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But to Maggie’s relief, as she stepped out of the building she saw her uncle standing there, supervising his equipment being loaded into a black town car.
“Uncle Willy!”
“Ahh, there you are, my dear!” He smiled at her, his gray wispy hair standing up on end. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“You can’t lose me. I’m a boomerang.”
He let out a bark of laughter the way she knew he would. She wrapped an arm around his, squeezing it and taking in his scent.
Bergamot.
To her, it was the smell of acceptance. Of love.
Her family loved her, she knew they did. But there was always this sense of disappointment from them.
She’d let them down. And it seemed that she kept doing it.
Uncle Willy was the only one who had never made her feel bad. And she adored him for it.
That was why she’d taken this job. To look after him.
Well, that, and so she could move out of her parents’ house. At twenty-five, she needed her own space.
“Isn’t it stunning, my dear?” Uncle Willy said.
She glanced around. There wasn’t much out here but the airport and desert.
But yeah . . . she could see what he meant.
“My Lia, she loved it here. Said she couldn’t breathe in England. The air was too heavy, too cold. The family didn’t like it when I moved to live here to live with her. But how could I make her live somewhere she couldn’t breathe?”
That hit her harder than it should.
How many years had she been unable to breathe?
For as long as she could remember.
So she got how Aunt Lia had felt even though she’d never met the other woman because her mother had felt like her aunt had stolen Uncle Willy from the family.
But it was clear to see how much he loved her. So much so that in all the years since she’d died, he’d been unable to come back here.
“Let’s get in the car, yeah, Uncle Willy? Go to our room and have a cup of tea.”
“Cup of tea, you say? Yes, I could do with a cup of tea. Isn’t much a good cuppa can’t fix.”
She had to grin. That was his favorite saying.
As she turned to the car, she saw the stony-faced customs officer from before. Actually, no, he wasn’t. He was part of the palace security team.
Ian.
He’d grilled her on the rules and left her uncle waiting for her. Worried about where she was.
She glared at him.
He just raised an eyebrow. Arrogant cockmonkey.
“We’d like to go to our accommodations now,” she told him. “If you’re finally finished with all this over-the-top security bullshit.”
