16. Chapter 16 This is My Life Now
JULIANA
After ten glorious days spent horseback riding, visiting the souk, attending the regional theater where I see a play that my sheikh interprets for me when the Arabic is beyond my current capabilities, rockhounding in his beloved mountains, being shown the beauty of both the oasis and the desert beyond by my sheikh, and ten equally glorious nights making love, we travel to Nurayn for me to meet the rest of his royal family.
It goes a lot more smoothly than him meeting my parents via video call. For me anyway. His parents are welcoming, if a bit overwhelming, his brothers are unsurprisingly aloof and his grandmother, the Lady Aliyah is truly lovely, but way more intimidating than the king.
She is the one that decrees the wedding will take place in eight weeks' time, not four, and refuses to hear a single one of Gabriel's objections.
Nurayn will be hot and muggy at the end of July. To which Lady Aliyah responds that it will be the middle of August in eight weeks, making it clear she means the countdown to start from this moment and not from when Gabriel proposed the day I arrived in Zahriya.
Gabriel comes very close to being discourteous to his grandmother at that point.
She gives him a look of reproof that would have me shaking in my boots if I was wearing them. "Regardless of your reason for marrying Juliana Caldwell, you will afford her a proper wedding celebration and that means providing sufficient time for your guests to arrange to be there."
My cheeks burn with embarrassment at that pronouncement. She knows I might be pregnant.
Does his whole family know?
I should be embarrassed, but the only thing I feel at the idea of carrying Gabriel's child is joy.
"The guests that matter will all be there," Gabriel claims.
Lady Aliyah makes a dismissive sound. "All guests matter to a bride during her wedding. You will afford your intended this courtesy so she does not look back to this time of joyous celebration with regret."
And that is that.
Even the king does not gainsay his lady mother, though he'd seemed very keen that our wedding happen so quickly. More proof if I need it that Gabriel blabbed to his family about the possibility that I'm pregnant.
Part of me is relieved that I have more time to get my life in order before it changes so completely. But a tiny part of me, the little girl that suffered so much rejection and heartache for not being enough, is scared that the extra time will give Gabriel a chance to change his mind.
Later, Lady Aliyah tells me that she thinks I'll make a good sheikha because I have the most important character trait for the role.
I am compassionate.
This is after I tell Queen Camille that I think she is brave for sponsoring the Markaz al-Malika, a clinic for treating dermatologic and vascular health issues soon to be opened in Ayn al-Hayat.
After all the media attention and speculation she endured the year before, to put her name on the clinic showed she wasn't ashamed of her condition and would give children (and adults) like me proof that we didn't have to be ashamed of the marks we wore on our skin either.
The queen tells Gabriel he is lucky such a lovely and kind woman has agreed to become his wife. The look on his face when his mother says it is something that will stay with me for a long time.
It's pure approbation. "As always, you are right, maman."
Gabriel's older brother is every bit as reserved as my fiancé warned me he would be. His younger brother is more anti-social than reserved. Prince Karim doesn't like people and it shows.
It's a good thing the youngest prince is not one of their country's diplomats.
Their teenaged sister, Delphine, is a delight and I enjoy the way she can carry on a conversation all by herself while ostensibly talking to you. It reminds me of DeeDee.
Gabriel and I spend three days in Nurayn before I have to return to Santa Fe and while I enjoy the busy capital, I prefer the solitude and peace of the palace in Ayn al-Hayat.
During the weeks leading up to our wedding, while I settle my affairs in Santa Fe, although we video call daily, we don't get to see each other in person again.
He is unable to attend my mom's birthday party because even a sheikh can't have a wedding on such short notice without an impact to his schedule, which I take some delight in pointing out.
And honestly, him not being there is for the best. Gabriel's insistence both my parents refer to him as Your Highness tells me everything I need to know about what he thinks of them. And it's not good.
He's respectful, even accommodating when it comes to plans for their travel and staying in the palace in Nurayn. He even unbends enough to allow my mother to add whatever names she deems necessary to the guest list.
Since there is no chance of a small, intimate gathering, I don't care who comes or how many of them are absolute strangers to me. I will get through it the same way I do my mother's charity galas.
