Page 23 of At the Sheikh's Pleasure
“Oh, but it was, originally.Not the real one, of course, but a good enough replica to have fooled whoever has stolen it.”
“So where do you believe the genuine diamond is?”
She smiled a sweet smile he hadn’t seen before.“On another throne.Onherthrone.”
“But that throne is so modest, of such a simple design, that my family rejected it.”
She laughed, and it further softened his heart.He’d go on talking about the throne forever if that was what was needed to connect with this woman who he couldn’t stop thinking about.“Of course.But that was Mandana.She couldn’t resist showing a modest front to the world while hiding such wealth, a symbol of her power beneath it.She was playing a joke on men who would so easily overlook women, not realizing their worth.”
“An extravagant joke,” he commented.“So, where do you think her throne is?”
“I should imagine it’s been placed with other discarded objects—too valuable to dispose of, but not deemed valuable enough to put on display.Where might that be?”
He shrugged.“I don’t know.”He pulled out his phone and rang his vizier and exchanged a few brief words.“Someone will come to take us there.While we wait, is there anything else you’d like to show me I don’t know already?”
He shot her a smile but was surprised when she turned to him with a thoughtful expression, her head tilted slightly as if she were scrutinizing him.He didn’t like to be scrutinized.
“Sure.Over there.”She pointed to a frieze which showed the downfall of his family’s line.It had been replaced some time later, but only after bitter bloodshed.
“Why are you showing me this?”
“Because it’s what happened before when the king didn’t marry and had no children.There was a civil war, bloodshed, division.You can’t let that happen again.”
“It won’t.”
“I’m a historian, remember?And if there’s one thing I know, it’s that historydoesrepeat itself, given the right conditions.”
He felt angry at her forthright words and annoyed that she’d turned the tables on him.It seemed Queen Mandana’s sense of superiority over men had rubbed off on her.But he refused to have it.No one talked to the king like that.“I think that’s enough of your conjecture for one day.”He turned and walked away.
“You can keep on walking away, but it doesn’t make any difference to the facts.”
He spun around.“What do you know of the facts?”
“What I’ve heard, and what you’ve told me.You’re so in love with the memory of a woman that you refuse to live in the present and do your duty as king.”
He stabbed his finger in the air at her, suddenly furious.“That is absolutely untrue!”
But his anger didn’t deflate her in the least.In fact, she took a step toward him as if she had no fear of his rage.“You loved a woman, you lost her, and you don’t believe anyone can ever replace her.Thatis the truth of the matter.And that will be your, and your country’s, undoing.”
He was silenced by her sureness and a rap at the door.
“Come!”he bellowed.Two officials entered the room.
“Your Highness.Sheikha.You wished to see the royal storerooms?”
He exhaled roughly.“Yes.”He raked his fingers through his hair.“Yes, that’s right.Where are they?”
“In the old palace, Highness.”
“Let’s go.”Zaire really wasn’t in the mood for loitering now.He wanted this over with.He didn’t need anyone—least of all a woman with the lips of a seductress—to lecture him about duty or his personal life.
The officials heldthe door open, and Rosana made sure she kept pace with Zaire.She knew she’d rattled him.If it hadn’t been for the way he’d needled her—trying to get her to lower her defenses, mentioning the kiss, which she deeply regretted—she wouldn’t have said anything.But she didn’t regret what she’d said because it was true.The more time she’d spent with him, the more she saw that—for all his apparent strength, power and control—he had an Achilles Heel and that was his love for the woman who’d died.
She had to run to keep up with him as they walked through deserted corridors where pieces of furniture were piled high.It was obvious from his expression that Zaire had never been here before.This raised her hopes even further that she was getting closer to finding the diamond.
Eventually, the officials arrived at an upstairs room, far from the main areas of the palace.The gardens outside were unruly and unkempt, and the dust on the windows from the ever-present blast of sand remained uncleaned.
“Is this it?”asked Zaire, breaking the silence.It was the first thing he’d said since they’d left the throne room.
