Page 32 of From One Night To Desert Queen

‘How are you today?’had been met with,‘I still don’t feel pregnant,’which had been delivered with a tired smile. He wondered whether he should just hire a decorator for Star to direct. Even Faizan and Samira had done that. His thoughts flowed with a little more ease than he was used to and he realised then—that had been the first time that he’d thought about them naturally, without that sense of creeping guilt and ache that often accompanied such moments.

The next day he found Masoud hiding in the suite’s corridor, looking as if he were about to have a heart attack, periodically peering around the door frame and spinning back to look to the heavens as if in prayer. Khalif was surprised. So far, the staff and Star had managed to stay out of each other’s way.

Stepping as quietly as possible up to the man he’d known never to break a sweat underanycircumstances, Khalif peered over Masoud’s shoulder to see what had made him behave in such a way and nearly choked on his own shock.

He clamped his jaw shut firmly.

For there was Star, without a care in the world, humming away as she painted large brushstrokes of admittedlyveryexpensive undercoat over a nine-hundred-year-old fresco. Masoud was actually fanning himself and looked almost on the verge of tears.

‘We have more, Masoud,’ he whispered, reassuring himself as much as the older man.

‘I know,’ he replied mournfully. ‘It’s just that this one was particularly beautiful. I just didn’t have the heart to tell her...’ He trailed off. ‘She’s doing such a wonderful thing.’

Khalif could only nod, marvelling at the way the head of the palace staff was willing to sacrifice the ancient fresco for Nadya and Nayla, and even for Star.

‘I am a little worried about the drill bits, though.’

‘Drill bits?’ Khalif whispered harshly.

‘She’s asked for a drill and several sizes of masonry drill bits.’ At this, Khalif could completely understand Masoud’s concern. He winced himself at the thought of what she might do.

‘We can fix whatever needs fixing...if itneedsfixing,’ he promised, hoping that he was right.

The next day, once again, Star had failed to appear for breakfast and this time Khalif took a small collection of pastries with him when he went to the suite he was beginning to think of as Nadya and Nayla’s.

Through the door to what had once been the girls’ room, he could see that Star was already painting and yet again her hair was worked up into a large woven cloth turban high on her head. She had finished the hallway and had worked her way around the first corner of the suite and if he wanted to see how she was getting on he would have to cross the threshold.

As if she had been waiting for him to do so, she turned and greeted him with such a beautiful smile that his heart missed a beat.

What would it be like to wake to her each morning?

Not to the blare of an alarm, the flick of the coffee machine or the imperious visage of his brother’s acerbic assistant.

‘Perfect timing,’ she said, looking at him with a gleam in her eye.

‘No. Nope,’ he said, shaking his head and holding up the pastries.

She looked at the food he was carrying and her eyes rounded with pleasure. ‘Thank you! I’m starving. And there’s just this little spot...’

He looked over her shoulder to see the stepladder.

‘Tell me you weren’t just on that,’ he demanded, the fury in his tone catching them both by surprise and he bit back a curse.

‘Of course. How else was I supposed to—’

‘Khalas!No. No more,’ he said, slashing the air with his hand. ‘I’m worried about the paint fumes, I can’t trust you not to go up ladders, I’m sure that you’ll be trying to move those beds soon enough—’

When her eyes grew wide, he clenched his jaw. ‘What did you do?’ he bit through clenched teeth.

‘I dismantled them before I moved them,’ she said, as if that would make it any better.

‘How did you—?’

‘Well, they’re not exactly Ikea, but the principle was the same, and the Allen keys were here, so...’

‘Why were Alan’s keys here and what does he have to do with...?’

He trailed off because suddenly Star descended into musical peals of laughter. She was almost bent double and sweeping moisture from her eyes.

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