Page 67 of Modern Romance November 2024 5-8

Sahir breathed through his nostrils.

Violet knew how to press certain buttons, how to voice the questions he asked himself at times, and yet she did it with a smile, in a vaguely dizzy voice, when she was anything but.

‘As I said, taking a lover is an option.’

He took a cleansing breath, watched as she helped herself to more dessert. Of course she could never understand. It felt important, though, to explain to her what had occurred.

‘I didn’t know anything until I returned to the house and you were gone,’ he told her. ‘I first thought you had been taken to the palace. Emotion is something we don’t allow, but I spoke angrily with my father.’

‘The King?’

Sahir nodded.

‘Don’t you get on?’

‘We are not close, but we’re not enemies. I have my own office, my team. I’m perplexed. I still cannot believe he sanctioned it. He seemed to think he was doing us a favour by giving us some discreet time.’

‘What did you say when you spoke to him?’

‘I told him to stay the hell out of my business.’

‘And what did he say?’

‘That the welfare of the country is my only business.’

Violet didn’t ask to be excused. Just removed herself from the table and went over to the trunk she’d dragged into the lounge area.

As her thoughts whirred she went through it.

She could see things from Sahir’s point of view a little more. Not just from what he’d said, but because she remembered the grey tinge to his complexion when he’d arrived last night. The relief in his eyes when he’d first seen her.

He came and lay on the sofa, staring at the roof of the tent as if still trying to work things out.

It was a nice silence. Not the tense one of before. Just a little pause as she sorted the books into piles and the wind sounded like music in the distance.

She rummaged in the trunk, looking at all the papers and treasures.

‘Bedra didn’t mean to offend you by bringing you that.’ He glanced over. ‘I think she was just trying to help.’

‘I know. It just felt like...’ She looked over to the one person she was really able to turn off her fake smile for and decided to tell him why it had upset her so. ‘I was placed in a lot of foster homes...’

‘So you had a lot of toy boxes?’

She nodded and ran her hand over the ancient gleaming wood. ‘Sometimes there would be a jigsaw...’

‘Missing parts?’

‘No time to finish it. Or I’d find something I liked and then it would be time to go and I’d have to leave it behind. It wasn’t always the case. Things calmed down somewhat as I got older. And I spent a lot of time with Grace and her mother.’

‘It must have hurt when Mrs Andrews accused you.’

‘I’m very used to it.’ She made light of the painful topic, but then caught his serious, patient eyes. ‘I was mortified,’ she admitted, and felt her throat tighten even as she spoke. ‘I die on the inside whenever things go missing.’

‘Why?’

‘I’m terrified people will think it’s me.’

‘Mrs Andrews was clearly confused.’

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