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‘Kulal...’ she said warningly.
‘I’ve never talked to anyone the way I talk to you,’ he continued. ‘About mountains and spiders and—’
‘Don’t you dare try to smooth-talk me with sentimentality, Kulal Al Diya,’ she said, her voice cracking a little.
‘You did the best thing for our baby by agreeing to marry me and then you tried to be the best wife you possibly could,’ he forged on. ‘And I threw it all back in your face.’
‘Well, yes,’ she whispered, turning back to face him, and he was startled by the bright glitter of unshed tears in her eyes. ‘You did.’
‘Everything you accused me of was correct, but the one accusation which will not stand is the strength of my feelings for you—and I guess that time is the only thing which will prove that. That is, if you give me the gift of time.’ His gaze was very steady as he looked at her. ‘Because I would like the chance to prove I can be the kind of husband you deserve. The kind of father I pray I can be. And the kind of lover who never stops making you sigh with pleasure. The chance to show you how very much I love you. Will you give me that chance, Hannah?’
For a moment, Hannah couldn’t answer because the emotion which was catching in her throat didn’t allow her to. She recognised that this was a moment of real power and she tried to think about all the conditions she could demand of him.
But if she turned it around and thought of this as equality rather than power, it meant that she must do this without condition. To take him at his word. She had to trust him. It was a risk, but one she had to take. Because without trust, you could have nothing. No love and no real future.
Her voice was wobbling and the tears she seemed to have been holding back for so long began to stream down her cheeks like rivers. But that didn’t matter. Nothing mattered other than the sure-fire certainty which pumped through her veins as she went into his open arms. ‘Yes,’ she whispered simply, her voice a little faint as she pressed her lips against his own wet cheek. ‘I will give you that chance because I love you, Kulal—and deep down I know I always will.’
EPILOGUE
‘I CAN’T BELIEVE you didn’t tell me.’
Kulal turned back from the balustrade, where he had been standing watching the fiery sun sink slowly into the Murjaan Sea—a stunning spectacle indeed, but one which did not come close to competing with his wife’s natural beauty. He gazed at her in a moment of grate
ful contemplation. The rose-gold light gilded her hair and cast shadows which emphasised the soft delicacy of her features.
‘Tell you what?’ he said as he walked over to where Hannah sat on the swinging hammock she had installed on the veranda of their beachside palace. But Kulal already knew the answer to his own question and so did Hannah. Just as he knew she must have a special reason for asking it again, and now.
‘That girls were not allowed by law to inherit the Zahristan crown. That in order to accede to the throne, the child must be a boy.’
He smiled as he sat down beside her, taking her hand in his and beginning to massage it. ‘And would it have made a difference in your decision to marry me?’ he mused. ‘If you had known, would you have insisted on waiting until the birth to discover if we were having a boy or a girl?’
Deep in love, Hannah smiled back. ‘Of course it wouldn’t,’ she said. ‘But I thought that having an heir was the main reason you wanted me to be your bride.’
‘So did I,’ he admitted, lifting her hand to his lips and kissing each finger almost reflectively. ‘But there was obviously something immensely powerful burning between us, which had been there from the start. I guess I was too much of an emotional coward to admit it at the time—even to myself.’
‘Not any more, though?’ she questioned, her eyes glinting with mischief.
He met her moonlit gaze and shook his head. ‘No, Hannah. Not any more.’
‘And you’re sure you don’t want to have any more children, my darling? To try for a boy? Because I am quite willing to do that.’
So that was the reason she had brought it up. Kulal shook his head. ‘No, my love. Four children is quite enough.’
‘But—’
‘But, yes,’ he insisted softly, drawing her closer. ‘I’m blissfully happy with my four daughters. Fate has not given us a son and I accept that. I am not risking your life in pursuit of a crown.’
Wordlessly, Hannah nodded. It had been an eventful time since they had been married—three glorious years which had been filled with both joy and fear. But life was like that, she realised, and they had faced those fears together and shared their joy until their hearts had felt fit to burst. It had been after the birth of their first daughter that Kulal had told her only a boy child could inherit the Zahristanian throne. They had wanted more children anyway, but Hannah had conceived far more quickly than either of them had anticipated. The birth of girl triplets had thrilled them immeasurably, but Hannah had almost died during the delivery and Kulal had asked her very sternly that for their children’s sake—and his—could they now call their family complete?
‘But who will inherit the throne?’ she’d asked, with the sincerity of someone who felt a deep and enduring loyalty towards their adopted homeland.
Kulal’s response had been a shrug which had convinced Hannah that he really didn’t care. ‘It will pass down to my cousin,’ he said. ‘Who is a good man. That’s if my brother doesn’t produce an heir in the meantime, which seems unlikely.’
‘You don’t care that your offspring will miss out on their inheritance?’
And she had cried when Kulal had smiled and shaken his head. ‘The only thing I care about is you and my family, my dearest love.’
Hannah had met Haydar at last. Her husband’s non-identical twin had finally returned to Zahristan for the celebrations marking the birth of the triplets. He was a charismatic but very silent man, Hannah remembered thinking—with a stillness about him which reminded her of one of Kulal’s desert falcons just before it took flight. She’d wanted to take him in her arms and give him a sisterly hug of welcome, but hadn’t dared. She’d thought how closed-off he seemed and had wondered if introducing him to a lovely woman might break down some of that shuttered reserve. But she wouldn’t dare do that either. Because you couldn’t dictate to your siblings how they should live their lives. And what made her think she knew better than anyone else, when she’d made her own share of mistakes in the past?
