Chapter 42: The Prince Grows Up

The day before Prince Ghasaan’s twelfth birthday the call Aludra expected and feared came; she was summoned to the presence of the Emir in the Throne Room. While she had had many more than her fair share of visits to his bed, she knew that this was a life changing moment for both her and her son. She wondered if the fact that she had never again become pregnant would be a disadvantage, or the opposite.

The Emir came into the empty Throne Room where only Princess Aludra stood, and she made obeisance immediately. “Up,” he said as he seated himself on the throne, “I am sure you know what this is about?”

“Yes, Your Magnificence,” she replied, thinking it appropriate to be formal, “it is about my possible return to Wales to live.”

“So, what have you decided?” he asked, much to her surprise.

“I? Your Magnificence, surely it is for the Master to decide?”

“Twelve years ago when I gave you and your mother the opportunity to go home to England, I seem to recall that I said that you would be free to choose again in twelve years’ time, when my son was of an age to leave the harem. I do not go back on my promises. I do not want to marry you, which would be the only alternative to keeping this promise.”

“Wales, home to Wales,” she corrected, “And Prince Ghasaan?” she asked.

“My son is, by local standards, of an age to decide for himself where he lives. However I would be pleased if he were to attend a good English public school, and so he could perhaps live there with you.”

“Would Cardiff Royal Grammar be suitable? Then we could live within easy reach of my mother, who is now beginning to feel her age.”

“It is settled then,” said the Emir, rising from his throne and going into his private quarters.

Princess Aludra was not really surprised to find that her, and her son’s belongings were packed when she returned to the harem. The Chief Eunuch prided himself on meeting every request almost before it was even conceived by the requester. She thought back on the number of times she had asked for something and it had been produced instantly; now her departure was just as instantaneous.

“I need to make a telephone call,” she said to him.

“That can be done from the aeroplane,” came the reply as she was ushered, still in her abaya, with her son down the corridor to the harem entrance to the Triple Palace.

Prince Ghasaan piped up, “Don’t worry, mother, I will be of age tomorrow and I will look after you,” making her realise that he saw himself as becoming her Master and the head of the household.

“You will not be of age, as you put it until you are twenty-three in the Kobekistani tradition. Tomorrow you will only be barred from living in your father’s harem, and there are no harems where I come from. I expect we will live, at first, in your nain’s house.”

“What is a nain, and why do I have one?” the boy asked angrily.

Nicola burst out laughing, which annoyed the boy even more. Seeing his annoyance, clearly tinged with worry, she calmed down and explained, “Sorry. Nain is the Welsh for grandmother and I just slipped into that language for a moment. This will be my mother, just as Zub is your father’s mother.”

“Who is my grandfather, and why will I be allowed to live in his house?”

“He died many years ago, and the house is your grandmother’s. I have never seen it, but she says it is nice. I expect you to behave as becomes a Prince and not to criticise anything about the house, the food, or the strange customs of the country. At least not until they have been explained to you.”

After the inevitable Rolls journey to the airport, and when the waiting private Jumbo jet had taken off, Nicola was at last able to talk to her mother and explain that she was coming home. That was when she found out that a house had already been bought and furnished for her own and Prince Ghasaan’s use, as the Emir had anticipated her wishes. She cried floods of tears then, though she could not have said whether they were for the joy of going home or the sadness of losing her share of her first and only lover.