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it quite as brutally as that, but that’s what it came down to, yes.’ Hannah moved her shoulders restlessly. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have told you.’
‘Too right you should have told me,’ said Tamsyn fiercely. ‘I feel like going to the papers and exposing him for the man he really is. It’s outrageous. It’s barbaric! It’s—’
‘And if you ever do that,’ interrupted Hannah quietly, ‘in fact, if you ever discuss this with anyone without my permission—I will never speak to you again.’
Tamsyn shook her head, her rich red curls shimmering all the way down her narrow back. ‘I just don’t get it. You’re being loyal to him? King Callous? Someone who doesn’t deserve your loyalty?’
‘I’m trying to do what is best for the baby,’ said Hannah as the kettle whistled out the fact that it had boiled. Reaching up, she took two mugs from the cupboard and dropped a peppermint teabag into each. ‘And forming some kind of vendetta against the baby’s father is not what I had in mind.’
‘So he didn’t try to stop you when you told him you were leaving?’
Hannah nodded. ‘He did. He backtracked and apologised and told me he should never have said it, but the damage was done as far as I was concerned. I told him I had no intention of changing my mind and was flying back to England as soon as I could fix a flight. And that’s when he insisted on putting me on one of his private jets.’
‘But you refused, right?’
Hannah picked up the kettle and poured boiling water onto the peppermint teabags. She had wanted to refuse and pride had been urging her to do just that, but she’d been emotionally wrung out by everything that had happened and physically exhausted, too. She had started to worry that so much stress would be bad for the baby and the thought of being able to sleep in a proper bed on the Sheikh’s plane instead of being cramped in the middle of a row of four had proved too powerful a lure to resist. But she hadn’t given him her acceptance until one final streak of defiance had reared its head and she had blurted out a sarcastic question to the black-eyed Sheikh who stood before her.
‘But what will people think when they see some unknown English chambermaid using the Sheikh’s private jet?’
‘I don’t care what they think,’ he’d ground out. ‘I am trying to do what is best.’
Her laugh had been bitter. ‘Don’t you think it’s a little late for that, Kulal?’
She had seen him flinch in response to that particular dig and had tried to enjoy his discomfiture. But it hadn’t seemed to work like that. She’d just felt completely wretched. So wretched that she hadn’t had the energy to refuse a ride in the limousine that had been waiting on her arrival back in London and had whisked her home in purring luxury. It had felt strange stepping out into the gusty chill of the October evening after her brief exposure to the Zahristan sun, but at once she was back to her small room in the Granchester’s staff quarters, she’d finally felt able to rest. She had lain down and slept for a solid twelve hours and had woken with a feeling of resolve before demolishing an enormous breakfast.
She’d convinced herself it was best to keep her dreadful trip to Zahristan quiet, but force of habit had made her text Tamsyn to tell her she was back and when her sister had come rushing round, Hannah had found herself blurting everything out. Because they’d always told each other everything...and because she’d felt as if she would burst if she didn’t tell someone.
‘So how did you leave it with the cold-hearted bastard?’ Tamsyn was saying as she sipped the peppermint tea which Hannah had just handed her.
You never entirely relinquished the role of elder sister, Hannah thought as she fixed her sister with another expression of mild reproof. ‘Please don’t say that. His name is Kulal and I refuse to get into name-calling.’
‘But he’s—’
‘He’s probably still reeling from the shock of discovering I’m pregnant—and shock makes people react in all kinds of weird ways.’
‘Hannah, why do you always have to be so kind?’
‘I am not being kind,’ said Hannah, twisting a strand of her long hair round and round one finger. ‘I am trying to be practical. Kulal is the father of my child and even if he never wants to see either of us again, I am not going to bring this baby up to hate him.’
‘So you’ll lie to your child?’ accused Tamsyn bitterly. ‘Just like you lied to me?’
Hannah’s lips flattened. How the past came back to haunt you when you least expected it! Or when you were least equipped to deal with it. ‘I never lied to you, Tamsyn. I just tried to present reality in its least painful form,’ she said. ‘Just like I’m going to do with this baby. When the subject arises, I will just say that I was swept off my feet by a dashing man—which is true.’
‘But words won’t pay the bills. How the hell are you going to manage, Hannah? Do you really think you can live life as a single mother on a chambermaid’s wages?’
‘Other women manage.’
‘And aren’t you forgetting something else? I thought Granchester employees weren’t allowed to sleep with the guests. What if somebody finds out?’
Hannah winced at her sister’s candour. ‘Nobody’s going to find out, are they?’ she said with a confidence she didn’t quite feel as she picked up her mug and sipped from it. But the loud ringing of her phone suddenly broke into the uneasy silence and her heart gave a sudden clench as she glanced down at the number before accepting the call. With a rapidly escalating heartbeat, she listened to the voice at the other end and when she’d cut the connection, she looked into Tamsyn’s eyes and tried to keep the tremble of fear from her voice. ‘That was HR,’ she said unsteadily. ‘And they want to see me immediately.’
* * *
Kulal knocked on a door which was exactly the same as all the others on both sides of the narrow corridor, unprepared for the tiny redheaded figure who flew at him when it was opened.
‘You bastard!’ she declared, curling her hands into small fists. ‘How dare you?’
He honestly thought she might be about to hit him and was wondering whether to summon the female bodyguard he’d had the presence of mind to bring and who was standing just along the corridor, when he saw Hannah appear behind the redhead.
‘Tamsyn,’ she said, her voice sounding unnaturally calm. ‘That kind of talk isn’t going to help.’
The redhead didn’t budge. ‘Says who?’
‘I do. And now I’d like you to go home because I need to talk to Kulal.’
‘You think I’m leaving you alone? With him?’
For the first time, Kulal spoke, realising who the little spitfire must be. ‘And if I give you my word that I have your sister’s welfare at heart?’
The redhead tilted her chin to fix him with a spitting emerald gaze which was so unlike the cool blue of Hannah’s eyes. ‘I wouldn’t trust your word just as far as I could throw it and I’m not going anywhere!’ she declared.
But several minutes later, after repeated assurances from Hannah that she would ring her once ‘he’ had gone, Tamsyn Wilson departed with another furious shake of her red curls and Kulal was left alone with Hannah.
He looked at her. Her face was pale and her eyes were angry, but there was a dignity about her, too. Something almost noble about her demeanour, which had the peculiar effect of making Kulal want to take her in his arms and cradle her, but instinct told him not to dare. She didn’t look particularly surprised to see him—her expression was one of resignation. But there was certainly no pleasure or delight on her face and he wasn’t used to being given such a lukewarm reception.
‘Hello, Hannah,’ he said.
Hannah