Page 75 of Modern Romance November 2024 5-8

‘How do I make her stop?’ she yelled.

‘Pull on the reins.’

‘It worked!’ Josie slowed to a walk and Violet, breathless and exhilarated, looked as if she felt she ruled the equestrian world. ‘Can we go for a ride in the desert?’

‘No.’

‘I could do this at the local riding school at home.’

‘You could—yet you never have,’ he pointed out. ‘You can’t learn it all in one day. You’re going to be sore.’

‘I. Don’t. Care,’ Violet told him. ‘I want a desert ride. Itismy holiday, Sahir.’

‘Holiday?’

‘Well, it sort of is,’ she said. ‘And I don’t want to waste it.’ She gave him a smile. ‘I’ve decided to embrace the time I have rather than endure it.’

And she was the most persuasive, guilt-inducing, incredible person he had ever met, because a short while later they were actually setting off, his beast chomping at the bit as Josie plodded along.

‘How is it?’ he asked as they left the tent far behind.

‘So nice.’ She closed her eyes. ‘If I hadn’t been kidnapped to get here, then this would be the best day of my life,’ she teased.

He smiled, but it faded as his horse started to get stroppy. ‘I’m going to stretch him—do you want to get off for a while?’

‘No.’

‘Violet...’

‘I’ll just keep walking.’

‘But you won’t...’

He felt it then—flashes of her deciding to trot, or gallop, or falling off...fears he did not allow himself to have.

And yet he’d been having them since the moment they’d met.

He kicked his horse, trying to outrun his thoughts, trying to rid his head of that moment when he hadn’t cared what happened with King Abdul, or if he might be missed for a week.

And his head hadn’t quite cleared even as he slowed and turned—for there she was, plodding along on Josie, her cheeks bright red and a smile on her face. He slowed his horse to a walk.

‘We’ll go back,’ he told her.

‘Not yet.’ She looked at the endless dunes, and then she looked up to the sun. ‘How do you find your way back?’

He told her about the observatory, how they were all taught about the stars...

‘What if it’s cloudy?’

‘You’d know north.’

‘No.’

‘You’d know it.’

‘I don’t.’ She shook her head. ‘I must have missed that lesson. I’m not the brightest...’

‘Violet.’ He stopped her. ‘You are one of the cleverest people I know.’

---