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her classâ.
Polly frowned. The way heâd looked at her had felt personal. Heâd looked at her as though she wereâ¦
Damn it! What was the word?
Heâd looked at her as if she were theâ¦enemy. That was it. As though it were only the finest of veneers layered over his anger.
Polly shook her head. She was being ridiculous. The dark hair, olive skin, blue-eyed combination had really done something peculiar to her common sense. She didnât know him. Didnât even know very much about him and heâd have to know even less about her.
At best sheâd be a name on their application for permission to film in Amrah. Maybe he just wasnât keen on a film crew coming to his country? But that hardly made sense because he could say ânoâ and Minty would have to move on to another project. It was hardly something he needed to lose any sleep over.
But she might. Polly walked the length of the Long Gallery and through into the library with the wonderful smell of leather, polish and really old books. If Sheikh Rashid did veto the project, what would she do then? It was past time she left this place and it wasnât as though she had alternatives leaping out at her.
âEverything all right, Miss Polly?â
Polly spun round and smiled up at her stepbrotherâs elderly butler whoâd come through the Summer Sitting Room. âFine. Iâm just on my way to check everythingâs ready for the fireworks.â
âYouâll find the two gentlemen from âCreative Showâ in the staff room,â the butler said, the merest flicker in his eyes communicating how annoying heâd found them.
Polly smiled and gathered up the folds of her peacock-blue dress. âWeâre nearly done. And the rain seems to be holding off all right so I think weâll revert to midnight. Letâs get this over as soon as possible and send these people home.â
âVery good, Miss Polly.â
Miss Polly. She liked that. Henry Phillips had managed to find the perfect solution as to what to call someone who was almost one of the family but not quite.
No, not quite. She would always be the housekeeperâs daughter even if her mother had married the fourteenth duke. And Henry Phillips would always remember heâd taken her into the kitchens and made her hot milk and sugar during her fatherâs wake. It was a bond between them that would never be broken even if she was almost âa member of the familyâ.
âHenryâ¦?â She stopped him as a new thought occurred to her. âWhat do you know about Sheikh Rashid Al Baha? Heâs not been to Shelton before tonight, has he?â
âNo,â the butler answered with one of his rare smiles, âbut I fancy heâs the money who bought Golden Mile all the same.â
âBy himself?â
âIndeed.â
âHe must be worth billions!â
âA little more than that,â the butler said with another thin smile. âI doubt it was pocket change, but nothing that need worry him, I gather.â
âSo why didnât he come here?â she asked with a frown.
âI imagine all the negotiations were carried out through his agent. His Grace and the anonymous buyer of Golden Mile both wished the transaction to be private.â
âOh.â
âWhy do you ask?â
âNo reason.â Almost no reason. It had suddenly occurred to her that the look in Rashid Al Bahaâs cold blue eyes might have had something to do with Anthony after all. Her stepbrother made enemies easier than anyone she knew.
âAnd they met tonight?â
Henry nodded.
âWhat happened? Did they argue?â
âThat would be very unusual for someone from his culture, I believe. They spoke and it was extremely cordial. Butââ the elderly man searched for the correct word ââit wasâ¦shall we say, cold.â
Why? An Amrahi prince with the reputation and disposable income of this one would normally have Anthony exerting himself to charm. And even she had to own he was good at that when he saw a reason to be.
But âcoldâwas exactly the word to describe the way Rashid Al Baha had looked at her earlier. Cold, angry and speculative.
CHAPTER TWO
RASHID watched the Hon Emily Coolidge finger the large diamond nestled against her rather bony chest and felt a familiar wave of boredom wash over him. This was his motherâs country, the country in which heâd received much of his education, but he felt very little affinity with it. Or with the people who lived in it.
It felt empty. Soulless. Emily had to know heâd never choose her, or anyone like her, as the mother of his children. It made her behaviour inexplicable.
The brunetteâs finger moved again across the cool plains of the diamond droplet. Thereâd been a time, not so long ago, when that unspoken offer would have been appealing. In fact, he wouldnât have stopped to think about it. Heâd merely have lost himself in mindless pleasure, content that Western women seemed to view these things differently.
âWill you be in London next week?â
Rashid twisted the champagne glass between thumb and forefinger, concentrating on the play of light on the liquid in his glass. He really hadnât thought much about who the mother of his children would be. It was always something for the future. Something far distant.
But now things were changing. He felt a mortality that had never touched him before. There had to be something inbuilt that made a man long to pass on his genes. To feel that he would go onâ¦
Was that it? Was that what this gnawing dissatisfaction with his life was about? A wanting to set his place in history? To find meaning?
âIâm returning to town after this evening.â Again the brunette moved her hand suggestively across her low décolletage. âWouldnât it be fabulous if we could spend some time together before you fly back to Amrah?â
âNo.â And then he cursed himself for what had been a staggering lack of good manners. His shoulders moved in an apologetic shrug. âMy fatherâ¦â
Rashid let the sentence hang unfinished. The doctors, he knew, would do everything they could, but neither he, nor any man, could hope to foresee what the next few months would bring.
Emily leant forward and touched his hand, outwardly concerned.
Rashid studied her face. She didnât care. There was no genuine emotion in her painted eyes.
And he couldnât be bothered.
The truth of that slid into his brain like a dagger through silk. He wanted to shake these people off, move away, find space to breathe. And yet he had the responsibility of a guest towards his hostâs friends. A responsibility he was shirking.
It was a relief when a loud crack ripped across the general murmur of conversation. He looked out towards the formal gardens stretching down to the ornamental lake and at the white firework cascading down like some overblown pompom.
âOh, my God, how lovely.â Emily unwound her overly long body and stood, hand raised to shield her eyes as though that would somehow make it easier to see what was happening out in the landscaped gardens. âFireworks! Oh, Rashid, how beautiful.â She turned her long neck so she could look directly at