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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THEPALACEFELTlike a mausoleum after she had gone. Ilyas went to his office and stood looking out of the vast windows that offered panoramic views.
He looked not to the desert, or to the ocean, or to the city spread out beneath him.
Instead, he looked to the sky and wondered if every plane that flashed silver above might be the one that carried her.
‘Your Highness.’ Mahmoud came in just before twelve. ‘It is almost midday.’
‘So?’
‘The deadline.’
‘Ah, yes.’
But it was not the blackmailer’s deadline that Mahmoud was here to warn him of.
Ilyas had many people working behind the scenes, and at five minutes after twelve he was duly told that the group who had been threatening the palace had been arrested.
That night, the contents of the tapes were revealed. Mahmoud and the detectives were mightily relieved that they, in fact, contained nothing, but as Ilyas reviewed them, his wretched emotions had nothing to do with the clear proof nothing had happened.
He saw, but could not hear, the conversation.
How she laughed but never cried and how, away from the palace, just how much more relaxed Hazin appeared.
And then, because he had to, Ilyas set to work.
* * *
In the coming months Ilyas threw himself into his plans and his problems and worked harder than he ever had.
He was away more often than not, though he avoided Europe and particularly London.
There was much to be done!
When home, he still visited thehammam, but the velvet cord remained unused, for the focus of his desire remained Maggie, and even a sky full of stars seemed empty when gazed upon without her.
There was plenty to keep him busy, though.
Hazin and his latest escapades, for one.
His brother was like black confetti, gracing the covers of magazines with tell-all tales of the Bachelor Prince who would not be tamed.
And, despite Ilyas’s efforts to speak with him, his brother refused to meet. As well as that, Hazin had point-blank refused the king’s final demand to return home.
Ilyas left thehammamjust close to sunrise.
He walked up the steps until the bedrock changed to marble and then he went and prayed.
After that, he called for his dresser and then, alone, he checked his reflection.
He looked as he always looked.
And then he looked out at the desert and it too looked the same.
Ilyas picked up a stone from the dresser and placed it into his deep pocket, and as he left the room he gave it a rare backward glance.
Ilyas walked down a long hallway on his way to a meeting with his father and paused to look at the huge portrait of Hazin and Petra on their wedding day.
