LITMIR.BIZ

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as if she had never heard the word before, and she tottered back down into the seat she had vacated to greet him, so great was the shock of that announcement. That her deepest fear had been confirmed rocked her world to its foundations.

      ‘The blood test was positive. Of course, it is impossible for me to tell you anything more without a further examination.’ He looked at her enquiringly. ‘Would that be in order? Or would you prefer another doctor, perhaps a specialist, to give you further information? I’m not inexperienced. I do have many female patients in the royal household.’

      Zoe was in a daze. She pushed her hands down on the table to rise again. Pregnant? she was screaming inside her head, still wondering if it could be a mistake and willing to subject herself to any check-up that could possibly reveal his diagnosis was a mistake, she reasoned fearfully as she followed him from the room and he lamented the lack of lifts in the palace. A lift would have to be installed immediately, the doctor began telling her, particularly when her near accident earlier was taken into consideration. A pregnant woman couldn’t be expected to run up and down flights and flights of stairs, particularly not a woman carrying a child he described as ‘so precious a child for Maraban’.

      It wouldn’t be precious to Raj, Zoe thought miserably, not to a man who had frankly referred to such an unlikely event as a disaster. Suddenly she was in total conflict with herself and split into two opposing halves. On the one hand she adored children and she very much wanted her baby if she did prove to be pregnant, but on the other, she was sort of guiltily hoping that the doctor’s verdict was wrong because of the way Raj would feel about it and that felt even more wrong.

      A glimpse of the trim and determined little nurse who had jabbed her with a syringe the night she was kidnapped was not a vote winner in the troubled mood she was in, but Zoe refused to react, deeming her potential pregnancy more important as she lay down on an examination couch and an ultrasound machine was wheeled in. An instant later she heard the whirring sound of her baby’s fast heartbeat and she paled, feeling foolish for thinking that the doctor could have been in error. It was an even greater surprise to discover that she was already three months along and almost into the second trimester, which meant that she had conceived very early in their marriage.

      The doctor happily dispensed vitamin tablets and congratulated her on her fertility, studying her literally as if she were a walking miracle. She supposed in comparison to the last generation of the royal family, she did strike him that way because it had taken over thirty years and three wives to produce Raj.

      ‘The King will be overjoyed,’ he told her cheerfully.

      ‘Oh, but...’ Zoe hesitated, questioning if it was even possible to keep a lid on such a revelation within the palace.

      ‘The King needs this good news, with his health as precarious as it has been,’ his doctor assured her with gravity.

      ‘Then my husband can tell him after I have first told him,’ Zoe countered firmly.

      But on one level she thought she was probably wasting her breath because the cat was out of the bag and there was nothing she could do about that: the doctor, the nurse and whoever had done the blood test already knew of her condition. Just how fast the news had spread was borne out only minutes later when she returned to her room and was ushered into the bedroom where tea, a ginger biscuit and the book she had been reading awaited her by the bed like a heartfelt invitation to rest as pregnant women were so often advised to do. Smothering a groan, she lay down, ironically worn out by the day she had had. Off came her shoes and then her dress and she lay back, confronted by the daunting evening lying ahead of her because she had no choice other than to tell Raj immediately. Would it sound better if she did the couch thing first? Or would that look manipulative?

      In the event, she didn’t get to make that decision because she slept through most of the afternoon, only wakening when the sound of a door closing jolted her awake. She opened her eyes on Raj striding towards the bed and the slumberous expression in his shimmering dark scrutiny as he looked at her lying there in her flimsy underwear. He sank down on the edge of the bed. ‘How are you feeling now?’

      ‘OK—hungry now that the sickness has taken a break. Dr Fadel said that with a little luck that should start fading soon,’ she told him tightly. ‘You see, I’m not ill as such. I’m pregnant...’

      As she hesitated, her nerves getting the better of her for a moment, she studied Raj; his lean, darkly handsome features had locked tight, his jaw line clenching hard.

      ‘I think it must’ve been that time in the shower just after the wedding. You forgot to use anything. I should’ve said something then but I really didn’t think anything would come of it,’ she acknowledged uncomfortably, wishing he would say something.

      Raj blinked because for an instant his surroundings had vanished; what she had told him had to be the very last development he had expected, but it also led to a revelation that hit him even harder. He turned pale, in the matter of a moment recognising the situation he was in.

      ‘We’ve barely got out of bed to eat for three months,’ Raj breathed in a rueful undertone. ‘What can I say? I was in charge of contraception and I forgot. So, we are going to become parents...forgive me, I am stunned by the concept of something so surprising.’

      ‘You said it would be a disaster if I became pregnant,’ Zoe reminded him uncertainly, still unable to read his mood, particularly when he sprang upright again and started pacing across the floor, clearly too restless to stay seated.

      ‘A disaster more from your point of view than from mine,’ Raj qualified with level clarity. ‘We agreed to part but I cannot agree to let you leave me carrying our child and I do not want our child raised without either one of us. Surely we are doing well enough together for you to stay in our marriage for some time to come?’ A straight ebony brow lifted enquiringly, intense dark eyes scanning her triangular face for an answer. ‘Could you accept that? If we remain married, we can raise our child together.’

      A quivery little breath ran up through Zoe, allowing her lungs to function again. The backs of her eyes prickled and stung. Until Raj had asked her to stay married to him, she had not realised how horribly tense she had become and the painful tension slowly ebbed out of her stiff muscles.

      ‘So, we just go on as normal?’ Zoe checked.

      ‘Why not? Are we not both content as we are?’ Raj prompted tautly.

      Zoe nodded but couldn’t help wishing he could be a little more emotional about staying married to her. There she went again, wanting what she couldn’t have, she scolded herself, because she knew herself better now. She could look back and recognise the raging jealousy that had assailed her after seeing those photos of Raj with Nabila that had so clearly depicted his love for the beautiful brunette. There was nothing she could do about such feelings except keep them under control and hidden. And considering the circumstances in which they had married, each for their own very practical reasons, it was illogical and pathetic to long for Raj to fall in love with her as well.

      ‘You said...“stay in our marriage for some time to come”,’ Zoe recited tightly. ‘What sort of time frame were you considering?’

      At that question for further clarification, Raj stiffened and raked long brown fingers through his tousled black curls. ‘Must we be so precise?’

      Zoe swallowed hard at the edge of reproof in his tone. ‘Well, it would be easier for me to know how you see the future.’

      ‘With you and our child together. I would impose no limits. I would like to throw away all the boundaries we agreed and make this a normal marriage,’ Raj spelt out without hesitation. ‘I still can’t believe that you’re pregnant.’

      ‘Neither can I,’ Zoe revealed, scrambling off the bed only to be immediately caught up into his strong arms.

      ‘I didn’t think it could happen that easily...it is a brilliant accident,’ Raj murmured with husky conviction as he came down on the bed with her. ‘Are we still allowed to share this bed?’

      ‘Of

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