Page 45 of At the Sheikh's Pleasure
“Why?”asked Leonora.“Personally, I hate mysteries.Surely, it’s best to know something?”
“I’m not so sure.”Rosana frowned.“Maybe our experience proves the opposite.If you’d found the diamond, then there wouldn’t have been any reason for either Janey or me to go to Sifra.Same with Janey.It was the act of searching which brought us to our husbands.Besides, I can’t help thinking that finding the diamond would have been something of an anti-climax.The mystery would have disappeared.There wouldn’t be any more stories to learn.”
“I know what you mean,” replied Leonora.“Sometimes, what we’re searching for isn’t what we need, or deep down, desire.That seems to have been the case with all of us.We were hot on the trail of the diamond and, instead, found love.”
“Hm,” said Janey.“With three brothers.Who’d have thought?”she said with a grin.
“You two, maybe,” said Rosana.“You knew your men before.I only knew that I didn’t like Zaire when I’d met him when I was a teenager.He was too arrogant, too domineering, too hard, too?—”
“Sexy?”volunteered Janey.
Rosana grinned.“I don’t think anyone can betoosexy.Anyway, I think maybe I was also too arrogant, domineering, hard.”She pursed her lips ruefully.“My father made me like that, but Zaire changed me.He took away the pain and made me face up to things I’d been hiding from my whole life.If I hadn’t taken on the challenge of hunting down the diamond, I’d still be nurturing that hurt, hiding away from love.”She heaved a big sigh and smiled.“And I can say, from the bottom of my newly found heart, that I’m truly grateful for the treasure hunt you took us on, Leonora.”
“Hm.A treasure hunt which yielded the only treasure that matters.”
Janey raised her glass.“Here’s to love.”
They clinked their glasses.
“And to brothers,” said Leonora.Again the glasses clinked.
Rosana looked from one woman to another.They’d always gotten on as colleagues and enjoyed each other’s company, but now things were different.They’d grown so much closer and Rosana knew that without these women’s support and friendship her future would be less rich.
“And sisters,” Rosana said.
“Sisters,” they repeated in unison before finishing their drinks.
“Now,” said Leonora, “I think it’s time to join the men and celebrate the founding of this college.”
Rosana didn’t thinkher heart had ever felt so full.She sat opposite Zaire—as she’d arranged—so she could look at him.A few weeks’ separation had made her hungry for the sight of him.Luckily, his brothers—Darrius and Amare—and Leonora and Janey kept the conversation flowing, otherwise she didn’t think she’d have been able to stop herself from taking his hand and pulling him from the room, away from everyone, where there were just the two of them to make love, to hold each other and to talk about the future.But that would have to wait a few hours because now it was the past being talked about as the Provost, the head of Gleave College, finished his speech on the history of the college, its founding, and Lord Gleave.The diamond, and the unsuccessful search, was tactfully ignored and finally everyone rose to make the last toast.
“This is,” intoned the Provost, “the exact time of day, and day of the month on which Lord Gleave stated the annual event should be held.The spring equinox.That point in the year when daytime and nighttime are equal across the planet.”He raised his glass.“Let us drink a toast to this institution which Lord Gleave created and which has witnessed so much scholarship over the past two centuries.”He inclined his head regally.“To Gleave College, long may it continue its work.”
Everyone rose and raised their crystal glasses in the air.At that moment, the equinox happened and slowly the light strengthened as expected.Except this year, it was different.This was the first year that they’d dined at this precise time since the removal of the false ceiling.No one knew why the ceiling had been erected in the first place.It had taken the combined persuasive powers of Leonora, Janey and Rosana to convince the college to act, and to take down the false ceiling.Their suspicions as to what lay beneath the ceiling had been correct.And now, its full glory could be seen.
At first, the sunlight refracted from the glass’s outer facets, spinning down onto the polished table below.One by one, people stopped talking and looked up, marveling at the complexity of the design and the beauty of its effect.
“It must be like this in the palace,” Rosana murmured to Zaire.“If the diamond were there, I mean.”
“That room is rarely used.I’ve never heard anyone speak of it.”He frowned and looked across the table at her, the light dancing between them.“You said, ‘if the diamond were there’.”
She nodded.
“So what is creatingthislight show?A replica?I think not.Because the replica we have creates no such showy display.”
They both looked up at the ceiling in the midst of which the grand centerpiece, which they’d always assumed was an ornate replica, was suddenly suffused with light, spilling out across the table, catching everyone’s upturned faces and glancing off their jewelry.
There was a collective gasp.The three women looked at each other.
“I think,” said Leonora…
“That we might just have found,” said Janey…
“The diamond,” breathed Rosana.
“But how,”asked Amare, some hours later when the six of them were relaxing under the now faded light of the dining room, “could Gleave have spirited the diamond out of the country without someone knowing?”
“Queen Mandana,” said Rosana, cradling her glass.“Never underestimate a woman in love.”
