by Pippa Roscoe
She looked almost on the verge of asking a question before she seemed to think better of it, smiled, and said that she knew the way.
Long after she left, he sat in the room with her memories vivid in his imagination. To be so rejected by family was completely alien to him. He might have had a difficult relationship with his parents, but they would never cut him from their lives. They hadn’t when he’d run wild through Europe and they wouldn’t even if they discovered Star was carrying his child and that he would be marrying her.
He stalked the halls of the palace, returning to the suite that Star had been so consumed by. He knew that it would affect him, being in what had once been his brother’s quarters, and he marched towards them, braced and ready for a fight—albeit an emotional one.
First, he opened the door to the bathroom. It had been days since he’d seen it and the breath left his lungs in surprise. All over the ceiling and down the parts of the walls that weren’t covered in antique mirrored glass or the shower was an incredible night sky. A deep blue paint was interspersed with thousands of stars, ranging from the smallest dot to an intricate eight-pointed star the size of his palm. It gave the room an infinite depth and he felt as if he were standing in the middle of the cosmos. He knew that it had nothing to do with ego and everything to do with fully realising Samira’s dream, and in that moment he knew he’d never forget Star’s kindness as long as he lived.
He was reluctant to leave the space, but he was equally curious about what lay beneath the drop cloth covering a large area of the living space wall. His hand shook a little as he pulled it away, as if he sensed that whatever it was would be profound, but as the cloth fell away he had to cover his mouth with his hand to stop his shock from escaping into the room.
A tree wound its way up from the floor to the ceiling. Branches covered the length of the wall, the texture and detail of the bark making him want to reach out and touch it. It was only as he got closer that he saw little hand and foot holds drilled into the walls.
The girls would be able to climb it, just like Samira had climbed the tree in the palace garden. Stepping up to the wall, he felt the floor beneath his feet change to a soft mat that would protect them if they fell. Star had thought of everything. He shook his head in wonder.
‘I hope you can see this, brother,’ he whispered out loud. ‘Samira, I know how much this would mean to you.’
Now it was up to Khalif to try and repair some of the hurt he’d caused and it came to him instantly, knowing the rightness of it by how his chest filled with excitement and his pulse pounded.
He knew just the way.
CHAPTER NINE
STAR GENTLY PADDED down the corridor to the dining room she’d been shown on that first day and never used. She hugged the midnight-blue silk kimono around her, still feeling a little vulnerable from her conversation with Khalif the day before.
‘No, that will take too long,’ she heard Khalif say before she’d entered the room. The smell of cardamom tea made her mouth water and the sweet pastries she was going to have to learn how to make had her stomach grumbling.
‘It will have to be the Jeep... Yes... I don’t care about the expense, it’s worth it,’ he growled. The moment he saw her in the doorway, he ended the call and put his phone on the table.
‘Was that Amin?’ she asked, coming into the room and sitting down where her place had been set. He poured her a cup of tea as she took a few pastries—she couldn’t say which ones because she’d become lost in the way that his powerful hands gripped the thin silver arm of the teapot, and then the tiny porcelain handle of the cup.
She blushed when he actually had to say her name to get her to take the cup he was offering her.
‘Yes,’ he said. When she looked up at him he frowned. ‘It was Amin,’ he clarified.
Oh, good God, she had to get a grip of herself.
‘Why did you ask?’
‘You always get that tone in your voice when you speak to him,’ she replied, inhaling the scent of the aromatic tea that tasted so much better here than it ever had in England.
‘What tone?’
‘Mmm...that I-don’t-care-what-you-think-just-do-it tone.’
The look on his face told her that her impression had hit home.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ he evaded.
‘Yes, you do. He irritates you,’ she stated easily.
‘Because he judges me,’ Khalif growled.
‘Probably because you’re clearly irritated with him,’ she replied, unable to help the smile pulling at her lips. ‘You should either make peace with him or let him go.’
‘And that is your professional opinion?’
‘Absolutely. If you don’t want it to descend into playground taunts of “He started it”.’
Star could have sworn she heard him say, But he did, under his breath, but by the time she looked up at him he was furiously studying a mark on the table.
‘How do you feel today?’
‘Still not pregnant.’
He smiled, and her heart eased a little.
‘I... I spoke to my sisters last night.’ She hated the way that his body tensed, but she was thankful that he waited to hear what she had to say. ‘I told them only that I might be able to get the necklace.’
‘What did they say?’
‘They are very happy.’ It wasn’t exactly a lie. They had been happy, or at least relieved. Star had intended to wait until she had the necklace in her possession, but she’d felt awkward keeping the news of it a secret. So she had told Summer that she knew where it was and hoped to have it soon. Star would have sworn she’d felt her sister’s sigh against her skin as if it had whooshed through the phone speaker. Summer had mentioned something about making the meeting with the buyer easier and had then asked some bland questions about Burami, clearly forgetting that Star was now in the desert. It was a bit unlike her. Or had been unlike her three months ago...but ever since she’d returned from her mid-term holiday there had been something almost distracted about her, even though she’d denied it every time Skye or Star had asked her about it.
