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‘I took a wrong turn!’
‘There are things you should never see!’ The maiden smiled now.
And then, after hours of being pampered, her wonderful spa was over.
Oh, she could happily live like this for ever, Maggie thought as she was taken back to her suite by Kumu.
Kumu told her she was married and had a daughter and that her husband worked in the palace too.
‘Do you like working here?’
It was, Maggie had first assumed, a natural question, but even as it left her lips she realised she had crossed a line as Kumu tensed and paused before answering carefully.
‘Of course,’ Kumu responded stiffly. ‘I love to work.’
It was an evasive response to a question that Maggie should not have asked, and she could have kicked herself for her insensitivity—for of course Kumu was in no position to answer honestly.
It was actually a relief when there was a knock on the door and a light supper was wheeled in.
‘I shall leave you now,’ Kumu said. ‘You shall sleep well after your time in thehammam, and I shall come and wake you up early so that you can be at the airport in plenty of time for your flight. I shall do your hair...’
‘I don’t need to have my hair done to fly.’
But Kumu was insistent.
‘Thank you,’ Maggie said as Kumu headed for the door. ‘It really has been a wonderful day.’
It had been and Kumu was right, she was tired from thehammam, but, having eaten her supper, when there was nothing for Maggie to do but rest, she found that she could not.
She went out onto the balcony and watched the most stunning sunset—a massive ball of orange swallowed by the fiery sands. Finally, stars were emerging in the Zayrinian sky.
Not just stars but, as the night sky darkened, constellations and even a galaxy emerged—a misty swirl of mossy green, gold and lilacs.
There was barely a breath of wind, and the desert looked so still as the sky moved above it. Even though it grew cold, she did not care.
She would never see the sky like this again, Maggie knew.
Even if she returned some time in the future, even if she could afford the very best tour, she would never stand on a balcony as if on the edge of the world, bathed in the light of a trillion stars.
And, after their brief farewell tomorrow, she would never seehimagain.
Maggie loathed that they had ended on a row.
Oh, they had put animosity on hold a little when they had returned to the palace, but the harsh words exchanged before still hummed in her head and she held her palm and remembered the stinging blow she had delivered.
They were both better than that, Maggie knew.
It was not how they should end.
Maggie looked at the time and saw that it was after midnight.
In a few short hours, Kumu would be here to wake her up. Maggie knew that she should try to get some sleep but even as she lay on the bed she knew there was no chance of that.
There was the ache of need and the pull of desire that had her climbing out of bed.
She put on her bikini and marvelled at the smoothness of her skin from her afternoon in thehammam. She covered herself with the small wrap towel.
Maggie knew that she should not be considering trying to find Ilyas, yet she decided that if caught, she would simply say that she had decided to go for a swim.
But there was another reason that she should not be venturing here, Maggie knew as she negotiated the ancient labyrinth that ran beneath the palace.
She might not like what she found when she got there!
