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She snapped upright. One of the Queen’s staff was hovering a few paces away.
‘Excuse me but, if it is convenient, Her Majesty wonders if you will join her for coffee?’
Convenient? Jeez, this family’s timing was something else.Because here comes the invitation, she thought. The one that she’d been ordered to decline.
With its ivory walls and carved rosewood shutters at the windows, the Queen’s study was an oasis of calm after Lily’s fraught start to the day. An elegant writing desk sat before a group of sumptuously upholstered sofas and armchairs, and on a low table in their midst, in a nod to the European origins of its owner, was a Wedgwood vase filled with blowsy English roses.
On a side table against one wall was a collection of framed photos—the kind of shots of family and friends to be found in the sitting room of any wife and mother.
Lily looked closer.
Although in this case the ‘friends’ were more likely to be found gracing the front pages of the morning newspapers or TV reports: they were famous faces in their own right.
What a potent reminder of how little she belonged in the Azir social circle.
Lily spun away—only to be confronted by the most arresting image of all.
On the opposite wall to the desk, in perfect view for whenever their mother raised her head, hung a large framed photo of the Queen’s children.
It had been taken some years ago—the twins looked about six years old. They were on a tropical beach, the girls caught up in the arms of their big brother, each balanced on a hip. One brandished a prize for the camera: a great tangle of seaweed. The other was lost in a fit of giggles. But it was the image of Khaled that had stopped Lily in her tracks. An image the world would barely recognise. For there was no trace of the famously melancholy Sad Prince.
Chest liberally coated in patches of sand, ebony hair all tousled and wet, eyes brimming with mirth, he wassmiling.
Lily just stared.
The man was already insanely handsome, but that smile took those stunning looks to another level.
It was dazzling.Hewas dazzling.
‘It’s quite a shot, isn’t it?’ said Eleanor, entering the room. ‘Bassam took it. It was the summer before his first heart attack. Our last real family holiday. A friend owns an island in the Indian Ocean. We were there for a week and Khaled and the girls just stayed out on the beach all day. I’ve never seen him so relaxed—before or since.’
Lily flushed, embarrassed to be caught gawping. ‘It’s a lovely photo.’
The Queen’s eyes glittered as she led her guest to the sofas, calling over the servant holding a tray of coffee and pastries.
‘If he’d unleash that smile for the cameras once in a while all that Sad Prince nonsense would go away,’ Eleanor said. ‘But even as a child he was a sombre little thing, following his big brother around. From the moment Khaled could walk, all he wanted was to be with Faisal. That boy was so full of life. We all adored my stepson. But he and Khaled were particularly close. After the accident he became so stern. You were young yourself, but perhaps you remember his visit a little?’
She did. She remembered the boy standing so still and grave in a room filled with sunbeams.
‘You helped him a great deal, you know,’ his mother said. ‘We thought you would. We imagined being with another child would be easier than being with adults, and we wanted to get him away from all the press attention.’
She poured coffee, handing Lily a cup.
‘It was Nate’s suggestion, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, clever boy. His friendship with Khaled wasn’t well known at the time, so the Marchant estate was the last place anyone would have looked. He said that, left to their own devices, his “Baby Sis” and Khaled would get along famously. How right he was.’
The glitter in the Queen’s eye intensified. ‘And it seems those childhood bonds of yours have become even stronger in adulthood.’
‘It’s early days, really,’ Lily said into her coffee. ‘We seem to be having a lot of arguments. Quite public ones.’
Eleanor chuckled. ‘You mean the grumpy workaholic remark? That was priceless! I’ve never seen my son at such a loss for words before.’
‘I maybe went a bit too far...’
‘My dear, it was no less than he deserved. I’ve no doubt he engineered your visit, and all the nonsense around that shopping trip, to force your hand in some way. When he wants something he goes after it with a vengeance. But you must stand firm. We’re thrilled he’s brought you here, but don’t be coerced into something you don’t want.’
So Eleanor thought Khaled was resorting to underhand tactics to secure her hand? He was forcing her hand, all right, but not the way his mother thought.
