Engaged to the Doctor Sheikh by Meredith Webber

Author:Meredith Webber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

TARIQ FLEW THEM straight back to the palace, walking Lila to the women’s house, where Sousa was waiting for her.

Sousa without her usual bright smile, her face grim with worry.

“What is it?’ Lila asked, as they walked down the passage to her room.

‘There is talk,’ Sousa told her. ‘Much talk about you being here, about your mother, the thief.’

‘No one has ever proved my mother was a thief,’ Lila snapped.

‘I know,’ Sousa said miserably, ‘but Second Mother is spreading terrible stories about her, even claiming that your mother tried to seduce the King, and many people believe what she is saying.’

Lila was surprised to find she felt more puzzled than angry about this latest snippet of gossip.

‘But if I’m going to try to help her son, shouldn’t she be keeping her thoughts about my mother to herself rather than blackening her name?’

Sousa gave a little shrug.

‘You have to understand that morality is very important to us. Women must be virgins when they wed, and things like affairs with other men are still punishable by law. We can choose who to marry, and can divorce our husbands easily enough if they are not kind to us, but the greatest gift a woman can give to her husband is her virginity, and then she must be faithful to him and him alone.’

Well, at least I fit the virgin role, Lila thought as she followed Sousa to her room. Not that anyone here would be likely to marry her, and not that it would make her a great prize at home. Modern men seemed to like experienced women—at least that’s what she’d always assumed.

Barirah met them as they reached the bedroom. She looked flushed and angry, and launched into a tirade against her mother and the stories she was spreading.

‘Don’t worry about them,’ Lila told her, putting her arm around the other woman’s—her cousin’s—shoulders. ‘But I do think I should probably move out of the palace to the apartment at the hospital. Maybe then things will simmer down.’

‘It’s because of the blood,’ Barirah said, leaving Lila totally confused.

‘What blood?’

‘Your blood,’ Barirah explained. ‘When Khalil first needed stem cells Second Mother was sure she could donate them. After all she was his mother. But a sibling is always a better match so we were all tried first. When those failed she insisted on being tested, but she was nowhere near close enough. Now she’s jealous of you, just as she was jealous of your mother all those years ago.’

‘All the more reason for me to move out,’ Lila told her. ‘We can go this afternoon. It won’t take long for me to pack.’

‘But—’

Barirah looked troubled.

‘What is it? Lila asked her, not wanting to offend the woman who had been kind to her.

‘It’s the Ta’wiz,’ Barirah whispered. ‘I know this might sound like some ancient superstition or witchcraft to you, but Tariq believes—we all believe—that things have not gone well since the Ta’wiz left the palace. It is why he wants you here.

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