LITMIR.BIZ

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stood by those portraits—about looking nothing like any of them.

      ‘I don’t look like my father...’ But Felicia knew there had to be more to it than just rumour, and so she asked the question no one dared. ‘Is there a chance it might be true?’

      ‘Yes,’ Kedah told her, and he watched the swallowing in her throat. ‘I caught my mother cheating when I was a young child.’

      ‘Does anyone else know?’

      Kedah thought back and shook his head. ‘I was on my own when I caught them.’

      ‘Does your mother know what you saw?’

      Kedah didn’t answer.

      ‘Tell me what happened.’

      ‘You don’t need the details. I made a decision a long time ago never to speak of it.’

      She saw his eyes shutter and Felicia let out a tense, ‘What happened?’ Then she continued. ‘Tell me what you saw. You hate it when I discredit your work—well, don’t dismiss mine. I deal with this type of thing a lot. Well, maybe not with royalty, but I know I can help. Though you have to tell me it all.’

      She knew he didn’t believe there was any difference she could make but, to his credit—or perhaps to hers—he told her some more.

      ‘I was young.’

      ‘How young?’

      ‘Just turning three.’

      He was hesitant to say more, but then he looked at Felicia. Yes, Matteo had been right about her. She was tough and experienced—he himself had seen that. And now they were lovers. But, more than that, he trusted her.

      ‘The office where you worked yesterday...just outside the one where my portrait was done...?’ He offered the location and Felicia nodded as her mind’s eye went there. ‘I was hiding from the royal nanny. My grandfather and father had been away and I didn’t want to go and welcome them back, so I ran off and hid under the desk. I could hear noises coming from inside the office, and at first I thought my mother was hurt. When I opened the door she was being held by Abdal.’

      ‘Abdal?’ Felicia checked, but then, aware of her own impatience, she shook her head—she would find out in time. ‘Go on.’

      ‘Abdal walked off and she told me she had been crying and that he had been comforting her. She told me not to tell the King or anyone else. I don’t think she knows that I remember.’

      ‘What about the nanny?’ Felicia asked. ‘The one you were hiding from?’

      ‘She came in then, and apologised for losing sight of me.’ Kedah thought back. ‘She was awkward, though I don’t think she would have seen...’

      ‘She might have seen Abdal leaving.’ It was good that Felicia had been to the palace and could picture it properly. That corridor was a long one, and if the nanny had seen Abdal leaving then it might have been clear he had been alone with the Queen.

      While the King was away.

      It was immaterial now, but possibly this helped Felicia understand how important it was to Kedah that no one guessed what was between them.

      They were still in bed together, and Felicia had never worked like this before.

      They were trying to unravel the past, to work out how best to deal with the future.

      Now she sat up cross-legged, with the sheet around her, trying to imagine that the Queen she had met would risk it all for a brief fling.

      ‘Why, if you were only almost three when you caught them, do you think it was a prolonged affair?’

      ‘You don’t take the Queen over a study desk unless you’re very sure...’

      He looked up, and he saw that Felicia smiled.

      It felt odd to smile about something so dark, and yet it helped that she did and so he told her some more.

      ‘My mother comes from a much more modern country. Abdal was an aide also from there. He came to Zazinia to help with the transition and to ensure my grandfather upheld his agreements.’

      ‘Did he?’

      ‘Minimally. There was a lot of hope for change when the marriage took place, but little transpired. If he wasn’t dead I would cheerfully kill him...’

      Felicia didn’t doubt him. Kedah’s voice was ominous.

      ‘Abdal had been in Zazinia ever since the royal wedding,’ he went on.

      ‘How soon after you caught them did he leave?’

      Kedah thought back. ‘A few days afterwards.’ Even at such a young age he had served his mother a warning that day, and it had been heeded. ‘I look nothing like my brother or my grandfather. He must have been a risk-taker to do what he did. So am I—’

      ‘Kedah,’ Felicia interrupted, in a voice that was terribly practical. ‘Let’s assume you inherited your risk-taking behaviour from your mother.’

      He gave a reluctant smile, because he had never thought of it like that.

      ‘What about a DNA test?’ she asked. ‘You’d know once and for all.’

      He liked it that she was practical, that she didn’t judge his mother or wring her hands, just got straight to the pertinent facts and seemed to sense how vital it was that Kedah knew where he stood.

      ‘I’ve already had my profile done,’ Kedah admitted. ‘Anonymously, of course. But you’ve seen how it is there. Can you imagine me creeping around trying to find a comb?’

      ‘You can get it from other things,’ Felicia said. ‘One of my other clients...’

      His jaw gritted. He loathed thinking of her other clients and their scandalous pasts—and he loathed, more than that, that she had ever been close to them. ‘I don’t need to hear about them.’

      ‘Maybe you do. With one of them I got a sample from chewing gum.’

      ‘He’s a king,’ Kedah said.

      ‘I get that. I’m just saying...’

      ‘Why don’t I pull on some gloves and offer him a stick of chewing gum or snip off some hair? Do you think no one will notice?’ He lay back and tucked his hand behind his head as he tried to think.

      If there was a solution to be had, he would have come up with it by now.

      ‘I’m thinking of asking her.’

      ‘Oh, no!’ Felicia shook her head. ‘Kedah, even if she admits to the affair, she’s never going to admit to that. Do you think your father knows about the rumours?’

      ‘Possibly,’ he said. ‘But he still thinks my mother is perfection personified. He would defend her to the death. But I know that if he does then he could be made to look a fool. I need to know the truth.’

      ‘Even if the result isn’t the one you want?’

      ‘I can handle the truth, Felicia.’

      She believed him. ‘But...?’

      ‘I don’t know that my mother could,’ Kedah said. ‘If even so much as the affair were exposed then my father would have no choice but to divorce her.’

      ‘By the old rules?’ Felicia said, and Kedah looked over to her. ‘Does he love her?’

      ‘Very much.’ Kedah thought of how his father’s face lit up whenever she came in the room. How he did all he could to shield her from the feud between her sons. ‘I don’t know how he’d be if the truth came out, though.’

      He was done with talking about it.

      ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Sleep.’

      And this time there was no thought of heading for

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