‘But surely your people think it’s very odd that it took until now for you to admit that you are married?’
‘My father’s prejudices against Western women and his rages were legendary and people have proved to be remarkably understanding of my reticence,’ Jaul confided wryly.
Jane, their new nanny, joined them with the stewardess, the twins clad in white broderie anglaise playsuits for their first public airing. Silence fell as everyone buckled up. Chrissie breathed in slow and deep and resolved to make the best of her new future. A future from which she excluded all thought of Jaul. She didn’t have to stay married to him for ever, she reminded herself doggedly. Once they were able to separate, she wouldn’t even need to live below the same roof with him, she reflected, studying his bold bronzed profile and wondering why that particular thought was signally failing to lift her spirits.
When it was time to disembark, Jaul lifted Tarif out of Jane’s arms. ‘I want to show him off.’
‘But you wouldn’t let anyone photograph the twins in London,’ Chrissie remarked in surprise.
‘That was London. This is Marwan. Our people have the right to see this little boy in the flesh first,’ he decreed without hesitation. ‘He is my heir and one day he will be King.’
They disembarked and the line of people waiting to greet them outside began to move closer. Jaul’s bodyguards fanned round them lest a crush develop. Somewhere a military brass band was playing and Chrissie was disconcerted to see television cameras set up below the bright blue sky. The heat was intense and it was much hotter than Chrissie had innocently expected it to be. The advance party of VIPs engaged Jaul in conversation and a smiling older woman approached Chrissie, bobbed a curtsy and told her in excellent English that Soraya was adorable. Cameras were clicking and flashing all around them and Chrissie found it stressful to keep on talking and smiling as though nothing were happening. Painfully slowly the royal party and the interested crowd surrounding them made their way into the airport building, which was mercifully air-conditioned.
That coolness was welcome to Chrissie while even more photos were being taken of them indoors. Being the centre of so much attention with the twins was a shock to her system but she was enjoyably surprised by the mood of genuine friendliness at their arrival and the number of people who spoke her own language. When Tarif began to get restive in his arms, Jaul recognised that it was time to move on and within minutes they were ensconced in a limousine, travelling down a wide boulevard. Her eyes widened when she registered the crowds of waving well-wishers. Jaul was evidently a popular ruler. Gripped by curiosity, she gazed out at streets lined with the sort of ultra-modern buildings that might have featured in any city, although the occasional glimpses of elaborate minarets and men in robes added a touch of exotica to the urban landscape.
‘What’s the palace like?’ she asked in the rushing silence.
‘It’s old-fashioned,’ Jaul warned her. ‘Everything’s as old as Queen Victoria aside of the bathrooms, kitchens and IT connections. It’s been generations since the palace had a queen to take an interest in it.’
‘I’d forgotten that.’
‘You can change anything you like. I’m pretty much indifferent to my surroundings...unless it’s completely weird and uncomfortable like the mansion in London,’ he conceded wryly.
The limo had left the city streets behind and rocky plains of sand bounded the desert highway. Dusk was falling. Away in the distance Chrissie could see the looming heights of giant rolling sand dunes coloured every tawny shade from ochre to orange by the setting sun. Giant gates dissecting very high turreted walls appeared a hundred yards ahead and Chrissie sat forward with a look of bemusement. ‘Is that the palace? My goodness, it’s the size of a city and it looks like a Crusader castle!’
‘The front part of the original fortress was built by the Crusaders before we threw them out,’ Jaul volunteered with amusement. ‘For hundreds of years as fashion changed every generation added new buildings. Even I haven’t been in all of them. The family was once much larger and in those days my ancestors lived with a vast retinue of servants and soldiers, who all had to be housed.’
The guards patrolling the walls were waving their guns and roaring a welcome as the limo purred through the automatic gates.
‘So, who’s in charge of everything here at the palace?’ Chrissie asked curiously as their vehicle passed through glorious landscaped gardens before gliding to a stately halt in front of the ancient main building with its huge domed entrance porch.
‘Bandar, my principal aide, is the nominal head because he is in charge of domestic finance but my cousin, Zaliha, actively runs the royal household. Her sister is married to Bandar, who lives here on site with most of my personal staff.’
A smiling finely built brunette with sloe-dark eyes appeared in the doorway and performed a respectful dip of acknowledgement. She introduced herself as Zaliha in perfect English, tendered her good wishes and begged to hold Soraya all in the space of one breath. The welcome cool of air-conditioning engulfing her overheated skin, Chrissie walked into an amazing circular hallway with walls studded with mother of pearl. ‘Shells...seashells,’ she remarked in disconcertion. ‘It’s beautiful.’
‘There’s quite a bit that isn’t quite so lovely,’ the brunette warned her ruefully.
‘Don’t give my wife the wrong impression,’ Jaul urged lightly.
‘You speak incredibly good English,’ Chrissie told her companion.
‘My father was on the embassy staff in London and I went to school there,’ Zaliha told her.
‘Oh, my word...’ Chrissie was staring into the cluttered rooms they were passing, rooms bulging at the seams with antique furniture, some of which appeared to be centuries old. ‘It’s worse than Victorian,’ she told Jaul helplessly. ‘It’s more like...medieval.’
‘And ripe for renovation,’ Zaliha told her cheerfully.
‘We will go straight to our rooms now,’ Jaul countered before the brunette could involve Chrissie in such a discussion and he curved lean fingers round Chrissie’s elbow.
‘Yes, sir.’ Zaliha bobbed another curtsy and went straight about her business.
‘I was planning to explore a little,’ Chrissie protested in a perturbed undertone as Jaul urged her round a corner and up a stone staircase.
‘Later, perhaps. Right now I have something important to discuss with you,’ he proffered with unexpected gravity. ‘This wing of the palace is entirely ours and private,’ Jaul announced as they reached the second floor.
As he opened the door into a clearly newly furnished and decorated nursery, their nanny stepped forward and grinned with pleasure at her surroundings. Two young women hurried towards them to offer their assistance with the twins.
‘You and Jane will have to beat off helpers with a stick in the palace. It has been too many years since there were royal children below this roof,’ Jaul commented, entwining Chrissie’s fingers in his to guide her further down the wide corridor. She was relieved to see that contemporary furnishings featured in the large rooms she passed. Time might have stopped dead downstairs in what she deemed to be public rooms, but in Jaul’s part of the palace time had mercifully moved on.
He swung open a door into an elegant reception room furnished in fresh shades of smoky blue and cream and stood back for her to precede him. She slid past him, taut with curiosity while the scent of him flared her nostrils, clean warm male laced with an evocative hint of the spicy cologne that was so uniquely him it made her tummy flip like a silly schoolgirl. Her cheeks burnished with colour at the reflection, Chrissie moved away from him as he doffed his jacket and loosened his tie.
‘You said we had something to discuss,’ she prompted with determined cool.
‘My advisers have asked us to consider staging a traditional Marwani wedding to allow our people to celebrate our marriage with us,’ Jaul informed her, knocking Chrissie