Birthday Bride

‘That rather depends on who I have to be nice to,’ said David, but before Claudia could frame a suitably crushing retort her attention was caught by a spluttering noise from the silver wing stretching out from below the window.

‘You know, I’m sure there’s something wrong with that engine,’ she said worriedly. ‘It keeps making funny noises.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said David. ‘What could possibly be wrong with it?’

‘I don’t know!’ she snapped. ‘I don’t know anything about engines.’

‘Then what makes you think you know whether it’s making a funny noise or not?’ He made a great show of leaning forward and cupping a hand to his ear. ‘It sounds fine to me.’

‘That’s what they always say,’ said Claudia darkly. ‘It’s just like a disaster film. They always start off showing people doing ordinary things, just like us.’

‘There’s nothing ordinary about the way you’ve been behaving since you got on the plane,’ David put in, but she ignored him.

‘They’re all having cups of coffee and chatting, and none of them realise that something terrible is about to happen—but they’re all right because they’ve got Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise or some other hunk to spring into action and save them, and all I’ve got is a paper-pushing engineer whose only advice is to sit still and keep quiet!’

David had been listening to her with mounting exasperation. ‘I have never met anybody who could whip themselves up into a frenzy about absolutely nothing before!’

‘It’s not nothing! I’m telling you, there’s something wrong, I can feel it!’

‘For the last time,’ said David between his teeth, ‘there is nothing the matter with the engine!’

With that the engine spluttered and cut out, and the plane veered sharply to one side. Immediately there was a babble of panic-stricken voices in Arabic as the other passengers were caught unawares by the sudden deceleration.

Instinctively, Claudia clutched at David’s hand. He winced as her fingers dug into his flesh, her eyes wide and dark with terror as he enfolded her hand in a warm, strong clasp to forestall any hysterics. ‘There’s no need to panic,’ he said firmly. ‘The pilot’s bringing the plane round now. Everything’s under control.’

The plane had straightened, and the pilot opened the throttle to increase the power to the remaining engine so that it picked up speed once more. There was a burst of Arabic over the intercom and to Claudia, not understanding a word, it sounded terrifying. David was listening closely, and she noted with detached surprise that he spoke Arabic.

‘What’s he saying?’ she whispered.

‘He says there’s nothing to worry about. We’ve lost an engine, but there’s no problem about flying with one engine, so he’s going to head for the nearest airstrip as a precaution and try and sort out the problem there.’ David’s voice was calm, infinitely reassuring. ‘Now you can relax and say “I told you so”.’

Claudia moistened her lips. ‘I don’t think I’ll relax until I’ve got two feet firmly on the ground,’ she said unsteadily. ‘I’ll say it then.’

Afterwards David told her that it had only taken twenty minutes for the pilot to make a long, straight approach and land at a dusty airstrip in the middle of the desert, but for Claudia it seemed that they sat there for an eternity. David kept talking in the same quiet, steady voice, and she clutched at the immeasurable reassurance of his cool presence without hearing a word that he was saying. All she could think about was how much time she had wasted agonising about turning thirty when she might never make it after all.

When the undercarriage went down with a clunk, she jerked and braced herself for an emergency landing, but in the end the plane touched down so lightly that it was only when the screaming engines quieted and they turned to taxi slowly back down the runway that Claudia let herself believe that they had landed safely. Closing her eyes and letting out a long breath, she slumped back in her seat.

When she opened them again, the plane had stopped. Outside, the heat wavered over the tarmac and bounced off the silver wings. There were a couple of prefabricated buildings, a ramshackle control tower and a few dusty buildings straggling along the road that led off into the heat haze.

Claudia licked her lips and tried her voice very cautiously. ‘Where are we?’

‘A place called Al Mishrah,’ said David, looking out of the window with a jaundiced eye. ‘There used to be a big gas terminal here, hence the airport, but it’s disused now and they only get the occasional flight serving what’s left of the town.’

‘Not your ideal stopover, then,’ said Claudia with an effort.

The corner of David’s mouth lifted as if in acknowledgement of her feeble attempt at a joke. ‘You could say that.’

‘Wh-what happens now?’

He sighed. ‘On past experience of Shofrar, I’d say nothing much.’

