A Bride For The Sheikh (4 page)

“We know what it says on his passport and also that he’s been working on the Al-Fahid construction project for the last three months.”

“Nothing else?” Rashid began searching through the papers in the file.

“Not yet, Your Highness.”

“Why haven’t you got any more information on this man?” Rashid demanded.

“You only asked me to investigate the Mrs Smiths, not the Mr Smiths.” The head of the country’s security operations bowed low.

“Get me absolutely everything you can on this man, and I mean everything, including what he had for breakfast this morning.”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

“Go! Don’t just stand there agreeing with everything I say. Go and start investigating.”

The head of security bowed low and walked out as fast as he thought was proper in front of a son of the all-powerful sultan of his country.

“Hi, Dad. How was your day at work?” Angelina asked her father when he came home from work.

“How was yours? What have you been doing all day?” James shut the door behind him to keep the air conditioning in and the searing hot sun out.

“Great. I had a bit of a lie-in, a long leisurely bath and then read my book most of the afternoon. I was waiting for it to cool down so I could go for a swim, but it stayed hot all day. It’s still like an oven out there now.”

“I’m afraid it never really cools down during the summer. So you didn’t manage to go for a swim at all?” James walked in the empty kitchen and put the kettle on. Despite the heat, he still liked to have a cup of hot tea and a biscuit every day when he came home from work.

“I did. I finally went around five o’clock. And guess what? The water was cold. I couldn’t believe it.”

“They have a special machine in the pool to chill it. It’s amazing. In Britain, they heat the pools and here they chill them.” James opened up a cupboard and pulled out what was left of a packet of biscuits. “Did you eat all these?” he asked, more amused than angry.

“Sorry! I invited a couple of people back from the pool and gave them coffee and biscuits. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course not. Who did you meet?”

“The girls across the road who you mentioned. Sarah and Carla. They’re here for the summer holidays. Sarah’s just finished school and Carla’s at university in London, studying Geography. They’re really nice. They grew up here and they told me all sorts of bizarre stories about this place. Did you know that one of the sultan’s sons, when he was a kid, was watching
The A Team
, that old TV series with Mr T. in it, and the kid said he wanted the van, so the sultan bought it and had it sent to Bezira? Apparently,
The A Team
van is in one of the palaces here in the city, in Zakir. One of Carla’s friends saw it once.”

“Nothing about this place would surprise me.” James put two cups of hot tea down on the wooden table in the kitchen.

“Sarah said that the royal kids only have to ask for something and ‘click,’ it’s theirs. They sound like a bunch of spoilt brats to me, unlike Sarah and Carla. They’re great. They invited me out tomorrow to go shopping. Is that okay?”

“Of course. I’m just sorry that I have to work while you’re here. I was hoping to get a few days off next week, but something seems to have come up at work.”

“Is everything all right?” Angelina suddenly saw how tired her father looked. It was the same look on his face that he had when his business collapsed. She felt guilty for not noticing it as soon as he came home. He’d seemed fine yesterday, just like his old self, and they’d both put his dizzy spell at the party down to indigestion. However, she now wondered whether there really was something wrong with him.

“Do you need to go to the doctor? Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine and I don’t think a doctor could help me with my work issues.” He blew on the surface of his tea before he started drinking it.

“What’s happened at work?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure. At first, it seemed like just a normal day at work and I was planning to come home early, but then my boss called me in and asked me to bring him copies of all my identity papers and fill out a ton of forms.”

“Why would they want you to do that?”

“I’m not sure. The paperwork here is a bit of a nightmare. Remember me telling you about all the forms I had to fill out when I was trying to get a visa to come here?”

“I found it hard just trying to get a visitor visa, so I can imagine it would be a lot worse trying to get a work visa. But you did all that, didn’t you?”

“I thought I had, but apparently, they suddenly needed more information. There was even a form asking me what I ate for breakfast!”

