More Precious than a Crown

False duty had been more than repaid.

And so to the dancing.

Zahid stood over Trinity, waiting for her to join him on the floor, but it was a touch more complicated than standing for Trinity, because her already tight shoes refused to go back on, but finally she forced her feet into them. ‘The things I do for my family,’ Trinity said, as he led her to the floor. ‘Not that they appreciate it.’

‘I am appreciative...’ Zahid said, as he loosely held her and they started to dance and she waited for him to finish his sentence.

He didn’t.

‘Of what?’ Trinity prompted. ‘You are appreciative of what?’

‘That you are here,’ Zahid said. ‘That we see each other again after all this time.’

They both knew it was running out for them and there was no tail wind to help them catch up, no buttons to push that could change things.

Except he pushed the right ones.

Zahid was the only man who did.

‘I loved your speech,’ Trinity said, her words a little stilted, for she was cross with Zahid for flirting when he was about to be wed. Yet she was cross only from the neck up. Her body had seemed to overlook the fact he would soon be marrying the very second that she was in his arms.

‘You’re the only one who liked it. Your father looks as if he wants to kill me.’

‘It’s me he’s shooting daggers at!’ Trinity looked to the right and smiled sweetly at her father. ‘I was late, you know?’

‘You were.’

‘And not looking out for my brother.’

Zahid looked down to those blue eyes again and wondered how much she knew, for he was sure that Donald was high. ‘Is it nice to see your brother happy?’

‘Donald wouldn’t know what happy was if it was hand delivered and he had to sign for it.’ She looked over at Donald, who was smiling and laughing to his bride. ‘He’s loaded,’ Trinity said. ‘Nothing changes.’

‘You?’ Zahid said.

‘I don’t go near anything like that.’

‘I meant,’ Zahid corrected himself, ‘are you happy?’

‘Not today,’ Trinity said, then it was she who corrected herself. ‘Actually, right now I am.’

‘Because?’

‘Because,’ Trinity said, because in his arms she actually was and, no, she should not be flirting, she had been called a tease so very many times when she was unable to follow through, but she just needed one lovely thing to focus on, just the teeniest bit of help to get through the night and, for good or bad, Zahid was it.

‘Because?’ he said into her ear, and it was then that she succumbed.

‘Because my brother has excellent taste in groomsmen.’

‘His bride has terrible taste in dresses.’

‘She does,’ Trinity sighed. ‘Though in fairness my mother would have lied about my measurements. She prefers me with an eating disorder, it makes her a more visible martyr...’

Trinity was, Zahid decided, rather wise.

‘I’m supposed to be singing later,’ Trinity said, and her hands moved up and linked behind his neck and, yes, they were back in the woods again. ‘As I said to my mother, my name isn’t Trinity Von Trapp.’ She went to explain, because he probably had no idea what she was talking about, but then she remembered a long-ago Christmas and Dianne forcing them to watch the Sound of Music and Trinity giggling at Zahid’s somewhat bemused expression.

More than that, though, somehow he got her—she did not have to explain everything to Zahid.

‘Rolfe might join you,’ he said into her ear, and though Zahid would no more sing than fly to the moon a smile played on her lips as she pulled her head back, just enough that her back arched in just a little and Zahid’s tongue rolled to his cheek as something else stirred to her words.

‘I prefer the captain.’

It was a tiny dirty dance, but with words. The heat from his palms was surely searing her dress and the way he simply let her be had her breathing freely for the first time since she could remember. With Zahid her body seemed to know how to work. He induced only pleasure and made it safe to be a touch wanton.

Then she remembered she was cross with him.

As the music ended, instead of sinking in for another dance, she pulled back.

‘I’d better go and see how Yvette is.’

‘I will check on the groom.’ He gave a small nod. ‘Perhaps later we dance...’

Trinity gave a tight smile as she walked off but she felt conflicted. No doubt Zahid thought her a party girl, no doubt he assumed where the night was leading.

He could never guess that she felt ill at the very thought of sex.