He was right. Some of the other passengers were standing up, shouting and gesticulating, but it was several minutes before a set of steps were produced and wheeled across the tarmac towards the waiting plane. It was suffocatingly hot, and Claudia longed for some fresh air, but as soon as the door swung open the smell of fuel rolled on a wave of heat through the cabin, and she wrinkled her nose in distaste.

Immediately there was a scrum of passengers pushing to get out, but there seemed little point in hurrying, and it was not until the first crush had subsided that David turned to Claudia. ‘Do you feel OK now?’

‘Yes, I’m fine.’

‘In that case, do you think I could have my hand back?’

‘Oh!’ Claudia dropped his hand as if it had stung her and her cheeks flamed with mortification. ‘I’m sorry,’ she muttered, flustered. ‘I didn’t realise; that is...I forgot...’

‘It’s all right.’ David’s cool voice broke across her embarrassed stutterings as he tucked his report back into his briefcase and stood up.

Claudia hesitated, cringing at the thought that she had sat for so long clinging to his hand like a little girl. He must think she was absolutely pathetic, but she could hardly ignore his patience. ‘You’ve been very kind,’ she said a little stiffly. ‘Thank you.’

David was conscious of a feeling of surprise as he followed her down the aisle. He had expected her to take any attention as her due and he was disconcerted to find how pleased he was that he had misjudged her.

Inside the prefabricated hut that obviously served as a terminal it was hardly much cooler than outside. A single ceiling fan slapped at the air without enthusiasm and the room resonated with the aggrieved clamour of angry passengers. David and Claudia sat on orange plastic chairs that were cracked and dusty with neglect and waited.

At first Claudia was too relieved to find herself alive and back on solid ground again to fret much at the lack of action and she was content just to sit next to David, intimidated more than she wanted to admit by the heat and the glare and this dingy building where nothing seemed to work and she had no idea what was going on.

Claudia didn’t like feeling out of control, and she was uncomfortably aware that, arrogant and unpleasant as David might be, his cool, contained presence was immeasurably reassuring.

The long minutes ticked slowly by. Claudia sat and looked at a poster advertising what she guessed to be some kind of soft drink that had faded in the harsh light to a pale, washed-out blue. Flies zoomed through the oppressive heat and buzzed frantically near her ears until she waved them away in disgust, and she could feel the plastic, sticky and uncomfortable through her thin trousers.

As her impatience grew, she shifted irritably in the chair and glanced at her watch for the umpteenth time. They had been sitting there for nearly an hour. ‘What’s happening?’ she burst out at last.

David, who had just been thinking that a severe fright considerably improved her, sighed. He might have known that she wouldn’t be able to sit still and silent much longer. ‘The pilot and a couple of local ground crew are looking at the engine. We’re waiting for him to come back and tell us what’s going to happen—’ He broke off as a stir of expectation marked the entrance of the harassed-looking pilot. ‘Ah, here he is now.’

Claudia jumped to her feet. ‘Let’s go and see what’s going on!’

‘I’ll go and talk to him,’ said David firmly. ‘You wait here.’

She opened her mouth to object, but something in his face made her close it again, and subside back onto her seat.

She watched David as he walked over to the pilot. He was tall and lean, and he moved easily, with a sort of balanced, economical grace that made her think queerly of a cat, or an athlete focusing on the race ahead. The other men seemed to recognise the authority of his presence, for they parted instinctively to let him through.

Claudia could only see his back as he stood talking to the pilot, but judging by the other man’s frustrated gestures and the reactions of those listening the news was not good, and David’s expression was grim when he turned at last and made his way back to her.

‘The plane’s being taken out of service,’ he said as he came up. ‘They’re going to divert the next flight to pick us up.’

‘Oh, well, that’s something, I suppose,’ said Claudia, who had been expecting much worse. ‘When’s it arriving?’

‘Not for another two days.’

‘Two days?’ She stared at him in gathering wrath as his words sank in. ‘Two days?’

David shoved his hands in his pockets and sighed with frustration. ‘There’s nothing wrong with your hearing, anyway,’ he said.

‘But...but they can’t expect us to spend two days in this dump!’

‘There’s some kind of hotel in the town, apparently, probably left over from the boom days, so it’s likely to be a bit run-down.’

‘I don’t care if they’ve got the Ritz,’ snapped Claudia. ‘It’s my birthday tomorrow and I’m not staying here! Why can’t they send another plane now?’

