“I am, I am. But the royal family are feted as Gods. It is not a matter of simply ‘popping’ back. My brother would be furious with me. I haven’t spoken to him in over a year, Mirry.” She closed her eyes and gripped her stomach. “Since Tom and I started dating.”
“I know. But soon the weather’s going to get warmer, and you’re not going to be able to hide the fact that you’re pregnant by wearing enormous sweaters and scarves. Those security guys that keep tabs on you are going to send your brother a pretty important memo one day soon. Unless I help you.”
Steph nodded, her face pale. “I know, I know. I need money, so that I can hide out and have this baby in private. If Rad finds out, he’ll force me to come home. Make me have the baby there and turn it into some kind of miniature royal automaton. And he’ll either make me marry Tom or forbid him from being in our lives altogether.”
“Hey, hey,” Miranda put her hands around her friend’s shoulders, her long blonde hair spilling down her back as she hugged Mastepha. “It’s okay. I’m your best friend. I’m going to help you.”
“You can’t.” She was truly miserable.
“Of course I can.” She gnawed on her lip. “Talk me through your apartment. What would be involved in getting in?”
And so, as Miranda hung pictures all over the wall of her apartment, she also framed a mental picture of Steph’s home in the capital city.
Still, Steph remained insistent. “It’s too dangerous. If Rad discovers you, he’ll be furious. If he learns the truth of our connection, it will lead him to me. And hewilllearn the truth.”
“I promise, I’ll be careful.”
Steph had known Miranda a long time. Since the first day she’d arrived in London, and they’d bonded over a shared hatred for the drizzly weather. They’d been stranded outside their lecture, and had decided to go for a coffee instead. Coffee had turned into lunch, and lunch had become dinner, and by the end of that first night, they were firm friends and confidantes.
Of course Miranda was going to help her friend. In fact, she was determined. Being pregnant was hard enough, without the worry of a financial burden that could be eased without great difficulty. “Come on, Steph. We’ll be like a modern day Thelma and Louise.”
Mastepha frowned. “Who?”
“Oh my God. The gap in your movie knowledge is horrifying. First Dirty Dancing, and now this?”
Steph shook her head and shrugged. “Who are Thessle and…”
“Thelma!” Miranda corrected with a laugh. “Lord. How have you seen High School Musical twenty eight times and never these classics?”
“Classics?” Steph giggled. “You mean like the Dickens of film?”
“Exactly!” Miranda propped against the ladder, lost in thought. “Okay, I won’t be able to do it justice, but they’re two women – one gorgeous and brow-beaten by her overbearing husband, aka your brother the King, and the other is independent and determined. That’s me!” She laughed at Steph’s dubious expression but continued uninterrupted. “They go on holiday together, but one thing leads to another, and before they know it, they’re on the run from the law.”
“Sounds plausible,” Steph murmured, tongue in cheek.
“About as plausible as Vanessa Hudgens being a nerdy pariah,” Miranda teased back.
“Yeah, I’ll give you that. So? What happens?” Steph asked curiously.
“Oh, well, they drive their convertible off the edge of a cliff.” She held her hands up to block Steph’s sound of protest. “Sounds ghastly, but it was a totally empowering moment of friendship.”
“I don’t think I want to be Thelma and Louise,” Steph said with a shake of her head.
“Nor did Thelma, at the start. Come on, Stephie. You need help. And so I’m going to help you.”
Steph was torn. She did need Miranda’s support, but the risks were too great. Unfortunately for Steph, Miranda was not willing to take no for an answer. The only way forward was for Steph to advise her, so that she was guaranteed a safe and quick trip to Fasiya.
Miranda’s motives were not completely altruistic though. Helping Steph was her chief goal, but there was more to it than that. For a start, she could put the whole matter of her broken engagement behind her. She was hardly nursing a broken heart, but she’d been with Andrew for a long time. It felt right to punctuate the period between her old life and her new life with a bit of adventure. A little spice and excitement to mark the end of an era…
* * *
“Don’t you think it’s a little hypocritical that you have brought me to this palace, but left others to suffer in that squalid prison?”
His eyes were brooding as they assessed her across the empty tiled corridor of his city palace.
“No.”
“No?” She laughed at his absurdly inadequate reply. “Why not?”
