“Well,” he started, and shrugged, “I probably shouldn’t have done that. I just— I want to set something up for her, first. Would you be so kind as to help me?”
The young lord was unconvinced.
“Please?” Ehmet tacked on.
Lord Kas nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
“Keep her busy and away from these windows, until you hear the signal.”
“How long? And what signal?”
“Ten minutes? And you’ll know when you hear it.”
“All right.” The boy scampered away and slipped into the house.
Ehmet stood there in silence, willing his pulse to calm and his breathing to slow. Then he got to work.
twenty-nine
Hevva and Ehmet enter a cottage.
Hevva paced the balconyof the upper library, where she’d gone to hide out to spy on Ehmet and Kas in the courtyard. She couldn’t hear them from this location, since she was situated several floors above the drive and behind a pane of glass. But she kept her eye on Ehmet’s broad back and her brother's skinny face. She watched as Ehmet shrugged a shoulder and said something to her sibling who nodded and ran into the house.
Kas found her not long later, shouting up from the main floor of the library that she wasn’t allowed to watch the king anymore and needed to come down.
“Why must I come down?” Hevva called back.
“Because there’s a surprise for you, and you can’t ruin it first.”
“What’s the surprise?” She began to descend the spiraling stairs.
“I just said you can’t ruin it! I don’t even know, anyway.” Kas shrugged. He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her down the hall, down another hall, and all the way back into the windowless part of the kitchens.
Hevva resumed her pacing as Peetha, the cook, eyed them with trepidation.
“We’re not here to ruin dinner...or our appetites.” Kas grinned as he plucked a roll from the already plated tray. “Although, we might need more food. I think someone else will be joining us.”
“Who?” Peetha asked, her pupils flicking back and forth between Kas and Hevva.
“The king,” Hevva bit out. “Oh, why is he even here!? What is even happening?”
The cook side-eyed the young lord who pumped his brows.
“Stop that!” Hevva scolded them both halfheartedly.
A gigantic boom erupted from nowhere, shaking her to her core as it rattled the cookware.
“What was that?!” Peetha braced herself against the worktable.
“I think that was the signal.” Kas beamed, his small mouth threatening to split as it stretched wide.
Cautiously, Hevva left the kitchen and walked outside via the front doors. Ehmet wasn’t in the courtyard any longer, but a silvery glowing light beyond the south wing caught her eye, and she hurried in that direction.
When Hevva rounded the side of Summer Cottage, the sadness that had weighed so heavily on her since she’d fled Kirce, up and walked away. Her footsteps faltered as lightness rushed her, overflowing its basin and sweeping her along in the flood of joy. She inhaled past the tightness in her throat, taking in the sight before her eyes.
Not fifty yards away was Ehmet, looking for all the world like Berim. He stood beside the door to a quaint and cozy stone cottage with ivy-covered walls and a curl of smoke coming from the chimney.
Thatdefinitelywasn’t there before.
