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‘I knew how much you wanted to be part of Faizan’s lessons, but I feared the distraction. So you were given every freedom in compensation. And while you didn’t want those freedoms, wouldn’t have chosen them for yourself, youdidhave them. You were spoilt by that freedom—wholly unintentionally.
‘No one challenged you, not even Samira. You had a special bond, no one can deny that, and we all loved her greatly. But she would have let you do anything, and you would have run roughshod over her all the while, never needing to do more, to be more, or better. You wouldn’t have been good for each other.’
Khalif had braced for it and his father’s words still hurt. But he couldn’t deny the truth in them. All this time he had taunted Star for romanticism, but had he not done the same? Had he not fantasised the perfect, but mainly imagined, future with Samira? Had that not been the truest form of romanticism? All the while Star had questioned him, teased him about his preconceptions, challenged him to make better decisions, to follow his gut, encouraged him to make mistakes and learn from fixing them. And with that thought hope bloomed and his heart soared.
‘What is that look on your face?’
‘I’ve made a terrible mistake, Father.’
‘Then why do you look so happy?’
‘Because now I get to fix it,’ he said, the smile lifting his lips and his heart soaring for the first time that evening.
‘And how are you planning to do that?’
‘Romance books. I need romance books.’
‘I think he’s gone mad,’ his father said to his wife, looking deeply concerned. But his mother’s eyes were lit with sparkles that only reminded Khalif of Star.
Star plucked at a loose thread on the long end of the pashmina she wore, her eyes sore and finally dry. She had sandwiched the phone between her ear and shoulder to leave both hands free so she could tackle the frayed cotton.
‘I can be on a plane in two hours.’
‘Mum, you don’t drive, your bank account is pretty much empty, you hate carbon emissions more than you hate the Tories, and my plane leaves in three hours, so I’ll be back in England before you would even get here.’
‘Your sister said exactly the same thing,’ Mariam Soames grumbled.
‘It’s the thought that counts, Mum. Star sounded happy?’
‘Yes, she did. I’m looking forward to meeting this Chalendar. And I’m looking forward to having all my girls back in the same country and under the same roof. I don’t like the idea of Summer at that house all on her own.’
Star marvelled that her mother had grown up in the sprawling, dilapidated Norfolk estate and insisted on calling it a ‘house’, despite the fact it had over thirty bedrooms. Star’s fingers left the cotton thread and lifted to the gold ropes of the chain at her neck.
How she and her sisters had thought they would have been able to keep the search for the missing jewels from their mother a secret, she had no idea. It had hurt to reveal Elias’s manipulations to their mother, but when Skye had called them from France they’d known that it was time to tell Mariam everything. She had been as angry as much as Mariam Soames was capable of being angry with her daughters, which was about as long as it took to sigh.
‘I know what you girls are trying to do—’
‘We’re so nearly there, Mum,’ Star whispered, more of a plea than a promise. ‘Skye has the map of the secret passageways, I have the key—we just need to find them now.’
‘I know, Star. I just...’ There was a pause on the end of the line and Star imagined her mother shifting her shawl around her shoulders. ‘I’ve decided that I’m going to move in with Samantha for a bit.’
‘Really? I thought you might want to—’
‘Live with my just-beginning-to-find-their-feet, lovely and well-meaning daughters?’ Mariam replied and Star couldn’t help but smile at the laugh in her mother’s voice.
The wordsjust beginning to find their feetreally struck Star. It was a little too close to what she’d hoped to achieve by coming to Duratra—to prove that she could stand on her own two feet—and Star felt as if she both had and hadn’t.
‘Samantha has known me for years. She’s perfectly capable of putting up with me for a little longer,’ Mariam said assuredly but without thought. A sob rose suddenly and shockingly in Star’s chest. ‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ her mother said.
‘I know,’ Star promised.
‘We are going to beat this.’
‘Iknow,’ Star replied, forcing a smile to her lips in the hope that it would be heard in her voice. ‘Actually... I was thinking about moving out of the flat and setting up somewhere on my own. Do you think that Skye would be okay with that? I mean—’ Star struggled to find the words to explain her sudden need to hold onto that bit of independence she’d discovered in Duratra ‘—with Summer away at uni most of the year...’
Her mother sighed. ‘I think that Skye will worry but, with her engagement, it’s more than likely that she’ll be relocating to France. If it feels right for you, my love, then we will all support you one hundred per cent.’
‘I think it might scare me a little, but it’s something I would like very much. I love Skye and Summer but...they need to see that I am capable of being independent.’ Star sighed, all the pent-up emotion pouring from her chest in one breath. ‘Mum...’ she started, nervous as to the answer. ‘Do you think Kal was right? Have I been hiding?’
