go?’
She stared past him to the bathroom and he stood aside. Grinding his jaw, he watched her go, wondering how he was going to live with himself if he did as Jazz asked—stood back and did nothing.
* * *
Jazz left them soon after that, kissing and hugging his sisters goodbye, but barely acknowledging Tyr. She had somewhere to be quite urgently, he gathered. The rest of the afternoon was spent in stormy silence. He turned up the volume on the match, while his sisters talked in undertones at the table. He had no more interest in their conversation. He knew what they were talking about. He knew how he felt about it. And he was damned if was going to share those feelings with anyone.
He didn’t move until his mobile phone rang and then he took the call in the other room.
‘Sharif? There’s nothing wrong, is there?’ The line was bad. He was instantly concerned.
‘Yes and no. I need you out in Kareshi, Tyr.’
His thought processes raced. Kareshi? Jazz. Yes. Yes had to be his answer to Sharif’s request.
‘Sorry to rush you back there, Tyr—no, there’s nothing wrong,’ Sharif confirmed to his relief. ‘Had to leave unexpectedly. No problem. Just some business to attend to.’
‘I understand.’ He relaxed. Sharif was obviously travelling where a good line wasn’t always a given.
‘The Wadi villagers have called for help in getting their Internet connection established, and they need someone to show them how to use it. I wouldn’t ask you to go back right away, but I can’t send anyone they don’t know. They’ve been so isolated up to now and they trust you.’
He frowned as he remembered his promise to return to Wadi village as soon as he had made his peace with his sisters. ‘I won’t let them down.’
‘Soon?’ Sharif asked cryptically.
‘Tomorrow soon enough for you?’
‘Tomorrow is perfect.’
Britt’s face was rigid when he returned to the sitting room. ‘Leave it, Tyr.’
‘Leave what?’ His thoughts were racing with plans for his return to Kareshi, and the chance to see Jazz again, on her home ground, where they could continue this discussion. When Jazz had talked about freedom, she had envisaged the type of freedom everyone in this room took for granted. He couldn’t just sit here. He had to do something.
‘Leave this business with Jazz alone,’ Britt insisted when he stonewalled her with a look. ‘And don’t tell me you’re not thinking about her. I know that look. You seem to think Jazz was forced into making this decision.’
‘A decision she hasn’t seen through yet,’ he pointed out, ‘so there’s still time for her to change her mind, and if I see her in Kareshi I will certainly say something.’
‘Are you suggesting Sharif would force Jazz into doing something she doesn’t want to?’ Britt demanded.
As passions between them grew heated, Leila stepped in. ‘No, of course Tyr isn’t saying that, Britt.’ And gradually, like a pan of boiling milk taken off the heat, everyone calmed down again.
Until Eva chipped in with, ‘You should tell him, Britt.’
He spun round. ‘Tell me what?’
‘I know you just spoke to Sharif,’ Britt began, haltingly for her, he thought. ‘Sharif told me he was going to ring you—’
‘And?’ he flashed.
‘Calm down, Tyr. Give me chance to explain.’ Britt’s face was white with tension. Nothing about this situation was easy for her. ‘Jazz won’t be in Kareshi when you get back,’ she explained, ‘and you’ll probably have left the country before she arrives. And, before you ask, she isn’t in Skavanga, either.’
‘She was here earlier,’ he protested.
‘And now she’s gone,’ Britt confirmed.
‘Gone? Gone where?’
‘Jazz has left Skavanga with Sharif.’
His mind reeled. Just when he thought he might get the chance to talk some sense into Jazz, she had left Skavanga for some destination unknown.
Unless—
‘Tell me she hasn’t gone to Qadar.’ His muscles tensed as he waited for one of his sisters to answer.
‘No,’ Britt reassured him. ‘And before you get angry, I think this might be my fault. Sharif and I talked about getting Jazz out of Kareshi so she can get a fresh perspective on life, so instead of leaving Skavanga for Kareshi as Jazz had planned, Sharif has laid on a treat for her. He’s not happy with Jazz falling meekly into line with the traditionalists in Kareshi, either. He doesn’t see Jazz as a docile princess. He never has.’
‘Jazz—docile?’ He grimaced at the thought. ‘So where’s he taken her?’
‘To the fashion shows in Milan.’
‘To the fashion shows?’ He laughed out loud. No wonder Britt couldn’t look at him. ‘To the fashion shows?’ he repeated. ‘Does Sharif know anything about his sister?’
Ignoring Britt’s protests, he made an angry gesture. ‘Since when has Jazz been a front-row fashionista? Jazz is happiest out in the desert, riding free.’
‘Tyr.’ Leila followed him to the door. ‘Don’t do anything hasty. It won’t help Jazz. Sharif was looking for something to take Jazz’s mind off the emir and his proposal. It will at least give her a chance to think things through calmly before she agrees to something she might regret for the rest of her life.’
‘But I haven’t had a chance to say goodbye to her.’
‘You sound so lost,’ Leila observed, touching his arm.
And angry, he thought, ashamed he’d sounded off as he stared down at his heavily pregnant sister. ‘I’m acting like a bear with a sore head. I just can’t get my head around Jazz’s crazy life choices. You know I’m never angry with you, Leila.’
‘I know that.’ Leila smiled in sympathy, then exclaimed, ‘Where are you going?’ as he moved past her towards the door.
‘I’m not sure yet,’ he said honestly. ‘But I promise to keep in touch this time, okay?’
He had not expected Leila to stand in his way. Drawing her into a reassuring hug, he kissed the top of her head. He hated leaving his sisters like this, but they had husbands to take care of them and Jazz had no one.
No one apart from an army of heavily armed bodyguards sent by Sharif to watch her every move, he guessed. Once again, Jazz would be shielded from reality, and from life itself, so what chance did she stand of making an informed choice about her future?
SHE’D HAD THIS crazy idea that if she stayed out of the way until the links with Qadar were safely established and the final arrangements for her wedding to the emir were in place, it would be too late for her to do anything about it. The decision would be taken out of her hands. All good for Kareshi. Borders secured for all time through her marriage to the emir.
But when you put three Skavanga sisters into the mix, with Britt’s business brain calling foul on the suggested arrangement between a very wealthy Kareshi and a less well-off Qadar, and Eva ranting that no one in their right minds could possibly want to spend the rest of their lives with a man they hadn’t even been to bed with, backed up by a chorus of concern from Leila, you were left, not with a melodious chorus of agreement and support for her decision, but with a rowdy chorus of dissent.
And then there was Tyr.
And