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‘No, madam, please do not upset yourself,’ Sabir quickly reassured her. ‘His Majesty is still poorly but doing better than expected. The doctors think he over-exerted himself at the party. He danced with the schoolchildren...’ He gave a small smile. ‘He did not want to disappoint them. It’s a tradition that he does so every year.’
She slumped in relief. ‘Is the family still with him?’
‘Yes, madam.’
‘And the Prince?’ she asked tentatively. ‘How is he?’
‘He is naturally much relieved.’ Sabir suddenly looked discomforted. ‘But he has sent me to talk to you. May I come in?’
There are things between us to discuss.
Whatever they were made little difference now. Even if Khaled had been thinking of proposing to her she couldn’t accept.
Lily walked back to the sofas and sat down, gesturing to the one opposite hers. He followed her and sank down, looking deeply troubled. Nothing like the normally calm Sabir.
‘His Highness has first asked me to convey to you the extremely high regard in which he holds you,’ he began. ‘How in the short time since you have been reacquainted you have come to mean a great deal to him.’ He paused, his hands working nervously around the leather binder he carried. ‘But he regrets that he is unable to make you any formal offer. Instead he has an alternative arrangement.’
A ‘formal offer’ being a proposal of marriage? Here she was, about to make the grand gesture and sacrifice her happiness to keep him safe, and he wasn’t about to offer his hand anyway.
The last of Lily’s hopes withered around her.
‘A private jet is standing by to take you to Greece,’ Sabir said. ‘His Highness has a villa on an island there which from now on will be permanently at your disposal. He will join you when he can, though at the moment he can’t say when that will be. In the longer term, should you wish it, a property may be organised elsewhere, providing it is discreet and within easy distance of his usual travel routes. It cannot, of course, be in Nabhan.’
Sabir opened the binder and withdrew a sheet of paper, placing it on the coffee table between them.
‘In addition to the property, this is the sum that will be settled on you per annum.’
She tried to make sense of the astonishing figure. More each year than she could hope to earn in a lifetime.
‘He was most insistent that I make it clear you will want for nothing ever again.’
Except her self-respect.
Beyond Sabir, the door to her bedroom stood open—the room where Khaled had made love to her as if she were precious to him. Say yes and she’d see him, touch him, be held by him again. If there was no marriage who’d care that she was illegitimate? George’s threats had become meaningless.
For a heartbreaking few seconds she actually considered it. Sacrificing everything to take the life he offered her.
But what life?a stark voice asked her.
Because she knew exactly what his offer meant.
Never again would she hold her head up and walk through the palace, sit with Eleanor and the twins in her sunny sitting room or keep Bassam company in the wee small hours when neither of them could sleep.
As for seeing Khaled... It would be like last night. Snatched moments, secret assignations. A life lived in the shadows. Never would she be publicly acknowledged, but everyone would know what she was, and behind her back they would call her by that name.
Mistress.
Or, worse.
Because she’d be complicit in making Khaled an adulterer, his new wife cheated on from the start. That poor woman...
And where would she truly be in his list of priorities? After his wife, after his family, after his country? He wasn’t even choosing her second, and when he tired of her, and the difficulties of conducting such a relationship, what then? There’d be a pay-off—generous, no doubt—but she would be permanently dropped from his life. To do what? With the only skills on her CV earned while lying on her back?
She was her mother’s daughter after all. Giving her heart to a man only to discover she wasn’t that important to him. Because if she were Khaled would never have offered something that served his needs entirely at the expense of hers.
There had been no surrender last night. At least not from him. He’d just been sampling the wares to see if they would suit his purpose. Taking her to bed with no thought of the consequences for her.
Consequences?Lily’s stomach flipped. They hadn’t used any kind of protection. She hadn’t given it a moment’s thought. Her hand went reflexively to her belly.
