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‘You have just proved my father’s contention that his mother was an appalling liar.’
‘If that is true, possibly he inherited that talent from his mother,’ Chrissie challenged without hesitation. ‘Your father was no great fan of the truth himself.’
Jaul paled beneath his bronzed skin and his hands closed into tight fists, for he could not defend his late father and he would not lie in his defence either. His father had been an irredeemable liar and in that moment he could quite understand why Chrissie had refused to accept Lut’s view of Lady Sophie and had preferred to make up her own mind.
‘There have not been concubines in the palace for over a century,’ Jaul informed her curtly. ‘To suggest that that lifestyle was still in existence in the nineteen thirties is incredible, but if it makes you feel any happier I will check those facts with Yusuf this afternoon. In Marwan, he is still the acknowledged authority on the history of the royal family. Indeed, he wrote a much-admired book on the subject.’
‘Don’t place your faith in the belief that your grandmother is lying,’ Chrissie urged ruefully, thinking that very occasionally her husband could be startlingly naive. ‘The book was probably a whitewash sanctioned and proofread by your father, Jaul. I bet there’s not a disrespectful, critical word in it.’
As the exact same thought had already occurred to Jaul, he swallowed hard, black lashes lowering over his lustrous golden eyes. ‘You are undoubtedly right but Yusuf will tell me the truth on all counts,’ he declared with assurance. ‘But nothing can ever eradicate the effect of my wife actually asking me if I too have kept concubines.’
Chrissie flushed a slow, painful pink. ‘I didn’t ask—’
‘But you were dying to ask,’ Jaul cut in drily. ‘Do you trust me so little still? Do you really believe that my people would accept a man leading a dissolute life on their throne? My country wants to be seen as modern and forward-thinking and our women have an increasingly strong voice in society. I must be seen to practise what I preach in public and in private...’
What Jaul said was common sense and Chrissie was mortified that for a few overwrought minutes after leaving his grandmother’s presence she had entertained such fantastic suspicions. Even more crucially she had not missed the flash of pain in his eyes that she could even think to ask him such a question. He was furious too but thankfully not in the same way as his late father. He didn’t suffer from uncontrollable rages and watched his tongue when he lost his temper but the downside of those positives was that he would be pretty much silent until he had mulled everything over in depth.
‘I’m sorry!’ Chrissie said loudly and abruptly as he began to turn away. ‘It was stupid...but just for a moment I felt I had to know for sure,’ she endeavoured to explain, struck to the heart by his condemnation but not sure she could blame him for it.
‘If you appreciated how prim and proper my father was you would never have felt that need,’ Jaul asserted with a wry curve of his sensual mouth. ‘He waged a war against immorality in every form inside and outside the palace. He was a repressive ruler. One of my first acts was to repeal the law restricting music and dancing in public places. If it makes you feel any happier about things, I will ask Yusuf to fill me in on what he knows about my father’s dealings with my grandmother.’
As Jaul left the room with the giving of that concession, Chrissie slumped down on a sofa. Maybe she shouldn’t have interfered by visiting Lady Sophie, she reasoned heavily. She had waded in blindly, seeing herself as doing something good and helpful but in actuality she had hurt and offended Jaul. His self-control in the face of the provocation she had offered could only embarrass her because she had controlled neither her imagination nor her tongue. In the circumstances Jaul had been very understanding and that shamed her the most. He was never going to love a woman stupid enough to ask him if he kept concubines, was he?
* * *
Jaul spent a couple of hours talking to his father’s former aide. Yusuf left, relieved to have cleared his conscience of the secrets he had kept throughout his working career. Jaul, however, was in a far less happy frame of mind. In point of fact, he was stunned, furious and bitter and as soon as the keys he had requested were brought to him he strode through the huge palace complex and down a flight of stairs in a far corner. A servant wrestled with the giant key and then Jaul waved his guards back and entered the building alone.
