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Did anyone believe for one single minute that the other woman had really come to Niroli because she was interested in using some of the fortune left to her by her elderly late husband to finance a hotel and spa complex at a desert oasis some miles from the capital city of Hadiya, and thus wanted to know more about the success of Niroli’s own resort? Or could they see right through what was so obviously a blatant plan on Kadir’s part to bring his m
istress to Niroli, even if publicly Zahra appeared to have arrived here under her own steam and on her own whim. To stay here permanently? Was it really only three months ago that the thought of her as-then-unmet husband having a mistress had been one she had accepted with calm equanimity? Natalia was forced to ask herself. How naïve she had been, and how very foolish.
King Giorgio was beckoning her over to join him. Forcing herself to smile as serenely as she could, Natalia made her way across the salon, dropping the king a deep formal curtsey before taking the seat he had waved her into.
‘It is good that Kadir intends to maintain good relations with Hadiya. As two nations we have much to offer one another and much to learn from one another.’
‘Prince Kadir is bound to feel a strong sense of allegiance towards the country of his birth, Your Highness,’ Natalia responded calmly.
‘That is indeed so, but Kadir’s home is here now, our customs his customs. I understand you met Zahra Rafiq on your honeymoon visit to Hadiya—is that so?’
‘Yes,’ Natalia agreed woodenly.
To her astonishment the king reached for her hand and squeezed it gently. ‘You are a good girl, Natalia, and I can see in your eyes and hear in your voice the pride you feel. That is only natural and right, of course, however—’ the king paused ‘—over the course of my lifetime I have perhaps made more than my fair share of mistakes, errors of judgement that my pride would not allow me to admit at the time, but which I now bear on my conscience even though it is not my habit to admit as much to others. Kadir is a very proud man. How could he not be when he is my son? As Niroli’s future King he will be all the things that I want him to be for Niroli, but even at my time of life, Natalia, there are surprises and unexpected discoveries. I had not thought, for instance, that I should love him so immediately and so very dearly. It is as though he has been a part of my heart from the beginning. It is through that love I bear him that I say to you now that I do not want him to suffer the unhappiness my own pride has sometimes caused me to suffer. I have seen the look in your eyes when you look at him when you think no one else is watching and I have seen too the way Kadir looks at you.’
Natalia could guess what the king was about to say.
‘Sir, you need have no fear that either of us will let you down,’ she assured him vehemently. ‘We are both committed to our duty to Niroli. I…I cannot speak, of course, for Kadir’s most private feelings but…’oh, how it tore at her heart to say that knowing those private feelings were given to Zahra ‘…but I know he will not allow them to come between him and that duty.’
Through his words, King Giorgio was making it clear that even he could see how much Kadir wished that he could have made Zahra his wife. It was more than Natalia could bear. Barely able to control her voice, she bowed her head and begged huskily, ‘Sir, if I might have your permission to retire…’
‘Your wife is leaving,’ Zahra told Kadir with obvious triumph. She smiled up at him provocatively and stroked the sleeve of his jacket with her fingertips.
‘Zahra, you should not have come here to Niroli,’ Kadir told her wryly.
‘How can you say that when I can see how much you need me?’ she reproached him.
Kadir shook his head reprovingly. He had not been at all pleased when Zahra had presented herself at the palace claiming to officials that they were close friends, and insisting to him that all she wanted to do was to make use of the new trade opportunities opening up between the two countries. She’d said she’d wanted to remain his friend, but when he had taxed her with it Zahra had been so sweetly insistent that she fully understood that their relationship was over, whilst begging him not to be cruel to her and send her away, that Kadir had felt reluctantly compelled to allow her to stay, at least until her business negotiations were completed.
‘I know now I should find someone else, Kadir,’ she was telling him softly now. ‘But how can I when you are the only man I want, and the only man I could ever want? I could never be your Queen, I know that now, but foolishly my heart can’t help hoping that you might find a small place in your life for me, even if it is only that of a trusted and discreet friend with whom you can spend a few precious hours relaxing.’
‘This is foolish talk, Zahra, and you know it.’ Kadir had to stop her. ‘I am a married man now with a country to rule and an example to set to my people.’
‘But you need me, Kadir. We are destined to be together. We would be together if it wasn’t for the meddling of your mother. It was only when that fool, your mother, revealed her lies to you that you put me to one side. Until then—’
‘Enough! I will not hear you speak of my mother so. You forget that she was your Queen.’ He was not going to let Zahra make him feel guilty about ending their relationship. He had hardly been her first lover, after all, and he’d always made the boundaries of their relationship clear. It had surprised him that his mother should have disliked her so intensely.
‘Your mother betrayed her husband; she was not fit to be Queen.’
‘That is enough!’
‘She claimed the sheikh as your father when he was not,’ Zahra continued ignoring him.
‘You forget that she was little more than a child when she made the decision to conceal my conception from her husband.’ What was he doing defending his mother, and, worse, echoing Natalia’s passionate arguments to him? Kadir didn’t know. All he did know was that Zahra’s unexpectedly venomously angry criticism of his mother had filled him with a desire to protect his mother from her.
‘Kadir, why are we quarrelling like this when we could be doing something so much more pleasurable?’
This was the Zahra Kadir knew, a wickedly provocative, wholly sensual woman, who knew very well how to please a man in bed.
But who left him cold emotionally?
Kadir shook both thoughts away. No matter what their relationship might have been in the past, there was no place here in his present or his future for it, and he had made that plain to Zahra from the moment he’d known he wanted to take up his father’s offer to succeed him to the throne of Niroli.
‘You should not have come here,’ he repeated firmly. ‘You must return to Hadiya; I think you already know that.’
She was looking away from him so that Kadir did not see the flash of fury in her eyes as she bent her head and said submissively, ‘Of course, as you wish, Kadir.’
It was unthinkable that Kadir should break with protocol here in the palace at this semi formal gathering of court officials and cause unwanted gossip by openly rejecting Zahra in front of everyone, but he still couldn’t stop himself from removing her hand from his arm and stepping away from her.
