Hana nodded slowly. “If you do not mind.”
“Would you mind waiting in the foyer?” Sean resisted the urge to offer an apologetic smile since, technically, Bash was supposed to be working for him. “We’d like a little privacy.”
Bash gazed back at him, his expression so carefully neutral that Sean imagined he was having to bite his tongue to keep from refusing. Then he gave a curt nod, glared for a moment at Sean’s grandmother, before opening the door and stepping back into the foyer. The door was closed with little noise, considering Bash had probably wanted to slam it.
But his grandmother relaxed, sighing quietly. “There are too many ears in the palace these days. I would not care for our words to be heard by anyone else. Not even your guard.”
“I trust him,” Sean said, tearing his gaze away from the door and focusing on Hana again. “But I understand your concerns. Do you feel you’re in danger as well?”
She scoffed and shook her head. “I am an old woman, nothing more than the eldest wife of the king. Our country doesn’t deign to recognize queens. No one would consider me a threat. It’s you I am worried about, my darling child. You are in danger here. Perhaps more than you know.” She lowered her voice. “I’ve heard the whispers. They say there is a traitor who desires the throne for himself. I can believe it. I think your grandfather believed it as well.”
Sean kept his expression neutral, not wanting to reveal how much he knew about what was going on. He trusted his grandmother, but someone bent on removing all obstacles to the throne likely wouldn’t hesitate to use her as a pawn or try to wring information out of her if they grew desperate.
“Why do you think that?” he asked.
“Because he was desperate enough to kidnap you to get you here,” she said tartly. “Do not think I am unaware of his schemes and the fact he kept you locked up beneath the palace. There was little I could do to help you, save to make certain the servants I trusted watched out for you and saw you came to no harm. But Faisal did it to keep you safe. It was hard for him when your uncle Sayyid and his sons were killed, but your dear father’s death was the blow that almost brought him to his knees. For all that Fahd rebelled and wanted your mother more than he wanted the throne, he was Faisal’s favorite son, and your grandfather never gave up hoping Fahd would change his mind. Then your parents were killed… and Faisal told me the death of my only child was no accident.”
Sean stared at her in stunned silence, scarcely able to process what he’d heard. All this time, he thought he’d lost his parents to a tragic accident, and that was bad enough. To know they’d been murdered made grief twist his heart anew.
“How can you be sure?” he asked hoarsely.
Hana started to reply, but a discreet knock on the foyer door interrupted her, and then Marta re-entered the room, pushing a laden tea trolley. With swift and silent efficiency, she set out the tea and promised biscuits on the sofa table, along with plates of other delicacies. Then she withdrew with a bow, leaving Sean and his grandmother alone once more.
Hana poured fragrant tea into a delicate china cup, then held it out to him. “Here, drink this. You are as white as a ghost.” Her smile was sad. “You never suspected the truth, did you? I am so sorry for you to have learned of it this way. I thought Faisal might have told you himself.”
Sean accepted the cup and took a sip to keep himself from blurting out his uncharitable thoughts about Faisal. “No,” he said once he felt he’d regained sufficient composure to keep his tone polite. “He’s told me very little of use.”
“I know he has mistreated you, my darling, and I am sorry for that. All I can say is that he is an old man who has seen his sons and grandsons taken from him without being able to do anything to stop it.” She took a sip of her own tea, and he saw tears glittering in her dark eyes. “Faisal loved your father, and as little as you probably believe it, he loves you, too. Perhaps he was afraid if you knew the truth, you might go hunting for the killer. So he put you where he could keep you safe while Mansur tried to find out who wants to wipe out his line entirely.”
“He did?” Sean put his cup aside before it slipped from his shaking fingers. “Why am I the last to know when all this affects me as well? Why did his version of keeping me safe involve treating me like a prisoner?” A knot of white hot anger tightened in his chest, and he clenched his hands in his lap. “You’re right. I don’t believe he loved me. If he did, he would have respected me enough to be honest. Instead, he treated me like an object to be moved around his private chess board.”
