Weight of the Crown (12 page)

Alyssa stared at him. ‘Don’t you think it had better wait until morning?’

It was obvious he knew exactly what she meant.
A
man and a woman in a beautiful garden, caressed by the warm desert night … He smiled in a way that told her he had already made
up his mind exactly what was going to happen, but he was still careful not to get too close. ‘No. It can’t wait.’

Alyssa’s entire body began to glow. This was her wildest fantasy brought to life. Apart from dim lamps set around the quadrangle, the only lights showing were in his suite. Every other window overlooking the courtyard was dark and blank.

No one would see them leave the palace together. No one would know.

But I will,
she thought with a pang,
and so will my poor battered heart.

‘That doesn’t sound very sensible …’ she ventured.

He shook his head, and spoke in a rich undertone. ‘It’s possibly the most sensible thing I’ve done in my life so far.’

Alyssa tried to answer, but couldn’t. Desperate to know what he was talking about, she didn’t have the confidence to ask. Lysander at arm’s length was exciting. Any closer than that, and he was sure to be trouble.

He gave her a little bow and her senses went into overdrive.

‘What if someone sees us?’

His dark eyes glittered like jet in the soft evening light. He chuckled softly. ‘Little details like that never bother me. When I want to do something, I do it. There’s never any point in hesitating. There comes a time when the waiting has to stop—and that’s now.’

Alyssa didn’t know what to think. Taking a step back, she wrapped her arms around her waist and stared down at the toes of his highly polished riding boots. To look at anything else would lead her into all sorts of trouble.

‘I’m not sure …’

‘I am—and if we’re going at all, it needs to be soon. If we go now we’ll be in time to see a full moon rise over the mountain ridge. It’s a breathtaking sight,’ he murmured, reaching for her hand. ‘We should take our chance while we can. It’s a perfect night—and we’ll use my special short cut.’

Alyssa tried to refuse, but Lysander was impossible to resist. He guided her towards the open French doors of his apartment. She couldn’t have complained if she wanted to. Her heart was pounding too hard. She could hardly take it all in—his breathtaking confidence, the faint drift of his aftershave and the enticing glimpses of his private life as she was whisked straight through his suite.

The hall beyond the royal wing was deserted. Lysander melted through the shadows, leading her where he must have led countless other women in the past. They made it to the stables without picking up any of his security team. From there, it was easy. Communicating by the lightest of touches, Lysander helped Alyssa saddle up a beautiful bay mare, and then found his own horse. Together, they escaped into the night.

The royal animals were bred from tough, fast desert bloodlines that Lysander’s family had guarded jealously for centuries. Alyssa laughed with delight, but desert breezes stole the sound from her lips. The only sound was the drumming of hooves on hard-packed sand. They galloped across a landscape veiled in the mauve and lavender shades of dusk, to an island of rock in the sea of sand. Cresting a final dune, Alyssa saw the stark silhouette of a royal palace pasted against the clear ultra marine sky.
Lysander led her on, but as they reached the shadow of those great stone ramparts Alyssa reined in her horse. It turned and fretted as she looked up at walls as high and solid as cliffs. Lysander was a little way ahead but when she stopped he wheeled his stallion around and went back to her side.

‘Come on—I don’t want you to miss a moment!’ he called, urging her on past the last security post and up the sloping switchback path that led to the castle gates. As they clattered beneath a final arch, roosting doves exploded with fright across an inner courtyard. Alyssa jumped, but Lysander was there to reassure her.

‘There’s nothing to be scared of here. It’s the safest stronghold in my country. I visit when I want to get away from people,’ he confided, which shocked Alyssa.

‘But everyone knows you’re the original party person!’ she blurted out. ‘Why would you of all people want to escape?’

‘Everyone needs quiet sometimes, and, anyway, I don’t have time for partying any more. There’s so much to do for Rosara. It fills up all my time, and the change from player to manager is a difficult adjustment.’ He leapt from his horse and went to help her down. ‘I’ve always liked my own space. It’s especially important to me now. I need a place where I can leave the restrictions of palace life a long way behind.’

