“We found her a well-trained female bodyguard team and a companion to travel with her.”
“And they went backpacking?” Liyah asked in shock. “Seriously?”
“With a few travel compromises, yes.”
“Let me guess, they rode first class on the trains and had drivers in the cities they visited on a well-ordered travel itinerary.”
He smiled winningly. “Something like that.”
“So, is Samira your only cousin?”
“No, she has a younger brother. Bilal. My aunt was pregnant when she lost my uncle.”
“Are you close?”
“He is twelve years my junior.”
“I’m sure he looks up to you.”
“I spent what time I could with him since moving back from the States, but he left for his own years at university. Bilal was to return to Zeena Sahra in time for my wedding.” Sayed’s lips twisted in a grimace.
“He is close with my father. He stepped in for his deceased brother-in-law from the beginning.”
“Bilal is lucky to have you both.”
Sayed shrugged. “He is family.”
“So, why can’t you train him for the emir responsibilities before taking over from your father as melech?”
“You do not think I will make a good king?” Sayed demanded, sounding hurt.
“That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just pointing out there are options to tradition.” Her mother’s insistence on certain traditions had hurt Liyah more than helped her.
Hena’s willingness to break with others had made Liyah’s life what it was—in a very good way. Which was not to say that all tradition was bad, but being a slave to it was.
“Tell me about growing up in San Francisco,” Sayed said in an obvious attempt to change the subject.
Liyah didn’t hesitate, though. Because answering him gave her a chance to talk about her mom and that was something she’d been craving to do.
Sayed listened attentively to the stories of Liyah’s childhood and time living with her mother as an adult.
“You clearly loved your mother very much.”
“Yes.”
“It is equally apparent that she loved you fiercely.”
Suddenly choked with emotion, Liyah could only nod.
He narrowed his eyes in thought. “It sounds very much like each prevarication on your mother’s part was done with the intent to protect your feelings.”
“Then why ask me to find my father? She had to know once I realized the truth how devastated I would be, how his rejection would hurt.”
“I can only theorize Ms. Amari expected a much different reaction from your father than the one he gave you.”
“She died hoping her family would one day acknowledge me.”
“She was an optimist.”
Liyah smiled. “She definitely was. She tended to see the best in people and dismiss their flaws.” Expelling a long breath, she admitted, “I also don’t think she ever stopped loving my father.”
And because of that love, Hena Amari had built Gene Chatsfield up in her head to be a man very different than the one he was in reality.
“While that love may have been misplaced, your mother’s love for you was not. You were undoubtedly the most important person in her life.”
“She sacrificed so much for me and she never once threw it back in my face.”
“A truly astonishing woman.”
“Yes, she was.”
“I think, perhaps, her daughter is a great deal like her.”
Liyah wasn’t sure how true that was, but if she could share her mother’s strength and willingness to sacrifice for others, she would count herself very blessed.
“You have already shown how deep your well of integrity goes,” Sayed remarked.
“How so?”
“Many women would have tried to capitalize on what happened last night. You’ve done nothing but try to help me mitigate any possible negative consequences.”
Liyah couldn’t believe how much better she felt about everything that had happened since her mother’s death after talking with Sayed. “Thank you.”
“No thanks needed. We all need a friend now and again.”
“Do you have friends? People you can trust enough to talk to?”
“I have my parents and Yusuf. Perhaps Bilal will become one now that he will be back in Zeena Sahra.”
“That is a short list.” Even with his cousin added to it.
“Trust for a man in my position cannot be offered on a whim.”
She could well imagine. Last night would not have helped with that, either. “I’m sorry.”
“For?”
“Last night.”
“I am not.” He shrugged. “I should be, but I enjoyed it too much to allow for genuine regret.”
He sounded like he thought that was a terrible weakness.
“You’re awfully hard on yourself.”
“My father says I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders.”
“Not carry?”
“No. He insists I do not need to carry the burden of responsibility that I do, but one day soon, I will rule in his place when I was never meant to do so. For his sake and that of my brother, I can offer nothing less than everything to my country.”
A brother’s death in childhood would have been devastating to any child, but for Sayed and the way it changed the course of his life? Even more so.
Looking into eyes filled with gravity to match his declarations, Liyah felt a twinge of emotion she refused to call love. “Maybe you are a little awe-inspiring, anyway.”
“I am glad you think so.” He grinned, the expression so unguarded it took her breath away.
“SO GENE CHATSFIELD was your mother’s lover?” Sayed asked, sounding pretty sure of her answer.
“Yes.”
“I imagine he has reasons for his distrustful attitude,” Sayed said mildly.
She still frowned. “But I wasn’t lying to him.”
“You and I know that, but he did not.”
Sayed’s belief in her honesty helped soothe the sting of her father’s blatant rejection and hurtful accusations.
“He didn’t even remember what she looked like,” Liyah said, still unable to grasp that particular reality.
How could he have forgotten such a special, wonderful woman?
“It sounds like he was in a bad place in his life when they met,” Sayed said, as if reading Liyah’s thoughts.
“That doesn’t excuse him seducing an innocent young woman and then forgetting about her as if she never mattered.”