. She was gone.

From his room, but not the hospital. Eleanor had no desire to aggravate him while he was in recovery from a serious accident, but nor did she intend to acquiesce to his ridiculous demand. She squared her shoulders and walked slowly back to the private waiting room.

Ryan was sitting, head in hands.

When she entered, he looked up, then stood. “Well? How is he?”

She rolled her eyes. “Annoying.”

He let a terse smile grip his features. “Meaning?”

“Meaning he’s being an insufferable, dense, arrogant jerk. He didn’t want me to stay.”

Ryan frowned. “What did he say?”

“Nothing sensible. Basically, he doesn’t want me waiting around while he’s incapacitated. He seems to think I’m here out of a sense of obligation.”

Ryan nodded slowly. “Why are you here?”

“Excuse me?” She looped her finger inside her necklace.

“You love him?”

Eleanor startled, her eyes crashing back to Ryan’s. “What?”

“You love him.”

Her cheeks flushed pink beneath her tan. “I know it must seem crazy.” There was, after all, no sense denying it. Ryan had seen her completely lose her mind earlier that day. It had been an effective demonstration of how she felt about her husband. “I mean, our marriage was little more than a dynastic business arrangement. But yeah. Idiot that I am, I fell in love with him. And now he’s got it into his head that I’m only here because I’m some sort of weak-minded, self-sacrificing tragic.” She sat down on one of the waiting room chairs and lifted a thumb to her lips. She bit down on her nail and teased it back and forth.

“I need to speak to some doctors,” she said, as a new sense of purpose took hold. “That surgeon who was here before first. Can you get him, Ryan?”

She was certainly not weak-minded, nor self-sacrificing, and there was nothing tragic about her at all. “Yeah, sure. I’ll send him down to you, but I want to pop in to see Aki now.”

“Listen, Ryan. Don’t talk to him about me. It seems to only make him angry. Also, I want to be the one to break it to him that he’s got my heart, okay?”

“Break it to him? You don’t think he’ll be pleased?”

“No.” She smiled distractedly. “I think he’ll be terrified at the responsibility. I have no intention of telling him how I feel until I know how he feels. And right now, he’s so angry at his broken body that he’s not thinking straight. So just… leave me out of it.”

Ryan nodded, though he wanted to have a stern word with his best friend. “You’re the boss, Ellie.” He moved towards the door and then thought better of it. He crossed back to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “He’s my oldest friend, and I love him like a brother, as I’ve told you. There is no woman on earth that I would have preferred to see him with. No woman on earth who is a better match for his pig-headedness.”

“And mine,” she quipped, lifting her eyes heavenwards.

She stared at the white wall opposite for what felt like hours, before the surgeon finally returned.

“Your highness,” he said hurriedly. “I am extremely sorry to have kept you waiting. I had an eleven year old with a broken elbow. I am the only surgeon qualified to operate on such a complex joint.”