Page 3 of The Prince's Wife

"You were twenty at the time, my prince," Heydar said, "and still quite focused on other matters. I don't think you began paying attention to politics until a little later."

Aradishir cast him an amused look. "How do you know that?"

"Gossip," Heydar replied blandly. "Everyone remarked how the rest of your family was deeply immersed, but you seemed utterly oblivious."

"No wonder everyone calls me the spoiled brat of the family." Aradishir sighed. "My parents have held nothing back with this marriage. I think half the court will collapse from theirhearts giving out. I'm going to kill Bakhtiar myself for being so careless now when we need him most. What sort of impression will this make on Prince Relanya?"

"I think a woman who was married to a traitor and bore his child is not going to complain much about anything when she's betrothed to the crown prince of Tavamara," Merza said in his ruthlessly matter-of-fact way. "Don't know much about the ways of golds and diamonds, but I know that if she was told she had to run naked through the streets for the marriage to go through, she'd be off running before anyone could ask if she agreed."

Aradishir snorted a laugh. "What an image. Thankfully she won't have to do anything that drastic, though it might be easier than gaining the court's approval. This explains the journey Mother went on a few years ago; no wonder Father was so especially stressed about it." She'd been gone for most of a year, a huge breach in protocol that the court still talked about whenever she offended their sensibilities yet again. This must have been what she'd gone to take care of, though at the time even he and his siblings had known only it was a 'diplomatic matter of great importance.' No wonder his parents had been so cagey.

Leave it to Bakhtiar to have a broken leg that removed him from dealing with the first and greatest wave of outrage and scandal. Aradishir was going to break his other leg. He might be the so-called spoiled brat, but Bakhtiar was a selfish ass.

On the opposite side of the table, Heydar was reading a different section of the dossier. "Says she's studied Tavamara extensively all her life, initially for pleasure and more recently to purpose. Fluent, familiar with our customs… Sounds like she's very much in earnest about coming here and making Tavamara her home. Bet Her Majesty assisted in that a great deal. If she already has Queen Fahima's approval…"

"Then woe betide any courtier stupid enough to disagree with my mother, and I look forward to watching them suffer," Aradishir said with another snorting laugh. "Who has her interests?"

"Music," Merza said. "She's bringing three handmaidens with her. I wouldn't be surprised if they're her intended harem, given how thorough she's been with everything else. Though she might have thought to restrict it to two, and have… Oh, nevermind, one of themisTavamaran, the daughter of the ambassador to Pelenna. This really does seem important to her."

"To save face, I'd imagine, after the scandal of her late husband," Aradishir replied, drumming his fingers as he kept reading, heart going out to a woman who at only thirty had already endured so much misery and strife. Even if the marriage had been purely political, with no deeper affection between the couple, that would have been a blow. If she had loved him… and no doubt everyone continued to suspect she'd been party to the plot and her parents had kept that fact buried…

Despite the fact this visit would drastically upset his already busy schedule, he couldn't deny he was now deeply intrigued by the mysterious Prince Relanya. "What else does she like, Merza?"

"Tapestry work, especially traditional style, whatever that means," Merza replied. "Other appropriate feminine pursuits. What in the world doesthatmean?"

"Penna is a bit more rigid than Tavamara in what is suitable for men to do and what is suitable for women." Aradishir waved a hand in the air. "The way my sister is the one who largely contends with the military would never be tolerated in Penna. Military is a man's sphere. Women do 'delicate' things, like embroider and weave tapestries and the like."

Merza snorted. "If having hands deft enough to stitch a fine seam makes me a woman, then slap my ass and call me milady, 'cause I'll take that over stabbing people any day."

That sent the rest of the room into gales. Picking up the papers he'd scattered on the floor, Aradishir then crooked a finger. "Come here, little thief."

Grinning in that sharp, wicked way of his, Merza rounded the table and straddled Aradishir's lap, twining arms around his neck. "You summoned, my prince?"

Aradishir replied by kissing him, wrapping his own arms around Merza's trim waist, savoring the heat of him, the scent of jasmine clinging to his skin, the eagerness of his kiss as he took control of it, a control Aradishir was always happy to concede.

It took only moments for them to spread him out on the floor, stripped naked and more than ready to take him after their thorough ministrations the night before. Aradishir groaned as Merza slid inside him, his wrists pinned above his head by Heydar's easy strength, and Javed toying with his cock while Merza fucked him.

Once Merza was finished with him, the other two had him, Heydar sliding into his well-used hole while Javed fucked his mouth.

Aradishir sprawled on the floor when they'd finished, wrung out and exhausted. "I don't think that's helping me prepare for Her Highness's visit, but I'm not terribly sorry about the distraction either. One of you miscreants help me to the bath."

Heydar scooped him up easily and carried him across the room, while Merza tidied up the mess of papers scattered across the table and floor and Javed called for wine.

Once he was scrubbed clean, Aradishir slid with a groan into the soothing hot water of his bath, resting his head againsta cushion someone had placed for him. "What else does Princess Relanya enjoy? I need to start arranging things for us to do."

"Birds," Merza said as they joined him in the bath. "She has a collection of songbirds she's bringing with her."

"She'll love the temple, then, but likely she and Mother have already talked avidly about that."

"Charity work is important to her, along with other ways of helping people. To be honest, my prince, she seems to serve the same role back home that you do here. So I think you two will get along quite well. Perhaps she'll take an interest in some of your causes; that would be a wonderful way for her to settle in and make good impressions."

"Maybe," Aradishir said. "She's to be queen, though, which will leave her little time for such things." That's why he managed all of it. He wouldn't gain significant assistance until he married himself, but he had no idea when that would be. Like with so many other traditions, his parents had chosennotto see their children married off while they were still quite young. The older Aradishir got, the more grateful he was. He was only twenty-five and even he could appreciate he'd been in no fit state for marriage at twenty, let alone eighteen.

Heaving out of the bath, he shrugged into a robe and returned to the table right as a servant arrived with wine. Taking his seat, he pulled pen and paper close to start listing out ideas and to dos. "How in the world am I going to entertain her for two weeks? Possibly longer, knowing my useless brother." He drummed his fingers on the table. "A proper tour of the palace and grounds will occupy a couple of days. Mother and Father would have already handled the banquets and such… Where is my schedule?"

"Here," Javed said, sliding it across the table. "There's also notes here in the dossier about what has already been planned."

"Oh, good," Aradishir said. "So arriving tomorrow morning or afternoon. I'm sure she'll just want to rest, so that's one day taken care of, the day after we can do the tour…Mother will likely take her to temple, so that's most of another day covered…" He frowned. "Wait. There's nothing here about what gifts Bakhtiar has purchased. I'll need to have those ready for her arrival. Why aren't there any notes on that?" There should be at least a full page listing out various welcome and betrothal gifts, for Princess Relanya, her son, and her handmaidens, since it was the height of rudeness to ignore anyone accompanying her. There should be additional pages of gifts for her handmaidens.

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