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Raif nodded confirmation. ‘Every room in his wing is like that. Very ornate, grand and dark. He didn’t allow my mother’s replacement wife to change anything there. It’s not where I want to spend my down time, and eventually I would like to open that part of the palace to the public, so it must be left as it is.’
‘Then where do we live?’
‘In the old section of the palace. It’s a massive building. Every generation extended it,’ he explained, handing her out of the vehicle with care. ‘Our staff are waiting inside to welcome us.’
A huge throng of people awaited them indoors. And indoors was totally unexpected. The foyer rejoiced in all the opulence of an exclusive hotel, which Raif had mentioned, and he had hit that luxurious but soulless note right on target in his description. There was no character, nothing to ground the reality that it was the royal palace of Quristan. Claire moved forward to accept introductions but there so many faces and so many job titles, she knew she would have to learn them at a slower pace. Shahbaz, the head of household, she would remember for his carefully coiffed grey hair and moustache, but other faces were not so easy to commit to memory.
‘Now come and meet my uncle, Prince Umar. He’s my mother’s little brother,’ Raif informed her fondly.
He was a small, rotund man with white hair and a white beard and, with a twinkle in his kind dark eyes as he greeted her, he bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. He turned his head to call someone and a slender brunette in a black dress stepped forward with a rather anxious smile as though she were intimidated either by her surroundings or the company.
‘Your Majesty,’ she said breathlessly, bowing her head to Raif.
For a split second, Raif seemed frozen in place by surprise and then a stiff smile slowly crossed his face. ‘Nahla, how are you?’ he said, before turning to Claire to say, ‘This is Nahla, my uncle’s ward.’
‘Nahla needs occupation,’ his uncle announced cheerfully. ‘And I thought work at the palace would be perfect for her now that she and the girls are living with me.’
‘You’re living with my uncle again?’ Raif queried with a frown.
‘Since my husband died, yes,’ Nahla said uncomfortably. ‘I’m sorry, I thought you would have heard but then how would you have? It’s been some time since your last real visit.’
‘Nahla, go and chat to my wife,’ Umar instructed. ‘I’ll explain in private, Raif.’
Raif moved on to greet someone else, a light hand at Claire’s spine carrying her along. ‘What’s the secrecy about?’ she whispered.
‘I don’t know,’ he said in a curiously flat voice. ‘I’ve known Nahla since I was a teenager. My uncle and aunt had only one child, a daughter. She died tragically young and when Nahla was orphaned, they took her in because she was their daughter’s best friend. She married straight out of school to a much older man. I didn’t realise he’d died.’
‘And she has children?’
‘Two or three. I’m not quite sure how many,’ Raif admitted wryly. ‘They’d be at school by now, I would think.’
As Raif was cornered by an older man with an air of importance, his uncle appeared at Claire’s elbow. ‘I was hoping that Nahla might find favour withyou,’ he stressed in a hopeful undertone. ‘She could be a big help to you here. She speaks your language and would be a good guide.’
‘Of course,’ Claire agreed, not really knowing what else to say, but it scarcely needed to be said that Claire was an uninformed complete beginner in the royal family. She would need advice on who was who and how to behave and all sorts of things. In fact, her head just spun at the prospect of all that she had still to learn about Quristan, the Quristani people and her new role.
‘Thank you,’ he said, as though she had given him a promise when she had not.
Raif returned to her side to usher her into a lift concealed by fancy panelling. ‘Let me show you where we will be living for the present.’
‘You mean, there’s going to be more than one move?’
Raif dealt her an apologetic appraisal. ‘Possibly. It depends how much you like the building that I’ve chosen and if you can tolerate living in the middle of a construction site.’
Claire laughed. ‘Will it be that bad?’
They emerged from the lift into a huge airy space. ‘This is the entrance hall, and we will have three floors of rooms,’ he explained with enthusiasm. ‘You will be relieved to hear that the bathrooms have already been installed.’
Claire nodded slowly and almost laughed again. Yes, she would have been loud in her complaints without those facilities. It occurred to her that engaging in the renovation of their living quarters had inspired Raif with a lighter mood than she had seen him show since the combined tragedy that had deprived him of his brothers and his father. Of course, design and development were crucial elements of his property empire, she reminded herself, so it was hardly surprising that he should relax within a familiar field.
She remained mostly silent while he showed her round incredibly grand large rooms being stripped down to their antique bones to preserve the character. In every room, workmen downed tools and bowed with extreme formality. Raif, evidently, had a vision, but when he stopped in the most massive space she had ever seen in a property and told her that it would be their bedroom her eyes widened. ‘Why so big?’
‘Because we’re sharing it.’
‘Well, of course, we’re going to share,’ she muttered.
‘But that’s not the norm in the palace,’ Raif explained with his sudden flashing smile. ‘According to Shahbaz, no previous ruler has shared a bedroom with his spouse. Partly because you will need a maid to look after your wardrobe and I will need a valet and that entails separate dressing areas, therefore we shall need a very big space to cover those necessities.’
Claire couldn’t imagine having a maid merely to preside over her clothes and she simply nodded as though she understood, because she could not even imagine Raif sleeping in another bedroom, or, at least, she didn’t want to even picture such an arrangement and the loss of intimacy that would result. She suspected that their bedroom would be the only place where they got to be genuinely alone, which was rather an intimidating acknowledgement. He showed her into the bedroom that he was currently occupying and her heart, which had been sinking on that last thought, lifted at a glimpse of familiar items.
