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Foolishly perhaps, she looked out of a window and saw the streets below, all lined with people awaiting their first glimpse of the married couple and their first sighting of her when they came out onto the balcony.
Maggie ran a hand over her stomach, which seemed so much bigger than when Ilyas had left. She looked down at the waiting people and knew they would soon find out about the pregnancy, and she was nervous what their reaction would be. Maggie didn’t want drama and negativity to surround her son before he was even born.
A cheer went up as a car drove towards the palace and Kumu told her that it was a neighbouring country’s king and queen arriving.
‘Has Prince Hazin made it yet?’ Maggie asked, for she had heard he was causing his usual brand of chaos.
‘I don’t think so,’ Kumu said, and rolled her eyes. ‘There will be trouble for him if he isn’t here soon.’ Then she smiled. ‘But no trouble for you. All you have to do today is smile.’
‘I will,’ Maggie said. She wished she could calm her fluttering nerves, and she did her best to hold back the flood of tears that seemed to well from her throat to her eyes.
‘Excuse me a moment,’ Kumu said.
Maggie nodded and gazed out of the window and willed herself to be calm. She was cross with herself because she was usually so tough, yet today, when she very much needed to be, she was having trouble pulling herself together. ‘Maggie,’ Kumu called. ‘You need to come with me.’
She was led from the dressing area and down a long hallway and then down several steps. Maggie had long ago stopped asking for a running commentary and had decided to somehow just go with the flow. Kumu opened a large wooden door and she entered a small room with a lattice partition.
Perhaps Kumu had decided to bring her away from windows and to somewhere quieter to attempt her make-up again.
Maggie was guided to a gorgeous high-backed chair where she was instructed to sit.
‘I’ll come back for you soon.’
‘Where are you going?’ Maggie asked, but Kumu didn’t answer and closed the door. Maggie was left alone. The sun streamed in through a window and it was actually nice to be quiet and still for a little while, for the wedding was just an hour away.
Oh, she wanted her mum!
She could not cry, but her eyes were filling with tears and she loudly sniffed them back.
‘Maggie.’
She heard her name and, of course, knew his voice, yet she jolted at the sound.
‘Ilyas!’ Her response was choked. She was suddenly embarrassed that she had sniffed, but he was not so polite as to ignore it!
‘Do you need a handkerchief?’
And just like that, she laughed, and she knew that he smiled as he pressed one through the patterned division.
‘It’s bad luck to see each other...’ Maggie said, for she could make out his profile. Their fingers touched as she took the silk from him.
‘Which is why I asked for you to be brought here. Not so long ago this would have been our first date.’
His voice was deep and calming and even if she could not see him, she no longer felt so alone.
‘Why did you bring me here?’
‘Because I guessed that you might be struggling. I know that your friends would have had to leave you and that you would have been on your own.’
‘I’ll be okay.’ She tried to sound like she meant it and to stop her teeth from chattering. ‘It will all be over soon.’ She tried to buoy herself. ‘It’s just a formality...’
‘Not to me,’ Ilyas said. ‘And I don’t believe you mean that.’
‘No.’
Maggie didn’t.
Today was the most important day of her life.
