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Layla was ready to go, but Trinity seemed to have other ideas.
Zahid’s last words to Trinity had been, ‘Watch her.’ She looked at Layla, dressed in a long silver tunic and jewelled slippers. Her black hair had been taken out of the bun and was loose and glossy. Her absolute beauty would turn heads everywhere they went.
‘Would you like…?’ Trinity hesitated—she was still very new to being Zahid’s wife, and sometimes she simply didn’t know how to speak to Layla, who was so different from Trinity’s serious, rather more grounded husband. ‘Would you like to borrow some of my clothes to wear while we go shopping?’ Trinity offered.
‘Borrow?’ Layla screwed up her nose.
‘I’m just concerned that in what you’re wearing you’ll stand out and people might stare.’
‘But I always stand out,’ Layla said, ‘and people always stare. Come on—let us go shopping. I have been looking forward to this for a long time.’
They passed the guards and took the elevator down, and then stepped out onto the hot, busy street. Layla was more than used to heat, and walked quickly ahead.
‘Slow down,’ Trinity said. ‘There’s no rush.’
They wandered into boutique after boutique, but Layla was not really looking at the clothes—instead she was wondering how she could shrug Trinity off, for she was watching Layla like a hawk would watch its prey.
‘I would like to try that,’ Layla said, pointing to an ice cream shop.
‘Sounds good.’
Still Trinity clung to her, and Layla’s impatience was increasing. Yes, the ice cream was refreshing, but would Trinity ever just give her five minutes to be alone?
‘Where to now?’ Trinity asked once they had finished their ice creams.
‘I might go for a little wander,’ Layla said casually.
‘Layla…’ Trinity swallowed. ‘Zahid said that I wasn’t to leave you alone.’
‘I am not a baby,’ Layla said, ‘I am twenty-four…’
But she went to cross the road without so much as looking and Trinity grabbed her back just in time.
‘You have to wait for the lights to change before you cross.’ Trinity pointed to the traffic lights as they turned green and they started to cross. ‘I’m not leaving you alone, Layla. You can take it up with Zahid this evening if you want to, but for now…’
Trinity’s voice trailed off as they walked across the road and Layla looked to where Trinity’s eyes had been drawn.
Perfect!
‘Oh, look,’ Layla said, walking over to the window of the baby boutique that held Trinity in its spell. ‘Oh, Trinity, look at these sweet clothes—there is nothing like this in Ishla…’ From Trinity’s rapt expression, Layla knew her chance to escape was surely about to come. ‘Let’s go in.’
They did just that.
It wasn’t just clothes on display but teeny-tiny shoes and socks, and little cashmere baby blankets too, and of course, the assistant told Trinity, they’d be only too happy to ship to Ishla.
‘Why would you use a ship when we have a plane?’ Layla asked, but Trinity wasn’t listening—instead she was gazing at those little blankets and had the lost look in her eyes that Layla recognised from her cousins who had had babies.
Layla slipped outside unnoticed, pulling an envelope out of her bag as she did so. If Trinity saw her Layla would say she was just stepping out for some air.
On the street there was a yellow cab driving towards her, and Layla put up her hand as the clips she had watched on her computer had shown her she should.
It obeyed!
The driver did not get out and open the door for her, which made Layla cross, and she was glad that the window was wound down as the driver asked her where she wanted to go for it was a very smelly car.
Layla gave him Mikael’s address. ‘I need you to hurry.’
She did need him to hurry, for Trinity was racing out of the boutique.
‘Layla, wait!’ she shouted.
‘I shall be fine, Trinity.’ Layla threw the letter she had written in Arabic out of the window and shouted instructions to Trinity as the taxi pulled away. ‘Get Zahid to read this and do not tell my father.’
She refused to feel guilty for ruining their honeymoon. Okay, maybe she felt a little guilty—but, Layla reminded herself, Zahid had had this sort of freedom for close to two decades when he had lived in England. Trinity had had it all her life.
Layla just wanted a week.
* * *
Mikael’s day had not improved—not that he let anyone know it. He sat with his face impassive as he listened to the closing arguments from the prosecution barrister, who boo-hooed where Mikael had been expecting him to. A couple of members of the jury were even in tears. But then the prosecution hit him with an argument Mikael had not foreseen.
Deliberately Mikael refused to reach for his notes or react.
He just noted it in his head.
Tomorrow his response would be savage.
Tomorrow he would use every letter of the law that he had at his disposal.
‘I’m gone, aren’t I?’ his client said before heading back to the cells.
‘I haven’t closed yet,’ Mikael responded, though he gave no pep talk. He certainly wasn’t here to reassure or make friends with his clients. All he required from himself was to offer the best defence.
It was a long walk back to chambers.
The press were waiting, with their usual questions, and Mikael duly ignored them. His mouth was dry and he wanted the cool darkness of his office, where the heavy drapes would be closed and he could sit in silence and make notes on all that had been said today.
‘Don’t ask!’ Mikael warned his clerk as he stepped in.