I'm grateful that a wedding is a once in a lifetime event though.
Gabriel does convince DeeDee to accept transportation and accommodation at the palace, so she can stand up as a witness with Tessa for me at the Katb al-Kitaab, the formal signing of the marriage contract.
Gabriel is beyond not happy that I insist on staying in Santa Fe to train my replacements once they're found (pretty quickly with the help of his staff). But like Bobby pointed out on the family video call: when I make up my mind to do something. I do it.
Including marrying my desert prince.
As nervous as I am about the upcoming wedding, I never waver in my certainty that Gabriel and I belong together.
It helps that my heart connects to his on every video call and that his mom and sister text me almost as frequently as my sister and brother do. Their acceptance means so much when my own mom still struggles to accept the woman I am.
The one time my mom mentions something about me losing a little weight before the wedding during a video call to discuss the guest list with the queen and the palace event coordinators, Queen Camille shuts my mom down just as fast and determinedly as Gabriel did on the same subject.
Delphine confides in one of her texts to me that she wishes she had my curves. Her perspective is startling, to say the least and a reminder that there is no single standard for beauty. No matter what my mom believes.
I tell Delphine she's beautiful exactly as she is and hope she finds it easier to believe than I did when Tessa told me the same thing.
My arrival in Zahriya, two weeks before the wedding festivities are to start, is as different as night and day from my first trip. And not only because we land at two in the afternoon instead of before dawn.
Reem came to Santa Fe to lend her help in preparations for my move and teaching me royal protocols. Queen Camille video calls me once a week for the same purpose, as well as mentoring me in what to expect as the wife of a Zahriyan royal.
Reem makes sure I exit the aircraft first, followed by my mom and dad, who insisted on traveling with me.
Tessa, her family and DeeDee will arrive on the royal jet a couple of days before the start of the weeklong wedding. Bobby will fly directly from New York, where he is on business.
There's a long carpet runner in indigo blue flanked on both sides by the royal guard at the bottom of the flight stairs. Gabriel stands in the center of a group of dignitaries, along with Crown Prince Zayed and Delphine.
His eyes devour me, but his chiseled features show no other expression.
I am formally presented to his brother, who is there as the representative of the king, and then Delphine, who is the representative of the women of the royal house, before being introduced to the other officials.
Reem and the queen warned me what to expect, Queen Camille taking pains to let me know that the absence of her and her husband in the welcoming party is protocol, not a lack of enthusiasm on their part for my arrival.
It was very sweet.
Two young girls approach me and are introduced as "cousins" to the royal family. One offers me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and the other a silver filigree box filled with candied dates.
Mom and dad are introduced to Gabriel's brother and sister before we are all led to the royal cavalcade. I end up in the back of a limousine with Gabriel, Delphine, and Crown Prince Zayed.
My parents and Reem are traveling in a separate car.
Reem explained that I would sit beside Delphine for propriety's sake. So, I'm startled when Gabriel sits beside me instead and takes my hand in his.
Delphine sits on the other seat with her oldest brother with a big smile and no hesitation. "I'm so glad you're back in Zahriya," she bubbles after the door shuts us into relative privacy. "Gabriel has been an absolute bear this past week and I think it's because he missed you."
"Delphine," Crown Prince Zayed reproves. "That is not something you should speculate on."
Unimpressed with her future king's remonstration, Delphine grins at me. "But he did though. I never thought I'd see the day when my brother was smitten. Maybe that's because he always dated the same kind of woman before you."
I want to ask what kind of woman that is, but don't because the forbidding glower Gabriel directs toward his sister resembles the bear she mentioned.
The presence of Crown Prince Zayed hinders any sort of intimate conversation much less a kiss of greeting from my fiancé.
Delphine keeps the chatter going the entire drive to the palace and I let her words wash over me while I hold onto Gabriel's hand, knowing even that display of affection isn't entirely acceptable.
Which makes me doubly grateful for the feel of his palm against mine.
That car ride to the capital is as close to one another as Gabriel and I get for the entire exhausting day.
First, I'm welcomed to the palace by the king and queen and a selection of top dignitaries that were not at the airport.