Hana put her cup aside as well, then reached to take Sean’s hands in hers. Her skin was warm, and she squeezed his fingers gently. “To be fair to Mansur, he knew nothing about the plan to imprison you, and I think he believed your grandfather was being paranoid, seeing conspiracies where none existed. It’s sometimes easier to believe the hand of man is responsible for the troubles that beset you than to bend to the will of Allah. But after Faisal was shot, Mansur had to face the fact that Faisal was right. I think your uncle carries a heavy burden for not having tried harder to discover the traitor rather than believing his father was jumping at shadows. Then again, perhaps he was upset because Faisal had given up trying to legitimize him, claiming Mansur was safer as a bastard who couldn’t inherit the throne.”
Sean didn’t care what kind of burden Mansur was carrying. None of them had treated him with any respect, and he wanted nothing more than to wash his hands of the entire situation and walk away. But he had to consider more than his own hurt feelings. He might not want to rule Akkadia, but he didn’t want it to be torn apart by internal fighting either, not when innocent civilians would suffer for it. He had enough conscience to not want the suffering of an entire nation on it.
He drew in a deep breath and released it slowly as he tried to tamp down his anger. “None of that excuses the fact that they have both denied me any agency.”
Hana inclined her head in acknowledgement of his point. “I understand your frustration and anger, for I have felt it myself at the restrictions placed upon the women of our country by the letter of the law. But you are free to go now, to leave Faisal and Akkadia to whatever fate befalls us.”
Sean was shamed by the subtle reminder that women in Akkadia had to live their entire lives under the restrictions that would have made him feel suffocated in mere days. For all that Faisal and Mansur had treated him like a pawn, he still had freedoms that Hana never would.
“I could,” he said. “Iwantto. But I won’t. This situation is bigger than me. The decisions I make now will affect the whole country, and I can’t abandon that responsibility and live with myself.”
Once again, his grandmother squeezed his fingers. “You are not so different from Faisal than you might believe. He is not the best of grandfathers, but he too knows the burden of command. If it makes you feel any better, he cried for your father’s death. He even said he was glad Fahd had done what made him happy by marrying your mother. In his heart, he knew Fahd would have been miserable if forced to take the throne. That’s why he never tried to bring Fahd back, and in the end, he lost Fahd anyway.”
“So he tried to repeat the same mistake with me?” Sean shook his head, unconvinced that Faisal cared about his son and grandson as anything more than a means to bolster his ego by making sure his name lived on.
“A mistake perhaps, but not the same one at all.” Hana was quiet for a moment. “Sometimes we hurt those we love out of anger and sometimes we hurt them out of fear. He truly feared for your life, and he placed demands on you, knowing you would refuse him. He wanted to keep you where he thought you would be safe. Faisal was aware of much more than you might believe, my dear. Such as the fact that no woman could ever capture your heart.”
Sean froze, his brain filling with static as he tried to figure out if she was implying what he thought she was implying. Was this a trap? But no, Hana wouldn’t betray him. Whatever he thought about Faisal, he knew Hana loved him. Still, he wanted to tread carefully in case he was misunderstanding her.
“Why would you say such a thing?” he asked.
Hana chuckled, then leaned closer and lowered her voice into a conspiratorial whisper. “Because Fahd was quite emphatic that Faisal couldn’t lure you to Akkadia with promises of a crown, because you prefer the company of men.” She patted the back of his hand. “Faisal was put out, but it didn’t change the fact that you are his grandson and he didn’t want you to die.”
Sean pushed his fingers through his hair, reeling from the back-to-back revelations. “So all his bluster about keeping me in prison until I agreed to get married and father an heir was a ruse?”
Hana nodded. “Tell me truthfully, Mishaan. If he said your parents had been murdered and your life was in danger, would you have agreed to come to Akkadia and put yourself under his protection? He was certain you would have refused. He didn’t even tell Mansur about his plan. Mansur didn’t think there was a real danger then and would have warned you to stay away.”
