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‘Call everyone off!’ Zakari delivered his orders through his mouthpiece. ‘Hassan, turn off the beam.’
It did pass…
Effie could hear the bark of dogs in the faraway distance, could hear the chopper, and see its beam of light as it scoured the desert for its jewel.
He could have it.
Taking off the necklace, she held it in her palm ready to hand to him.
She could feel the blizzard of sand whipping her cheeks as it landed, and she held the jewel to her heart one final time as Zakari approached, not once looking up as she willed the desert to tell her what she should do.
‘Does she have to know?’ Effie didn’t look over as he sat down beside her. ‘If I give you the stone, if I stay as your wife, if we carry on as before…’
‘We can’t carry on as before,’ Zakari said. ‘If there is one thing I have learnt these past weeks, it is that the truth always catches up.’
‘I can’t do it to Queen Tia,’ Effie whispered. ‘I meant it when I said I was going, but when I think of her…’
‘You are a gentle, kind person,’ Zakari said. ‘That is why this is all so hard for you.’
‘And I couldn’t stay in the palace with you,’ Effie said, shaking her head at the hopelessness of it all, ‘but if that is my duty…’
‘Forget duty,’ Zakari said, for the first time in his life. Shocked at his statement, Effie turned and looked at him. ‘Forget duty and protocol, for a moment at least… Here in the desert, truth can be revealed.’
‘Take it.’ Effie held out her hand and opened it. ‘Please, just take it.’
Which he did.
He took the stone he had so desperately searched for, took the power and the revenge he had craved, and without hesitation held it up to her neck, fiddled with the clasp for a moment, till the stone hung heavy and beautiful where it belonged.
‘I could rule alone, but I know I will rule more wisely with you—with the kind, sweet and sexy woman that you are beside me.’ He gave her a rare smile, and it wasn’t mocking; it was nothing but gentle. ‘Kings do not make their maids coffee,’ Zakari said, ‘no matter how bitterly they cry. Do you remember that, Effie?’
‘Of course I do.’
‘Kings do not speak of their fears and grief with servants or with anyone… I realise that I loved you then as I love you now.’
Still she shook her head.
‘Kings do not make love to maids. They have sex…’ with one shrug of those wide shoulders he dismissed every previous encounter, discounted them all as realisation hit ‘…but they do not make love.’ For the first time he held her, placed his arm around her shoulder and pulled her cold body into him. ‘Even if I didn’t know it at the time, we made love that night, Effie.’
How she wanted to believe him.
And how scared she was to believe him.
‘When I brought you back to the palace, my aides said that I did not have to marry you, that we could retrieve the stone, that you would have no choice but to hand it back. They said that it hadn’t been Aegeus’s to give to your mother—everyone was delighted, everyone except me. So I told them I had slept with you.’
‘You told them.’ Effie winced into his chest.
‘That was not a problem apparently…’ he held her tight, spoke into her hair, stroked and soothed her shivering, trembling body ‘…until I revealed that I had not used protection. That you might be carrying my child.’
‘I wasn’t, though.’
‘I did not want to wait to find out,’ Zakari said, ‘because then you might go.’ His proud, liquid-smooth voice faltered for a moment. ‘I did not want to lose you. I thought this way I could keep you. Except you do not want to be kept, do you?’
He closed his eyes in bliss as her head shook on his chest. Here was the one woman in the world who loved him for him, not for his title, but in spite of it.
‘You really would live in a tent, wouldn’t you?’
‘I’d prefer your luxury tent, though…’ for the first time since their wedding night she let out a giggle, and it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard ‘…rather than the one I had in mind, but, yes, Zakari—if I believed you loved me, I’d move to the end of the earth to be with you.’
‘Why don’t I take you now to my tent?’ Zakari lifted her chin till she looked at him. ‘Why don’t we go there now, and we will stay for however long it takes for me to convince you that I love you?’
