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‘Really?’ Khalif asked, knowing, of course, that Hatem had married Alyah.
Star leaned towards him with one of the little leather journals she had brought with her gently held open and pointed to the top of one of the pages.
He will be happy with Alyah. Kind, loving and patient... We are too similar, too adventurous, too impatient. But he refuses to see that.
‘What did she mean by that? That he refuses to see it?’
‘Hatem didn’t believe that Catherine had to return to England. She said,Men think women know nothing of duty. Sometimes it is all we’ve ever known.He just couldn’t see why she wouldn’t stay and they parted on not so great terms.’
‘But if they left on such bad terms, how did Alyah end up with the necklace?’ He felt like an impatient schoolboy, desperate to hear the end of the story.
‘I thought this was fanciful and...?’
He cut her off mid-taunt with a glare.
‘Really?’ she demanded. ‘Does that starereallywork on your staff?’
‘Yes!’ he groused. ‘Just not with you,’ he said through only half reluctant laughter.
‘Catherine wrote to Hatem when she got back to England. Her marriage to her cousin Anthony was much worse than she had expected. He was violent and verbally abusive. The journals really only continued for a few years after the marriage and then she had them packed away, so it’s a little hard to say. But she’d reached out to ask a favour of Hatem. She hoped that he would make her a key that could be separated into two parts. One part was to be kept by her, and one to be kept by him, guarded until the day someone came to find it.’
‘What is it the key to?’
‘Catherine wanted somewhere safe to hide things from Anthony. Her diaries, pictures...and the one thing that Anthony wanted most—the Soames diamonds. Catherine left clues and coded messages in her journals for someone worthy of finding them, but the men in the Soames family dismissed or ignored the signs. Ever since Anthony, the Soames men have been driven mad desperately searching for them.’
‘Because none were worthy of it,’ Khalif realised. ‘So, the necklace is actually a key?’
‘When the two are joined, yes. They will open the locked room marked on the map of the secret passageways that Skye found the day we...my last day in Burami,’ Star stumbled.
Khalif was too caught up in the story to notice, only now making the connection between how down she had been and her desperate need to help her mother. ‘That’s why you were so sad? Your sister had found the map, but you hadn’t found the key?’ He nodded to himself. ‘And with the diamonds...’
‘If we find the diamonds we can inherit the entire estate and then sell it to fund Mum’s treatment.’
‘I imagine you could do a lot more than that.’
‘We don’t want anything more than that. Nor do we need it.’
It was said so simply, as if she was genuinely confused as to why they might want to have more than they needed.
‘It’s just that...’ He tried to find the words to explain. ‘It would seem that Catherine went to a lot of trouble to keep those diamonds safe for someone worthy to inherit. And to sell them for less than their value...’
‘I think Catherine would understand our duty to our mother over the weight of the past,’ she said with a finality and firmness that surprised him a little.
Khalif looked out to the balcony and the night sky beyond, his fingers rubbing at the slight stubble on his jaw and chin as he traced the stars with his gaze. He wondered if it was fanciful to think that the historic link between their families might account for the instant impact Star had made on him.
And then she shifted, her hair cascading over her shoulders, down her back and his gut clenched. No. That was all Star. So Hatem had taken Catherine to the oasis... He couldn’t help but wonder whether Catherine was the reason Alhafa was known for hiding royal mistresses. Hatem and Alyah had made Burami their central residence and it had been that way ever since.
‘What does it mean, Alhafa?’
His language on her tongue sounded soft and strange but utterly hypnotic. ‘I suppose the closest translation in English would be The Edge. You can view the desert from every window and it often feels as if we’re at the edge of the world.’
‘It’s truly beautiful.’
‘My brother would have agreed with you. I...don’t find it easy being back here,’ he admitted. ‘Nadya and Nayla loved this palace. Faizan was planning to move them here permanently. When they were younger the twins would run screaming down the corridors, terrifying the staff...’ He couldn’t help but smile at the memory, but it wobbled as he realised how much he’d cut himself off from them. ‘Faizan taught them to swim in the pool, just like our father had taught us. It was where we...we met Samira. Her father’s family came to visit one summer.’ Samira would have been exactly the same age as the twins were now, the realisation catching him by surprise. ‘On the first day, she climbed up the tree in the courtyard and refused to come down.’
‘What did it take to bring her down?’
Me.