‘Shofrar isn’t geared up for tourism. This is just a small internal airline, and all their other planes have got scheduled flights of their own.’

‘Great!’ Claudia leapt to her feet and began pacing up and down with her arms folded. ‘There must be something we can do! What about a bus?’

‘I think it’s highly unlikely that there would be much of a service between here and Telama’an. We’ve had to divert way off course to land here.’

‘All right, a taxi, then?’

‘This isn’t Piccadilly, Claudia. You can’t just flag down a taxi and ask it to drive you off into the desert. There aren’t even any metal roads around here.’

‘What, then?’ she demanded impatiently. ‘How can you just stand there and do nothing?’

David looked down his nose. He much preferred her when she was scared. ‘I can’t see that working myself up into a frenzy, as you seem to do at the slightest provocation, would magically produce a plane,’ he said repressively.

‘You mean you’re not going to do anything?’ said Claudia in disgust. ‘What about your meeting? I thought you wanted to get to Telaa’an as much as I do!’

‘I’ve got every intention of getting there as soon as possible,’ he said with a cool look. ‘If you were prepared to shut up and just listen for a change, you would have heard me say that I was going to try and get hold of a vehicle. I doubt very much if there will be anything suitable to hire, but it might be possible to buy something.’

‘Buy a car?’ She looked at him blankly. ‘But—’

‘But what?’

‘Well...’ She hesitated. ‘You can’t just set out across the desert in a car, can you?’

‘You can if you know what you’re doing,’ said David. ‘And fortunately I do. I’ve spent some time in Shofrar, and I’m quite capable of getting myself to Telama’an.’

Had there been a stress on that ‘myself? Claudia fiddled with her ring and wished she hadn’t been quite so forthright in her opinion of him earlier on. ‘Um...I haven’t got very much money with me,’ she said awkwardly. ‘But if you would give me a lift I’m sure Patrick would give you half the cost, and then I’d be able to pay him back when I got to London. I’d be very grateful.’

She looked at him pleadingly. ‘Please,’ she added.

She really did have extraordinary eyes, David found himself thinking. They were somewhere between blue and grey, a deep, soft, smoky colour, like twilight over the hills, the kind of eyes a man could lose himself in, the kind of eyes that could make him forget to breathe.

He dragged his gaze away. Claudia was everything he disliked in a girl. She was silly and superficial. She had irritated and exasperated and deliberately provoked him, and he knew perfectly well that he would be ready to murder her long before they reached Telama’an. Just because she had beautiful eyes that played odd tricks with his breathing, it was no reason to take her with him. If he had any sense, he would just say no.

‘Oh, all right,’ he said irritably. ‘But no complaining! It’ll be a hard trip and if I have to listen to any moaning you can get out and walk!’

‘Thank you!’ Claudia’s face lit up with a smile that stopped the breath in David’s throat. He hadn’t seen her smile before and he was taken aback to discover how it illuminated her face and deepened the blue in her eyes. ‘You won’t regret it,’ she promised. ‘I won’t say a word,’ she offered generously. ‘I’ll do whatever you say.’

‘I’ll believe that when I see it!’ David thrust his hands deeper into his pockets and scowled at the poster on the wall, infuriated by his own reaction. Damn it, the last thing he needed right now was to start noticing how much younger and warmer and lovelier she looked when she smiled. The meeting in Telama’an was vital to the future of the firm and it was that he should be concentrating on, not pretty eyes or unexpected smiles!

‘I’ll go and see what I can find out,’ he added in a brusque voice. ‘Stay there.’

‘All right.’ Claudia was too relieved at his agreement to object to his tone. For a nasty moment there she had thought he was going to refuse, and she couldn’t really have blamed him. They hadn’t exactly got off on the right foot. She was determined to be nice to him from now on, though.

She waited obediently until David returned, but as soon as she saw his face she knew that he hadn’t had any success. ‘I’ve had a word with a few people,’ he said. ‘It might be possible to fix something up, but I can’t do anything until we get into town. Apparently they’re trying to arrange some kind of bus, so in the meantime we’re just going to have to wait.’

‘I seem to have spent this entire trip waiting,’ sighed Claudia, and he glared at her, still resentful of the effect her smile had had on him.

‘I thought you weren’t going to complain!’