“You’re joking?”

“No, and none of the other blokes at work had ever seen that form before.”

“What does it mean? You’re not in trouble, are you?”

James sipped his tea and bit into the last of the biscuits. “I’m not sure. The other people at work said the paperwork changes all the time here; they’re always thinking up new security checks, but at the same time, none of them said they’d ever had to fill out as many forms as I had to today.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Don’t worry. Come on, let’s go out for dinner and take your mind off it.”

“Okay. Just give me a few minutes to get changed.”

***

“You Royal Highness, we have everything you need to know about James Smith, including what he ate for breakfast. It says here that he eats a cereal called cornflakes.” The head of security waved a sheaf of papers in front of Sheikh Rashid.

Rashid started leafing through them. He read about James’s school and university qualifications and the fact that he’d once won a fishing trophy. He read about his business and how it had failed due to the recession in England, and he read about his work as a structural engineer. The report said that he was an exemplary employee and had already proved himself to be an expert in his field. However, none of this was of any interest to Rashid. It wasn’t until he was near the end of the report that he finally found what he was looking for: James Smith had just one child, a daughter, and the name stood out from the page as if it had been emblazoned with diamonds. Angelina Smith had entered the country a couple of days ago on a three-week tourist visa. Rashid flipped back through the papers and found James’s address and telephone number in Bezira.

“Bingo!” Rashid exclaimed.

“I beg your pardon, Your Highness,” the head of security said.

“I said, ‘Bingo.’ It’s an English phrase that I learnt when I was studying at Oxford. It means I’ve got what I want.”

“Excellent. I am so pleased that I could be of service.” The man bowed low. The look of relief on his face was overwhelming.

“What else do you have on Angelina Smith?” Rashid asked.

“This is it.” The man showed Rashid the papers with a copy of Angelina’s tourist visa application and the copy of her passport.

“But this is the information that I need. This is the person I’m looking for. I’m not interested in Mrs Smith and Mr Smith. I want to know about Miss Smith, Angelina Smith.”

The head of security’s face dropped. “Of course, Your Highness. I will see to it personally, straight away.”

“Thank you.” Rashid placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. “This means a great deal to me. When you and your men have finished this investigation, I will make sure that you are all suitably rewarded. Your hard work will not go unnoticed.”

“Your Highness is too kind.”

As the head of security left the reception room in Rashid’s palace, he overheard Rashid telling his secretary to make sure that all the staff in the security division got a ten per cent pay rise and that the head of the division should also be rewarded a twenty thousand dollar bonus.

Everything that was on any government file about Angelina Smith was on Rashid’s desk the next morning, along with a note from his father, the sultan, demanding a meeting.

When Rashid woke up the next day, he wasn’t in the best of moods. He had gone to James Smith’s villa the previous evening, only to find that they were out and after waiting for much of the evening, he finally gave up and came home. However, he was pleased to see that Angelina’s file had arrived and read through it eagerly. He learnt that Angelina was an exceptionally bright student. She had been a star pupil at both school and college, and as a result had just been accepted into one of the UK’s best law schools. She was also a keen tennis player and Rashid was thankful that he’d allowed a friend to teach him while he was at Oxford. Although he wasn’t very good, he could at least have a half-decent game.

However, Rashid was less pleased about his father’s summons. His father never asked to see him unless it was about something serious. Maybe the sultan had changed his mind and decided that Rashid had to marry Chrystal, though it was unlikely that his father would go back on a promise. As he drove to his father’s palace, he tried to remember whether his father had actually promised to allow him to choose his own wife. Rashid counted the days. He had eleven days left to convince Angelina to marry him.