‘And actually, Skye is engaged,’ Star announced, thinking of the later conversation with her older sister.
‘Congratulations. What’s he like?’
‘I have no idea. I’ve never met him,’ she replied as Khalif blinked in surprise. ‘But she’s happy, I can tell.’ And Skye really had been, happier than Star had ever heard her. It had been strange to hear Skye shine with the romance of her thrilling Costa Rican adventure.
It wasn’t that Star wasn’t happy for her, it was just that... She rubbed at her sternum, hoping to ease the tightness there. Was she jealous? Star looked at Khalif. Here she was, in the desert with a gorgeous sheikh, literally on a treasure hunt, and while it could look like the perfect romance for all the world, beneath it all, she was only here because she might be pregnant.
But as the days had worn on, and as Star grew closer and closer to the man she’d first met and merged that with the complexities of the man before her, as she felt her heart slowly spread and stretch, she began to suspect that she wasn’t pregnant and could no longer ignore her fear that she didn’t mean to him what he had come to mean to her.
‘That’s good, right?’ Khalif asked, looking at her as if he were worried about her.
The tea nearly jerked over the rim and she had to place the delicate cup down before she lost even more of it. She knew that he was not speaking about her thoughts of him, but his words had still cut through her.
‘That she’s happy?’ he clarified.
‘Yes. Yes, of course,’ Star replied, forcing a little pastry into her mouth before she could make things worse.
‘Eat up,’ he pressed. ‘We have places to be.’
‘Do we?’ This really was a confusing morning. ‘Where are we going? Don’t we have to be back
in Burami tomorrow?’
‘Yes. But, in the meantime, you’re being kidnapped by a handsome prince.’
Her heart soared, loving the way he’d just teased her. ‘Oh, really? Where is he?’ she asked, looking around the room.
‘Funny,’ he groused. ‘Meet me by the stables. And dress comfortably.’
* * *
He probably should have asked her whether she knew how to ride before he’d made his plans, but the excitement and determination that had shone in her eyes was worth it. Mavia was so completely under Star’s spell that he’d almost had to stop the mare from lowering to the ground for Star to mount.
If he wasn’t careful, he would not have any subjects left in the country because they’d have all sworn allegiance to her.
Star had dressed as he’d asked. A long-sleeved white top and cream linen trousers were protected by a pale gold pashmina that compared unfavourably to the rich red ropes of hair that curled down her back.
But it was her smile that truly shone.
By the time he had Star on Mavia in front of him, his pulse was ready to burst. His horse didn’t even complain once at the unusual extra weight, instead flicking a gaze at him from her bent head as if to demand what he was waiting for.
In truth, he was waiting to regain control of his body. He’d not counted on the way that having Star in between his legs and against his chest, or the way his arms felt wrapped around her would affect him.
She hadn’t asked him a single question, he thought as he flicked Mavia’s reins. She launched from the stables as if as desperate to show Star the magical wonders of the desert as he. Star’s trust in him was complete. As complete as it had been the night they had spent together. It made him feel like...a king.
As Mavia galloped beneath them he relished the feeling of having Star so close, and he loosened his hold on the reins, his horse knowing their destination, having made this journey more than a thousand times, even if not in the last three years.
He cast his gaze outwards and breathed deep. He felt alive here. The stretches of endless desert a mirage, a trick she played on the weary traveller, to test their mettle, to see their true worth. There were no lies in the desert. She may not have been cruel or loving, but she was most definitely capricious.
In the back of his mind he heard his brother’s laugh, urging him on, faster and faster, and it merged with the laugh from Star. He felt it in his heart, surrounded by adrenaline, excitement and all the things he hadn’t felt for so long. He could feel it. The rightness of coming here. As if he had always been meant to bring her to this place.
They were so nearly there and Mavia knew it too because she found a sudden spurt of energy. They crested a dune, trails of sand billowing in their wake for no one to see, and at the pinnacle Mavia came to a stop of her own volition as if just as awed by the sight as the humans she carried. Khalif might have known every single inch of this view, but it still struck him as something incredible and precious, known only by a rare few.
He cast his eyes deep into the valley, over the large canvas tent nestled close to the trees that lined the small lake in the middle of the basin and in the distance he looked up to see the palms Star’s ancestor had written of.
* * *
Star’s mouth had dropped open. Her eyes raced across the image before her, sure that it was a dream. A desert mirage. But it wasn’t. She could feel the heat of Khalif behind her and the pounding of Mavia’s heart beneath her.
At the mouth of the tent, rich, dark red woven rugs stretched out before a large fire pit—one that was already in full flame. Golden glints and bursts of red hinted at sequin-encrusted cushions and rich deep turquoise silks covered the sand. A low-slung table with a dazzling array of drinks and food were kept cool and contained in a glass-fronted fridge. She was sure there must have been a generator somewhere discreet, but she couldn’t see it. Nothing spoiled the fantasy.
