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‘Really?’
He made a sound of agreement. ‘Over there—’ he gestured with his hand, so she followed the gesture ‘—you can see the relics of the throne.’
And indeed, she could. It was made of marble, only a leg remained, but it was cordoned off, as though it were an object of great value. ‘The walls provided defence—from enemies and sandstorms that are rife in this region.’
She looked around the courtyard with renewed interest, making a mental note to come back and study it in more detail in daylight.
‘Where is your court now?’
‘I have an office,’ he responded with a smile that was lightly teasing. Her belly flopped. ‘Here, at the palace, and one in the city. There are state rooms for conducting the rukbar.’
‘What’s the rukbar?’ She repeated the foreign-sounding word, imitating his accent.
‘Very good.’
His approval warmed her.
‘Literally translated, it means “relief”. It is a day each month when the palace doors are thrown open and anyone, regardless of their wealth and stature, may come to the palace.’
‘What for?’
‘To eat and be seen.’ His smile deepened, and a kaleidoscope of butterflies launched itself through her belly. ‘The tradition began in my great-grandfather’s day, when poverty and famine were crippling in this country. The palace provided a banquet for any who could make it, and, more than this, he sat in and listened to people’s needs from dawn until nightfall, helping where he could.’
Daisy had slowed down without realising it. Sariq shifted, moving her with him. ‘You still do this?’
He dipped his head in silent agreement.
‘How do you help people?’
‘It varies. Sometimes it’s a question of a child not being able to get into school, in which case Malik has the education secretary look into matters. Other times, it’s a family where the father has died and the mother cannot work, in which case we grant a stipend to help support her.’ He lifted his shoulders in a gesture of nonchalance but there was an expression in his face that robbed Daisy of breath. ‘In Haleth, you would never have struggled as you have.’
Daisy’s feet stopped obeying her altogether. She was moving purely under Sariq’s guidance. ‘No?’
‘No.’ He lifted a hand, brushing his fingertips across her cheek as though he couldn’t help himself. ‘Here in Haleth, you would have come to me and I would have had Max held for questioning before he could “lose” your money.’
‘Just like that?’
‘Just like that.’
Her smile was lopsided. ‘So you’re the knight in shining armour for every distressed person in Haleth?’
‘It’s not possible to help everyone. We have social security agencies in place but the rukbar provides a catch-all. An additional layer for the people.’ He paused. ‘The RKH is a phenomenally wealthy country. Distributing wealth wisely is one of the purviews of my role, and I intend to see the resources of this country benefit the people of the land.’
She felt the strength of his convictions and understood. She knew what his position meant to him. Admiration shifted inside her, and it brought with it a dark sense of foreboding. She didn’t want to admire him; she didn’t want to like him. But dancing beneath the stars in the arms of the man she’d married, Daisy felt as though a spell were being cast, and there was no antidote to it.
Sariq didn’t believe in fate. He didn’t believe in destiny. But dancing with his wife in the ancient courtyard, beneath a blanket of stars, he knew one thing: there was perfection in how they fitted together. Not only in the physical sense, but, more than that, in the way they thought.
He liked speaking with her. He liked hearing her thoughts, her answers. She fascinated him and intrigued him, and it was easy to see how he could become addicted to that.
‘I’d like to see it.’
He didn’t follow.
‘The rukbar.’
Hearing her use his ancient language was an aphrodisiac. He kept moving, careful not to display the effect she had on him, even as his body was stirring to the beat of an ancient drum.
‘It convenes in one week. I will advise Malik you shall join me.’
