Acting Royal #Wattys2017

19

JENNY

About two hours later Jenny found herself back at the palace. The party planning had turned chaotic and it was such a jolt back to reality after being in such a tranquil place. Zayn had a few things to attend to with Rafiq, and had bid her a kiss fueled farewell.

The weather was cooler now as evening approached and she took the opportunity to take a stroll through the perfectly manicured gardens. The open space reminded her of being back home at the farm, although the landscaped were completely different here. She waked across an impossibly long lawn and eventually found herself at the stables. They had been completely boarded up and parts of them looked like they'd been burnt. She gasped, oh my God, is this what had happed to Rana? Had she been caught in a fire in the stables? As she was thinking this, the man with the ice cold eyes walked around the corner.

"Hello Jenny. So nice to see you here, we haven't really had a chance to talk yet." Amir extended his hand for her to take. But she didn't. This man unnerved her more than she could say. She couldn't quantify it or put it into words, but there was just something so black about him. Soulless.

"Hi." She muttered.

"I saw you looking at the stables, has Zayn told you about the tragedy that befell Rana here?"

"No." Fear gripped Jenny. Had he just said that with a slight smile on his face?

"It was terrible. It haunts me still. And I know it haunts the prince too." He stepped closer to Jenny and she froze. "Rana was an excellent rider. She had a beautiful racehorse called Sparkle. Oh, she loved that horse more then life itself. Alas, she was here one evening brushing her horse after a ride, as she always did. Some kind of terrible electrical fault occurred. A light bulb burst, such a terrible freak accident. Terrible and tragic. She was caught in the fire. It was so lucky for her that Zayn was able to save her. Haven't you noticed that burn mark on the inside of his wrist?" His staccato tone and strange way of talking did little to hide the fact that he seemed to have no feelings or empathy.

Jenny swallowed hard. She hadn't noticed it and Amir could see this. Shit. Amir knew. She could feel it. A fiancé would have noticed something like that.

"I will never forget hearing those screams. Anguish. So anguished. It was terrible. Her horse was burnt to death of course. Have you every heard the noise a horse makes as it dies?"

She shook her head slowly as Amir kept advancing. The man's words felt like a million cold ice cubes being poured over her naked body. He froze her to the very core.

"The poor royal family has endured much tragedy. So sad for them. Zayn's aunts and uncles and cousins in that plane crash. What a tragedy!" This time he didn't hide his smile. "Don't they always say tragedy comes in threes?" His cruel eyes locked onto Jenny and bile rose in the back of her throat. She needed to get as far away form this man as possible.

"Well, I need to get ready for... the...um." She stumbled over her words and didn't even finish her sentence.

"Of course. You wouldn't want to keep your... fiancé... waiting."

Jenny didn't miss the dangerous tone in his voice. She turned and speed-walked back to the palace, as fast as she could without Amir thinking she was running away in panic.

**

ZAYN

Zayn had a few emails to send that afternoon. Despite popular belief, he did actually work, not that much, but he had a few interest. One was an art gallery he was in the process of opening, his house had become too full and he was running out of space. He had an eye for art, well, he had an eye for beautiful things really. The without a knock, Rafiq came barreling in and closed the door behind him.

Zayn looked up. He knew that look, that disapproving look that Rafiq was so fond of giving him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Rafiq sounded angry. Not uncommon.

"Sending some e-mails."

"With Jenny?" he moved closer to the desk. "I saw the lingerie you bought, I know you took her to the cove, and if I have to guess, you slept with her last night? Didn't you?"

"That's none of your business." Zayn slammed his laptop closed and glared at him.

"It is when I promised her that nothing like this would happen, and that she would be okay." God, he really was angry. In fact, he was red in the face and fuming.

"It's not like I forced her, she was very willing. Trust me." He folded his arms in indignation.

Rafiq's mood changed. "I'm going to speak frankly here, Zayn."

"I thought you always did!"

"Well, with you it seems to be the only thing that works." Rafiq raised a questioning brow at him.

"Fire away, old man. Fire away." Zayn sat back in his chair and braced himself for one of Rafiq's many lectures.

"A woman like Jenny deserves much more than just a casual one-night stand. She's too good for you Zayn. I'm sorry to say that, but it's true. She deserves a lot more than you can give her."

The words cut Zayn deeply. But Rafiq was right about something, Jenny deserved so much more. She deserved everything. She deserve the world and he wanted to be the man that gave it to her.

"Break this off Zayn. Please, before it's too late and she falls in love with all your many charms. " Rafiq placed his arm on Zayn's shoulders in a very paternal gesture. "You're going to break yet another woman's heart. And her heart does not deserve to be broken."

"What do you even know about relationships?" Zayn asked.

"You mean, what does a middle aged gay man like me know about the affairs of the heart?"

Zayne smiled at him. He'd known that Rafiq was gay for as long as he could remember. It had never bothered Zayn, not for a single second. But being gay was frowned upon here and Zayn had guarded Rafiq's secret for years and he would take it to the grave if need be.

"If only I could find you a husband, Rafiq. Then maybe you'd get off my back. But you never like the guys I try and set you up with."

"That's because they're all half my age." He smiled now. Zayn knew that underneath all the irritation and frustration and the many arguments, that Rafiq loved him like a son.

"I'm serious Zayn. Jenny is one in a million. She deserves all the bells and whistles that life has to offer...love, marriage, kids, the full package. And I know you can't give her that, so step away."

"But what if I want to give her the bells and whistles?" Zayn's voice was quite and coy and Rafiq snapped his head around to look at the prince more closely.

"What?" he sounded shocked and scrutinized him.

"What if I like this one? Really, really like this one."

"Then you would be making the first smart choice of your life." Rafiq eyed him for a

while. "Just don't hurt her, because with you, it always seems to end in tears." He forced a small smile before turning away and walking out of the room.

The conversation had left him feeling unsettled. Rafiq was always right. Well, maybe only nine times out of ten. He'd predicted every bad situation that Zayn had ever found himself in with a woman; The ones that feel in love (there were many), the ones that got furious and slashed tires, the ones that ran off to the press with a sordid story and the one that stalked him and faked a pregnancy.

Was he right about this, though? Would he inevitably land up hurting Jenny even if he didn't intend to. That was the last thing he wanted to do, but he really, really didn't want to stop doing what he was doing.