Did it?
“Well, Dr. Harrak,” he said, exaggerating her name. “My driver Kariff and I are to take you to the southeastern region, which was hardest hit by the cyclone. Our doctors have been working non-stop since the cyclone hit four days ago and they could use a break.”
Jeena smiled. “Of course, Your Highness.”
He stood there. “Well?”
“Well, what?” she asked.
“We have to leave.”
“I’m waiting for you to lead the way, Your Highness. It’s only proper.”
He rolled his eyes and turned around and started marching stiffly toward the van, the tail of his blue kurta billowing out behind him.
If she really wanted to bite back at him, now would be the time to tell him that he reminded her of his father, which had always used to annoy him as well.
She chuckled softly and kept that to herself.
Right now, there were patients waiting for help and that was all that mattered to her, but it was nice to have a little victory over the man who’d broken her heart.
A man who had ruined her for all others.
A man who still had a piece of her heart, whether she liked it or not.
* * *
The ride in the van was uncomfortable and tense. Maazin sat in the front next to Kariff while she and her team were crammed in beside medical equipment and gear. There would be another van coming soon to take the rest of the supplies and gear into Huban, but right now they were transporting what was most needed to the hardest hit region. That had been her plan. Get to work, help out and keep out of sight.
She might not really care about her father’s promise to Lady Meleena but she didn’t want the drama that would come with it.
The press didn’t know about Syman or her romance with Maazin and she preferred it that way.
The only reason she was here was to save lives.
As the van navigated the damaged streets of Huban, Jeena’s heart sank to see the destruction. The little wooden shacks of the poorest hadn’t fared as well as the colonial buildings that had been built by the British over a century ago.
There were downed power lines, crumbled stone and debris everywhere.
“Hold on,” Maazin said over his shoulder. “This part of Huban was flooded quite badly. The water has receded enough to allow passage, but it will be a bumpy ride.”
Jeena bit her lip. Her head began to spin and her pulse thundered in her ears. A panic attack was coming on and she needed to center herself. She needed to gain control, but it was hard. She didn’t like water too much. She was fine if she was on a large boat or had her feet firmly planted on the ground, but in a van going over a washed-out road, this she didn’t like.
And she closed her eyes and tried to not think about that time when she had been a young girl and she’d wandered too far from her parents’ home and down to the small creek that ran adjacent to the plantation.
She’d been playing in the water when it had begun to rain, but since there had been no lightning and it had been so hot and dry, Jeena had just stayed where she was and enjoyed not being hot for once.
It was then that a flash flood had ripped down the mountainside. She would have been swept away if she hadn’t gripped that low-growing palm. She’d held onto the trunk of that tree for what had felt like an eternity as the water had rushed past her, trying to snatch her away and wash her out to sea.
And she remembered the terror of it all.
The water that had rushed over her while she’d clung to life, while she’d tried to breathe and not take water into her lungs. The weariness of trying to stay afloat had begun to set in.
And then she remembered the strong arms of her father reaching down to pluck her from the swollen creek and into the safety of his arms.
She’d gotten into trouble, but not too much as her father had felt that she’d learned her lesson about doing dangerous things and not listening to them, but really she hadn’t learned her lesson. Not really.
And how had she repaid her parents?
She’d become involved with a prince of Kalyana, even though it was forbidden because he’d been destined to marry someone of his father’s choosing.
Her parents had got her out of the country to protect her. Lady Meleena had helped before’d she got engaged to Maazin a few years later. Her parents had lost everything.
They love Syman, though.
Still, she should’ve learned to curb her reckless ways that day she’d almost drowned and maybe then her parents would still be in Kalyana and she could’ve been here with the cyclone had hit and she could’ve been helping right from the start.
But you wouldn’t have Syman.
No. She wouldn’t have had Syman and for that she couldn’t regret her past mistakes. Even though she regretted everything about falling in love with a prince, there had been one bright spot to the whole thing and that was her son. And that thought made her feel guilty for wishing her mistakes away.
He was her world and she missed him. Especially at this moment when she could do with a smile and a hug. She really missed her son.
The van rocked, jolting thoughts of Syman out of her head. She gripped her seat as the van made its way through another washed-out section of the road. The rushing water caused the van to sway, but it wasn’t deep.
It was deep enough for Jeena’s pulse to thunder even more loudly in her ears and for beads of sweat to break across her brow. Her hands felt clammy as she dug her fingers into the upholstery of the seat.
She looked up and saw that Maazin was watching her in the rearview mirror. He looked concerned and she tried to shake it all off. The last thing she wanted was for Maazin to feel bad for her.
Or, worse, think that she couldn’t handle this, because she could.
Jeena looked away and the van carefully made its way through the water and back onto dry road as they made their way out of the capital city of Huban. Jeena took a deep breath of relief and glanced out of the window. She could see the palace rising in the distance. It had sustained some damage, but it still stood there, like a rock, reminding all the people of Kalyana that the country was still strong.
And a blowhard loud-mouthed king ruling them.
Well, not really. King Uttam might not be her favorite person in the world, but he wasn’t a terrible king. He was a fair ruler.
And she saw a lot of his stubbornness in Syman. When Syman set his mind to something, there was no convincing him otherwise. It made her laugh from time to time. At least Syman was strong.
He had a strong personality. One she hadn’t had until she’d had him and had worked her way through medical school.