Both knew that it was not going well, and that he would be here all night working on the final details before delivering his closing speech tomorrow.
‘I don’t know how to tell you this—’ Wendy started.
Mikael turned and saw that his very efficient clerk for once looked a touch ruffled.
‘There’s a lady here to see you.’
‘I haven’t got time to see anyone now.’
‘Mikael, I’ve tried to get rid of her…’ Wendy let out a nervous laugh. ‘I’ve never met anyone like her before—you simply can’t say no. I even ended up paying for her taxi because she didn’t have any money—the driver was about to call the police!’
‘Wendy?’ Mikael frowned, because he had never seen his clerk like this. Mikael dealt with the lowest of the low, and had only the best of staff around him—staff that were able to deal with the most difficult of people. ‘Where is she?’ he asked, glancing into the small waiting room.
‘She’s waiting in your office.’
‘What?’ She’d got past Wendy? This Mikael had to see. ‘What’s her name?’
‘She won’t tell me,’ Wendy said, ‘and she won’t tell me what she’s here for either. She refuses to discuss it with anyone but you.’
‘Okay.’ Mikael nodded. ‘Don’t worry. I shall sort it out.’
Mikael walked into his office and completely ignored his uninvited guest, who was standing by the window, looking out through a chink in the heavy curtains and watching the world go by.
Yet as much as he ignored her somehow Mikael was reminded of the rare beauty of the first glimpse of a new moon. Perhaps it was the way the light caught her silver robe or because she was so slender, but as he opened the bar fridge it was that image that was on his mind.
‘Mr Romanov!’
Her voice demanded that he acknowledge her.
‘Oh, sorry…’ Mikael’s voice was wry as, his back to her, he added a slice of lime and ice to a glass and then poured sparkling water. ‘Weren’t you getting enough attention?’
‘I expect to be greeted.’
‘Well, had you made an appointment then you would have been.’
He turned and looked at her, a golden ray of sun from the chink in the curtains serving as his spotlight. Her beauty was now possibly the biggest challenge of his day, for Mikael was momentarily sideswiped. Her black eyes were huge in her exquisite face, her hair thick and glossy, and her complexion quite simply flawless. His eyes roamed her face—as far as Mikael could tell she wasn’t even wearing make-up. She was the first woman to actually stun him—so much so that when she held out her hand Mikael handed her his drink.
How did that happen? Mikael wondered as he turned again and made another drink—for himself this time.
‘I am Princess Layla of Ishla,’ Layla said, because, given Mikael’s poor manners, perhaps he was not aware of to whom he was speaking.
‘Really?’ Mikael said.
Layla waited for him to continue.
‘So you’re the reason I was almost late for court this morning.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Your convoy held me up,’ Mikael said. ‘Look, I don’t know what your issue is—in fact I don’t even want to know. I’m in the middle of a very complicated case and I am going on leave soon.’
‘I know all about your case, but I need for you to speak with my brother. I want you tell him that I am taking a week off from royal duty and that he is not to look for me or inform my father.’
‘Can’t you tell him that?’
‘I have written it all in a letter that he must be reading about now. I need you to reiterate the contents to him,’ Layla said. ‘If I speak with him it will get all emotional and I might back down—that is why I want you to do it for me.’
‘You need an embassy.’
‘No,’ Layla shook her head. ‘I do not want to make a big incident—unless I have to, of course.’
He heard the warning note in her voice, saw then the fire in her eyes, and he understood why Wendy had been unable to say no to her. She was pretty unstoppable.
Mikael, though, could not be manipulated. ‘As I just said, I am near the end of a huge case. I’m not taking anything else on.’
‘You will make one phone call for me,’ Layla said. ‘But first you can arrange for some refreshments to be brought in.’ It had been a long afternoon of shopping after all.
Mikael felt the shock from the muscles in his face as they broke into a smile.
Was she for real?
‘You want me to arrange refreshments before I make your phone call?’
‘Just something light.’ Layla nodded. ‘Maybe some fruit, and also something sweet.’
Mikael pulled out a roll of mints. ‘Here’s your refreshments.’
She took one and popped it in her mouth, and he watched her eyes widen in delight as she rolled the mint across her tongue.
‘I like.’
So too, Mikael decided, did he!
CHAPTER FOUR (#udf5bcffa-daff-5220-88df-914fbf2b1eb6)
‘ONE PHONE CALL,’ Mikael said.
But there was no way, Mikael knew, that this was going to go away with one phone call. He had only agreed to it because Layla had eked from him the first smile he had given in weeks.
He opened the curtains and invited her to take a seat.
‘First, though—’ Mikael went on, but Layla interrupted.
‘I give you some details.’
‘No,’ Mikael said. ‘First we need to discuss my retainer.’
‘Retainer?’
‘I’m very expensive,’ Mikael said.
‘Oh, you want payment up-front?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘I have this.’
Mikael was a master at keeping his face impassive—poker would have been a lucrative hobby if he’d so chosen—but even he was struggling as, from her tunic, Layla took out a stone that looked more like a paperweight and placed it on the desk between them.