‘We can’t.’ Effie gave a shocked gasp. Oh, it sounded wonderful, but it was impossible all the same. ‘We have to sort things out—what we are going to do, how we will tell Queen Tia…’ Her heart quickened with the horror of all that lay ahead, and then he kissed her, this slow, measured kiss that was so tender, and so utterly loaded with love, they didn’t need to hide away till he convinced her, because he already had.
‘I have the marriage certificate with me,’ Zakari said. ‘No one is going to find out just yet… We will work it out together. For the first time in my life, duty can wait. Have you any idea how good it feels to say that?’
‘Have you any idea how good it feels to hear it?’ Effie said. ‘So,’ she teased him with a smile, ‘if we do go to your tent, tell me again, how are you going to convince me that you love me?’
‘A bit like this…’ He kissed her again, laid her down on the sand, and kissed her harder this time, then he pulled back.
‘That’s not very convincing,’ Effie grumbled, because if he did love her, if he really, really loved her, then surely he should be making glorious love to her right here and now. She was playing with the buttons on his shirt, so she could get right to that sexy chest, to feel the skin that she had craved for so long… ‘Make love to me, Zakari…’
‘Of course.’ He smiled down at her, his lips parting as he gave her the smile that would for ever melt her heart. ‘But should I tell Hassan to return in a little while, or just hope he averts his eyes?’
‘Ow!’
He loved that she blushed, loved that she forgot about staff and protocol, that she could push it all aside at times, to get to what really mattered.
‘Come on, you.’ He stood up and brushed himself down, then offered her his hands and pulled her up beside him. Then he held her hand as they walked towards the helicopter. ‘Our tent awaits.’
EPILOGUE
EFFIE stared out of the vast windows, to the infinity pool that stretched into the rough waters that linked the two islands and beyond to Calista.
Shaking with nerves, somehow she was poised as her king entered, the maids who had bathed, oiled and dressed her dispersing as Zakari walked in dressed in full military uniform. He cut an imposing figure, but unlike her wedding day, her nerves were not for him, but for the huge commitment she would undertake today.
‘You look beautiful.’
She did…standing in the very room in which she undoubtedly had been conceived, Effie tried to comprehend all that had happened over these past few months. In the seven months since their marriage the hate Zakari had borne for Aegeus had been diminished by his love for his bride.
Alex’s coronation had been scheduled for January, but with all that had taken place, and the adjustments that had needed to be made, Effie’s coronation had been set for May.
The eighteenth of May, as it turned out.
The anniversary of her parents’ marriage.
She was wearing a floor-length golden gown, finely woven strands of golden silk making a stunning emphasis of her curves. Each curl of her hair had been painstakingly attended to by her favourite hairdresser, her hair loosely but, oh, so carefully piled on top of her head, while the occasional ringlet that had been threaded with a single strand of gold silk tumbled down.
‘Beauty will not make me a wise ruler.’ She stared down at the letter she was holding. ‘It is from Sebastian and Cassie.’ Effie swallowed hard, butterflies dancing in her chest as she contemplated all she was taking on. ‘He was groomed to be King. This should have been his day. How can I possibly do it better than him?’
‘It is your birthright, whether you like it or not,’ Zakari said gently. ‘I have struggled with the same question, but from a different angle. I was not born to be King and yet, I am. Sometimes life takes a turn and all we can do is follow the new path.’
‘Oh!’ Effie blinked in surprise. ‘That is what Sebastian said. You two are quite similar in your views.’
‘I always thought so too. I always admired Sebastian,’ Zakari said. ‘Though I felt I should be ruler, still I admired him, still I knew he would rule well. And while I thought we shared the same views, I did not understand why he would renounce the throne for love. I never thought I would understand it.’ He stared over at Effie, love blazing in his haughty proud face as he gazed at his lover, his wife and his Queen and knew then that the former two were the ones that mattered most. ‘I do now.’
As Effie handed him the letter he read it carefully without comment, before folding it up and handing it back to her.
‘He sounds very happy.’
