Page 89 of Modern Romance November 2024 5-8

The poetry book was by the bed, and rather than get under the sheets she lay on top, bringing a candle to the bedside.

‘You’ll ruin your eyes, Violet,’ she warned herself, biting into a bitter chocolate.

She cringed all over again when she thought of what she’d said to the King.

Oh, it wasn’t so much the hair-raising bit where she’d messed up, it was mentioning his late wife...

She thought of his flare of anger as she’d spoken out of turn.

No, not anger...

Violet shook her head, refusing to think about it and turned to a very dog-eared page in the book.

Pablo Neruda

Every Day You Play...

Boring, she decided. She didn’t want to read about playing. But there were a lot of notes in the margin, so she gave it a go.

Oh, my...!

It was very sensual.

It was not a poem to read when you’d been thoroughly made love to and now had to spend the night alone.

Queen Anousheh’s notes and underscores explained it better than any teacher, and the poem made the cold night air feel like a midday furnace.

Violet read of suffering and savage, solitary souls, and thought of Sahir—and then she thought that absolutely she was ordering this book when she got home...

Then she lay back, wondering if she’d let him down, but then she recalled his dark eyes as he told her she could relax, as he had that first night. She could stop smiling now.

‘It’s just us.’

It wasn’t, though. They were an entire palace apart. She didn’t even know which wing he was in...

It didn’t matter, Violet suddenly realised, opening her eyes and slowly sitting up.

He’d been telling her about the observatory, the clear night, the view.

Sahir hadn’t been being formal.

He’d been telling her where they could meet.

Hadn’t he?

Opening her bedroom door, she peered down the long corridor. There was a maid sitting at the end.

‘Goodnight,’ Violet said, and slunk back inside.

Then she looked up at the ceiling, but there was no clue there. Then her gaze came down, and she looked at the many doors, one with a yellow gold and silver circle embedded in it...

Venus.

Inanna.

There seemed to be just a brick wall behind it, but then she saw that there was the same gold and silver circle embedded on the other side.

Violet picked up the candle and peered into the void. She saw that to one side there was a set of steep stairs.

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