Page 26 of Bride Under Contract

‘Yep.’

He was abrupt in his dismissal, but better that she walked off a bit hurt and confused than that he take her by the hand and get her the hell out of here as he so badly wanted to.

‘Arif is ready for you.’ Jamal came then, and gave him a small, almost sympathetic smile. ‘It’s been nice seeing you, Carter.’

‘Thank you.’ He pulled himself away from the wall, barely glancing at Grace as he stepped into Arif’s office, with no idea what was to come.

It was just a small workstation, really. A desk with pictures of the various guides on the walls, along with their beloved wildlife, as well as the usual office equipment.

Arif was standing behind his desk and he asked Carter to close the door, then addressed him. ‘You asked the point of going back to where it happened?’

‘No,’ Carter corrected. ‘I said I see no purpose in me going back.’

‘You anger is misdirected.’

‘No.’

‘Yes,’ Arif insisted. ‘How can you fight for something you don’t love? You blame the land.’

‘I don’t.’ Carter closed his eyes. He did not want a lecture, and while he admired Arif, while they might have once been close friends, Arif did not have any deep knowledge of him.

‘You blame your parents, then?’

Carter stared ahead.

‘Yourself?’ Arif pushed, and their eyes met.

Carter’s flashed a warning for Arif to leave things.

‘I found this.’

Carter frowned when he saw Arif’s eyes fill with tears.

‘It is not mine to keep...’

He pushed a silk pouch forward on the desk and Carter glanced down. When he made no move to touch it, Arif opened the cord and slid a heavy band of solid silver onto the desk.

The walls seemed to fall, and the floor must have dissolved, for everything disappeared. And even though Carter didn’t touch it, in one blinding flash he saw perhaps a hundred occasions when he’d picked up this silver teething ring and handed it to Hugo. Seen his brother’s wide pink smile and that one tiny tooth, his little fat hand reaching out, clasping the ring and biting down on it.

His voice, when finally it came, was a raw husk. ‘Where did you find this?’

‘Close to where it happened.’

‘But every inch was searched...’ Carter argued the facts, but then halted, because that made him sound naive. Of course the jungle was not a neat field. ‘When?’

‘A year ago,’ Arif said. ‘Almost. I went back on the anniversary, I was placing offerings on behalf of your grandfather when I saw something glinting...’

Carter stared ahead rather than look down at the familiar silver as Arif spoke on.

‘I remember you once asking your mother if it would break his teeth.’

Now he looked down at the teething ring...so familiar. It had first been his grandfather’s, his father’s, his, and then Hugo’s. Polished to perfection for each new child.

The same had been done now. He could see Arif or Jamal must have spent hours lovingly making sure it gleamed.

And even though he still didn’t touch it, there was no damage that he could see. Apart from a few tiny scratches, it might be sparkling in the finest antique jeweller’s.

He wished he could pick it up, hold it, trace the little scratches on the silver that Hugo’s one little tooth had made. But he would not stand in an office and weep as expected. He did not know how to summon emotion on demand—for he’d rather have none.

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