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Eleanor muffled an un-regal snort behind her hand.
Her brother scolded Amal for her unseemly behaviour.
It didn’t dampen the twins’ excitement.
After giving her big brother a hug, Hanan asked, blushing, ‘Are you Nate’s Lily?’
Ah... It looked as if her stepbrother had a young admirer.
Khaled called both girls to his side, producing a book for each from his pocket. He drew their attention to something he’d marked on one, and three dark heads bent over the pages.
‘Since they were babies, whenever he returns from a trip Khaled always has something for the girls,’ Eleanor said.
Memories of her stepbrother’s homecomings came to mind. He was the only person who’d ever been pleased to see her, seeking her out the moment he arrived and gathering her up in a bear hug.
Where was he now? Lily’s throat tightened. Moisture prickled behind her eyes.
At that moment Khaled’s gaze lifted to hers. Now he was surrounded by his family, the grey flint had melted into a beguiling tenderness. It reached out, embracing her, too, soothing her moment of distress.
He held her gaze and the air became thick.
Time slowed.
The twins, his mother, the staff around them...all faded to shadows hovering at the edge of a dream.
She saw only him.
The glint of the chandelier lights in his ebony hair. The high slash of his cheekbones. The firm, full lips and that molten silver gaze, pinning her to the spot.
A strange yearning tugged at her womb and his nostrils flared like a big predator, catching her scent. On a broken breath Lily’s hand fluttered upwards and settled across her heart. She didn’t know if it was a defensive gesture or a way to control its wild pounding.
Khaled’s brow knotted. Away went the tenderness, back came the flint.
‘Mother,’ he said sharply, ‘Lily is tired. Perhaps she could be shown to whatever guest room I’m sure you’ve organised? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to attend to.’
‘Of course. But, darling, you’ve been travelling all night, and I know you won’t have rested. Won’t you take a little time off and join us for coffee?’
‘No, I’m afraid I can’t.’
Eleanor sighed sadly as she watched her son disappear along the corridor linking the Family Wing to the Royal Court, while Lily wondered what had just happened. One minute he’d been chatting with his family, and the next it had been as if that burning look had consumed everything around them and they were the only two creatures left on the planet...
‘We love our big brother to bits, Miss Marchant,’ Amal said, ‘but I think we should warn you he can be a totally grumpy workaholic.’
Lily attempted an answering smile.
‘You do look tired, my dear,’ Eleanor said. ‘Why don’t we show you to your rooms, where you can rest?’
The twins led the way up the staircase to a veranda with ornate metal balconies. In the courtyard below there were lush plantings and fountains tumbling into tiled pools. Lily even caught the chattering of birds as they swooped between the trees.
‘They used to keep caged songbirds here, but Bassam had them released,’ said Eleanor. ‘They must have liked it here, because they stayed.’
Lily was enchanted by it all. ‘It’s beautiful.’
‘You should see it at night, when the lanterns are lit,’ Hanan said, with a stunning smile.
She shared her brother’s fine-boned features, and it was only a small step to imagine how he might look, should he choose to smile at her, too.
That brief heated look notwithstanding, since walking into his suite last night he’d been nothing but stern. Ever the Sad Prince, even here, in the heart of his family. Weighed down with cares, perhaps, or still tortured by the tragedy that had changed the course of his life.
