Chapter 437

• The blue sky was dotted with cotton wool clouds, and the warm breeze carried a scent of lavender and old-fashioned roses. There was no place on earth more beautiful than Ingledean on a spring day, Kate mused—except an oasis in the middle of the desert, where palm trees provided shade from the scorching sun and an azure pool glinted beneath a cloudless sky.
• She had been home for a month—although Ingledean no longer felt like home without Hazem. The image of his huge brown eyes and impish smile caused the familiar agonizing pain in her chest, and she bit down hard on her lip, tasted blood, and cursed the tears that slid unchecked down her face. She couldn’t cry forever. Somehow she was going to have to find the strength to move on, pick up the threads of her life, or maybe make a new one, far away from Ingledean and all its memories. But since she had left Qubbah, a terrible lassitude had settled on her, and she could not plan anything when the only two people she loved were far away on the other side of the world.
• Was Hazem missing her? she wondered as she scrubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and stared down at the stream that gurgled at the bottom of the garden. She couldn’t bear to think of him crying for her. But he was surrounded by people who loved him: Ahsan and the King, his nanny Jamila, and all the other members of the royal family. and he was young. He would soon forget her. Leaving him had hurt as much as if she had cut her heart out, but she had only ever wanted what was best for him, and while he undoubtedly belonged in Qubbah, she did not.