The richness of what lay in front of her was almost too much to bear, so her eyes drifted to the far side of the crystal-blue water nestled within lush green vegetation to where she saw two palms crossed at the base to form an X.
Her heart missed a beat and she gasped.
She didn’t dare turn around because if she looked at Khalif now, he’d know. He’d know that she’d fallen in love with him. And there, wrapped in his arms, his hands loosely holding the reins, and half convinced that he would be able to feel the beat of her heart, she almost started to shake.
Khalif urged the horse forward and they jostled from side to side with the horse’s uneven but regal gait as Mavia made her way down into the basin where the oasis flourished. When they came to a stop, Khalif dismounted and she hastily swept at the moisture in her eyes, not wanting him to see how much being here meant to her.
He reached for her and took her into his arms, bringing her down from the horse, and stood her barely an inch from him. He searched her eyes in that way of his and she thought, I want you to look at me like that for ever. Finally, she looked away, hiding from his scrutiny, pretending to find the lake fascinating, when all she could think of was him.
‘Do you know where you are?’ he asked, his voice low but strong.
‘This is where Hātem brought Catherine.’ Before she had to leave, Star concluded silently, trying to surf the wave of sadness that swept over her at the thought that she might soon be leaving too. ‘Why did you bring me here?’
He looked over her shoulder, the desert swallowing the sigh that escaped his lips. It was as if he needed a moment to gather himself because when he turned back to her, his eyes were fierce. His hand cupped her cheek, holding her gaze—as if she could or would ever look away from him.
‘I brought you here to remind you of the family who want you. Not just your sisters and your mother. But the family who knew you would come, following in their footsteps. To remind you of the one who trusted in her people, in the women of her blood and the women bound to those she loved. It is they who have kept her secret safe, ready and waiting for you. Not for anyone else. But you.
‘You have been waited upon for over one hundred and fifty years, Star Soames. That is no small thing.’
She felt his words in her soul, as if something ancient had been woken beneath the desert and was reaching for her. So when Khalif delved into the bag on his saddle and retrieved a small velvet pouch her heart didn’t pulse with surprise, it vibrated with an overwhelming feel of rightness. As if something predestined was finally coming to conclusion.
He took a necklace so familiar to Star from the pouch and held it up for her to inspect. She pressed slightly shaking fingers against her lips. This was what they had been looking for. It was the key to so much. To the past, to her mother’s future... So much rested on such a small, beautiful thing. Khalif had been right. There were subtle differences, but it could have easily been mistaken for the one that she was wearing around her neck.
‘May I?’
‘Of course. It is now yours,’ he said with a solemnity that felt ceremonial.
Taking it from him, she made her way blindly to the silks and woven rugs. She folded her legs beneath her, and she looped the gold chain over her head and brought the two pendants together.
She knew that they should fit together—Catherine’s coded message had said as much—but she didn’t quite... She ran her finger over the embossed pattern on the surface of the pendant and felt something shift. Pressing down released an indented piece of silver from the bottom of the pendant. She picked up Hātem’s pendant and did the same. Staring at the two pendants, she didn’t quite know what to do next. They needed to...
Khalif reached over. ‘May I?’ He seemed as lost in the task as she and she was happy to pass him the necklaces if it meant she could spend just a moment looking at the man who had given her more than he could ever know.
He turned the pendants in his hands, twisting and turning one piece while
holding the other steady, and then, as if suddenly seeing how it could be, hooked one pendant into the other.
‘Oh,’ Star marvelled. Together the pieces created one key, the thick gold base forming the head and the two thinner silver offshoots forming the blade—the indentations becoming the ridges and notches that would fit into a lock.
Khalif pressed against the head of the key and the silver blade retracted into the body of the pendant. ‘There. You can now wear them together.’
She stared at him, shaking her head in wonder.
‘You don’t like it?’ he asked as if confused.
‘I do! I love it. I just... I don’t think I ever imagined actually finding it.’
I don’t think I ever imagined actually finding you. Finding the man I would love for the rest of my life.
‘Are you trying to tell me that you didn’t believe your search would have a happy ending? And you call yourself a romantic,’ he tsked.
She tried to swallow around the lump in her throat and a smile wobbled on her lips. ‘Of course I do.’
He held up the necklace. ‘Would you like me to—’
‘Actually...’ she said, rising quickly. ‘I’d like to explore,’ she exclaimed brightly, sure that the overly bright response had given her away, but he kindly let her go.
She couldn’t take the necklace. Not yet. Because that would be the end of her search in Duratra. She would be done and wearing the necklace, holding it complete as the key would be the end of her time here. Especially as she was almost sure that she wasn’t pregnant.
* * *
Khalif went to see Mavia, made sure that she had extra treats for carrying them both here. It hadn’t been a long journey and she would have all the rest she needed, as he and Star would be driving out of here tomorrow.
He could see that Star had been affected by the necklace. He had been too, not imagining for a moment how it would feel to give away something that had been worn by the women of his family for over one hundred and fifty years. In doing so, it felt as if he’d entrusted part of his family to her.