Lysander’s strong, tanned hands slid around her waist and drew her gently from the saddle. His touch lingered over her for a little longer than protocol would have liked, but here the boring rules of palace life felt far away. For once, Alyssa was in no hurry to remind him about them.

Two men came out from a gatehouse to greet them. One took care of their horses, while the other handed Lysander a flaming torch.

‘What a gesture!’ Alyssa said, trying not to watch the firelight dance over the impressive, gleaming muscles exposed by Lysander’s open-necked shirt.

‘It sets the scene perfectly,’ he told her. ‘There’s no electricity here. The Queen’s Retreat was the last word in gracious royal living in the fifteenth century, but not now. Queens today want more in the way of hundredwatt lighting, satellite TV and walk-in fridges.’

He held the torch high and looked around with real fondness. Alyssa couldn’t help wondering about all his ancestors, living, loving and laughing in this beautiful haven. Inside the perimeter wall was a large courtyard. In the centre rose the castle, but Lysander led her to one side of the main building. As they went he touched his torch to others set up along the way. When they reached a wrought-iron gate set into the stonework, he opened it and let her go through first.

She walked into a beautiful garden, laid out behind the main castle. It was a wonderland of rustling trees and tangled undergrowth, rioting around a large circular building with a high domed roof.

‘That’s the observatory,’ Lysander told her in passing. ‘This is the perfect place to study the stars, and I like to relax in style.’

Everywhere was studded with the luminous pale flowers of roses and lilies, sparkling with fireflies that danced in the dark.

Alyssa drew in a deep breath, rich with all the wonderful perfumes of flowers and oil from cedar trees.
Before she could say anything, a nightingale began sobbing from deep in the heart of a rambling rose.

‘Legend says that is the lament of an adulterous queen who was banished here,’ Lysander said in a low voice.

‘Who could be unhappy when they can listen to that?’ Alyssa whispered, afraid to spoil the moment. ‘Unless she regretted putting her trust in someone who betrayed her?’

‘It sounds as though you know what you’re talking about,’ he whispered back.

‘Shh.’ Alyssa put her hand on his arm. It was only a touch, but it was enough to make him tense. When she felt that, Alyssa looked at him quickly. Their eyes met, and in the silence a second nightingale sent a stream of silvery notes into the evening. For long moments they waited until the song died away. Then Lysander’s hand slid over hers.

‘Come on, or we’ll miss the real show.’ He squeezed her fingers, but then moved away.

Light-headed with the effects of his touch, Alyssa followed. He led her over to the Eastern wall, where a golden glow was already spreading above the horizon. Climbing a steep flight of steps to the sentries’ walkway, Alyssa gasped at the perfect view of the night sky it afforded.

‘It’s lovely and you can see for miles!’

Lysander put out the torch he was carrying, then leaned his folded arms on the breast high wall.

‘Yes, but can you imagine spending every day and night here, for the rest of your life?’ he said quietly. ‘Marooned far away from the city, the bright lights and all your friends?’

‘I’d love it,’ she added, smiling at the confession he had made.

‘I had a feeling you would. It isn’t for everyone, and that’s part of its charm. My brother Akil wanted to update this place and make his wife move here, but she hated it.’

‘I wouldn’t have bothered waiting for the renovations. I couldn’t have got here fast enough,’ Alyssa muttered.

He laughed. ‘You’re the first woman who hasn’t run screaming from the thought of being stuck here at The Queen’s Retreat without so much as a power shower to bless herself with.’

‘I’m a nanny. We can cope with anything!’ Alyssa joined in his laughter.

‘Then you’re the only woman I’ve met who could. Most of them have fainted at the thought of a hangnail.’

Alyssa put her elbows on the wall beside him and cupped her chin in her hands. ‘Then you’ve only met some rather silly women! I’m glad I’m not like that.’

‘So am I,’ he said, then looked away quickly and cleared his throat. ‘This place is so beautiful, I’m determined to make it happy, too.’

‘It feels wonderful to me already,’ Alyssa said dreamily. A light breeze whispered in from the desert, but the castle’s ancient stones had been storing up the sun’s fierce heat all day. Dusk drew enough warmth from the walls to keep them comfortable, but Lysander was obviously enjoying his role as host.

‘Let me know when you’ve had enough. For myself, I could stay here all night.’

