Sabir greeted them as they crossed the threshold of his office. ‘Good afternoon, Your Highness, Miss Marchant. I see the shopping trip was successful. Your dress is most becoming.’
‘Thanks, Sabir. His Highness chose it,’ said Lily, sending Khaled a filthy look. ‘Then he had me dolled up and paraded in front of the press.’
‘Yes, the...ah...the pictures are circulating already. Excuse me, Miss Marchant, but His Highness has a call waiting. Sir, you’ll want to take this straight away.’
Lily tugged her hand free, quickly moving from him to stand at the window, her arms wrapped about her waist. The protective gesture nipped at his conscience.
Not taking his eyes off her Khaled reached for the receiver. ‘Azir.’
Expecting to hear the Qaydari ambassador, requesting an urgent meeting, he was stunned when instead came an entirely different but deeply familiar voice.
‘Is that the grumpy workaholic? This is your loyal friend speaking.’
Khaled spun away from Lily to hide his shock at hearing Nate Marchant.
‘You’ve got a nerve, ringing like this,’ he said, switching to Arabic. Nate had travelled extensively in the Middle East and was fluent. ‘Where are you—and where the hell is the charity money?’
‘How should I know? I didn’t take it.’
‘Then why does all the evidence point to you?’
‘Because someone went to a lot of trouble to set me up. But never mind that now. I’m checking on Lily. Is she with you in the palace? Is she okay?’
Khaled glanced at her. ‘Yes.’
It was an honest enough answer to the first question. The accurate response to the second was up for debate. She looked vulnerable and brittle and lost.
She swung round to face him. ‘You’re busy,’ she said, ‘and I’d like to freshen up.’
‘No, wait.’ He couldn’t let her go like that.
But she’d whisked out of his reach. Though she paused at the door. ‘The flowers are a nice touch, by the way.’ She gestured at a bowl of roses on his desk. ‘They soften you up a bit—and, let’s be honest, you could do with it.’
The blooms had appeared during their visit to the store. Most certainly placed there by order of his mother and precisely for that reason, no doubt. But he didn’t need softening up. He just needed people to do what they were told. Not elaborate or interfere. Or damn well improvise at the wrong moments.
‘What was that about flowers?’ Nate asked. ‘Hang on, was that Lily?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Out of your depth already?’
Khaled bristled. ‘Certainly not.’
He was the Crown Prince. He’d been de facto King for seven years, shouldering the responsibility of the entire nation. Little fazed him now, and certainly not a mere slip of a girl. He was not, nor ever would be, out of his depth.
‘So if you’ve been set up who’s behind it?’
‘You have to ask? He hates that we’re friends. He hates your reforms. He’s engineered a way to get rid of me and discredit you at the same time.’
‘Impossible. He wouldn’t dare.’
‘Yes, he would. Discredit you and you’ll lose the support of the Council. He’ll put a stop to every one of your reforms. You’re telling me you really hadn’t considered it?’
Khaled dropped to the sofa. ‘The implications are so bad I didn’t want to face it.’
‘If the theft becomes public and you can’t get any evidence against him you’ll have to. Parading Lily around as your girlfriend is genius, though,’ Nate continued. ‘Even if news gets out, who’s going care? It’ll buy us some time.’
‘That was the idea,’ Khaled said.