Only she didn’t feel ill in his arms.

Trinity wanted to get back to him, only Yvette was teary and she either had raging cystitis or her bladder was the size of a thimble or more likely she really was pregnant, because she wanted to go to the loo on the hour every hour and Trinity had to help with the dress.

‘Your brother...’ Yvette was trying to tame her angry cheeks with Trinity’s foundation. ‘I just got a call from the hotel—he hasn’t paid the reservation fee...’

‘I’m sure it’s just a mix-up,’ Trinity suitably soothed.

She was quite sure to the contrary, though.

The night wore on and the only time they met was when Dianne introduced Trinity to a group that Zahid was in and, of course, one of them had to ask what she was doing with her degree.

‘I’m thinking of moving to France.’ Trinity beamed, deciding that it might not be such a bad idea actually and feeling her mother’s tension beside her, ‘but right now I work in a library at a large college—’

‘The reference section,’ Dianne interrupted, and Zahid watched the daggers that shot from Trinity’s eyes.

Dianne was determined that Trinity would sing and trying to escape the inevitable, true to form, Trinity slipped outside for some air.

Zahid wasn’t faring much better. All night Donald insisted on introducing him to everyone as his best friend from way back and slapping Zahid on the back as he did so.

It came as no surprise when Donald pulled Zahid aside near the end of the night and asked if he might have a word.

‘I know that you’re flying back after lunch tomorrow and that we might not get another chance to speak,’ Donald said.

‘You don’t have to entertain me on your wedding night.’ Zahid tried to smile, tried to keep things light, tried not to like this man any less than he now did.

‘And I know that you’ve always been a great friend to me, as I hope I have to you.’ They were your drugs, Zahid said again in his head, but he remained silent as Donald spoke on. ‘The thing is, Zahid...’ And Zahid listened as, again, Donald asked him to help—that if he could just take care of the honeymoon, then as soon as Donald was back he would repay him.

‘I am not paying for your honeymoon.’ Zahid interrupted the familiar tirade but with its latest twist. ‘What I will pay for is three months of rehabilitation.’

‘That’s really generous but if I could just get these debts paid then I wouldn’t need rehab. All I’m asking—’

‘I have told you what I am prepared to do. I have heard of a good clinic near Texas. A family friend had their son go there...’

‘I’ve just got married I can hardly disappear on Yvette...’

‘I would say that you have been absent from your relationship for quite some time,’ Zahid said, refusing to be swayed. It was clear from looking at Yvette that Donald would soon be a father—it was time, then, that he grew up. ‘If you go to rehab, I will take care of your debts.’

‘Zahid, please, can you just—?’

‘No.’

Zahid refused to negotiate.

‘I will speak with the accounting firm that I use in the UK. The offer is there so long as you are prepared to meet my conditions.’

‘You can afford to help me out without blinking.’

‘That has nothing to do with it. Even if I had no money but you were determined to change, I would take a loan to pay for your treatment. I will not be used. You can work for a better life, or you can torch what you have. You choose.’

‘Some friend!’ Donald sneered.

Zahid stepped away from Donald and headed outside just as he heard Dianne start up with the familiar cry. ‘Has anyone seen Trinity?’

Zahid was looking at her now.

She was a bad bridesmaid, if there was such a thing. The flowers were wilting in her hair as she drained her champagne glass and then muttered something very unladylike under her breath.

‘Language, Trinity,’ Zahid said, and she rolled her eyes.

‘I hate weddings.’

‘They are a part of life.’

‘Well, if I ever get married it will be on a beach with no guests.’ She glanced at him. ‘What about you?’

‘There will be many guests and it will go for two or three days. It will be a national holiday and the wedding date will be marked each year with the same...’

It sounded so horrific to Trinity that she actually laughed. ‘I shouldn’t complain really. So—’ Trinity tried to keep her voice light ‘—when is your wedding day?’

‘I will marry next year.’

It was ridiculous, Trinity thought, but as she stood there she was filled with a strange ache of sadness.