‘That wasn’t a complaint, it was a comment,’ she muttered, but lapsed into a sullen silence rather than get into an argument with him. She had promised to be nice, and she wouldn’t put it past him to leave her behind after all!

Sighing, she crossed her legs in an effort to get comfortable, then uncrossed them when it didn’t work. A few moments later, she tried crossing them the other way.

‘For God’s sake, stop fidgeting!’ hissed David.

Claudia opened her mouth to tell him she was bored and uncomfortable, but thought better of it. ‘I’ve got cramp in my leg,’ she said placatingly. ‘I’ll just walk around a bit.’

She wandered over to the window and stood for a while watching the luggage being unloaded off the plane onto a decrepit trolley. As she watched, she saw Amil, the man who had been sitting across the aisle from her, walk purposefully over and pick out a bag. He looked like a man who knew where he was going, and Claudia waved at him as he came back through the terminal.

‘Aren’t you waiting for the bus?’

‘I am fortunate in having family contacts here,’ he explained. ‘I need to be in Telama’an by tomorrow, so one of my relatives has brought me out a car. If I set out now, I think I will be able to make it in time.’

‘Oh, you are lucky!’ sighed Claudia enviously. ‘It looks as if we’re going to be here for ages yet.’

‘You are anxious to get to Telama’an?’

‘I have to be there by tomorrow.’

‘Then why do you not come with me?’ Amil suggested. ‘It will be a long and uncomfortable trip, and it will mean spending the night at an oasis, but if you want to be in Telama’an by tomorrow I would be more than happy to take you.’

‘Go with you?’ Claudia hesitated, her mind working quickly as she considered his offer. Amil seemed charming, but he was a stranger and she knew nothing about the customs in Shofrar. It would be hopelessly naive to entrust herself to him.

On the other hand, she couldn’t bear to waste two days of her precious holiday sitting around in this terrible place if David didn’t manage to get hold of a car. She couldn’t spend her birthday alone here, and Amil’s offer might be her only chance to get to Telama’an in time.

She couldn’t risk it, though. ‘It’s terribly kind of you...’ she was beginning when she caught sight of David over Amil’s shoulder. He was sitting on the orange plastic chairs, looking as tough and self-contained as ever, but his jaw was tight and she had the impression that even his cool was beginning to fray, and Claudia’s words trailed off even as she tried to frame a polite excuse.

Of course! The answer was so obvious that she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it straight away. ‘It’s terribly kind of you,’ she said again to Amil with a warm smile. ‘We’d love to come with you. I’ll just go and tell my husband the good news!’

CHAPTER THREE

THERE was a tiny pause. Amil’s own smile, which had broadened as she rushed into eager acceptance, froze just a fraction. ‘Your husband?’

‘David.’ Claudia was all innocent surprise. ‘Didn’t you realise I was married?’

‘No.’ Amil pulled himself together. ‘You must forgive my surprise,’ he apologised. ‘It was just that I had the impression that you were travelling alone when we talked before.’

‘I’m sorry, I should have introduced you,’ said Claudia, looking suitably penitent. ‘He was sitting next to me on the plane. I’m a terrible coward about flying and he had to hold my hand all the way down.’

It was obvious that Amil was remembering, and Claudia congratulated herself on a convincing touch. ‘That was your husband?’ he said.

‘Of course,’ she said, opening her eyes wide. ‘I would hardly hold hands with a perfect stranger, would I?’

‘Of course not.’ Amil smiled. Claudia could almost see him giving a mental shrug at a lost opportunity and deciding to make the best of it. ‘In any case, I shall be delighted to give both you and your husband a lift.’

She had to give him full marks for courtesy. Perhaps there hadn’t been any need to lie after all? Still, it was too late now.

‘You’re very kind,’ she said, and meant it. ‘When were you planning to leave?’

‘As soon as possible.’

‘Then I’ll go and find David at once.’ Claudia smiled again. ‘I won’t be a minute.’

From the other side of the room, David saw her hurrying towards him, all smiles. He was prepared for the effect this time, though, and had time to rigidly control his breathing as she rushed up.

‘Why are you looking so pleased with yourself?’

‘I,’ Claudia announced smugly, ‘have got us both a lift to Telama’an, leaving right now!’

‘You’ve done what?’ David looked incredulous.

‘Amil’s going to drive us there.’

‘Who the hell is Amil?’