‘So could I,’ Alyssa sighed. As they watched the
glowing moon rise slowly over the stark line of the distant horizon she shivered with the romance of it all—the nightingales, the flowers and Lysander, all bathed in moonlight.

It was the only encouragement he needed to slide an arm smoothly around her shoulders.

‘Let me keep you warm,’ he murmured, his voice low with desire.

Without a word Alyssa stepped sideways, just far enough to slip from his grasp.

Lysander paused. Alyssa’s refusal to be taken for granted was one of the first things that had appealed to him. Now it was starting to get tired. Women never refused him. It simply didn’t happen, but, more than that, he knew Alyssa was longing for his touch. He toyed with the idea of simply walking away without risking his dignity any further, but decided that wasn’t an option. If he did that, he knew his memories of Alyssa would haunt him for as long as his life lasted. While there was the smallest chance of softening her bewitching eyes with satisfaction, he knew he would never be free from her.

It was the simplest thing in the world to reach out to her again. This time she flipped his hands away with more determination, even as she quivered with longing.

‘Please don’t!’

He was getting frustrated with her now; he could sense that she wanted him as much as he wanted her, so what was holding her back?

‘Why do you do that, Alyssa?’

‘It’s nothing personal.’

‘Exactly!’

She had been gazing away across the plain, refusing to look at him. When he said that she whipped around. His expression stopped her doing anything as silly as laughing. He was tight-lipped with arrogance; humour was the last thing on his mind tonight.

‘You are
unbelievable
, Lysander Kahani!’ Her eyes flashed.

‘You make it sound like a character reference.’

‘Then congratulations. I’m sure you’re delighted.’

‘Of course I’m not! This is ridiculous,’ Lysander countered. ‘
You
are ridiculous. How can my touch possibly make you so unhappy? Good God, woman—why the hell did our paths have to cross? Why couldn’t you have settled down with a nice, respectable middle-class man in an English suburb and raised a flock of nice, respectable middle-class children before I ever set eyes on you?’

Alyssa shuddered. ‘No, thanks. I’ve been there, and done most of it.’

‘And what is that supposed to mean?’

She dug her elbows into the weather-worn stones of the wall and dropped her chin onto her hands again. ‘I’m not telling you. Why should I tear myself up about it all over again, when you’ve just told me you wish we’d never met?’

‘I never said that!’

‘Why should I torment myself by raking over my past when you’ll only tell me not to be so stupid and that I should pull myself together and get on with my life?’

Her words instantly made him suspicious. ‘That’s not the Alyssa I know speaking! Why put someone else’s words into my mouth? I …’ he said, straining his
frustration through clenched teeth, ‘I … would
never
say that to you.’

‘Huh.’

She went on staring fixedly into the distance.

Lysander could only see her in profile, but he knew the defiant glitter in her eyes had nothing to do with the reflection of the moonlight. He fought the impulse to pull her together himself, and none too gently. Instead, by taking several deep, considered breaths he managed to summon up a scrap of tact.

‘You’re cold, Alyssa,’ he growled. ‘Come into the observatory. A full moon isn’t ideal for stargazing, and supper will be waiting for us.’

Pivoting on his heel, he stalked off to the circular building in the heart of the garden. Sliding back a panel in its wall, he revealed a huge telescope trained on the night sky. Then he turned to call her closer and was shocked to find she had already done as he said. She stood a few feet away, watching him guardedly.

‘Come in, and tell me all about it.’

He was making an effort, and wondered how far he could carry it. From her expression, Alyssa was curious about that, too. Without a word, she followed him into the observatory. It was as richly furnished as the Rose Palace, and tonight its central table had been hurriedly set with a delicious buffet and armfuls of fresh flowers. Lysander opened a bottle of champagne, poured a glass and held it out to her.

‘So you’ve been married, Alyssa?’

She shook her head. ‘No. I—I was engaged to a guy called Jerry, but that ended months ago. He was married
to his job, but then so was I. It worked when things were going well, but then …’

She faltered. At that moment the nightingale’s song swelled up with such power, it seemed to inspire her. She accepted the glass from him, and took a quick sip. Then her chin went up and she looked him straight in the eyes.