Deception on His Mind (Inspector Lynley, #9)(110)

If anything, Theo looked more confused than ever. “But why would Sahlah have given him the receipt? That doesn't make sense unless she'd changed her mind about marrying him. Because no one else knew …” But then he saw and she could see that he saw. He sharpened his vision on her.

Sweat trickled from Rachel's temples, following her hairline and the curve of her jaw. “What does it matter how he got it?” she said quickly. “She may have lost it on the street. She may have left it lying round somewheres at home. Yumn may have picked it up. Yumn hates Sahlah. You got to know that. And if she found that receipt, you c'n be sure she'd have gave it to Haytham straightaway. She likes to cause trouble, Yumn does. She's a real witch.” And the more Rachel thought about it, the more she was able to convince herself that this fabrication was well suited to her purpose. Yumn wanted to keep Sahlah as her personal slave. She'd have done just about anything to make sure her sister-in-law had no chance at marriage, so she'd remain at home, under Yumn's thumb. Had she actually got her hands on that receipt, she would have turned it over to Haytham at once. There was no doubt in the world about that. “Theo, what matters is what happens now.”

“So Haytham knew that Sahlah and I …” Theo'd moved his gaze off Rachel, so there was nothing she could read in his eyes to understand why he sounded so thoughtful. But she could imagine well enough. If Haytham knew that Sahlah and Theo were lovers, then Haytham hadn't been on an informational fishing expedition on that fateful night at the Nez. Haytham knew. And that's why he asked Theo for a meeting and that's why he was so quick to accuse, because it wasn't an accusation at all, it was the truth.

“Forget about Haytham,” Rachel said, words tumbling out to direct him where she wanted him to go. “Okay, it's done. It happened. What's important now is Sahlah. Theo, listen to me. Sahlah's in a bad way. I know you probably think that she didn't do right by you in agreeing to marry Haytham, but maybe she agreed so fast because she thought you didn't mean to do right by her. This sort of stuff happens when people love each other. One person says one thing and it goes misunderstood and the other person says another thing and it goes misunderstood, and before you know it, no one knows what anyone else really means or thinks or feels any longer. People get themselves in a real twist. They make decisions they might not otherwise make. You see that, don't you?”

“What's going on with Sahlah?” he asked. “I phoned her last night but she wouldn't listen to anything. I tried to explain—”

“She wants an abortion,” Rachel cut in. “Theo, she's asked me to help her: to find out where she can have it and get her away from her family long enough for it to be done. She wants it as soon as possible, because she knows it'll take her father months to find her someone else to marry, and by that time it'll be too late.”

Rachel saw that she'd cleared from his mind all thought of the gold bracelet and its pernicious receipt. His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. “What?” he asked. The question was hoarse.

Thank God, Rachel thought, and she told herself that she meant it, truly. Theo Shaw did care. “She thinks her mum and dad will disown her if they find out about the baby, Theo. And Sahlah doesn't think that you'll marry her. And she knows there's no hope of finding someone else fast. And she can't hide the truth forever. So she asked me to find a doctor or a clinic or whatever. And it's no trouble to do that, but I don't want to, because if she goes through with it … Theo, can you imagine what it'll do to Sahlah? She loves you. So how can she kill your baby?”

He released her wrist. He turned his head and stared before them, into the rock wall that retained the hillside above which rose the town where Sahlah waited for Theo Shaw to decide her fate.

“You got to go to her,” Rachel said. “You got to talk to her. You got to make her see that it's not the end of the world if you and she go off somewheres and get married. Sure, her mum and dad won't like it at first. But this isn't the middle ages. In modern times, people marry for love, they don't marry for duty or for anything else. I mean, they do, but the real marriages and the lasting marriages are the ones that grow out of love.”

He nodded, but she couldn't tell if he actually heard. He'd placed his hands on the BMW's steering wheel, and they'd circled the wheel so tightly that his knuckles looked like they'd pop through his lightly freckled skin. A muscle worked like a spasm in his jaw.

“You got to do something,” Rachel told him. “You're the only one who can.”

Theo made no reply. Instead, he moved his arm to curve it round his stomach, and before Rachel had a chance to tell him that he had only to claim Sahlah's hand in order to save the life of their child, he was out of the car. He stumbled over to the rubbish bin. There he vomited violently and for so long that Rachel thought he was close to losing his entire insides.

When the retching passed, he drew a fist across his mouth. His gold bracelet caught the bright hot afternoon light. He didn't return to the car, however. Rather, he stood at the rubbish bin, chest heaving like a runner and head bent low.

Heaving wasn't an unreasonable reaction, Rachel decided. In fact, it was rather an admirable response to a piece of horrific news. Theo no more wanted Sahlah to submit herself to the surgeon's scalpel—or whatever it was they used to prise unwanted foetuses out of their mothers’ bodies—than Rachel did.