The Apple Of Distraction

Episode 9: Perfect Distraction

For the past few days, ‘restlessness’ isn’t enough to describe Prince Aches’ state of mind following the arrival of the American in Abdeen Square. In every passing minute, he prayed his decision of making her stay back doesn’t end up hurting him instead.

In addition, he felt guilty knowing he had the power to grant the American the freedom she so much desired rather than using an almost abolished law on her.

He knew he was skating on dangerous grounds by detaining her, but it wasn’t his fault he had become attracted to her. The fact that this mere attraction had developed into strange feelings which he had never felt before in his entire life, scared him.

Now seated in his office, one of the suites at the last floor of Abdeen palace, he began going through her documents again.

Last week, he had sent some investigators to the hospital she had mentioned she worked at Alexandria and conducted an investigation to know more about her, if truly she was working with them, and so forth and so on.

Satisfied she’s truly a doctor and not a spy, he wrote to them, informing them she was safe and in his custody. He had also written to her landlord at the same Alexandria, and in no time, his officers were at her apartment searching every nook and cranny for any piece of information regarding her. He suddenly wanted to know more about her, and each time he did, his heart tugged with inexplicable emotions.

Aches made sure she lacked nothing so indirectly, he saw to it she was paid her weekly allowance just like every other staff at the Royal hospital. His recent action was sending Ahmose over to her, to take her touring at his expense.

For the past few days, Aches kept avoiding one particular question that keeps popping from within him, which was; what exactly did he intend to do with Miss Ray knowing very well he had never kept record of double-dating in his past relationships, and neither does he intend to do so now he’s engaged?

He groaned at the thought.

A slight knock on the door had him jerked out of his reverie. “Yes?” he beckoned, and Ahmed, his favorite servant walked in and bowed.

“My lord,” the servant boy started but got cut off.

“-Yes, yes!” Aches remembered, tapping his temple; he had forgotten he was notified about forty-five minutes ago that lunch was ready.

“In a minute,” again he dismissed Ahmed for the second time in an hour.

Ahmed bowed. When he closed the door after him, Aches arose lazily and turning to a safe behind his writing desk, he opened it and placed the American’s documents in there. Then he headed for the door.

* * * * *

Betresh ate her meal, a ‘foie gras’ with steak in anger, furious at how her fiancé would spend most hours of each passing day in his office, baring his heart to know and help that American! Still fuming, she recalled how they met about a year and half ago.

It was in an open royal gala held by the King, his father. At the occasion which was flocked more with maidens of different calibre, a gossip with the maidens, she had discovered that the tall fiercely handsome Crown Prince is a hard-to-get and also rumored, a ‘play boy’.

That very night at the party, she had run a quick survey on the playboy prince and discovered he had a sister, his only sibling. Days after the party, she had begun to stalk the pretty princess, and in less than two months, she had found her way into making friends with her.

Luckily for her, their friendship got to a point Princess Layla often invited her to the palace. But in all, Betresh must admit it wasn’t easy getting her new friend’s brother. She had tried and tried, and tried, but he was proving too tough for her. At last, she had reached out to him with a fake suicide attempt on her birthday.

Unaware it was a setup; Prince Aches had rushed his worried-self down to her house, more because his sister who first got the news had unrelentingly urged him to do so. Before the end of that fateful day, he took her with him back to Abdeen palace, and for the first time, made love to her out of self-pity. And Betresh had offered herself willingly like every other woman or girl that had ever come across his life.

That was how their relationship started. Surprisingly, he didn't discard her like he did to the others, maybe because he knew it was expected of him to settle down for a family of his own.

After the sudden death of his father, he had proposed to her as custom demanded, a crown prince who has attained maturity should at least be engaged or married upon ascending the throne. Even though the law was flexible and amendable, Aches had no wish to tamper with it.

Although Betresh wanted to be married to him straight away, Aches had insisted for courtship to be sure this was what he wanted before jumping the next hurdle. To him, marriage is not a joke and he intends to have a successful and happy one.

