‘But you know Marina.’
‘Which is exactly the reason I’m saying no.’
‘Bahir—’
‘No. Isn’t it enough that I agreed to come with you to rescue her? Don’t push me, Zoltan. Why don’t you do it yourself, if you’re so God damned keen on her having an escort home?’
‘Bahir,’ came the hesitant voice of his friend at the end of the line. ‘Is something wrong?’
‘Nothing is wrong!’ Everything is wrong. ‘Listen, Zoltan, we broke up for a reason. Marina hates me and, when it all comes down to it, I’m not that overly fond of her. She might now be your sister-in-law, but you don’t know her like I do. She’s as irresponsible as they come, the original party girl who’s never done a thing for anyone else. She’s spoilt and headstrong, and if she isn’t given exactly what she wants she goes out and takes it anyway, regardless of the consequences. And, if that’s not enough, she’s got the morals of an alley cat and the litter to prove it. I tell you now, Zoltan, I am not going back there.’
‘God, Bahir, I’m not asking you to marry her! All you have to do is make sure she gets home safely.’
‘And I’m telling you to find someone else.’
There was silence at the end of the line. A brooding silence that did nothing to encourage Bahir to think he was swaying his friend’s opinion. ‘You know, Bahir,’ his friend said at last. ‘If I didn’t know better …’
Bahir felt like growling. ‘What?’
‘Well, anyone who didn’t know you better might actually think you were actually—worried—about spending time with Marina.’
‘Are you suggesting I’m afraid?’
‘Are you?’
‘You just don’t get it, Zoltan. Even if I agreed to take her, there is no way this side of hell freezing over that she’d agree to come with me. Didn’t you hear me say that she hates me? If you’d bothered to ask her you’d already know that.’
There was a telling pause at the end of the line and Bahir felt a glimmer of hope as he saw a way out of this madness.
‘In that case, you might try asking her. She’ll give you the same answer I have. No. If you’re so convinced she needs someone to make sure she’s safe, then you find someone else to do your babysitting.’
‘And what if she agrees?’
He laughed out loud. ‘No way. She’ll never agree. Not in a million years.’
‘And if she does, will you do it?’
‘It’s not going to happen.’
‘Okay—so, if she says no, I’ll find someone else and if she says yes, then you’ll do it?’
‘Zoltan … There’s no way …’
‘Is that a bet?’
‘She won’t say yes.’ She wouldn’t. If there was one thing in this world he could be certain of, it was that she would want to be with him even less than he wanted to be with her. Especially after the way they’d parted. ‘I know she won’t.’
‘In which case,’ Zoltan said, ‘you’ve got nothing to worry about.’
‘No way!’
‘Marina!’ Aisha called as her sister jumped up from the garden seat where they’d been sitting together. ‘Just listen.’
‘There’s no point,’ she said, striding swiftly away. ‘Not if you’re not going to make sense.’
Aisha chased after her. ‘Zoltan and I don’t want you going home alone, surely you can understand that? You should have an escort. It’s the least we can do.’
‘I’ll be fine. It’s not that far.’
‘Like you thought you’d be fine on the way here too, remember?’
Marina shook her head. ‘Mustafa’s been put away. And this time I won’t go overland, okay? Put me on a private jet. Nothing can possibly go wrong.’
‘You’re going on a private jet, no question, but you’re not going alone. Not this time.’
‘Fine! So assign me a bodyguard if you must. But I will not go with that man! It was bad enough to find him waiting for me outside Mustafa’s tent. If I hadn’t known everyone was afraid for me, I would have gone right back inside again.’ And it had had nothing to do with the shivers that had skittered across her skin at finding him amongst the party of her rescuers; nothing to do with that flare of heat she had witnessed in his eyes, before they had turned hard, and as cold and unflinching as ice.
Aisha studied her sister. ‘You didn’t seem that upset when you arrived back at the palace. “A blast from the past”, you called him. I got the impression that whatever had happened in the past, it wasn’t that serious.’
Not serious. Marina flung her arms out wide, her fingers flicking the flowers of a nearby jasmine creeper in the process and sending its heady scent swirling into the air. She shook her head, reining her arms in and weaving them tightly around her midriff. ‘You were all so worried about me, and happy I was safe, how could I make a fuss? Besides, I thought it was over, that I’d never see him again. And clearly he was just as relieved himself that it was over.’
And when she saw the question in her sister’s eyes, she added, ‘Didn’t he take off for Monte Carlo that very same day? No doubt so that there was no chance he could run into me again while I was at the palace.’
‘Oh, Marina, I had no idea.’ Aisha slid a hand beneath one of her sister’s tightly bound arms and coaxed her into a walk through the fragrant garden. ‘What happened between you two?’
What hadn’t happened? Marina dropped her head, the weight of painful memories dragging her spirits with it. ‘Everything and nothing. It all came to nothing.’ She frowned. No, not nothing. She still had Chakir. ‘I was stupid. Naive. I flew too close to the sun and it’s no wonder I came crashing down.’
‘Okay. So you had an affair that ended badly, right?’
And this time it was Marina’s turn to squeeze her sister’s arm. ‘I’m sorry, Aisha. I’m not making sense, I know. But you’re right. I met Bahir one night at a party—eyes across a crowded casino, the whole boring cliché, I guess.’
She looked intently at her sister, trying to make her understand. ‘But the attraction was so intense, so immediate, and I knew in that instant that we were going to spend the night together. And one night turned into a week and then a month and more, and it was reckless and passionate and didn’t look like ending. And I really thought I loved him, you know. I actually thought for one mad moment—maybe more than just one—that he was the one.’ She sighed, staring blankly into the distance. ‘But I couldn’t have been more wrong.’
‘Oh, Marina, I’m sorry. I had no idea.’
‘How could you? It wasn’t as if I was ever home to share my news. And we seemed to have so little in common back then. You seemed content to stay in the family fold while I was continually rebelling against it. Our brothers provided the necessary heir and spare and our father made no bones about it. I figured I was surplus to requirements and so I might as well enjoy myself.’
‘A redundant princess,’ Aisha said softly to herself, remembering another time, another conversation.
‘What did you say?’
She smiled and shook her head as they resumed walking. ‘Nothing. It’s funny how different we are. But there were times I envied you your freedom and the fact you got to choose your lovers. There were days I wished I could be more like you, headstrong