Even though he had only met her once, he was sure that she was the one. Many of his Arab friends married women on the basis of much flimsier information and some of his friends didn’t even meet their wives until the wedding ceremony. In contrast, Rashid knew a reasonable amount of information about her and her parents. She was clever and both her parents seemed to be successful. If her parents were divorced, that was only a minor problem; many couples were and his own parents spent so much of the year apart that they were effectively separated. In addition, and most importantly, Rashid had actually met his future wife and even though they had only spent a few brief moments together, it was enough for him to know that she was exceptionally beautiful and that there was an indescribable chemistry between them, a type of bond that was beyond mere physical attraction.

As the sheikh drove to his father’s palace, he thought about how he would go in search of Angelina as soon as his meeting with his father was over. He would first stop in the gold
souk
, the market, and buy her armfuls of lavish jewellery, which he would give to her as her bride price. Even if her parents were reasonably rich, he would make her father an offer that he couldn’t refuse. Then he would present Angelina to his father and begin the wedding preparations.

With his head full of dreams of his life with Angelina, Rashid entered his father’s presence with a reasonable sense of confidence. He bowed low and greeted the sultan with the customary wishes for a long and successful life, blessed with good health and many sons.

“Don’t wish me any more sons. They give me nothing but trouble!” the sultan boomed.

The smile fell from Rashid’s face. This was obviously not one of his father’s better days. “I would never do anything to disrespect you, Your Majesty.” Rashid bowed low again.

“You disrespect me when you disrespect our security division.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you are referring to.” However, Rashid had a reasonable idea what his father was angry about, but he thought he’d play innocent until he was sure.

“You’ve had my head of security and half his best men up all day and all night investigating an engineer and his family. They’ve even called in International Security! Could you please tell me what’s going on?”

Rashid decided the best plan was to come clean about what he’d been up to. “I was investigating the suitability of a woman I met at our party the other night.”

“The security division does not exist as some form of dating agency! They are here to prevent serious crimes against the state: terrorism, uprisings, political protests, that sort of thing. They’re not here to help you find a girlfriend! That is not their job.”

Rashid hadn’t seen his father this angry since he’d been caught riding the sultan’s favourite racehorse without permission when he was seventeen. However, he decided to press his point. “But Your Majesty, this isn’t just any girlfriend; this is my future wife. I had to check if she was suitable enough to marry into the royal family. You yourself ran checks on your own wife not so long ago, if you’ll forgive my allusion to the matter.”

“That was to see whether she was having an affair and that really is a matter of state security. If your mother had a son by another man, that would put him in line to the throne, this throne.” The sultan banged the arm of the chair to make his point, even though it wasn’t an actual throne, but a large armchair covered in blue silk. “And you don’t need to look for a wife. I’ve already told you, I’ve found you a suitable wife—Chrystal Longhorn.”

Rashid’s stomach churned at the thought of marrying Chrystal. “But you promised that I could look for a foreign bride myself.”

“Well, you better hurry up. You only have just over a week left and I absolutely forbid you to waste any more of security’s time over the matter.”

“You have my promise, Father.” It was an easy promise to make. Rashid already had all the information he needed. “Just one last thing, if I may.” Rashid gave his father his most winning smile. “Given how hard your security division works and given what an excellent job they do, I was wondering if they weren’t due a pay rise, maybe ten per cent and perhaps a large bonus for the head of security, say twenty thousand dollars?”

The sultan laughed. “You’ve always been the kindest and most generous of my sons and because I can assume that you’ve already promised them this, I will honour your promise. However, in return, you must honour yours and leave security alone.”

“Thank you, Father. May you always be blessed with sons as generous as I,” Rashid said in mock sincerity.

“And may you be blessed with sons who don’t cause you as much trouble as mine do,” the sultan joked back.

Having made some kind of reconciliation with his father, Rashid left the palace with his head full of images of the many children that he and Angelina would one day have together.

Less than an hour later, the sheikh was at the gate to the compound where James Smith lived. He stopped his Mercedes at the security booth. “Do you know whether Mr Smith or his daughter have left the compound?” he asked the young security guard. Even though he’d promised to leave security alone, this was different. This was just a routine question that anyone would ask before entering a private compound.

