Thankfully the doors of the lift opened before he did something precipitous, and Halina stepped inside with a shuddery sigh of both relief and regret, Abdul following quickly... The doors closed as Rico strode to face them, fury and disbelief etched on every rugged line of his face. Then she saw him no more.
All the courage and defiance Halina had felt earlier in the evening, all the excitement from being with Rico, had all gone, leaving her flattened and empty. She was terrified too, yet she knew she deserved everything she was going to get, which she couldn’t bear to think about yet.
She glanced at Abdul, who was stony-faced and silent. ‘How did you find me?’ she whispered.
‘It was not so difficult, Your Highness.’
‘But how did you know I was gone?’
‘I check all the rooms of the suite throughout the night.’
And she’d thought she was being so clever. She hadn’t realised Abdul was so thorough, never mind that he’d dozed off for a few minutes.
He must have seen she was gone and then looked for her downstairs. The bouncer at the party could have identified her, as well as Rico, and how he’d seen them leave together. No, it had not been so difficult. And she was even more foolish than she’d realised.
‘My mother...?’ she began, but Abdul just shook his head. It was not his place to say what her mother thought.
Soon enough they were walking down the hallway to their hotel suite, and Halina’s heart began to thud in an entirely new and unpleasant way at the prospect of facing her mother. What would Aliya Amar think of her daughter’s flagrant disobedience? What would happen?
She didn’t have to wait long to find out. As soon as Abdul swiped the key card, her mother threw open the door. She stood with her shoulders thrown back, her face flushed with both fury and fear, her eyes narrowed to dark slits.
‘Leave us,’ she commanded Abdul, and he did so.
Halina closed the door behind her, her fingers trembling on the knob. She’d never seen her mother look so angry. Her mother was always carefree and charming, her light laughter tinkling through the rooms of the royal palace of Abkar. Yet now she looked like a woman possessed by rage. Halina shrank back. She couldn’t help it.
‘I cannot believe you have been so stupid,’ Aliya stated in a cold, restrained voice. ‘So utterly reckless. We leave Abkar for one night—one night!—and you manage to completely disgrace yourself. How completely, I can see from the state of your dress.’ She raked Halina with one up-and-down glance, taking in her rumpled dress, her lack of stockings, her tumbled hair and still-swollen lips. Halina felt as if the truth of her evening was written all over her, and she bowed her head.
‘I’m sorry, Mama,’ she whispered as tears gathered in her eyes. She couldn’t even blame her mother for being so angry. She knew she deserved it, and more. From the moment she’d escaped her bedroom she’d acted foolishly, without a thought to her future. Now that it was all over, she couldn’t believe she’d been so completely stupid.
‘I always knew you were impulsive,’ Aliya continued. ‘Ever since you were a little girl, going after whatever you fancied. Doing whatever you liked.’
‘That’s not fair!’ Halina protested, even though she knew it was unwise to argue. She’d been spoiled a little, yes. She could acknowledge that. But her life had been so restricted, with so little opportunity for fun or excitement. Halina knew it didn’t justify her actions, but at least it explained them a little.
‘Fair?’ Aliya repeated, her voice ringing out. ‘You want to talk to me about fair?’ She whirled away from Halina, pacing the sumptuous carpet of the suite’s living area. Then she stopped, her back to Halina, her shoulders slumping. ‘Heaven help us both, Halina,’ she whispered. ‘What am I going to tell your father? He is going to be devastated. Heartbroken. This affects everything. All our plans...the political alliances that are so important...’
Halina swallowed, blinking back more tears. She hated the thought of disappointing her father so badly. She didn’t even understand why she’d done it. Had Rico Falcone really possessed that kind of hold on her? In the heat of the moment, he had. Even now she could recall a flicker of that intoxicating pleasure, the way it had blurred her mind and emboldened her actions.
Aliya turned slowly to face her. ‘Who was this man? Why did you meet him? Was it planned?’
‘I...’ Halina stared at her helplessly. What answer could she give? ‘It wasn’t planned. I... I was scared,’ she finally whispered.
‘Scared? Did this man scare you?’
‘No, not like that. I...’ Her mind whirled. ‘Olivia?
?s kidnapping frightened me. It made me realise how little I’ve experienced, how little chance I’ve had to have fun...’
‘Fun?’ Her mother looked incredulous. ‘This was about having fun?’
It made her sound so silly, so shallow, and in truth Halina knew she’d been both. ‘I just wanted to go to a party,’ she said. Aliya shook her head slowly. ‘To see something of life, to feel...alive.’
‘You are such a child, Halina. Do you have any idea what is at stake?’
‘I never meant things to go so far.’ Yet she’d chosen her fate. Halina knew she couldn’t pretend otherwise. Rico had given her the opportunity to walk away and she hadn’t taken it.
‘How far did you go, Halina?’ Aliya demanded in a low voice. ‘As far as I fear, judging by the look of you?’
Halina said nothing. Her throat was too tight to speak. Her mother whirled around again, her fingers pressed to her temples.