Page 2 of The Prince's Wife

Aradishir rolled his eyes. Heydar snickered and offered him more wine.

"Your father and I need a favor from you. Well, your brother needs the favor, and we're asking on his behalf," Fahima said.

"WhereisBakhtiar?"

"He was injured, badly, while at the Temple of Petyana. Broke his leg, and it's advised he move as little as possible for the next couple of weeks."

Aradishir laughed. "What did he do? Did he fall in another fountain?"

Fahima gave him a stern look.

"What? He's clearly fine, broken leg aside, or you wouldn't be sitting here so calmly. Tell me, tell me."

"You are twenty-five, not twelve," Fahima said, then relented with a sigh. "He was climbing a wall and fell, landed badly on his leg."

Aradishir laughed again, loudly and obnoxiously. "What a dumbass."

"Enough," Fahima chided. "The problem is that his betrothed is arriving tomorrow, and he will not be here to greet her. Your sister is in no state to be playing hostess, and your father and I cannot ignore our duties to do so."

"No, don't make me," Aradishir said with a groan. "I have enough work of my own! Why do I have to dance attendance uponhisbride. He shouldn't have been climbing walls!"

"Ari."

He sighed in defeat. "Yes, Mother. You know I would never actually defy you—"

"Except all the times you'd done precisely that to sneak into the city," Fahima retorted.

"Except for those. Which I'm not sorry about because I got Javed and Heydar out of it."

"He doesn't sneak out anymore, Your Majesty, I promise you that," Heydar said.

Fahima smiled. "I appreciate your efforts, Lord Heydar. Here is everything you need to know about Princess Relanya, Ari. Read up, be ready to greet her tomorrow, treat her like the queen she is going to be."

"Of course, Mother."

"Thank you. I'll have my office coordinate with yours and have your duties reassigned, so your schedule is clear."

"Yes, Mother." Aradishir kissed and hugged her, then scooped up the folder she'd given him and headed off back to his rooms, so he could read the dossier without interruption.

When he returned, it was to find that Javed and Merza had returned from their respective lessons in dancing and court decorum. How to be a proper gold, as Merza would say. "My mother is making me babysit my brother's betrothed because he went and broke his leg climbing a wall."

"Why in the world was he climbing a wall?" Javed asked. "It's no wonder they don't like to let the royal family leave the premises. All you do is get hurt and bring back strange men."

Aradishir snickered as he sat at his table, spreading out the papers from the dossier. "Let's learn about our future queen, shall we? Princess Relanya of Penna. Thirty years old, which means two years younger than my stupid brother, one…" Aradishir's eyes widened.

"What?" his concubines asked in chorus.

"She… she has achild. A five-year-old son. That… that…"

"What!" the other three said again.

Aradishir couldn't focus on the rest of the dossier. He'd never heard of a single monarch or future monarch marrying someone who already had a child. Depending on the marriagecontract, that could make someone a foreign-born heir to the throne. If the contract terms stated they wouldn't be eligible, that could create all sorts of tension and resentment in the future. This wasn't going to cause a scandal; this was going to cause an upset that could—would—tear the court apart. Not to mention the country.

It was a bold move, even for his trouble-causing parents. No wonder they wanted him to babysit her—they wanted her protected. Why in the world had they chosen such a scandalous spouse for Bakhtiar? That she was from Penna, a remote kingdom as covered in snow as Tavamara was in sand, was unusual enough.

He frowned pensively as he continued reading. Initially married at twenty-four, had a child at twenty-five, then… Well, fuck, the scandal grew and grew. Her husband and his inner circle had all been arrested and executed as traitors, colluding with Havarin. That was why his parents were doing this. Penna was remote, but they had crucial resources, and they'd prove a vital ally against the Havarin Empire.

"How have I never heard of this? Five people executed for colluding with Havarin against their own kingdom? That should have been all over court."

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