Modern Romance Collection: June 2018 Books 5 - 8. Jane Porter

a night, her mother had drowned in this same marina.

      ‘I want to show you something,’ he said, distracting her before that thought had a chance to take hold. A dart of apprehension still struck her hard. Maybe it was his tone of voice. Following him to the stern, she followed his stare and frowned. ‘A lifeboat?’ she queried.

      ‘This is the last place I saw your mother alive.’

      Millie’s fingers tightened on the cold, steel rail. She must compose herself, and must do so fast, or lose any hope she had of getting to the bottom of this.

      ‘Are you okay?’ the Sheikh asked.

      ‘Yes,’ she managed in a clipped tone. She didn’t trust herself to say anything more. ‘What was my mother doing here in a lifeboat?’

      ‘Sleeping,’ he said.

      Sleeping it off, Millie thought, but she was glad he hadn’t said that. It hurt to hear her mother criticised, even now. Her mother deserved respect, though she’d had none for herself.

      ‘You let her sleep?’ she said, trying to get a picture of what had happened that night.

      ‘But with a guard watching over her,’ he said.

      ‘What happened next? What went wrong?’ she pressed. ‘You said she slipped away. Didn’t anyone miss her? What about your brother? Wasn’t he expecting my mother to sing for his guests?’

      ‘My brother—’

      ‘Your brother what?’ she cut in impatiently, unable to hold back as her emotions surged out of control.

      ‘I can’t answer for my brother’s whereabouts at each precise moment during that night.’

      ‘You must have some idea,’ she insisted. ‘And if you can’t tell me, I don’t know why I’m here—’

      The shock when he seized hold of her arm, as she was about to walk off, flashed through her like a lightning bolt. ‘Let go of me!’ Wrenching her arm out of his grip almost threw her off balance, and she had to hold onto the rail with both hands to steady herself. It felt cold and as unyielding as he was. How he had to be, she thought. He’d had to handle the authorities at the time, and give his lawyers a story they could run with. He was hardly going to tell her another story now.

      But still she wondered... Did my mother touch this rail? Did she cling to it and try to save her life?

      ‘Did she fall here?’ she asked at last. She turned to face him, her grim expression demanding the truth.

      ‘Your mother had had too much to drink. I was surprised she was even capable of moving.’

      ‘Something must have prompted her to climb out of the lifeboat.’ Millie shook her head. ‘It had to be something so urgent she found the strength.’ She glanced over the rail, and her head swam as her imagination supplied the detail: the scream, the splash, the struggle, and finally silence.

      ‘No.’

      She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she barely heard the single word, and only slowly turned to face the Sheikh. ‘There’s something you’re not telling me,’ she said.

      ‘This has been a shock for you.’

      ‘That’s no answer,’ she said tensely.

      Happy sounds from the party rose all around them, mocking her state of mind. This was bizarre, tense and horrible. Learning details about that night, while she was battling feelings she shouldn’t even have for this man, left her swamped in sadness and tortured by guilt. She couldn’t stop thinking that if only she’d been older and more authoritative at the time of her mother’s death, maybe she could have saved her.

      ‘My brother could always find women to entertain him,’ Sheikh Khalid was saying. ‘It’s not surprising that he lost interest in your mother’s whereabouts.’

      ‘As you did,’ she flared.

      ‘I put guards on watch,’ he reminded her.

      ‘They couldn’t have been much good,’ she observed acidly.

      ‘Your mother asked to use the facilities, and of course they let her go.’

      ‘In a drunken state on board a yacht without following her?’ Millie exclaimed. ‘That sounds like gross dereliction of duty to me.’

      ‘You weren’t there,’ the Sheikh interrupted. ‘Therefore, you’re in no position to pass judgement on my staff. I’m satisfied they did all they could.’

      ‘How can you say that?’ Millie demanded hotly. ‘I’ve been followed every step of the way since I boarded the Sapphire, yet you’re asking me to believe my mother could wander at will.’

      ‘As I’ve tried to explain, times were different, and there were no witnesses.’

      ‘But someone must have seen something,’ she insisted.

      Ignoring her interruption, the Sheikh continued. ‘I was clearing the grand salon at the time of your mother’s disappearance. Saif had tried to have me thrown off the Sapphire, but his guards had refused to do this. They supported me rather than my brother, though even with their help it still took time for all the guests to leave. As soon as I was free, I went to look for your mother. I wondered at first if she’d returned to my brother, but his attendants hadn’t seen her. I can only conclude she slipped away with the rest of the guests leaving the ship.’

      ‘So, you’re saying your brother had nothing to do with my mother’s death.’

      ‘That’s what I told the authorities.’

      That’s no answer, she thought. ‘I can see it would be convenient for you to hear nothing and see nothing.’

      ‘Have you finished?’ he asked coldly.

      ‘Why? Are you going to have me drummed off the ship?’

      ‘No part of this tragedy could ever be described as convenient,’ the Sheikh assured her.

      ‘For your brother, then,’ Millie said.

      ‘My brother’s dead.’

      ‘And does that absolve him from blame? If you’re saying he deserves respect, simply because he’s no longer with us, then so does my mother. And you might as well know, I intend to clear her name—’

      ‘That’s as it should be,’ he said.

      ‘What’s the point in talking further?’ Millie asked. ‘You’re not going to tell me anything.’

      ‘You’re leaving?’

      She’d thought about it. ‘No,’ she said, ‘not unless you have me thrown off. Eight years ago my mother had no one to protect her, but now she does, and I’m not a biddable teenager who’ll go home when she’s told.’

      ‘You have always defended her,’ he said with the closest to admiration he’d come yet.

      ‘I trusted you,’ she said quietly. Lose her temper lose the battle, Miss Francine had always said, and the Sapphire provided valuable business for the laundry. Millie must manage her quest for justice and look at the bigger picture.

      They stared at each other unblinking for a few moments, which was as troubling as it was a sign of Millie’s intent. Her determination to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her mother’s death had crossed her path with that of a man whose potent persona was wreaking havoc on her control. There was no such thing as a meaningless glance where the Sheikh was concerned. He could convey more in a look than any book of words, and his dark eyes suggested an agreement of a very different kind, one that had no connection with the past, and everything to do with the here and now.

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