Shaheen had known what the condition to his father’s damage control solution could be. It still outraged him to hear it. “They can consent all they like. I’m not taking a second wife.”
“Don’t be so quick to dismiss this option, Shaheen.”
“I never intended to marry anyone but Johara. I was only biding my time until—” Shaheen stopped. He’d almost blurted out the reason he’d appeared to be going along with the negotiations “—until I found a way out with the least repercussions. But now that I’ve seen the price I could have paid for not confronting this, I’m no longer pretending.”
“What choice do we have, Shaheen? If you don’t meet them halfway at least, there will be fallout into the next century. I would have given anything apart from the kingdom’s peace for you to have Johara. But no matter what happens now, you’ll at least have your child, raise it as your own, and not be deprived of it as I was deprived of Aliyah until lately.”
“Are you even listening to yourself, Father? You sacrificed your one true love and ended up thinking your daughter was your niece, and only because Ammeti Bahiyah rescued her from a life of anonymity. But what did your sacrifices ever gain you, or the kingdom? You’ve been battling one potential uprising after another ever since, the last one two years ago when only Aliyah’s and Kamal’s marriage defused it at the last moment. And here they are, threatening another, and you think sacrificing me will appease them? For how long? They’re like tantrum-throwing brats and the more you give them the more they’ll demand and the louder they’ll scream for it. You can never placate them. So I’m marrying Johara now, not later as I was determined to. And not as a damage-control measure, but because being with her is the one thing I’ve ever wanted for myself. And I will be with her for the rest of my life. You and the rest of the tribes must deal with it.”
Johara clung to him. “I can’t let you do that to yourself and your father and kingdom, Shaheen. Not on my account—”
“It’s on all our accounts—yours, mine and our baby’s. Trust me, ya joharet galbi. I will resolve this.”
Her fingers dug into his arms, her eyes unwavering with determination. “Then promise me…if you can’t, you’ll let me go.”
“I promise I never will.”
Before she could protest more, his father spoke, his voice like a knell of doom. “Don’t make promises you can’t afford to keep, Shaheen.” Before Shaheen could interrupt, his father forged on. “Now you will come back to the palace with me. Your marriage ceremony must be arranged at once.”
“My deepest admiration, Johara, from one master manipulator to another. You’re the very best I’ve seen.”
Johara stiffened at Amjad’s drawling sneer. Shaheen gave her a bolstering squeeze before he turned to his brother.
It was Harres, who’d met them at the palace’s main entrance, who answered him. “It was I who recommended you be one of the two witnesses to the marriage, Amjad. I can easily replace you with Father. Or anyone off the street.”
“And deprive me of the pleasure of handing Shaheen over to the lioness he’s so eager to be devoured by? Can you be so cruel?” Amjad put his arm around Shaheen’s shoulder, looked Johara in the eyes. “So how do you think Johara leaked the info about her pregnancy? She must be rubbing her hands in glee that it created the desired scandal and results. You aren’t the only one who can’t wait for you to marry her now. Everyone—including me—is shoving you at her.”
Shaheen looked heavenward before leveling pitying eyes on him. “Do you drink two cups of hot paranoia first thing each morning?”
Amjad cracked a laugh, gave him a hard tug before letting him go. “I bet they have better taste and effect than the cups of insipid sentimentality you’re guzzling down nonstop.”
“Then how about you try a sip of common, if rare to you, sense?” Shaheen said. “The palace is crawling with aides whose favorite pastime is to monitor the palace’s inmates, and who have nothing but sex scandals on the brain. A female versed in signs of early pregnancy must have guessed Johara’s condition and put the same ‘his and hers’ together that you did and spread the word. Father’s kabeer el yaweran thought the rumor too dangerous to ignore and relayed it. Happy now?”
“Ecstatic.” Amjad folded one hand on top of the other over his heart in mock delight. “I’m going to be an uncle!”
Shaheen grimaced. “In theory. In practice, I’m not letting you near your niece or nephew if you don’t revert to being human.”
“You mean I ever was one? Flatterer. But I’ll leave humanity to you. With all the associated stupidities of the condition. Which, I admit, have most entertaining facets. It was very enlightening to learn that you don’t care about sending the region to hell in a handcart as long as you have Johara and your impending offspring. Such a relief to know you’re not perfect after all, Shaheen. I was beginning to really worry about you.”
Shaheen only gave him a serene look. “So, any new accusations for Johara and her father, Amjad? Get them all off your chest.”
Amjad shrugged his shoulders, which were immaculately draped in a navy silk shirt. “Oh, just variations on the old themes according to the developments.” He turned his gaze to Johara. “She’s full of surprises, isn’t she, our Johara?”
Harres punched him in the arm, pointed two fingers to his own eyes. “You keep your eyes here, faahem?”
Amjad massaged away his brother’s punch, his grin goading. “I understand. You’re now one of Johara’s lackeys.”
Harres narrowed his eyes. “I can order my special forces to take you someplace where you can stew in your poisonous brew until the ceremony is over.”
“You think they’d obey you and not their crown prince? I’m almost tempted to let you see where their loyalties lie.”
“I’ll say it’s on grounds of insanity. You’ve paved those, so it won’t be hard to convince them to cart you away.”
“But-but…mo-om!” Amjad did a spectacular impression of a sullen boy and it only made Johara think she’d never been in the presence of someone more dangerous. Or more…lonely. “I’m the only fun one around. What would this party be without me?”
Harres shook his head, intense fondness mixing with exasperation and even regret. “I swear, sometimes I feel you’re the youngest, not the oldest.”