Page 42 of At the Sheikh's Pleasure
Before Amare could continue, Darrius stepped between them.
“There’s no point in getting angry.That won’t get us anywhere.We need to sort this mess out with Sheikh Mohammad—Rosana’s father—before it gets any worse,” he said.“Any ideas, Zaire?”
“It’s not Rosana’s father I’m worried about.It’s putting things right with Rosana.”
Amare heaved a frustrated sigh, shot a look at Darrius, as if to say, “see”, and jumped up.
Darrius sat quietly contemplating Zaire.“You’ve got it bad, brother.”
Zaire turned to Darrius.His quiet tone had got through to him.He was the only person who knew what it was like to be king of Sifra, with all the challenges that brought.“Got what bad?”But he knew what he was talking about.
“Love.You can’t deny it.We all know what that’s like.”
Zaire looked down.“At least you could dump the kingship on me and get on with your life.”
“I wouldn’t have done that if you hadn’t wanted the job.”
“Yes, well, that was then.”
“And this is now,” added Amare.“So I suggest you stop feeling sorry for yourself and help us find a solution to this mess.”
“You’re right, of course.”He rose and went to the desk and checked his emails.
“So, what do you propose?’asked Amare.
“Marriage.”
His brothers frowned.“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I will go and see Rosana and show her I’ll sacrifice anything for her, prove to her she’s the most important thing in the world to me.”
“Right,” said Amare, unconvinced.“And how do you propose to do that?”
“Give back the disputed territories to the Kingdom of Harran.”
“No!”said both Darrius and Amare at once.
Zaire held up his hand to silence them.“You wanted a solution, and this is the one I’m suggesting.If we give him the land which our ancestors took from him, then the old feud will be over.”
Amare shook his head.“Think of what we’d lose.We can’t do that.”He turned to Darrius.“Can we?”
Darrius shrugged.“We can do anything, so long as we three agree.Is this what you want, Zaire?”
“Yes, it is.I’ve been giving it a lot of thought.The land was taken two hundred years ago and had always belonged to them before that.Yes, it’s valuable land, but our honor is more valuable.”
Darrius nodded and turned to Amare.“Amare?What do you say?”
Amare shrugged resignedly.“What can I say to that?You’re right, Zaire.Of course you are.We’ll lose face, we’ll lose wealth?—”
“But we’ll gain our integrity back,” interrupted Zaire.“And that, believe me, is worth the loss of all of that.”
He certainly hoped so, because he needed it to be.He already had the royal plane booked to leave in a few hours to go to Oxford, to see if he could win the good opinion of the one person in the world who could influence his future happiness.
“Agreed?”asked Zaire.
“Agreed,” replied his two brothers.
Rosana hadn’t realizedhow much her visit to Sifra had affected her until she’d returned to Oxford.Everything seemed dreary here.The light wasn’t bright enough.The landscape was too soft—rolling and gentle to the eyes—and the fragrances too delicate.She realized that England simply wasn’t home, and she also realized she’d have to get used to that.Because there was no going back on her principles.
