Tora was still smiling and it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms, but no, that was not the way. ‘Kareem gave me this for you,’ he said, pulling a paper from between the books he carried, and handed her the instructions for accessing the Internet.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
‘And your money has been transferred.’
Tora closed her eyes and clutched the paper to her chest. ‘Thank you so much for letting me know.’
She looked beautiful. She’d ditched the drab uniform and that too-tight bun and was wearing a silken robe that didn’t cling and yet that turned her into a woman again, the woman he knew was hidden below, with breasts and hips and curves in between, and she’d done something with her eyes so they looked smoky and seductive and now, because of something he’d said, she looked radiant.
He’d been mad to ever imagine he could leave her alone.
‘There’s more,’ he said, and his voice sounded thick even to him. ‘Kareem is giving me a tour of the six new palaces tomorrow, and I came to ask you if you would like to accompany me.’
‘Me?’
Her eyes had lit up, as if she wanted to say yes, but they were wary. Guarded. She didn’t trust him. She had good cause. ‘You.’
She looked down at the child. ‘And Atiyah?’
‘There is no reason to haul her around with us. We will be in and out of cars in the heat of the day. She will be much more comfortable staying here.’
‘But—’
‘Please, Sheikha, I can look after her.’
Tora looked at Yousra. ‘Are you sure? We may be gone a long time by the sounds.’
‘It is no trouble. Atiyah is a delight.’
‘So, it’s settled, then,’ Rashid said, feeling better than he had in a long time. ‘We will leave after breakfast.’
Tora looked up at him, her accentuated eyes hauntingly beautiful and her lips slightly parted. ‘After breakfast, then,’ she said as they walked towards the door.
But he turned back before leaving, wanting one more look at her, like this, like a woman dressed in silk and not a buttoned-up nursemaid with a bun. ‘I see you found something else to wear.’
‘Yes. You were right—Kareem had organised an entire wardrobe of clothes for me. Yousra’s been helping me go through them.’
‘I like what you’re wearing,’ he said, nodding at her choice. ‘You look beautiful.’
And her lips moved uncertainly, but he didn’t hear if she actually said anything, because he was gone.
CHAPTER TEN
THERE WERE SIX of them in all. A white palace, covered in mother of pearl shell that dazzled in the sun. A red palace with red turrets and domes that paid homage to the ruby. A palace with extensive scented gardens and called Yasmin—named after Malik’s favourite of the time, they were informed—the Grand Palace that was based on a Venetian row of palazzos complete with canals and gondoliers on demand if required together with vast rooms filled to the brim with Murano glass, and a palace that looked like a double for the palace of Versailles. There was even park-cum-palace called the Fun Palace with a fantasyland theme and an expansive garden full of perfectly maintained and oiled rides that sat eerily empty, just waiting for someone to push a button.
To Tora they seemed like the folly of a boy who’d never grown up, buildings that lacked the elegant good taste of the Old Palace despite the wealth of treasures they contained, buildings that ventured into the territory of ostentatious display of wealth for wealth’s sake.
‘Why so many?’ she asked Rashid as their convoy left the last on the list, the so-called Fun Palace, a rococo confection based on the retreats of the renaissance royals that wouldn’t be out of place in the French countryside. ‘Who even needs so many palaces?’
‘Malik did,’ he said, ‘because apparently the harem in the Old Palace was nowhere near big enough.’
‘So he built six additional palaces to accommodate his women?’
‘Apparently he was a man of insatiable tastes. I can’t think how else he could have so happily squandered so much money and so many hours when he should have been working for his people.’
‘But he had no children?’
‘It didn’t stop him from trying,’ he said drily, and Tora couldn’t help but laugh.
‘What?’
‘You. You sounded almost funny then.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.’
‘I know,’ she said with a grin. ‘That’s what makes it so funny.’