“Mr Smith left early this morning, around seven o’clock, for work as he usually does.”

“But not his daughter? So she’s still at home?”

“I don’t think she’s in the villa. I saw her walking towards the swimming pool, Your Highness.” The guard pointed in the direction of the compound pool, hidden by a large group of palm trees.

Rashid wondered how the guard knew who he was and then he remembered that his car had royal number plates. He handed the man a hundred dollars as a thank-you and drove through the gate.

When he reached the entrance to the pool, he took out the box of gold jewellery that he had just bought, smoothed down his long cotton robe and adjusted the white scarf covering his short, black hair. Then, at the last minute, he changed his mind. A swimming pool wasn’t really the place to present a bride with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of jewellery. He would give it to her later, in the presence of her father. He opened the car, placed the box on the back seat and prepared himself to see his bride.

When he did see her, she was even more beautiful than he remembered. Her chestnut hair was loosely tied up on top of her head and several locks had escaped to caress her flawless face and neck. However, what took away Rashid’s breath the most was the sight of Angelina’s body, which was barely covered by her pink bikini. Rashid had to take several deep breaths to control his feelings and stop himself from immediately throwing his body on top of her perfect curves and placing himself between her soft, toned thighs. He had to remind himself that once they were married, there would be plenty of time for him to touch every single part of her.

Angelina must have heard him come up behind her. She took off her sunglasses and sat up. “Hi. It’s Rashid, isn’t it? Didn’t we meet the other night? Do you live around here?”

“Angelina! At last I’ve found you.”

“You’ve been looking for me? Why?”

Rashid had to remember that although he knew that she was his future bride, she didn’t. “We never got a chance to say goodbye at the party.”

“I’m so sorry. My father wasn’t feeling well. All that rich food. Those royals really do go way over the top with all their spending. It’s a bit obscene, when you think about it. I met a couple of girls the other day and they were telling me all about how spoilt the royals are, especially the sultan’s sons. You should have heard some of her stories.”

“Really? What kind of stories?” Rashid had never thought of himself as spoilt.

“Apparently they think they can have anything they want. All they have to do is offer someone a load of cash or gold and they get it. Pathetic, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” Rashid thought about the large box of gold that lay in the back of his car and was thankful that he had left it there.

“We talked about it the other night, didn’t we? We agreed that the important things in life, like friendship and love, have nothing to do with money.”

“You’re right, they don’t.” Rashid looked at Angelina’s body and realised that getting her into his wedding bed wasn’t going to be quite as easy as he first thought. However, the longer he looked at her, the more he desperately wanted her. He peeled his eyes away from her to the cool, blue water of the swimming pool.

“It’s hot, though I guess you’re used to it,” she said. “Are you getting in with me?”

“Getting in?” Rashid’s mind conjured up images of king-sized beds with Angelina between the satin sheets.

“In the pool, though you’ll need to get changed.”

“I didn’t bring my stuff.”

“So why are you here?”

Rashid didn’t know what to say. Should he just come out with it and tell her that he wanted to marry her? However, his few years studying in Oxford meant that he knew that a woman like this would either laugh at him, or worse, reject him. He then had an inspiration. “I came to see if you’d like to play tennis with me.”

“Tennis? Why not? When?”

“Now. This afternoon, I mean. I’ll get my stuff and come back in a half an hour. I’m sure this compound has a tennis court; most of them do.”

“Isn’t it a bit hot?”

“I’m sure it’s air conditioned. They all are here.”

“Air-conditioned tennis courts and chilled swimming pools—this country is bizarre.”

“In this country, anything is possible.”

“That’s just what my dad said. See you in a bit.” She stood, wrapped a towel around her perfect body and waved goodbye.

Rashid drove back to his palace, breaking several speed limits, and returned in a perfect set of whites in less than twenty-five minutes, ready for the game to begin.