The Sheikh and the Surrogate Mum (21 page)

She held out her hand to him and he drew her up and wordlessly they held each other, together protecting the vulnerability of love.

CHAPTER TWELVE

T
HE
toddler went straight to the fountain, standing on tiptoe to splash her chubby little hands in the cool water, splashing Khalifa, who hovered over her, ready to catch her when her excitement brought her crashing down, as it inevitably would.

‘A klutz, like her mother,’ he said fondly, still waiting for the fall but turning part of his attention to the woman who lay back in a lounger beneath a nearby peach tree, the bulge of her pregnancy obvious beneath the fine cotton gown she wore.

‘Demanding, like her father,’ Liz countered, when her daughter grabbed Khalifa’s snow-white kandora in her wet hands and scrunched a patch of it while yelling his name—or the Da, Da, Da she called him.

Farida Olive Wilhemina bin Khalifa al Zahn was prattling up at her father, and both Liz and Khalifa knew exactly what she wanted, which was to be stripped off and lifted into the water, where she would immediately fall over and emerge yelling her indignation.

‘No,’ Khalifa said, very firmly, but Liz could see he was already shuffling out of his sandals and hitching up his kandora, and in a minute would climb into the fountain himself so he could hold his daughter—the precious pearl he’d named her—while she splashed.

The year had passed so quickly. Settling into life at the palace, life as a mother, life as Khalifa’s wife—this last made her body burn, pregnant though she was—had made the time pass quickly, but at last Liz felt at peace. Thinking of the loss of Bill and Oliver would always cause a little ache inside her, but the gift they’d given her, this beautiful little girl, eased it immensely, while the gift of Khalifa’s love had made her complete in some way she could never explain, even to herself.

He turned towards her now, as if drawn by her thoughts, and smiled. Her toes curled and inside the sparks and fizzing was just as bad as ever.

Or as good as ever…

‘The sand sprite would have had no regrets,’ she said to him, and knew he understood.

ISBN-13: 9781460377581

THE SHEIKH AND THE SURROGATE MUM

© Meredith Webber 2012

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