sorry that I couldn’t tell you.’
‘No, I respect that you didn’t,’ Zahir said. ‘I know that you think my father must be mad but...’
‘It must be so difficult for him,’ Adele broke in.
Her response surprised Zahir but Adele had given it a lot of thought. ‘The one time your mother stepped outside tradition he lost his son.’
He thought about that as Adele went to bathe.
She came back pink and dressed in a silver robe and neither wanted to leave, so they lingered over breakfast.
She drank a lovely infusion of hot lemon and mint and they ate sweet cakes and he saw that she was holding back tears.
‘It isn’t over,’ he said. ‘We have tonight. You will be in my bed back at the palace.’
She shook her head.
‘The staff aren’t going to say anything. They are good people and we will be discreet. My parents won’t find out for ages and I am fully prepared for that.’
It wasn’t that so much that troubled her.
It was the next day when she went home.
FOR LEILA THE hope that a weekend break might help her marriage soon faded.
And being away from home had been more tiring than she had anticipated.
In the morning, unable to face another day and night smiling and being gracious, she asked Fatiq to make their excuses and to fly them home.
‘That is impolite,’ Fatiq told her.
‘I don’t care,’ she said.
Leila was through with being polite.
Fatiq had strode into the palace, not best pleased.
‘Inform Zahir that I am back.’
And Bashir knew, because whispers had swirled through the palace, that Zahir was not here and neither was Adele.
Neither was the pilot who had taken them into the desert yesterday afternoon.
‘I believe that Zahir is out,’ Bashir said.
‘Where is he?’ Fatiq demanded.
Bashir did not answer.
Leila certainly did not need to know where their son was—he was a man after all.
‘I am going to have some tea and then lie down,’ she said. ‘Bashir, would you have Samina disturb Adele and ask her to come and see me.’
Leila had the most terrible headache and it had been a strained time away with Fatiq.
‘Of course,’ Bashir said.
Oh, they delayed and played for time, and by the time the Queen had taken some morning tea and was slowly climbing the stairs, Samina came to her with the answer.
‘Your Highness, Adele is not in her wing.’
‘Where is...?’
And the Queen stopped herself from asking the question when she saw the conflict in Samina’s eyes.
‘Actually, don’t trouble Adele.’ She knew. ‘I gave her the weekend off.’
‘Where is the nurse?’ Fatiq was coming up the stairs behind his wife.
‘She likes to walk on the beach,’ Bashir said.
Poor Bashir did his best too.
But the King was no fool. He climbed the stairs right up to the turret and looked out at the splendid view and then came back down.
‘Where is the Crown Prince?’ Fatiq asked. ‘He needs to be informed that I am back.’
Bashir was sweating and Samina’s eyes were wide as he answered the King.
‘I believe that Zahir has gone to the desert abode.’
‘Fetch Queen Leila’s nurse,’ the King said in a voice that had even the little hummingbird hovering at the fountain falter.
Oh, Leila would not be getting her lie-down!
‘You are dismissed for now,’ she said to Bashir, rather than have him answer that Adele too was at the desert abode, and she followed her husband back down and into his office.
‘He took her to the desert!’ an enraged Fatiq said to his wife as soon as they were alone.
‘Adele always said that she wanted to see it. Perhaps he is giving her a tour. There might have been a sandstorm.’
The King gave a derisive snort, which told Leila what he thought of that. ‘The palace staff are embarrassed. Thanks to your nurse—’
‘My nurse,’ Leila interrupted, ‘saved me from embarrassment.’
She was angry too but she was also conflicted.
Zahir always kept to the rules.
Now, were it Dakan who was home she might have been better prepared for such goings-on.
But Zahir?
A short while later there was the sound of the helicopter and they stood at the window and watched it descend.
Leila watched the helicopter land on the lawn and saw Zahir and Adele disembark.
They were relaxed and laughing and there had been no sandstorm, neither had this been an innocent tour.
They were lovers, she could see that it was so, and so too could Fatiq.
And then Zahir must have seen the royal jet for he stilled and put a protective arm around Adele.
The King sucked in his breath at the public display of affection.
Leila watched as Adele startled and turned as if to run.
‘My parents are here,’ Zahir told her.
‘They can’t find out.’
He looked up at the office window.
They already have.’ He took charge immediately. ‘Come. We will go in by my private entrance and I shall take you this morning to the airport myself. You don’t have to face them.’
Adele had never even set foot in his wing.
And now she sat on his bed with her head in her hands and she felt mortified.
‘Can
