Diamond in the Desert

They drove on in silence down the tree-shrouded lane. He noticed she glanced at the sauna on the lakeside as they drove past. He guessed his trials might begin there. The sauna was all ready and fired up. She wasn’t joking when she’d said the people at the mine looked after her. The consortium would have to work hard to win hearts and minds as well as everything else if they were going to make this project a success. Perhaps they needed Britt’s participation in the scheme more than he’d thought at first.

The snow was banked high either side of the road. The tall pines were bowed under its weight. The air was frigid with an icy mist overhanging everything. Snow was falling more heavily by the time they reached the main road. It had blurred the tyre tracks behind them and kept the windscreen wipers working frantically. ‘Left or right?’ he said, slowing the vehicle.

‘If you’d let me drive—’

He put the handbrake on.

‘Left,’ she said impatiently.

As he swung the wheel Britt tugged off her soft blue beanie and her golden hair cascaded down. If she had been trying to win his attention she couldn’t have thought up a better ruse, he realised as the scent of clean hair and lightly fragranced shampoo hit him square in the groin. He smiled to himself when she tied it back severely as if she knew that he liked it falling free around her shoulders. The fact that Britt didn’t want to flaunt her femininity in front of him told him something. She liked him and she didn’t want him to know.

‘You must be tired,’ he said, turning his thoughts to the stress she was under. It wasn’t easy trying to salvage the family business, as he knew only too well. Whether it was a town or a country made no difference when people you cared about were involved. Her thoughts were with all the people who depended on her, as his were with Kareshi.

‘I’m not as fragile as you seem to think,’ she said, turning a hostile back on him as she stared out of the window.

She wasn’t fragile at all. And if Britt tired at any point, he’d be there. Crazy, but somehow this woman had got under his skin—and he had more than enough energy for both of them.

CHAPTER FIVE

EMIR HAD WHAT was needed to take the mine to the next level summed up within the first half hour of him visiting the immense open-cast site. Digging down into the Arctic core would require mega-machines, as well as an extension to the ice road in order to accommodate them, and that would take colossal funding.

With such vast sums involved he would oversee everything. Second in command—second in anything—wasn’t his way. Britt was beginning to wonder how Emir managed to work for the sheikh—until he handed over the car keys.

As she thanked him she couldn’t have been more surprised and wondered if she had earned some respect down the mine? She had known the majority of the miners most of her life, and got on with everyone, and, though her brother Tyr would have been their first choice, she knew that in Tyr’s absence the miners respected her for taking on the job. Some of them had worked side by side with her grandfather, and she was proud to call them friends. She would do anything to keep them in employment.

Emir broke the silence as she started the engine. ‘Once I’ve had the samples tested, we can start planning the work schedule in earnest.’

‘I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with the result of the test. I’ve had reports from some of the best brains in Europe, who all came to the same conclusion. The Skavanga mine is set to become the richest diamond discovery ever made.’ If they could afford to mine the gems, she added silently. But surely now Emir had seen the mine for himself he wouldn’t pull back. He mustn’t pull back.

She tensed as he stretched out his long legs and settled back. ‘So what do you think of the mine now you’ve seen it? Will you put in a good report? I have had other offers,’ she bluffed in an effort to prompt him.

‘If you’ve had other offers you must consider them all.’

Emir had called her bluff and left her hanging. Who else did he think could afford to do the work? It was the consortium or nothing. ‘I would have liked Tyr to be involved, but we haven’t seen him for years.’

‘That doesn’t mean he isn’t around.’

‘I’ll have a word with our lawyers when we get back—to see if they can find him. I imagine you’ll need to consult with your principal before making the next move?’ She glanced across, but the only fallout from this was a heart-crunching smile from Emir. She turned up the heating, but there was ice in her blood. The fact remained that only three men had the resources to bring the diamonds to the surface.