Rising Stars & It Started With… Collections. Кейт Хьюит

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СКАЧАТЬ the pages. He wanted to turn to the sound of them, to forget the pain and suffering, to set aside the past, but as King he had sworn to remember.

      The heat hit Amy as soon as she stepped out of the helicopter. Emir held Nakia, while Amy carried Clemira and even though the helicopter had landed as close as possible to the compound of tents still the walk was hard work—the shifting soft sand made each step an effort. Once inside a tent, she took off her shoes and changed into slippers as Emir instructed. She thanked the pilot, who had brought in her suitcase, and then Emir led her through a passageway and after that another, as he briefly explained what would happen.

      ‘The girls will rest before we take them to the Bedouins. There is a room for you next to them.’

      They were in what appeared to be a lounge, its sandy floor hidden beneath layer after layer of the most exquisite rugs. The different areas were all separated by coloured drapes. It was like being in the heart of a vibrant labyrinth and already she felt lost.

      ‘There are refreshments through there,’ Emir explained, ‘but the twins are not to have any. Today they must eat and drink only from the desert …’

      Amy had stopped listening. She spun around as she heard the sound of the helicopter taking off. ‘He’s forgotten to bring in their luggage!’ She went to run outside, but she took a wrong turn and ran back into the lounge again, appalled that Emir wasn’t helping. ‘You have to stop him—we need to get the twins’ bags.’

      ‘They do not need the things you packed for them. They are here to learn the ways of the desert and to be immersed in them. Everything they need is here.’

      ‘I didn’t just pack toys for them!’ She could hear the noise of the chopper fading in the distance. Well, he’d just have to summon someone to get it turned around. ‘Emir—I mean, Your Highness.’ Immediately Amy corrected herself, for she had addressed him as she had so long ago. ‘It’s not toys or fancy clothes that I’m worried about. It’s their bottles, their formula.’

      ‘Here they will drink water from a cup,’ Emir said.

      ‘You can’t do that to them!’ Amy could not believe what she was hearing. ‘That’s far too harsh.’

      ‘Harsh?’ Emir interrupted. ‘This land is harsh. This land is brutal and unforgiving. Yet its people have learnt to survive in it. When you are royal, when your life is one of privilege, it is expected that at least once a year you are true to the desert.’

      Where, she wondered, had the caring father gone? Where was the man who had rocked his tiny babies in strong arms? Who even last night had picked up his sleeping child just to hold her? Maybe she really had dreamt it—maybe she had imagined last night—for he stood now unmoved as Clemira and Nakia picked up on the tension and started to cry.

      ‘We will leave soon,’ Emir said.

      ‘It’s time for their nap now,’ Amy said. She was expecting another argument, but instead he nodded.

      ‘When they wake we will leave.’

      ‘Is there anyone to help? To show me where they rest? Where the kitchen …?’

      ‘It’s just us.’

      ‘Just us?’ Amy blinked.

      ‘There is a groundsman to tend to the animals, but here in the tent and out in the desert we will take care of ourselves.’

      Oh, she had known they would be alone in the desert, but she had thought he had meant alone by royal standards—she had been quite sure that there would be servants and maidens to help them. Not once had she imagined that it would truly be just them, and for the first time the vastness and the isolation of the desert scared her.

      ‘What if something happens?’ Amy asked. ‘What if one of the girls gets ill?’

      ‘The Bedouins trust me to make the right decisions for their land and for their survival. It is right that in turn I trust them.’

      ‘With your children?’

      ‘Again,’ Emir said, ‘I have to warn you not to question our ways. Again,’ he stated, ‘I have to remind you that you are an employee.’

      Her cheeks burned in anger but Amy scooped up the twins and found their resting area. Maybe he was right, she thought with a black smile. Maybe she needed time in the desert, for she was too used to things being done for her—a bit too used to having things unpacked and put away. And, yes, she was used to ringing down to the palace kitchen to have bottles warmed and food prepared. Now she had to settle two hungry, frazzled babies in the most unfamiliar surroundings.

      The wind made the tent walls billow, and the low wooden cribs that lay on the floor were nothing like what the twins were used to—neither were the cloth nappies she changed them into. Emir came in with two cups of water for the girls, but that just upset them more, and when he’d left Amy took ages rocking the cribs to get the twins to settle. Her anger towards Emir rose as she did so, and it was a less than impressed Amy who finally walked out to the sight of Emir resting on the cushions.

      He looked at her tightly pressed lips, saw the anger burning in her cheeks as she walked past him, and offered a rare explanation. ‘There are traditions that must be upheld. Sit.’ Emir watched her fingers clench at his command and perhaps wisely rephrased it. ‘Please be seated. I will explain what is to take place.’

      It was awkward to sit on the low cushions, but Amy remembered to tuck her feet away from him. It was difficult facing him again after last night—not that he appeared to remember it, for his eyes did not even search her face. Really he seemed rather bored at having to explain things.

      ‘I understand that you think this is cruel, but really it is not …’

      ‘I never said cruel,’ Amy corrected. ‘I said it was harsh on the girls. Had you told me earlier what was to happen I could have better prepared them. I could have had them drinking from cups.’

      He conceded with a nod, and now he did look at her—could see not just the anger but that she was upset, and on behalf of his children. ‘I know the year has been a difficult one. I am grateful the girls have had you.’

      She was disarmed by his sudden niceness, forgot to thank him as she ought to, but Emir did not seem to notice. ‘I have not been looking forward to this. Which is why, perhaps, I did not explain things. I have been trying not to think about it. Hannah was not looking forward to this time either.’ Amy blinked at the revelation. ‘Hannah wanted it left till the last moment—till they were a little older. I was trying to follow her wish, I did not think about cups …’ He gave a shrug.

      ‘Of course not,’ Amy conceded. ‘I don’t expect you to. But if there was just more communication it might make things easier.’

      ‘If she were alive still this would be difficult.’

      Amy could see the battle in his face to keep his features bland, almost hear the effort to keep sentiment from his voice.

      ‘If she were here Hannah would not have been able to feed them, and that would have upset her.’ Amy frowned as he continued. ‘This is a time when babies are …’ He did not know the word. ‘Separated from their mother’s milk.’

      ‘Weaned off it?’

      Emir СКАЧАТЬ