‘He was sitting across the aisle from me on the plane,’ she said, thinking that he could have seemed a little more pleased at her news.

‘Oh, yes,’ said David unpleasantly. ‘The man you were flirting with so outrageously. Why didn’t you say?’

‘Well, if I was flirting,’ said Claudia in a voice of honeyed sweetness, ‘I was flirting with the right man, and it’s paid off. He’s got a car waiting outside right now.’

‘How did he manage that?’ David was still suspicious, and she clicked her tongue in exasperation.

‘He’s got contacts here and pulled a few strings. What does it matter, anyway?’ she demanded impatiently. ‘The important thing is that he needs to be in Telama’an tomorrow as well, and he’s got room to take us with him.’

David stared at her almost accusingly. ‘Why am I included in this generous invitation? I haven’t exchanged so much as a word with the man, and after the way you were batting your eyelashes at him I would have thought that the last thing he wanted was to have me along to play gooseberry!’

‘Ah, well, I was just coming to that.’ Claudia manoeuvred him round so that his expression was hidden from the rest of the room. She lowered her voice. ‘I, er, told Amil you were my husband.’

‘You did what?’ David’s voice rose to a shout and she shushed him frantically.

‘I told Amil we were married,’ she whispered fiercely.

‘What in God’s name made you do that?’ he demanded furiously.

‘I had to.’ Claudia glanced around, terrified that Amil would come bearing down on them before she had had a chance to brief David. ‘I couldn’t go off with him on my own, could I? I don’t know anything about him other than the fact he’s got a vehicle.’

‘You don’t know anything about me, but it doesn’t seem to have stopped you claiming me as a husband!’

‘You know Patrick and Lucy,’ she pointed out. ‘So I sort of know you by proxy. Anyway,’ she swept on when David continued to look unconvinced, ‘I’d have thought you’d have been grateful!’

‘Grateful? Grateful at being forced into pretending to be married to someone like you?’ David was furious. How dared she involve him in her stupid masquerade? The sheer arrogance of the woman was phenomenal! Even Alix would have thought twice before appropriating a perfect stranger to act as her husband without so much as a by-your-leave! ‘You must be joking!’

‘Look,’ said Claudia grittily, ‘you said you wanted to get to Telama’an by tomorrow and this is the best chance you’re going to get. Even if you can get hold of a suitable vehicle, we’ve still got to wait for the bus to take us into town and that might take ages. And then you’ve got to find a car and make all the arrangements... it could be midnight before all that gets done. We could be well on our way with Amil by then! And what happens if there isn’t a car? We’ll end up spending two days here when we could be at Telama‘an.’

She could see David hesitating and decided to try for a spot of emotional blackmail. ‘Please come. I’m going to be thirty tomorrow, and I can’t spend my birthday here!’

‘Or miss the chance to fulfil your destiny with Justin Darke?’ he added snidely.

Claudia was beginning to wish that she had never teased him with that stupid story but she didn’t have time to put him right now. ‘We both want to get to Telama’an as soon as possible, don’t we?’ she said urgently instead. ‘This is the obvious answer.’

‘The only thing obvious to me is how some women are prepared to go to any lengths to get their man!’ said David, who was torn between wanting to get on the road as soon as possible and outrage at the methods Claudia was employing to get her own way. It would serve her right if he refused point-blank to have anything more to do with her!

Claudia cast another frenzied glance over her shoulder. By the door, Amil caught her eye, waved in acknowledgement, and began making his way through the crowd towards them.

Almost weeping with frustration, she turned back to David. If he wanted her to beg, she would beg. ‘Please come,’ she pleaded. ‘You must see that I can’t go on my own, and it’s not as if you would have to do anything.’

‘Except look like the kind of fool who would marry you!’

‘Oh, please say yes!’ Claudia threw pride to the wind and David braced himself for the effect of those great, blue-grey eyes. ‘He’ll be here any second. Please, please, please, please!’

‘Ah, there you are! I thought I had lost you!’ Amil was too well-mannered to look impatient as he came up to them, and Claudia turned to him with a bright, desperate smile.

‘I’m sorry I’ve been so long. I was just, um, telling my husband about your kind offer.’ She risked a glance at David who was looking wooden. Claudia took a deep breath and prayed that he wouldn’t let her down. ‘Amil, this is my husband, David Stirling.’