‘A visitor awaits us at the palace,’ Butrus whispered as they walked towards the airport building, a spectacular building with a tiled roof that glittered like gold and more chandeliers than a ball room.
Azrael didn’t voice his usual objection to the castle being labelled a palace. Butrus believed that a reigning monarch had to live in a palace because it sounded more impressive. Unhappily a Crusader castle briefly occupied during the nineteen twenties and barely updated since scarcely lived up to that grand designation.
‘I’m not in the mood for a visitor,’ Azrael admitted bluntly. ‘Who is he?’
‘Our most senior judge, Emir Abdi. He has important information to offer concerning the announcement you made,’ Butrus advanced grimly.
Azrael braced himself for an hour of prosy talk about some esoteric point of law that only a university scholar would find fascinating. Professor Abdi was an erudite man but Azrael was at heart a soldier and a man of action and he found the older man’s interminable explanations and arguments trying.
‘We are in trouble,’ Butrus murmured warningly. ‘I did advise you against making that announcement. It has created enormous excitement—’
‘It is done and I am always facing trouble of some kind,’ Azrael declared resignedly, distracted by the copper glitter of Molly’s hair in the sunshine and the very purposeful way she walked. Nothing, not Tahir’s infamy, not the worst the desert could throw at her, dimmed Molly’s buoyant spirit. She glowed like a light in darkness. What a weird thought to have, he acknowledged with a frown.
Molly was enthralled by the city of Jovan as an SUV carried them down the main thoroughfare. ‘It’s fantastic,’ she told Azrael, staring out at ancient houses, covered markets and elaborate mosques. ‘It’s so unspoilt—’
‘Oh, it’s definitely unspoilt,’ Azrael agreed wryly. ‘Unlike other cities it’s been preserved untouched for generations.’
‘Tourists would go mad for this. It’s so authentic and that’s what people want these days,’ Molly said enthusiastically, peering out at a little man trying to herd goats out of the traffic onto the pavement, smiling as a much better dressed man went to help him and all the cars stopped.
‘People also want hotels and we don’t have them,’ Azrael said drily.
‘So...build them!’ Molly exclaimed impatiently. ‘Embrace a can-do attitude, Azrael. Stop looking at the negatives and concentrate on the positives.’
Butrus listened with appreciation to that practical advice and reflected that his royal employer would have to embrace that attitude sooner than he thought, if Professor Abdi was to be believed and there was no one in Djalia who knew the law better than he.
‘I hope I get a little time for sightseeing,’ Molly continued hopefully, shooting Azrael a smile brimming with interest.
‘We will see.’ Azrael compressed his shapely mouth, refusing to meet those sparkling eyes, seeking distance from the intimacy they had established. He would not be controlled by his libido as he had been in the cave. A faint shudder racked him at that recollection of that ferocious lust and the reality that he could have seduced a virgin. The situation could be much worse, he told himself impatiently.
‘The palace,’ Butrus announced with discernible pride as the car passed below a stone portcullis.
Azrael’s jawline squared because he expected a disparaging comment about the ancient medieval building sprawling in front of them.
‘What wonderful gardens!’ Molly carolled in astonishment when she glimpsed the lush trees and colourful borders bounding a central fountain. ‘My goodness, that must take so much work and watering in this heat.’
‘It does indeed,’ Butrus responded warmly. ‘But we are very partial to the greenery in gardens and the peace to be found there.’
Molly finally focused on the stone structure before them. ‘Your people must be very fond of castles,’ she remarked naïvely, thinking of the desert fortress.
‘The castles were all built by Djalia’s invaders,’ Azrael countered deflatingly. ‘And the décor and the level of comfort hasn’t moved on much since the fourteenth century.’
‘But think of the history and the people who must have lived here over the centuries,’ Molly enthused, determined not to encourage him in his negative outlook.
The wall of heat that met her when she climbed out of the car daunted her a little. The stone portico over the entrance cooled her and she accompanied the two men into a wide tiled hallway, obviously a more recent addition to the historical structure. A crowd of staff were gathered there, all bowing very low. In fact a couple of the women fell on their knees in front of Molly, and she didn’t know what to do and shot Azrael a dismayed glance. He spoke softly and a sensible older woman from the back of the crowd moved forward to receive instructions.