He looked her over. ‘You’re starting to tan,’ he said. ‘It suits you.’
There was nothing particularly provocative in the way he was inspecting her, but she had to steel herself all the same.
‘How sweet of you to notice,’ she said, making her voice lightly humorous. ‘I’m still using huge amounts of sun cream all the same!’
He smiled. ‘Well, make sure you take plenty with you when we head off into the desert tomorrow.’
She looked at him. ‘Desert?’ Had he planned an expedition? Dune-bashing perhaps?
But it was not dune-bashing.
‘Yes. I’ve had a communiqué from the palace.’ He paused, letting his eyes rest on Diana. ‘Apparently it has pleased the Princess to request that her brother the Sheikh lends us the use of his...ah...“desert love-nest”, I believe is the term the Princess used, since we are here on our honeymoon...’
Dismay filled Diana’s face. ‘Nikos, we can’t possibly accept!’
She’d deliberately not told him what Princess Fatima had said to her—had hoped the Princess would forget all about it, or that her brother would turn down any request she might make. But in vain...
His expression changed. ‘Diana, we can’t possibly not.’ His tone was adamant. ‘It would cause grave offence to do so. It’s a singular honour, and an indication of how the Princess has taken to you.’
‘To refuse would be to offend...’ Diana echoed in a hollow voice.
‘Exactly,’ Nikos confirmed in that same steely voice. Then his expression softened, and there was a humorous glint in his eye now. ‘Think of it as an adventure. You’ll be able to dine out on it in years to come.’
She gave a disheartened sigh. ‘I suppose so,’ she said reluctantly.
Her mood had plummeted. For a start, she felt a total hypocrite. A complete fraud. Here was Princess Fatima, bestowing upon her what she fondly imagined would be a fantastically romantic interlude, when it was the very last thing that was appropriate for her and Nikos.
But there was more to her dismay than the consciousness of being a hypocritical fraud. The thought of being wafted off to a desert hideaway, all on her own with Nikos...
Sternly, she rallied herself. There was nothing she could do to evade
this, and it would, after all, be very good schooling for her to get more and more used to being with Nikos. It would help her to get over this ridiculous overreaction to him she had.
It was an instruction she kept repeating to herself as they set off the next day, heading out into the desert in a luxurious leather-seated, air-conditioned SUV with jacked-up wheels that would clear the desert sand, shielded from the burning heat outside.
It was a heat that deepened as they left the coast and drove along black metalled roads that glistened in the sunshine, first across scrubby flat land and then snaking amongst towering sand dunes that signalled the start of the fabled Empty Quarter.
Diana gazed rapt at the desert scenery which was gradually becoming rockier. The road wound through deep gullies and past oases of palm trees, with few signs of habitation and an occasional glint of murky-looking water. Camels—some being herded along in a chain, some merely wandering on their own, presumably either wild or having been let out to graze as and where they could—wandered along the roadside sometimes, but otherwise there was little visible sign of life.
Though they’d set out early in the morning, in order to catch what amounted to the coolest part of the day, it was nearing lunchtime when they finally arrived. They had been through a village of sorts, and what looked to Diana’s eyes like some kind of military base, and now, about half an hour’s drive thereafter, a building hove into view that at first she thought merely to be an outcrop of rock.
But she realised as they approached that it was a small, square building, made of the same sand-coloured stone as the earth, two storeys tall against the surrounding desert. Only a perimeter fence indicated that there was something special about the place—and the guards standing to attention as they drove through the metal gates to approach the building itself. High, arched double doors opened wide, and the four-by-four drove through with a flourish to enter what was soon revealed to be an outer courtyard.
Along with Nikos she climbed down. Palace servants were running forward to help. At once the heat struck her, clamping around her like a vice. Immediately she felt perspiration bead on her spine, despite the loose cotton shirt she was wearing. The glare of the sun after the tinted windows of the vehicle made her reach for her dark glasses.
‘We need to get inside,’ Nikos murmured, putting his arm around her waist and guiding her forward.
She craned her head as she walked towards the ornately carved inner doors that were opening as if controlled by a magic genie, and entered what she realised was the inner courtyard—the palace itself.
The love-nest.
CHAPTER SIX
DIANA GAVE A gasp of pleasure.
‘Oh, how absolutely beautiful!’ she exclaimed spontaneously.
The courtyard was an exquisite garden—an oasis with trickling fountains in stone basins, little channels that wound about bordered by greenery, the whole edged with vine-covered columns creating shady arbours under which marble benches were set.