She was still lost in thoughts when he appeared at the doorway.

“I thought you’d never come out for lunch!” she attacked, humor and anger mixed in her voice.

Aches ignored her and settled down in a seat being pulled out for him by a servant. From the dishes spread out on the table, he choose ‘fuldames’ with hard boiled eggs. The ignorance got Betresh more furious.

“I can see it all over your face, there’s something more you’re hiding in the dark!” she accused, taking a sip of her wine.

“I’m hungry, can you please let me eat in peace?” Aches blurted. He hated the fact she was fond of bringing up issues during meals, and most time she did, he had ended up losing his appetite.

The anger in his eyes, it didn't move Betresh. She knew him very well, all his anger yet he’d never raise a finger on her. In fact, that has been her stronghold on realizing he'd never raised a finger on a woman. It was his principle, and she'd always taken advantage of that.

“-You can’t be hungry, because if you were, you wouldn’t have been stuck doing what I don’t know about that American!” she retorted.

Not even sparing her a glance, Aches continued with his meal, she could blab all she wanted; it wasn’t new to him.

A sarcastic smile lit her face. “Well you know,” Betresh rubbed her chin with her right hand whose elbow she placed on the table, “-I learnt she’s going on well with Ahmose. Who knows, she might already be a guest in his bed?” she taunted, and loved how Prince Aches' countenance changed drastically.

The picture played in Aches’ head; he envisioned Ahmose touching Ella, kissing and giving her pleasure. He shut his eyes as the images vanished, leaving behind feelings of pain, of jealousy.

For the first time, he saw Ahmose as a potential trait. He hadn't realized it when he sent him off to take Miss Ray touring and, also keep an extra eye on her.

“What do you want?” Aches asked, dropping his cutlery. “First of all, congratulations for finally making me lose my appetite!” he added with contempt.

“I want you to lock her up!”

“Why?” he queried, taking a sip of his drink.

“She’s a spy!”

“Well, from my findings she’s not a spy so stop accusing her!”

Mouth agape, Betresh propped her back against the chair as if she had seen a ghost. “So now you’re defending her?” Incredulity masked her voice.

“Can you stop nagging for once, Betresh, please? Must you nag about everything?”

“I nag because you don’t respect my feelings!” She hissed.

Aches snickered at her last words, and then he turned serious. “Did you just say feelings, respect?” he gritted, arching forward to the table. “Didn’t I respect your feelings when you asked that I should move her out of the palace?” he hinted, remembering how awful he had felt executing that his fiancée’s wish.

“Yes, yes you did,” Betresh implored with her palms open in the air. “-If you say she’s innocent, then release her. Let her go.”

“I’m not stopping her from leaving, custom demands she serves the land for three weeks.”

“Oh please! I know you’re in the power to free her that’s, if you really want to.”

Silence engulfed the room.

Betresh saw it in his eyes, he didn't want the American to go. “Damn it!” she banged the table hard, “You have fallen in love with her, I can see it written all over your face!”

“Lucky her then!” he fired back.

Shocked to her roots, Betresh stared at him for fleeting seconds. When she spoke again, it was a whisper mixed with incredulity and then, hatred. “Did you just say you’ve fallen in love with her?”

He nodded slightly, while his eyes shone with humor.

Then it was Betresh's turn to get an inflamed face.

“Don't spoil your mood, Betresh. Remember, you asked for it.”

Speechless, Betresh sat still as a statue. And then she stood and stomped out of the room.

“Yes!!!” Aches exulted. He couldn’t believe he was capable of getting the better end of her, just like she often did to him. In fact, this was the first time ever since their relationship; had he ever won an argument.

Aches was still smiling at his victory as he signaled the servants to clear up the table, having lost his appetite. Still seated in the dining room, he catnapped.

Quietly, someone skulked into the room, behind him, and closed her palms over his eyes. Aches smiled as he inhaled the familiar sunflower scent.

