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‘At times I can be,’ Maggie agreed, ‘though I cover it well. I’m still a walk in the park compared to him.’ Maggie sighed. ‘But sometimes...’ She thought about his smile and those rare bursts of laughter. How, when lying chatting with him on cushions or beneath the stars, how open he had been at times and how close to him she had felt.
And then she looked at the glass door and thought about the woman who had just walked through it.
No one would really know she was blind because she had once known the sun.
Just as Maggie had been born knowing love.
Oh, they were long-ago memories, and there were so many forgotten moments, but they came to her at times. Often when she was most fearful. That love she had known with Ilyas could turn a desert abode into a circus tent for a moment, and the thought of her mother’s smile or laughter could still soothe her.
Because she had known love.
Ilyas hadn’t.
He had been born to a world without love.
‘I don’t know how to contact him,’ Maggie fretted. ‘I don’t know if I should try to call or write.’
Flo screwed up her nose at both those ideas but then she brightened. ‘His brother’s at Dion’s tonight.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because Prince Hazin gets kicked out of there every Friday. It’s the reason they’re so popular now!’
Flo knew where all the rich and beautiful gathered!
Dion’s was a bar set within a very plush hotel. It had once been a place to gather for pre-theatre drinks. It was old-fashioned but lately had become oddly trendy—a sort of retro, fifties-style bar that now had people lining up to get in.
‘You’ve spoken to him before,’ Flo said. ‘Why don’t you go there tonight and tell Hazin that you need to speak with his brother?’
‘Oh, so I just walk in and tap him on the shoulder?’ Maggie said dryly. ‘I doubt he’ll even remember me. And, anyway, I’ll never get in.’
Dion’s was terribly exclusive and a playground for the seriously rich, but Flo knew one of the doormen and she knew what it took to get in.
‘Dress up!’ Flo said. ‘Wear black and leave your hair down and show some of that fabulous new cleavage. No one will be looking at your stomach!’ She waved away the exclusive entry requirements as if they were nothing more than a slight irritation but Maggie remained hesitant and shook her head.
‘I can’t.’
‘Of course you can—I’ll come with you.’
‘You’re working.’
‘I can be there by ten, unless I’m in with a delivery.’
‘I’ll never get in on my own.’
‘Then you’ll have to wait outside till I get there—I wouldn’t leave you mid-second-stage labour.’ Flo smiled and gathered her bag. ‘I’m an amazing midwife, you don’t know what you’re missing out on.’
And then she was gone, leaving Maggie with her head spinning.
She had wanted to talk to Flo about thepossibilityof letting Ilyas know.
Now she had an actual chance to.
Tonight.
* * *
Maggie showered and as she ran the soap over her stomach she felt the swell of the little life within. If nothing came of tonight, at least she could later say that she’d tried to make contact.
