Kim Lawrence - The Sheikh and the Virgin

‘It’s not that … Our mother was English, and when our parents’ marriage broke up it was pretty rough. I was small, so I don’t really remember, but I think that it made a big impact on Tariq. When they finally split up she came back to England. She wasn’t allowed to take us with her.’

‘That must have been terrible for her.’ And pretty tough on the boys, deprived of their mother, she privately conceded.

‘We saw her in the holidays or I did. Tariq always refused to see her and our half sister—then there was the accident.’

‘He blamed her,’ Emma, who clearly knew the story, explained.

‘You said the accident …?’

‘A car smash on the motorway. She was killed instantly.’

‘I’m sorry, Khalid,’ Beatrice said, her tender heart touched by the story.

Not that it offered any excuses for the dreadful brother’s behaviour. She too had lost her own mother, at a similar age, but it didn’t make her feel she could go around sitting in judgement on total strangers!

Khalid took Emma’s hand. ‘And I’m sorry, Bea—that you had to go through that with Tariq.’

‘Better me than Em,’ Beatrice retorted, adding with a shrug, ‘I was mad, not hurt.’

‘Tariq will love Emma once he meets her. It just has to be the right time.’

Beatrice’s heart went out to the unhappy lovers. From her experience that morning, she was pretty certain that the right time would be of the ‘when hell freezes over’ variety, and from Khalid’s expression she was sure that he knew it too.

She felt a surge of frustration. She’d been hoping that she could laugh off this morning, but that was before she knew what was at stake.

‘There must be something I can do or say to this brother of yours.’ A brother who seemed to live in another century and who thought everyone had a price. Then it hit her. The solution was right under their noses and so blindingly simple that they couldn’t see it!

‘He’ll never accept me,’ Emma retorted bleakly. ‘Khalid would have to choose between me and his family, and I couldn’t let him do that.’

‘What if there was another way?’

The lovers looked at her with a mixture of doubt and hope.

‘He might see you, Em, in a entirely new light if he’s just endured a visit from the bride from hell.’ Bea’s green eyes, dancing with devilish excitement, were at stark variance with her butter-wouldn’t-melt expression. She smiled at the bemused-looking couple. ‘It’s perfect,’ she enthused as she warmed to the idea forming in her head.

‘What are you talking about, Bea?’ Khalid asked impatiently.

‘Don’t ask,’ Emma advised. ‘Look at her face—she’s got one of her crazy plans.’

‘Not crazy—perfect!’ Beatrice insisted, punching the air in a triumphant gesture. ‘It can’t fail. And the beauty is that it was his idea, so we’re just going along with it. Take me home with you, Khalid.’

‘What?’

‘I’ll be the fiancée your brother thinks I am, and when you dump me they’ll be so relieved that anyone else you bring home will seem perfect,’ she promised grimly.

And the other beauty of her plan was that she would be able to exact revenge first-hand on the wretched man.

‘She’s serious?’ Khalid said, looking to Emma for confirmation.

‘Totally,’ Beatrice promised them both. She arched a feathery brow and looked at Khalid. ‘Unless you have a better idea?’

‘It’s hard. Family is …’

Hearing the defensive note in her young friend’s voice, Beatrice smiled and admitted readily, ‘Something I know zilch about.’ At times like this that didn’t seem such a bad thing, even though when she was growing up a family and roots had been the only things she’d dreamt of.

‘If we do this crazy thing and it backfires … Tariq realises what we’re up to … it will only make things worse,’ Khalid said, shaking his head.

‘How?’ Emma said in a small voice.

Khalid looked at her.

‘How can it be worse than this?’ she asked in a stricken whisper. ‘Tell me, Khalid, what is worse than sneaking around as though we’re doing something wrong? Not even able to tell my best friend or my family?’

Khalid stood there for a moment and watched the tears sliding down Emma’s pale cheeks. Then he heaved a sigh and turned to Beatrice.

‘You would really do this?’

Beatrice smiled, anticipating her revenge. ‘Absolutely.’

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