have a family dinner to attend after the portrait,’ Kedah said. ‘Your meal shall be served to you at your desk. Just call through with your order. We should fly out around midnight,’ he told her. ‘You’ll be home by morning.’
But tomorrow was a day too late, Felicia thought.
If only this visit had been arranged for yesterday...if only she could have held out for a couple more days... Then she wouldn’t be feeling as she did now.
She looked at the portraits of the men who had come before him. They were dressed in robes of black or white and the familiar chequered headwear. Kedah wore a gorgeous silken robe and an embroidered coat.
Somehow, even traditionally dressed, he made a statement.
‘You’re going to stand out amongst the others,’ she said.
‘I always do,’ he answered, and looked at the portraits of his father and grandfather. The fact that he dressed differently had little to do with it. ‘I don’t look like any of them.’
He walked off and Felicia stood there, frowning—not at what he had said, more at the way he had said it.
She knew she was already in too deep, yet as she looked up at the portraits he dragged her in ever deeper.
She was beginning to understand.
* * *
Kedah stood for his portrait.
The artist was indeed ancient, and it was hard to believe that those shaky hands could produce something so beautiful.
‘I have painted your grandfather, your father, and now you,’ the old man said as he added the final touches. ‘I hope to paint the next Crown Prince.’
‘It might be Crown Princess,’ Kedah answered. He was bored from standing so long, and ready for a little disagreement, but the old man just smiled at the provocation.
‘That is something to stay alive just to see.’
Yes, Kedah thought, the people really were ready for change.
The painting had been done over many sessions and Kedah, who hated to be still for more than a moment, had found the entire process excruciating.
‘Just turn your face a little to the left,’ the old man said. ‘And look out to the desert.’ The sky was orange and he wanted it to light the gold flecks in Kedah’s eyes.
And so Kedah sighed and stared out to the desert. No wonder the portraits were of men looking stern, Kedah thought as he dwelt on his problems and pondered again discussing things with Felicia.
A woman’s view on things might help, and she might know better how to broach the subject with his mother.
And, given her own family and her job, if there was anyone who would not be shocked by an illicit affair it was Felicia.
But could he trust her?
Yes.
It was a revelation, for since the day he had discovered his mother and Abdal his childhood innocence had faded and trust had rapidly left his heart.
He had thought it gone for good, but now he looked back on his time with her and their conversations. He remembered sitting in the restaurant as she’d revealed the dark part of her heart, and then smiled as he recalled her forthright observations about his hotels.
And then he remembered her lying in his arms, and how close he had come to confiding in her.
Then he thought of her beauty today.
The sun was setting and the desert fired red in the distance as the old man put down his brush and his work was finally done.
‘Would you care to see it, Your Highness?’ he offered, but Kedah shook his head.
‘I shall wait until it is framed,’ Kedah told him.
He did not want to stare upon the truth.
THEIR DEPARTING FLIGHT from Zazinia was very different from their outward flight. Despite the pilot’s best efforts to climb above it, turbulence carried them home.
Kedah tapped his diamond, cursing the missed opportunity with his mother, and Felicia looked out of the window to the seemingly black lake of desert below. She was still angry about being ignored and dining at her desk alone, while cross with herself for expecting it could be any other way.
As they bumped through the sky she decided to try to do some work and put on her headphones. She would look at the presentation that she had been asked to send to Hussain. But, without thinking, she opened the file in the first email that Kedah had sent her.
Realising it was the one he had sent in error—the one he had told her to delete—she was about to exit from it when she paused.
She had sat through a lot of presentations these past weeks. She had expected to see a proposal for the Dubai hotel and the walkway, and to label a few files, but instead she saw magic.
It was Zazinia, she quickly realised.
It was Kedah’s vision of Zazinia.
With each passing frame the bare skyline was filled with graceful buildings, and each was a work of art in itself. Instead of gleaming silver or gold with mirrored windows, the buildings blended with the ancient surrounds. There were delicate artistic murals on the walls that faced the palace, and the city spread gently outwards rather than up. There were carefully thought out roads, railways and bridges to link communities, while the desert retained its remote beauty.
He had poured everything into this, Felicia knew.
It was a life’s work in the making.
And she knew he had never meant her to see it.
She snapped off the presentation and then looked over. His eyes were waiting for hers to meet his. She pulled her earphones off, wondering if he somehow knew what she had just seen.
The truth proved to be just as disconcerting, and it troubled her how deeply he could bore into her heart.
‘I apologise for the way I treated you back at the palace.’
Despite being strapped in, she almost fell off her chair in surprise. The apology jolted her, even if her expression barely faltered.
‘I have never brought a woman there. Colleagues, of course, but...’ He gave a tense shake of his head. ‘If there had been even a hint that we were involved then it could have made things awkward for you. I didn’t handle it well.’
Please don’t be nice, Felicia thought, because her feelings were so much easier to deal with when she was cross.
‘Well, it’s done now.’ She shrugged. ‘And I shan’t be back there again.’
‘I
