“I swear I would’ve been here before nightfall, sire— I swear with my whole heart I would’ve— I brought them just as you asked, except there was a mob gathered outside the palace gates—”
“Amob?”
“Yes, sire, the people are very angry, sire, and the guards were threatening to pull up the drawbridge to prevent anyone from coming through until Miss Huda told them who she was and finally wedidget through the gates but then they wouldn’t let us come through the front door because they said you weren’t accepting visitors but then we finally got through the door and then they—”
“Enough,” Kamran said.
Omid bit his lip and slunk back, looking suddenly like he might cry. The prince ignored this, his mind in chaos. He’d suspected the people would riot, so it wasn’t a surprise,exactly, to hear that a mob had assembled—but it was devastating nonetheless.
Solemnly, he nodded at the footmen. “You may go.”
“But— Sire—”
“Ha!” cried Miss Huda, jabbing a finger at the trio of young men. “I told you that you’d be sorry—”
“If I hear you say another word,” Kamran said quietly, his eyes flashing, “I will have you barred forevermore from the palace.”
Miss Huda fell back, two spots of pink appearing high on her cheekbones.
Kamran took a steadying breath, struggling to rein in his anger, his frustration, his myriad disappointments. He turned to the footmen, acknowledging them one by one. “Thank you for your efforts. I’ll take it from here.”
“Y-Yes—”
“Yes, sire.”
“As you wish, sire.”
And then, they were gone.
Finally Kamran was left no choice but to face his strange audience, the odd group staring at him now with terror. The prince knew he’d no one but himself to blame for this shameful turn of events, and wasn’t sure then whether his anger was aimed more at himself, or Omid. Or perhaps even the infuriating Miss Huda.
Quietly, he said: “Someone explain to me at once what is going on here before I have the lot of you carted off to the dungeons.”
Omid and Miss Huda, so loud only minutes before, seemedincapable then of saying a word. Their mouths opened and closed as they shared frightened, uncertain glances, and Kamran thought he really might lose his mind when, finally, Deen stepped forward and broke open the silence.
“If I may, Your Highness”—he cleared his throat—“I’d only like to say that I, too, would love to know what is going on here, for I haven’t the faintest idea.”
Kamran raised his eyebrows. “How is that possible?”
“All I know, sire, is that the ruination of my day began when this young woman”—Deen nodded at Miss Huda—“barreled into my shop oh, about four hours ago and, without warning or even an introduction, began interrogating me—in front of my customers, no less—about someone I’d treated days ago, demanding all the while that I divulge confidential information to a complete stranger—which I feel I should point out is not only unethical, but illegal—and I was still trying to get the miss to leave the premises when this absurdly tall child”—he pointed at Omid—“barged into my store for the second time today, and this time demanded I follow him back to the palace or else hang at dawn for defying an order from the crown—”
Kamran made a pained sound.
“And then—and then these two hooligans”—Deen gestured vaguely at Miss Huda and Omid—“forged some spontaneous and no doubtnefariousalliance, after which they forced me into the back of a foul, rented hackney, where I was made to wait at least forty-five minutes before I was suddenly thrust into the very unpleasant company of the woman standing beside me now. I’m afraid I don’t know her name”—he turned to Mrs. Amina and muttered an apology,which she ignored with a scowl—“but she spent the entire ride moaning about how angry her mistress would be upon discovering she’d gone, for her mistress was in terrible spirits and she couldn’t be spared, especially not on such short notice—”
“All right,” Kamran said flatly. “I think I’ve heard enough.”
Deen nodded, then stepped back.
The prince was about to send the witnesses home, fire Omid on the spot, and bar Miss Huda from the palace grounds on principle, when Mrs. Amina suddenly cleared her throat. “I’d like to say a word, too, sire, if I may.”
Kamran studied the woman—her beady eyes, her small nose, her ruddy cheeks—and couldn’t help but feel a note of revulsion, even now. He’d never forget the bruises he’d seen on Alizeh’s face, the threat of brutality this housekeeper had unleashed before his very eyes. Mrs. Amina was a cruel woman.
“You may speak,” he said, watching her closely.
“Thank you, Your Highness,” she said haltingly. “First, I’ll preface this by saying that I realize now might not be the best moment to say my piece, but I feel I might never have another opportunity to stand before you, sire, and clear my name, and so I will say now in my own defense that when you last came to visit your good aunt at Baz House I fear you got the wrong idea of me, for I’ve read enough in the papers now to know I’d been right all along to discipline that girl, and in fact I think she could’ve benefited from a good beating, sire, for maybe then she wouldn’t have gone on to cause such trouble—”
“Wait, what girl?” said Miss Huda, clearly forgetting her tacit agreement to be silent. “You don’t mean Alizeh?”
