‘What about?’ He was in no mood for an inquisition, and barriers had snapped around him before he had even finished asking Jazz the question.
‘We’re stuck here, Tyr. You’ve been away a long time. We have lots to talk about.’
Nothing could ever keep Jazz down for long, he remembered. Jazz Kareshi was as complicated as the politics of her country. She had grown up surrounded by intrigue and danger. Forced to negotiate pitfalls and double-dealing since she’d been a very small child, she knew how to survive pretty much anything; even a surprise wedding announcement, it turned out.
‘All right, I’ll start,’ she said. ‘I’m going to live here in Wadi village. At least for the time being.’
‘You’re going to live here?’
‘Why not? I can commute to the stables.’
‘What about your home at the palace?’
‘What’s the point of living in a palace distanced from my people, when I can be here where I can see their problems for myself?’
He couldn’t argue with that. ‘I don’t think Sharif will have any trouble accepting that decision. You know as well as I do that as far as Sharif is concerned, all the pomp and ceremony surrounding his position is just a necessary part of the job. It’s the people of Kareshi that matter most to both of you.’
‘And I can be quite determined when I put my mind to something.’
‘You don’t say,’ he murmured dryly.
‘Where are you going?’ Jazz asked as he turned to go.
‘Back to my own place. And don’t look so worried. I’ll make it safely.’
‘I’m not worried, but it’s your turn now. This is an opportunity for us to catch up, Tyr.’
‘I’ve been here long enough, Jazz. Your reputation is already in tatters.’
‘My reputation is shot,’ she argued. ‘You couldn’t have caused more of a sensation if you kissed me in public.’
He paused with his hand on storm cloth over the entrance. ‘Now, why didn’t I think of that?
‘Tyr.’
‘Next time I’ll leave you where I find you,’ he vowed before Jazz could get started.
‘No. You’d never do that. You always were the white knight, Tyr.’
Their eyes met and held a dangerous beat too long. ‘Not many people would call me that.’
‘No,’ she agreed, ‘they’d call you a hero.’
‘Leave it, Jazz—’
‘No. I won’t leave it.’ Her voice was every bit as loud and angry as his. Standing up, all five feet two of her bristling with pent-up frustration, she stood between him and the only way out. ‘One day you will tell me why you always avoid talking about the past.’
‘My past is none of your business.’
‘It is my business,’ Jazz said fiercely, ‘because, like my brother, I care for you, and I refuse to watch you suffer on your own.’
‘Maybe I want to be on my own,’ he fired back. ‘Believe me, Jazz, you don’t want to go where I’ve been, and you certainly don’t want to see what I’ve seen—not even in your head.’
IT WAS HIS turn to tense up when Jazz put her hand in his. ‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ she said. ‘You underestimate me, Tyr. You can tell me anything. Anything,’ she stressed.
‘Some things are best left unsaid, Jazz.’
‘I don’t agree.’ She shook her head and walked away a little distance. ‘If you keep all those ugly thoughts inside you they’ll just fester until they make you ill. Everything has to be faced at some point, Tyr. Look at me. I’ve made a mess of things, and now I’ve got to put them right. I haven’t a clue where I’m going to begin with this marriage nonsense, but I’ll sort it somehow.’ She sighed, but her compassion was all for him. ‘I can’t pretend to understand the enormity of the memories you’re avoiding.’
He said nothing.
‘And I can’t imagine what you’ve seen.’
Thank God for that.
Jazz’s gaze was unswerving. ‘I’m not going to stand by and see a friend in trouble without trying to help.’
‘I’m not in trouble.’ And he wasn’t into spilling the past as Jazz had suggested he should, but as she continued on he had a great sense of the girl he used to know returning, and that was the only news that mattered to him. The strong, practical, sometimes crazy, always feisty, dangerously impulsive girl he used to know was back, while the prim contrivance Jazz had turned herself into in the hope of reassuring one small sector of Kareshi’s population that not everything in their country was changing at breakneck speed had been forced to take a back seat. Great.
‘And as for that...’ She paused and bit her lip.
‘Marriage nonsense?’ he suggested.
‘You might not want to hear this, Tyr, but physical contact between a man and a woman in Kareshi can only mean one thing.’
He refocused on Jazz’s concerned face. ‘But there’s nothing going on between us, so everyone’s wrong.’
Jazz shook her head. ‘We can’t sort this out as easily as that. Whatever we know to be the case, those who would seize on anything in order to destabilise Sharif’s peaceful rule will refuse to be convinced. It doesn’t suit them. Can’t you see that?’
‘So, what are you suggesting?’
Taking a deep breath, Jazz braced herself. ‘It’s too late to save my reputation and I won’t risk either of us losing the trust of my people.’
‘We know that.’
‘So, it’s simple,’ she said. ‘We’ll get married, just like the headman said.’
He almost laughed. ‘That’s insane.’
‘No, it isn’t,’ Jazz argued. ‘It’s a practical solution. And don’t look so horrified. We won’t be living as man and wife. There’ll be no passion involved. And we can still be friends.’
While he was still absorbing this ill-advised plan, Jazz came up to him and, standing on tiptoe, she brushed her lips against his cheek. ‘Friends?’ she whispered.
Her touch scorched him. Taking hold of her arms, he moved her back. ‘Don’t,’ he warned.
Needless to say, Jazz refused to be put off. ‘I promise I won’t tie you down, Tyr. You can leave Kareshi any time you want, and we’ll get divorced quietly at some point in the future when all the fuss has died down.’
‘Love’s young dream?’ He shook his head disbelievingly. ‘Jazz, you’ve come up with some madcap plans in the past, but this one is heading for the history books.’
‘No, it isn’t,’ she argued firmly. ‘We both trust each other to do what’s right, so this is the perfect solution. Don’t look at me like that. I have to do something, and this is the best I can come up with. The best for both of us. You don’t want to lose the people’s trust any more than I do. No one needs to know how we live out our private lives, and this way we can still live in Kareshi and work together.’
Holding up his hands, he stopped her. ‘I can’t believe you’re serious about this.’