“Nice try, Layla,” he exposed in amusement. “Haven’t I told you times without number, if you want to continue pulling old acts like this on me, you better change that sunflower oil you use on your hair?”

Exposed in her little game, Princess Layla soared in laughter, setting her brother's eyes free.

“Oh, I missed you my prince!” she confessed, looking perfectly small and younger in her 4ft 8, chestnut hair, brown eyes and full lips; features she took after their mother.

Aches arose and both siblings hug affectionately, each grinning.

“I missed you most, my princess. I didn't hear you walk into the room, but your sunflower fragrance gave you away.” He pulled out a dining chair for her, “Someone could easily smell you from the gates!” he teased.

Not minding the servants waiting to take orders, Aches allowed his sister to settle down in her chair, before he continued. “What may I offer you, my lady?” he asked, eyeing her round protruding belly which spoke volumes she was already in her third trimester.

“I’m good,” Layla tried to dismiss, still smiling.

Aches shook his head, “I’m not buying that idea,” he persisted. Turning to Ahmed, he ordered for some water and fruits, then he brought back his attention to his smiling sister.

“How’s everything, how’s my in-law?”

“Everything is fine. Fadil is fine too, he travelled to France yesterday for an urgent meeting,” she explained, suddenly rising to her feet.

Aches watched her with a slight smile as she strolled over to the largest portrait in the room. A portrait of them and their father; Aches had just turned fourteen and his sister, seven.

Sighing heavily, Aches arose and joined his sister.

Layla broke the silence that had followed, “I miss him,” she whispered.

Aches took her hand and held her close. “If this portrait will start putting you in a sad mood, then I’ll have it taken off.”

“-No, don’t!” she forced a smile, dabbing away the tears that now filled her eyes.

Painful as it was, Layla didn't grow up to know her mother who was said to have died birthing her. And now, the only parent she had grown up to know is dead? The truth was bitter but unlike her brother, she had no choice but to accept it.

Quietly, she shuffled back to her seat while her brother stared at her with much turmoil in his heart.

“Have you heard from them?” she asked.

“From them,” he repeated. “You mean the detective?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

Aches settled in a chair close by. “I spoke with them yesterday. Don’t you worry, they’ll get back to us soon.”

Layla sighed. Despite it’s been five months since their father had embarked on that fateful journey, it still felt like it was just yesterday. As a boy, their father had always enjoyed sailing around the world, and it was still a tradition he held onto in every five years, until five months ago. Never did anyone forsee that that particular journey would turn out to be his last.

Ahmed reappeared with the water and fruits. When he made to decant water from a silver jug for Layla, Aches intervened.

“Allow me,” he took over from him and served his sister.

Layla smiled. She could never stop being proud of her brother. It’s his ability to handle things very wisely, his patience and courage, that grew her revere for him. Although at first, it was believed that the Royal ship was sunken by a tempest, but her brother, Prince Aches, had insisted the ship be searched and salvaged, and thorough investigation carried out on it.

“Here,” Aches offered the glass of water.

She took it from him and smiled, “Thank you, my prince.”

Aches smiled a ‘welcome’ and watched her drain half the glass. Staring at her, he recalled her as the little baby sister of yesterday, now a wife and soon to be mother. This reminded him he wasn’t getting any younger.

He swallowed.

“So how have you been coping, brother?” Layla asked, replacing the glass on the silver tray held out by Ahmed.

Aches heaved a deep sigh knowing very well he was about to lie. “I’m doing just fine!” he replied, knowing better he was far from the truth. With the way his feelings for the American grew day after day, Aches knew he was everything far from ‘fine’.

“Where’s she, I mean Betresh?” Layla asked.

His eyes narrowed at the question. “In her suite, I guess.”

Not noticing the slight change in her brother's countenance, Layla stood. “I’m sure she doesn’t know that I’ve arrived, let me go check on her.”

Picking a bunch of grapes from the tray of fruits served on the table, Layla kissed her brother’s temple, and left the room.