Midnight in the Desert Collection. Оливия Гейтс

again at dawn and Raja was very insistent on the point that in his opinion it was time for her to see a doctor. He was worried that she had contracted food poisoning. While Ruby lay as still as she could and fought the debilitating waves of nausea Raja made arrangements for a doctor’s visit and got dressed.

      An hour and a half later, Ruby received the answer to the big question she had been asking herself for more than a week.

      ‘Congratulations,’ Dr Sema Mansour pronounced with a wide smile. ‘I am honoured to be the doctor to give you such important news.’

      Ruby smiled back so hard her facial muscles ached under the strain. ‘Please don’t tell anyone else,’ she urged, although even as she said that she appreciated that it was not a secret that she could hope to keep for long.

      ‘Of course not. It is a confidential matter.’ Lifting her doctor’s bag, the young female medic, recommended by Princess Hadeel, took her leave.

      A light breakfast was served to Ruby in bed and the maid plumped up her pillows first to ensure her comfort. Indeed all the staff involved in her care in the magnificent bedroom displayed a heart-warming level of concern for her welfare. Munching on a piece of roll without much appetite, Ruby stared into space and wondered how Raja would feel once she made her announcement. Last night they had made love and she had felt buoyant at the knowledge that her husband desired her so much.

      But starting a family wasn’t something they had ever discussed or planned, although he had proved keen to encourage her desire to adopt Leyla.

      Ruby had always assumed that some day she would want children. But until she had met Leyla and Mother Nature had turned her broody, she had believed that the family she might ultimately have lay somewhere far into her future. Leyla, however, had stolen into Ruby’s heart and she had experienced such a strong longing to be Leyla’s new mum that she had been amazed at herself. And now she was carrying Raja’s baby. That hadn’t taken long, although it was true that they had been very active in that line in the desert. Ruby flushed hotly at the recollection of a night when she had barely slept, indeed had behaved like a sex addict wonderfully well matched with another sex addict. Wretchedly virile fertile man, she thought ruefully and in shock, for there was no denying that a royal baby in the offing would change everything.

      In the short term Ruby had been willing to ditch the concept of divorce and future freedom if it meant she could qualify to adopt little Leyla and raise her as her daughter. In spite of that, though, she had still believed somewhere in the back of her mind that there remained a slight possibility that ten years or more down the line she and Raja might be able to separate from each other and lead their own lives without causing too much of a furore within their respective countries. Now with the needs of a second child entering the equation she felt that she had to be a good deal more practical. She had to ask herself if she was willing to subject possibly Leyla and her future child to the rigours of a broken home solely because she wanted a husband who loved her the way she already loved him. Children got attached to their parents living together as a couple. She had seen the heartbreak among school friends when their parents broke up and one parent moved out. Although in many cases there was no alternative to a separation, Ruby felt that she was in a position where she was still lucky enough to have choices to make.

      Raja appeared in the doorway, brilliant dark eyes alive with concern, the taut line of his handsome mouth easing with relief when he saw that she was eating. ‘It was a stomach upset, probably the result of you being given so much unfamiliar food,’ he reasoned. ‘Perhaps we should ask one of the chefs to cook English meals for you.’

      ‘No, what we needed was better birth control,’ Ruby contradicted, taking tiny sips of tea to moisten her dry mouth while she stared mournfully back at her husband. ‘And I’m afraid that ship has sailed.’

      Raja was staring fixedly at her, shapely ebony brows quirked, bewilderment stamped in the angles of his strong face. ‘Better birth control?’

      ‘We didn’t use any in the desert—didn’t have any to use,’ she conceded heavily for so far being pregnant, between the nausea and the sore breasts, was not proving to be a lot of fun. ‘And … you’ve knocked me up.’

      Raja had never bothered to try and imagine how he might hear that he was to become a father for the first time, but had he done so he was certain that not once would the colloquial British phrase ‘knocked up’ have featured on his dream wife’s lips. ‘You’re …’ Shaken by the concept, he had to clear his throat to continue. ‘You’re pregnant?’

      ‘Yes, congratulations, you’re a real stud.’ Ruby sighed in a tone that would not have encouraged him to celebrate. ‘But it’s such a shock.’

      Raja shifted his proud dark head in agreement. In receipt of her announcement, which had rocked him on his feet, he felt a little light-headed. ‘I feel rather foolish,’ he admitted wryly. ‘This possibility didn’t once cross my mind.’

      ‘Me neither—until afterwards. I worried after we were rescued,’ Ruby told him ruefully.

      ‘You should have told me that you were concerned. I can’t believe it but in the excitement of the situation I overlooked the risk of such a development,’ Raja declared gravely.

      ‘That’s not like you,’ Ruby remarked helplessly, for she always got the feeling that Raja worked everything out to the nth degree and rarely got taken by surprise. ‘At the beginning I even suspected that conceiving a child might have been part of the seduction plan. After all, once you got me pregnant it would be harder for me to walk away from our marriage.’

      ‘But not impossible and I wouldn’t wish an unwilling mother on any child of mine.’ Raja scored impatient fingers through his cropped black hair, his clear, dark golden gaze melding to hers in reproach. ‘I am not a Machiavelli. My desire for you was very strong and I acted on it for the most natural of reasons.’

      It disturbed Ruby that she could not work out how he felt about her revelation that she was pregnant. She had originally assumed that he would be pleased, which was why she had announced it in that quirky fashion, striving to be cool. But now she was no longer so certain of his reaction because his innate reserve concealed his true reaction from her. ‘I bet you that Wajid turns wheelies when he finds out—it’s another piece of good PR, isn’t it? Three weeks of marriage and I’m pregnant?’

      ‘And you feel even more trapped than you did already,’ Raja assumed, his stubborn jaw line clenching, a muscle pulling taut at the edge of his handsome mouth. ‘I know you had already decided that you wanted to offer a home to Leyla, but you are very young to take on the responsibility of parenthood—’

      ‘Raja … girls of fourteen were falling pregnant when I was at secondary school. At twenty-one I’m mature enough or I wouldn’t have been talking about trying to adopt Leyla,’ Ruby argued, feeling insulted and wondering if he considered her immature.

      Raja strolled over to the window and looked out at the lush tranquil garden in the courtyard. His lean classic profile was taut. ‘I do understand how you must feel. Such massive changes in your life are a challenge to cope with. Be honest with yourself and with me—’

      Tension made Ruby sit up a little straighter in the bed. ‘Honest about what? And how do you feel?’

      ‘I felt incredibly trapped when I knew I had to get married as part of the peace accord,’ he admitted without warning, the words escaping him in a low-pitched driven surge. ‘I didn’t want a wife I didn’t choose for myself. My father reminded me that he didn’t even meet my mother before he married her but, as I pointed out to him, he was raised in a different world with exactly that expectation. I never dreamt that I would be asked to make an arranged marriage. I had to man up.’

      With that confession, which Ruby was quite unprepared to receive at that moment, she felt as though he had driven a knife into her. It shook her that she had been happy to feel like a victim while ignoring the reality that he might have felt equally powerless on his own behalf. I didn’t want a wife I didn’t choose for myself. That one sentence really said all she needed