He looked away, feigning umbrage at her laughter, when in fact he was enjoying himself immensely. It was good to get away from the endless papers and the spreadsheets filled with numbers that showed just how badly the economy had been neglected over the last three decades while its treasury had been plundered to pay for the Emir’s follies.
It was good to be with her.
Surprisingly good.
He’d imagined this outing would give her the chance to see him in a better light. He hadn’t expected to discover he liked her more in return.
She made a pleasant change from Kareem, who he liked and respected but whose conversation was limited to the necessary and delivered without humour.
Needless to say, she was more appealing on the eyes than Kareem, too. Much more. Today she was wearing another of those silky robes, this one coloured in ripples of yellow and orange so she looked like a shimmering sunset as she walked. He’d been right to ask her along. She made the tour a holiday excursion, expressing delight and sometimes horror at the old Emir’s excesses, rather than a dry exercise of checking out the inventory.
And suddenly he didn’t want it to end. They were on the outskirts of the city, only a sprinkling of buildings amidst the desert sands, and he had an idea. ‘Stop the car,’ he told the driver, and the vehicles rolled to a halt. Rashid climbed out to talk to Kareem and a few minutes later he was back and their car peeled away from the others and headed towards the desert proper.
‘What’s happening?’ Tora said. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Seeing we are so close, I thought we should see something of the desert. Apparently there is an oasis not far from here.’
He saw her bite her lip as she glanced at her watch. ‘Will it take long? We’ve been gone hours already and I feel bad leaving Yousra by herself for too long.’ And he felt a pang of admiration for this woman who he could see wasn’t using Atiyah as an excuse to get away from him, but was genuinely concerned for his sister.
‘It won’t take long,’ he promised.
It was only a few kilometres further on through the desert sands that they found it, an oasis of palm trees, an island of green amidst the golden landscape, almost empty but for a few families picnicking on and paddling in the shores of a pond alive with waterfowl, its fringes thick with water lilies of white and pink.
‘It looks idyllic,’ she said as the car pulled into the shade of the palms, and they climbed outside. The desert air was hot and dry, but there was a breeze fanning through the greenery and over the water and Tora’s abaya fluttered in the warm air as she took in the contrast between desert sands and lush greenery.
‘Kareem said this was once a resting place for the caravans that traversed the dunes. Now the city has spread closer and it has been retained as a park for the people of Qajaran.’
‘It’s beautiful.’ She turned to him then, her eyes alive and bright. ‘Can we paddle, do you think? Only it’s been such a long day and my feet are killing me.’
He wasn’t sure why she asked when she was already slipping off her sandals and raising the hem of her abaya to slip her feet into the water’s edge. ‘Oh, it’s gorgeous,’ she called over her shoulder. ‘Bliss. You have to try this for yourself.’
He shook his head, even as he laughed. It was crazy. He swam laps for fitness and he’d been a champion rower along with his desert brothers when he’d been at university, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever paddled before. And then, because he figured there was no time like the present, he shucked off his loafers and rolled up the bottom of his trousers and joined her.
She was right. The water was cool and clear and the perfect antidote to hot feet tired from traipsing around half a dozen palaces. Tiny fish darted around his ankles while a crane stood on one leg, watching warily from a distance, and Rashid wondered at the pleasure in such a simple occupation. Tora turned around then and pointed to one of the families whose children were laughing in the shallows at their father holding up a baby whose little feet kicked at the water, giggling gleefully as he splashed himself and everyone around him. ‘We should bring Atiyah here for a picnic—what do you think?’
And something shifted enough inside him that it almost sounded like a good idea. He would like to, he thought, if this woman came with them. ‘Maybe,’ he said as he stepped out of the water and sat on the grassy edge, looking up at the mountains in the distance, and thinking...
She came and sat down next to him. ‘Thank you for bringing me here,’ she said, flapping at the bottom of her wet hem while she studied the henna designs on her feet as they dried in the warm air. ‘That was magic. I don’t think you’re ever too old to paddle.’