At that, the room seemed to exhale, and Sarra appeared to blossom.
“Oh, I think I like you,” she said. “I suppose I’ll let your troupe live long enough to see the bride in all her glory.”
“But I thought” – Huda gaped – “I thought you’d already decided to let us live. In fact, I thought we’d come here to have breakfast.”
“I tend to change my mind,” Sarra said dismissively, before eyeing the prince. “I think it might be interesting to see how all this drama ends. I love a tragic love story.”
With controlled anger, Kamran said, “I’mnotin love with her.”
Hazan turned sharply in his seat. “What?”
It had been bothering the prince: the casual jabs, the crude suggestions that he’d traveled all this way in the pursuit of a woman who didn’t want him. Kamran’s pride could no longer bear such insinuations of weakness. It was still true that he cared for her; true that she’d moved him, deeply –
Indeed, how could he not have been moved by her?
She’d embodied eminence, traversed a harsh world with grace, and was possessed of a beauty that drove the breath from his lungs. She’d inspired in him a wealth of feeling he’d never imagined he might experience. Had she only returned his affections, Kamran might’ve known true happiness. But he would never force his attentions upon a woman,and Alizeh had refused him twice now, walking away from him both times he’d pleaded with her to stay. Too, his cherished memories of her had lost their shine under the tarnish of recent disillusions, and, worse, Kamran wasn’t even certain he could trust her – she, who’d willingly risked her life trying to save his sworn enemy.
Given the tremendous uncertainties, Kamran would have to be the worst kind of fool to declare himself in love with her.
He wouldnot.
He directed his next words to Sarra. “You seem to be under the impression that I’ve come here on a mission of unrequited love. That’s simply not true.”
“Kamran–”
“I just want to be clear” – he lifted a hand – “that while I admire her a great deal, I’m not in love with her.”
Somehow, this honesty seemed to anger Hazan. “You told me you wanted to marry her!”
“What?” Huda froze in an almost comical state of shock. “You wanted to marryher?”
“I did,” Kamran said to Hazan, ignoring this outburst. “I think I still might. But every minute brings me more confusion, and every revelation complicates her character. I’m realizing I haven’t the faintest idea who she is. It was a weak thread that bound us if she’s already considering an alliance with the person responsible for destroying my life.”
“But – the book – The inscription –”
“I need to see her again,” said the prince, shaking his head. “Too much has happened in the time we’ve been apart. I’m no longer acquainted with my own mind. Or hers.”
“I can’t believe” – Huda was still blinking – “I had no idea you intended to make her your queen –”
Kamran briefly turned his gaze upward, for he was resisting the compulsion to do something as ill-bred as roll his eyes. He feared that if he allowed himself the indulgence of rolling his eyes at Huda, his eyes would eventually roll out of his head from overuse.
She turned to Omid. “Did you know he wanted to marry her?”
Omid shook his head with great force.
Then, to Deen: “What about you? Did you know?”
“Certainly not,” came Deen’s dry reply. “The prince does not make a habit of involving me in the emotional turns of his heart. Though I have to admit it’s an interesting twist of fate, considering the way she once spoke of him in my shop.”
“She spoke of me?” Kamran faced him at once. “When? What did she say?”
Sarra laughed. “Yet he claims he’s not in love with her.”
Kamran looked at the woman. “Do you presume to know my own feelings better than I do?”
“It wasn’t altogether flattering, sire,” said Deen, flustered. “I shouldn’t have even mentioned –”
“What did she say about me?” Kamran demanded.
