LITMIR.BIZ

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Jamil replied curtly. ‘The betrothal contract seems reasonable enough.’

      ‘As you can see, all your terms and conditions have been met in full,’ Halim continued carefully. ‘The Princess Adira’s family have been most generous.’

      ‘With good reason,’ Jamil said pointedly. ‘The advantages this alliance will give them over their neighbours are worth far more than the rights to the few diamond mines I will receive in return.’

      ‘Indeed, Highness.’ Halim bowed. ‘So, if you are satisfied, perhaps I may suggest we proceed with the signing?’

      Jamil threw himself back down on to the throne, in essence a low stool with a scrolled velvet-padded seat. It was made of solid gold, the base perched upon two lions, while the back was in the shape of a sunburst. It was a venerable and venerated relic, proof of the kingdom’s long and illustrious history. More than three hundred years old, it was said that any man who sat upon it who was not a true and destined ruler would fall victim to a curse and die within a year and a day. Jamil’s father had cherished the throne and all it stood for, but Jamil loathed it as ostentatious and impractical—though, as with most things ceremonial, he continued to tolerate it.

      He lolled on the unforgiving seat, resting his chin upon his hand, the long index finger of his other hand tapping the document that lay on the low table before him. The various members of his Council of Elders, seated in order of precedence on low stools facing the dais, gazed up at him anxiously.

      Jamil sighed inwardly. Sometimes the burden of royalty was wearisome. Though the betrothal contract was important, it was not really uppermost in his mind right now. He recognised that the marriage his Council had for so long entreated him to enter into was a strategic and dynastic necessity, but it was of little personal interest to him. He would marry, and the union would seal the numerous political and commercial agreements that were the foundation of the contract. Daar-el-Abbah would gain a powerful ally and—once Jamil had done his duty—an heir. He personally would gain …

      Nothing.

      Absolutely nothing.

      He had no wish to be married. Not again. Especially not again for the sake of Daar-el-Abbah, this kingdom of his, which owned him body and soul. He didn’t want another wife, and he certainly didn’t want another wife selected by his Council—though, truth be told, one royal princess was bound to be very much like another. He hadn’t disliked his first wife, but poor Karida, who had died in childbirth not long after Jamil came to power, had seemed to prefer the comfits of the liquorice and crystallised ginger she ate with such relish over almost anyone or anything else.

      Jamil could happily do without another such, as this Princess Whatever-her-name-was, to whom Halim and his Council were so keen to shackle him, would no doubt turn out to be. He was perfectly content with his single state, but his country needed an heir, therefore he must take a wife, and tradition decreed that the wife should be the choice of the Council. Though he railed against it, it didn’t occur to Jamil to question the process. It was the way of things. Anyway, in principle he was as keen to beget a son as his people were for him to provide them with a crown prince. The problem he was having was in reconciling principle with practice. The fact was, Jamil was not at all sure he was ready for another child. At least not until he had the one he already had under some semblance of control. Which brought him back to the matter uppermost in his mind: his eight-year-old daughter, Linah.

      Jamil sighed again, this time out loud. A rustle of unease spread through the assembled Elders in response. Twenty-four of them, excluding Halim, each man wearing the distinctive Council insignia, an al-Nazarri green checked head dress with a golden tie, or igal, to hold it in place, the sign of the panther embroidered on his tunic. Behind the Elders, the throne room stretched for almost a hundred feet, the floor made of polished white marble edged with green-and-gold tiles. Light flooded the chamber from the line of round windows set high into the walls, reflecting through the gold-plated iron grilles, bouncing off the teardrop crystals of the five enormous chandeliers.

      Most of the men arrayed before Jamil had served on his father’s Council, too. The majority were traditionalists, resistant to every attempt at change, with whom Jamil found himself becoming increasingly irked. If he could, he would retire the lot of them, but though he was coming to the end of his patience, the prince was not a foolish man. There were many ways to skin a goat. He would take Daar-el-Abbah into the modern world, and he would take his people with him whether they wanted to join him on the journey or not—though he preferred that they came of their own accord, just as he favoured diplomacy over warfare. This marriage now being proposed was his gesture towards appeasement, for the hand that gives is the hand that receives.

      He should sign the contract. He had every reason to sign. It made no sense to postpone the inevitable.

      So he would sign. Of course he would. Just not yet.

      Jamil threw the papers at Halim. ‘It won’t do any harm to make them wait a little longer,’ he said, getting so swiftly to his feet that the Elders were forced to throw themselves hurriedly on to their knees. ‘We don’t want them thinking they are getting too much of a bargain.’ He growled impatiently at his Council. ‘Get up! Get up!’ No matter how many times he said he no longer wished them to show their obeisance in private meetings, they continued to do so. Only Halim stood his ground, following in his wake as Jamil took the two steps down from the dais in one and strode quickly up the long length of the throne room towards the huge double doors at the end.

      ‘Highness, if I may suggest …?’

      ‘Not now.’ Jamil threw open the doors, taking the guards on the other side by surprise.

      ‘But I don’t understand, Highness. I thought we had agreed that—’

      ‘I said not now!’ Jamil exclaimed. ‘I have another matter I wish to discuss. I’ve had a most interesting letter from Lady Celia.’

      Halim hurried to keep pace as they headed along the wide corridor towards the private apartments. ‘Prince Ramiz of A’Qadiz’s English wife? What possible reason can she have for writing to you?’

      ‘Her letter concerns Linah,’ Jamil replied as they entered the courtyard around which his quarters were built.

      ‘Indeed? And what precisely does she have to say on the matter?’

      ‘She writes that she has heard I’m having some difficulty finding a female mentor up to the challenge of responding to my daughter’s quite particular needs. Lady Celia’s father is Lord Armstrong, a senior British diplomat, and she has clearly inherited his subtle way with words. What she really means is that she’s heard Linah is out of control and has run rings around every single woman in whose charge I’ve placed her.’

      Halim bristled. ‘I hardly think that your daughter’s behaviour is any business of Lady Celia’s. Nor is it, if I may be so bold, the business of A’Qadiz, or its sheikh.’

      ‘Prince Ramiz is an upstanding man and an excellent ruler who has forward-thinking views similar to my own. I would suggest, Halim, that any opportunity to bring our two kingdoms closer together is something to be encouraged rather than resented.’

      Halim bowed. ‘As ever, you make an excellent point, Highness. That is why you are a royal prince and I a mere servant.’

      ‘Spare me the false modesty, Halim, we both know you are no mere servant.’

      Jamil entered the first of the series of rooms that ran in a square round the courtyard, unfastened his formal cloak and threw it carelessly down on a divan. His head dress and scimitar followed. ‘That’s better,’ he said, running his fingers through his short crop of hair. It was auburn, inherited from his Egyptian mother. Reaching into a drawer of the large ornate desk that dominated the room, he found the letter and scanned it again.

      ‘May I ask, does Lady Celia offer a solution to our supposed problem?’ Halim asked.

      Jamil looked up from the elegantly worded missive and smiled one of his rare smiles, knowing full well that Lady Celia’s proposal would shock his Council

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