AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘The government is afraid of instability and unrest. King Jafri was a figurehead and, although he wasn’t popular, he was an institution,’ Stella explained. ‘Raif, however, is very popular.’
‘He told me that as a third son he was very unimportant in Quristan,’ Claire muttered uncomfortably.
Kashif’s voice entered the conversation as he dropped down into the seat at the head of the table. ‘Even at school when he was acing every exam, Raif was very modest in his attitude towards his own achievements. He’s raised millions for Quristan charities. He has worked tirelessly to help the poor and disadvantaged in our country and there is no one who cares more for the place of his birth. He is very highly regarded in Quristan and he will be asked to accept the crown tomorrow.’
‘Thecrown?’ Claire exclaimed loudly, dragged with a vengeance from her quiet reverie of pride while she was being told that Raif was simply humble and not the wisest judge of his own status.
‘Surely you were aware of that?’ Stella questioned in surprise. ‘It’s not as if there is anyone else to take the throne.’
‘Didn’t his brothers have children, who come first?’ Claire almost whispered in her shock at what she was being told.
‘Hashir had girls and Waleed had no kids. The line of succession to the throne is determined by the male collateral line,’ Kashif informed her.
‘I had no idea,’ she admitted.
‘There is no one else now,’ Stella informed her quietly. ‘Raif will be King and you will be Queen. Neither of you has a choice.’
‘Raif would never turn his back on his duty,’ Kashif interposed gently, scanning Claire’s ghostly pale face and arrested expression. ‘He will need you ten times more tomorrow than he needed you today.’
‘Excuse me...’ Claire could feel that single morsel of toast rising back as nausea threatened to overcome her and she scrambled in haste from the chair and fled back upstairs to the privacy of the bathroom.
Afterwards, she looked at her wan, perspiring face in the mirror. No potential queen could ever have looked rougher, she reflected sickly. A king and a queen? It was as if the world around her had gone insane. Claire was overwhelmed with panic and the sheer impossibility of her ever being able to live up to such a role...or Raif even thinking for one moment that she was good enough for the challenge. My goodness, had ever a guy hadgreatercause to regret his hasty marriage?
CHAPTER SEVEN
CLAIREENDEAVOUREDTOrelax on the sundeck of theMahnoor, only that was impossible with her audience.
It was no longer possible for her to be alone, it seemed. Government-appointed bodyguards had arrived to team up with the security squad Raif had already cursed her with. Her apparent rise in status, announced only by the sound of the crew referring copiously to her as ‘Your Majesty’, had been unaccompanied by any warning or, indeed, explanation from her married-in-haste husband, the newKingof Quristan.
It had been announced on the television news, as well as the speculation that the new Queen was of British extraction, so on that basis she assumed it was true and she had been miraculously promoted to being royal even though she knew that she was manifestly unsuitable for such a role. She was an assistant chef, for goodness’ sake, only accidentally lifted to the lofty heights of royalty by the conception of their son!
When Claire had left the embassy in Barcelona, having been informed that theMahnoorwas in port awaiting her arrival, the quay had been packed with paparazzi, shouting questions and waving cameras but she had been swept on board by her team with all the smooth inaccessibility required by a celebrity accustomed to such limelight and avoiding it. Unfortunately, that level of public attention was so great a shock to Claire’s system that it utterly unnerved her.
The first morning, Gregoire had arrived to personally give her a breakfast of eggs Benedict in her bed because he knew it was her favourite treat. That had been a sufficient surprise, particularly when he’d beamed at her and offered his congratulations on her marriage. Captain Hastings had followed later that day, proffering the good wishes of the whole crew for her future happiness. In fact, onboard the yacht, everyone seemed totally happy for her and Raif, not even hinting that she was as unbefitting as she knew herself to be, and that had amazed her.
Raif, however, had neglected to surprise her, finally getting in touch two long days after the event to inform her that his father had died, having only briefly regained consciousness during his vigil by the older man’s bedside.
‘And now you’re a king!’ she had pointed out almost aggressively.
And Raif had hummed and hahed, as if that small fact weren’t of any real importance in the current state of chaos, and he had dared to ask her instead and repeatedly howshewas! He had buried three of his estranged family members in succession and gained a crown and, incredibly, he was acting as though it were just another day at the office!
‘Ican’tbe a queen!’ she had warned him straight away. ‘I’m just not cut out for that sort of thing.’
‘Neither am I,’ Raif had countered levelly. ‘But sometimes we have to do what we have to do and take the rough with the smooth.’
He was good at platitudes, not so good at dealing with the crux of an issue, she acknowledged unhappily. He hadn’t taken her response seriously because, typically hugging his personal feelings to himself, he was busy acting as if everything were absolutely normal. How was she supposed to deal with that? How was any ordinary woman supposed to respond to being raised without warning to such elevated status in a country she had never even visited? And how could she baldly admit that she didn’t want any of it?
Was he even considering those facts? That she didn’t speak the language or know the culture or the history or even the smallest thing useful for such a position? She had tried to get those points across but he hadn’t been listening. Indeed, in Claire’s opinion, he had stubbornlyrefusedto listen to her perfectly valid points. And he had completed that piece of male idiocy by simply telling her that she would be picked up by helicopter the next morning before the yacht sailed into British waters.
It was not that Raif was dense about everything like other men she had met, Claire conceded, feeling guilty over her critical thoughts. When she had returned to the yacht to occupy the giant stateroom that was Raif’s she had found it complete with the biggest cat tree and most luxurious cubby cat bed in existence.
Circe, now restored to her mistress, was living life to the manner born. She was back to roaming the boat with her cast, restrictive head collar and a forlorn look of cat martyrdom that ensured she received loads of sympathetic attention and every treat available. And at night, her pet curled up in a cosy bed lined with fur. So, Raif had thought about her cat’s needs in spite of his family losses and sudden gaining of a throne and it was just a shame that he preferred not to address his wife’s feelings or needs about those same developments.
Raif sprang out of the helicopter and strode for his bride’s hiding place, apparently the rarely used private sun deck attached to their stateroom. He knew that courtesy of Mohsin, who at his instigation had remained in Spain to watch over Claire. He reckoned that even the bodyguard had registered that Claire was freaking out at the prospect of what lay ahead of her because she had not left the owner’s suite since she had boarded.
Raif had been surrounded on all sides by people advising him that he shouldn’t leave the country again so soon after arriving and certainly not while still in official mourning. He had defied all that unwelcome advice. He was too well aware of what he had to do to even listen to their strictures. He was not his father, chary of foreign travel and change of all kinds. He was not afraid to be different and he could not afford to be. He was willing to sacrifice a lot to be the monarch Quristan required but he wasnotwilling to risk losing his wife.
Claire was in the stateroom staring at all the suitcases that had been packed for her while she was out on deck with her book. What a coward she was, she thought painfully. She had not flat out told Raif that shewasn’tplanning to fly out to Quristan. She had texted him and merely said that she wasn’t ready to travel...yetbeing the optimum word included because she didn’t have the guts to tell him that their imprudent marriage was surely over and that he should get a divorce in the pipeline as soon as possible. After all, in such circumstances, what else could they do? Neither one of them had even considered that such tragedies could occur and radically change the whole landscape of their lives.
