regret about what went on is that it now makes things difficult for you.’
‘And impossible for us,’ she said.
‘Not necessarily.’
‘Somehow I don’t think there’s going to be a solution here,’ she said, and it was a jibe at the faith he had that things would turn around.
But he remained calm.
‘Adele, it is better they know. Not yet, of course, but in the long run it is better than doing and saying nothing and marrying a neighbouring princess simply to appease him. I am not going to apologise for last night.’
His only regret was that Adele would be embarrassed and he would now do his best to handle that.
He left her on his bed and walked down the stairs towards his father’s office. He nodded to Samina, who was crying, and he gave a small nod to Bashir. He knew they would have done their best to cover for him and Adele.
One of the guards gave him a small grim smile of quiet support as he opened the door and admitted Zahir to face a very angry king and a rather strained queen.
Zahir returned the guard’s smile.
And then he stepped in and took charge.
‘We shall speak later,’ Zahir informed them by way of greeting. ‘Right now I am going to take Adele to the airport. Clearly it will be uncomfortable for her to remain here.’
‘You don’t even try to hide it,’ the King shouted in exasperation. ‘You don’t even attempt to come up with a polite excuse!’
Zahir’s response was calm. ‘I refuse to hide any more that I have feelings for Adele. I have been doing just that for the past year and it has got me nowhere. I have driven past her, drenched in a storm at a bus stop, and told myself I was right to do that, that it was essential to keep my emotions in check. I have ignored her, I have tried to remove myself from her and I refuse to do so any more.’
‘You have free rein in England,’ the King retorted angrily. ‘And I know full well that you and Dakan use every inch of it. You know not to bring those ways here.’ He looked at Leila and of course he now made it her fault. ‘Now, if there were still a harem none of this would have happened...’
‘This isn’t about sex!’ Zahir said.
And Leila blinked in confusion, not at what Zahir had just said but at his words before.
‘Zahir, I don’t understand,’ she admitted. ‘Why did you drive past her when she was drenched from a storm? I taught you better than that.’
He did not answer and Leila’s heart broke for her son as she realised the reason was a love that could never be.
Never, because she looked at Fatiq and he had become a stranger.
‘We shall leave by my private exit,’ Zahir said to his father. ‘There is no need for Adele to receive your disdain.’
He walked out.
‘I expected better from Zahir,’ Fatiq said.
‘Why?’ Leila retorted. ‘He is his father’s son. Remember how you used Bashir’s ladder to come to me after the selection ceremony because you could not wait for the wedding night?’
The King said nothing.
‘We had the biggest premature baby that this kingdom has ever seen,’ Leila now shouted. ‘Zahir’s shoulders nearly killed me and we had to smile and pretend he was small.’
‘At least we were betrothed.’
‘Barely,’ Leila snarled.
It had been the night of the selection ceremony that they had first made love and she had told him that night that if he wanted her then the harem was to be gone.
Fatiq had readily agreed.
They had known on sight they were in love, Leila thought.
Look at them now.
Oh, she ached for her son and Adele.
And she ached for herself and her husband too.
* * *
Zahir spoke with Samina and told her to pack Adele’s things and then to arrange to have them put in his car. He told Bashir to move Adele’s flight forward by a day.
Then he headed to his suite.
‘Should I go down and apologise?’ Adele asked.
‘No,’ he said. ‘You have nothing to apologise for.’
‘I’m her nurse!’
‘Adele, we didn’t exactly do it in a cupboard while she was breathing with the aid of a ventilator.’
That made her smile.
‘No,’ she admitted.
‘You were on holiday by then and she was away in another country, trying to sort out the disaster of her own relationship while I was working on mine.’
And he acknowledged then to Adele that he knew the trouble his parents’ marriage was in.
‘He’s so stubborn, so set in his ways...’
‘You’re not,’ Adele said. She had thought Zahir was at first, but she had seen how open he was to discussion and change and how calm he was under pressure and she loved him so very much.
‘I don’t know how to help them,’ Zahir said. ‘Every time I bring up change he gets angrier...’
‘Maybe he’s scared to be proved wrong.’
Zahir dismissed that.
‘He’s not scared of anything. Come on,’ he said. ‘We shall leave by my private exit.’
Except it was not so easy to leave quietly.
Samina came and informed Zahir that the Queen had requested that the car be bought to the main entrance and that the Queen wished to bid farewell to Adele herself.
‘Don’t apologise,’ Zahir told Adele again. ‘Not just because you have done nothing wrong but because it would acknowledge that something occurred.’
He saw her frown.
And now he smiled.
‘Just wish her well.’
Oh, Adele did.
She loved Leila very much; she was so much more than a patient to her.
If ever there was a walk of shame, though, this was one, Adele thought as she went down the palace steps with Zahir by her side.
The King was nowhere to be seen but a strained-looking
