Chapter 16: Visitors

Princess Elaheh had decided that she might quite enjoy having some fun with her old Oxford friends again, and as the facilities for this were incomparably better in the Emerald Palace than in her house in Oxford, she wrote identical letters to Louise and Kevin, inviting them to come and see her. Much thought went into the composition of these letters and the final version read:

Dear Louise and Kevin,

As you may have heard, I inherited a place out here in Kobekistan, and I've decided to live here for the time being. I am sure you would both enjoy it here, so why don't you come and visit me?

The Emir is an old sweetie who knew my mum and dad when he was at Oxford and owns the airline and has said you can have free tickets on one of his aeroplanes to come over, free of charge! And you can stay for free at the Emerald Palace in the middle of town, close to the Emir's place.

Just let me know when you can come and I'll arrange it for you. There are daily flights and we can usually get seats at three or four days notice.

Love to see you both again,

Elinor Bollington.

Two weeks later she received a firm note from Louise saying that she and Kevin were to be married soon and politely declining the invitation. Undeterred by this Elaheh telephoned Kevin and asked if Louise knew where they were going for their honeymoon.

"Well, we are going to Bali," he said, "But she only suspects that and I haven't told her it's arranged."

"Forget Bali," said Elaheh, "Come here to Kobekistan and I can promise you a honeymoon you'll never forget. There are sights and pleasures here that you've only dreamed of, and I'll be happy to show you round."

"I don't know," he replied, "Louise is a bit funny about you, since that night you know."

"Was I so nasty to you?" she asked, "And if Louise doesn't want to go everywhere here, I'm sure you and I can have some fun, together. A free honeymoon in five star luxury beats a package tour to Bali any time. I can even arrange dinner with the Emir and some of his harem."

That clinched it; the young man was hooked. He hadn't really wanted to go on a cheap package tour anyway; he had seen how honeymooners got teased when the rest of the party found out.

"This Emerald Palace Hotel you mentioned, is it really five star?"

"Better than that. Sumptuous rooms, servants everywhere, and it would all be free. They even serve Champagne at breakfast."

"What shall I tell Louise?" he asked.

"Tell her nothing," replied Elaheh, "At least until you are on the 'plane. If the reception has been any good she won't be sober enough to notice anything anyway."

"Oh, we're spending the first night in London, she knows that," said Kevin, "Then we go to Heathrow from there."

"I'll send you the tickets and I'll arrange for you to be met at this end."

Kevin and Louise's wedding was marred only by a few minor mishaps, when people got their words slightly wrong, and a baby cried at the wrong moment. The vicar was used to these things and simply ignored them.

'If people won't have proper rehearsals then such trivial problems are to be expected, ' he thought.

The reception was catered by Louise's mother and here again there was no serious difficulty. The sausage rolls were overcooked and the chicken drumsticks underdone, but nobody was rude enough to point this out to her. The most popular beer ran out early, but a fortunate consequence of this was that nobody got roaring drunk.

The happy couple set off for London, where they spent the wedding night at the Strand Palace Hotel. That went splendidly for both of them, perhaps because they had been rehearsing it assiduously for the past three years.

In the morning a taxi took them to Terminal Five at London Airport in good time for their flight. Once there they checked in with a line of other passengers. When the ground hostess saw their tickets they were swiftly led away from the check-in area and taken through an unmarked door with a security lock on it. Louise wondered what they had done wrong, but they found themselves in a very pleasant lounge at a table with their names on it.

A uniformed stewardess said, "Highnesses, may I offer you any refreshments?"

Kevin looked at her suspiciously and asked, "Could I see a price list?"

"Everything here is complimentary," said the stewardess, "Perhaps some Champagne as I understand this is your honeymoon?"

"Well if it is really free?" said Louise and the girl left, returning only moments later with an ice bucket containing a bottle of champagne, and carrying two glasses.