LITMIR.BIZ

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at face value.

      ‘There will be no official reception under the circumstances. Things will be low-key. We will go straight to the palace where my uncle, the King—’

      Her eyes flew wide. ‘King? You’re asking me to believe you’re really a prince?’

      He stared at her hard. ‘Who did you think I was?’

      ‘Someone my father paid to get me out of jail. I thought you were pretending to—’

      ‘I can’t decide if you’re just plain stupid or incredibly naïve.’ He shook his head from side to side in an attitude of weary incredulity. ‘You thought all I had to do was walk in, claim to be of royal blood and all the doors would open to release you?’ What alternative universe did this woman live in?

      Her eyes narrowed with dislike as he threw back his head and laughed.

      ‘What was I meant to think?’

      ‘That you were extremely lucky you have a father who cares so much about you, a father who is waiting with my uncle and Sheikh Sa’idi of Quagani. The only reason you are not now facing the consequences of your actions is because the Sheikh has been told that you are my fiancée.’

      ‘And he believed that?’

      ‘I think the wedding invite swung it.’

      ‘Well, I’m out, so job done. You can tell him the wedding’s off.’

      ‘I can see that that is the way things work in your world.’ A world with no honour.

      ‘What is that meant to mean?’

      The plane hit a pocket and he braced himself as it sank and rose while she staggered and grabbed the back of a chair. ‘That you step away from commitment when it suits you.’

      Hannah was waiting for her stomach to find its level but this not so veiled reference to her engagements brought an angry flush to her cheeks. ‘I’m fine, thanks for asking,’ she murmured, rubbing the area where her wrist had banged against the chair.

      He continued as though she had not spoken. ‘But that is not the way it works here. My uncle feels indebted to your father and he has given his word.’

      ‘I didn’t give my word.’

      ‘Your word!’ he echoed with acid scorn.

      She felt the burn of tears in her eyes and furiously blinked to clear them. ‘I won’t be lectured by you!’

      ‘Your word means...’ he clicked his fingers ‘...nothing. It is otherwise with my uncle. He is a man of integrity, honour. I suppose I’m speaking a foreign language to you?’

      ‘So your uncle would be embarrassed. I’m sorry about that—’

      ‘But not sorry enough to accept the consequences of your actions?’

      Consequences...consequences... Hannah fought the urge to cover her ears. ‘This is stupid. What terrible thing is going to happen if we don’t get married?’ Hannah hoped the question didn’t give him the false impression that she would even consider this.

      ‘I’m glad you asked that.’

      He opened the laptop that lay on a table and spun it around, stabbing it with his finger. ‘We are a small country but oil rich, and we have enjoyed relative political stability. Since the discovery last year of these new reserves, we are set to be even more rich.’

      She pursed her lips at his lecturing tone and stuck out her chin. ‘I do read an occasional newspaper.’

      ‘Don’t boast about your IQ, angel, because,’ he drawled, ‘stupidity is the only possible excuse for your little escapade.’

      An angry hissing sound escaped her clenched teeth. ‘I know the country is a shining light of political stability and religious tolerance. What I didn’t know was that the ruling family had a history of insanity—but that’s what happens when you marry cousins.’

      ‘Well, you will be a new injection of blood, won’t you, angel? This will happen, you know. The sooner you accept it, the easier it will be.’

      Hannah bit her lip. Even her interrogators had never looked at her with such open contempt and, though she refused to admit it even to herself, it hurt. As had the headlines and the inches of gossip all vilifying her.

      ‘Shall I tell you why?’

      He waited a moment, then tipped his head, acknowledging her silence.

      ‘We have a problem. We are landlocked and the oil needs to get to the sea.’ He flicked his finger across the screen and traced a line. ‘Which means we rely on the cooperation of others. The new pipeline is at present being constructed in Quagani, and it crosses three separate countries. Did you know your father is building the pipeline?’

      Hannah didn’t but she would have died before admitting it. ‘I’m surprised they haven’t already married you off to some Quagani princess to seal the deal.’

      ‘They were going to, but she met my cousin.’ Kamel had fallen in love with Amira slowly. It had been a gradual process and he’d thought it had been the same for her. Had he not seen it with his own eyes, Kamel would have laughed at the idea of love at first sight. He had tried very hard not to see it. ‘When she found him...preferable, her family were fine with it because he was the heir and I was, as they say, the spare.’

      ‘Then where is the problem? If your families are linked they’re not going to fall out.’

      ‘He died...she died...their baby died.’ The only thing that linked the rulers now was shared grief and a need to blame someone.

      Like a sandcastle hit by a wave, Hannah’s snooty attitude dissolved. Despite some throat-clearing her voice was husky as she said softly, ‘I’m so sorry. But my father wouldn’t force me to marry for any amount of money.’

      He looked at the woman who sat there with spoilt brat written all over her pretty face.

      ‘Has it occurred to you that your father, being human, might jump at the chance to get you off his hands? And if he did I don’t think there are many who would blame him.’

      ‘My father doesn’t think of me as a piece of property.’

      He might, however, think of her as a lead weight around his neck.

      ‘Do you care for your father as much as he does you?’

      ‘What does that mean?’

      ‘It means if Quagani closes the new pipeline it won’t just be the school programme in our country that suffers. Your father has a stake in the new refinery too.’

      It was the mention of a school programme that brought a worried furrow to her brow. In her job she knew what a difference education could make. ‘My father has a stake in many things.’

      ‘My uncle let your father in on this deal as a favour. He knew of his situation.’

      She tensed and then relaxed.

      ‘What situation? Are you trying to tell me my father has lost all of his money again?’

      Over the years her father’s reckless, impulsive approach to business had led to dramatic fluctuations in fortune, but that was in the past. After the heart attack he had actually listened to the doctors’ warnings about the danger of stress. He had promised her faithfully that the risky deals were a thing of the past.

      ‘Not all of it.’

      Hannah met his dark, implacable stare and felt the walls of the cabin close in. Even as she was shaking her head in denial she knew deep down that he was telling her the truth.

      Kamel watched, arms folded across his chest, as the comment sank in. The prospect of being the daughter of a poor man seemed to affect her more than anything he had said so far. The idea of slumming it or being forced to make her own way in the world without the

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