The Sheikh's Hidden Heir: Secret Sheikh, Secret Baby / The Sheikh's Claim / The Return of the Sheikh

‘Blood pressure’s fine…’ Felicity smiled at the chatty woman beside her. Jessica Hammel was forty-two, had four sons in high school, and was about to welcome baby number five.

‘It doesn’t feel as if my blood pressure’s fine!’ Jessica rolled her eyes. ‘I can’t believe I’m going to be looking after a tiny baby again.’

She blinked at the enormity of it all.

‘I had a tummy tuck two years ago. Fat waste of time that was!’

Felicity smiled and waited for Jessica to speak further if she wished.

‘I’m okay with it. A bit stunned, I suppose. Everybody thinks I want a girl.’

‘Have you found out?’ Felicity asked, checking her patient’s scan report.

‘Nope!’ Jessica said firmly. ‘Because, as I’ve told everyone, all I want is for it to be healthy. Though…’ she caught Felicity’s eye ‘…after four boys a girl would be rather nice. I think I’ve earned a bit of pink!’ Her voice was a little anxious now. ‘Dr Habib said that if nothing happened by this visit, then I was to be admitted and induced.’

She looked over to Felicity, who was eyeing the CTG reading and almost willing it to change. But this baby looked very comfortable where it was for now. If Felicity had her say, it would stay put for a little while longer. Still, she didn’t have a say, and, as she had told Karim, she wasn’t here to change the world. She took her patient off the monitor and chatted away to her, trying, as she always seemed to be these days, not to let her mind wander to Karim.

Felicity took a pipette and did a routine pregnancy test on her next patient—one of the lecturers from the university who had been undergoing IVF. She happily ticked the little box on the chart as the pink cross came up and signed her initials, before throwing the card in the bin. She turned to go, then changed her mind and opened up the cupboard that held the pregnancy tests, worried about taking one. Where she’d used to work nurses did it all the time—it was for that reason the tests were generally locked up. But she was here in Zaraq and she simply had to know!

She pulled out the little jar, seeing her hands were shaking, and performed the simple test. She jumped guiltily when Helen breezed in, pulling out trays and looking for some batteries for the Doppler machine. Felicity joined her in the search, as she was still trying to get acquainted with where everything was kept.

‘You’re doing really well. The clinic is running smoothly.’ Helen smiled. ‘Tonight there are a few of us going out for dinner—you should come along…’

‘I might ring home tonight,’ Felicity said. ‘But thanks for the invite.’

‘There’ll be plenty more.’ Helen shrugged. ‘We’re a friendly lot, all in the same boat…or the same desert. Who’s that for?’ she asked casually as she found the batteries and walked out, glancing over her shoulder at the test card.

For Felicity there was the most appalling moment—because a negative test would cause confusion, given they were in the antenatal ward. But Helen didn’t notice the silence, just glanced at the patient file and answered her own question.

‘She’s a nice lady, isn’t she? Dr Habib will probably send her straight for an ultrasound, just to put her mind at rest.’

‘Sorry?’ Felicity croaked.

‘IVF patients,’ Helen answered patiently, as she had all Felicity’s questions through the week. ‘They can’t believe they’re pregnant till they see it for themselves on screen.’

Despite the cool air-conditioning Felicity felt as if she were standing in the heat outside, as if the sun was beating on the back of her head. She was drenched with nausea and fear, and tried to walk casually across to the bench to comprehend why Helen was talking as if the card indicated positive.

‘Let me know if you change your mind about tonight,’ Helen said, walking out of the room, utterly oblivious to the chaos she’d left behind. The heavy door softly closed behind her.

Picking up the card, Felicity stared at the pink cross, telling herself she must have mixed the specimens up. But that argument failed in a trice—she was meticulous at that type of thing. Jessica’s specimen had been thrown away before she’d even retrieved her own.

The card was wrong. Felicity’s heart lurched in hope. Maybe it was a faulty batch. And then her heart sank again—because that would mean every test she had performed this morning had been on a non-pregnant woman—which, given they were in an antenatal ward…

Her mind just staggered from hope to hope, like a lost child running frantically in the supermarket for his mother, tugging every familiar coat and then recoiling when it wasn’t her.

She couldn’t be pregnant!

She couldn’t be trapped in this country with no ticket home and not enough money for one either.

She couldn’t be having Karim’s baby.

A baby!

There was no comfort in that thought, no sweet feeling of peace or surge of maternal protection—her only feeling was unadulterated fear.

Two weeks ago she’d never even met him.

Two weeks ago she’d been a virgin.

Now she was in a strange country, where they didn’t tolerate pregnancy out of wedlock, and if that wasn’t bad enough she was pregnant by one of the family who made the rules.

She stared down at the card and the unpalatable truth hit her.

Yes, she was pregnant.

Pregnant by Sheikh Prince Karim of Zaraq.

CHAPTER NINE (#ulink_03995984-30cb-55e4-a00f-7443151e8dbe)

IT WAS the longest, loneliest night of her life.

She rang her mother, trying to sound upbeat and happy, trying not to think about telling her.

Or Georgie.

She’d have to ask a friend to loan her some money for a ticket home. Or work for a few weeks and then break her contract and fly back.

To what?

She was already in debt up to her eyeballs. Lying on her bed, Felicity was shell-shocked, completely overwhelmed by it all. She stared over at the palace and thought how it mocked her tiny flat.

Single motherhood versus his kingdom.

He was responsible for this too, Felicity breathed.

She wouldn’t make a fuss—would disappear with her baby from his life if that was what he wanted—but he had every right to know, and he was in every position to help. Slowly, slowly she calmed down…

For about eighteen seconds.

* * *

Someone else, Felicity realised as she was given handover on her early shift the next morning, hadn’t had a very good night either.

Jessica Hammel had been given gel to ripen her cervix the previous evening and had spent an uncomfortable night. She had just started to complain about her contractions and had vomited, but there were no regular strong contractions to speak of, and Dr Habib was on his way to see her.

‘Just keep an eye,’ Martha the charge nurse said.

It was obviously nice for Jessica to see Felicity’s familiar face when she walked in to greet her and her husband, Garth.