Page 30 of The Prince's Wife

A short time later he stepped into the sunroom, a beautiful room of glass and light that overlooked a smallbutterfly garden. Keri would probably love the butterflies. How had he not thought to bring Keri to see them sooner?

"Your Highness," Lady Kubra and Masood said together, pulling apart where they'd been tightly embracing. They sank to their knees and bowed low. "Thank you so much for everything. I—" Lady Kubra stopped, took a deep breath. "I did not think I would ever leave that awful place alive. See Masood again."

"I'm glad the guards were able to find you," he said quietly. "Please, sit. Eat, drink, get your strength back. "

"Thank you," she said again, and they both took their seats a respectful distance apart, since as they were not married, they should not really be touching at all except in the most perfunctory ways. Thankfully, the guards already present in the room before Aradishir had arrived were not so stupidly fussy.

"Javed."

Javed immediately sat between the pair and served the tea and food on the tray there, smiling and soothing their flustered demeanors.

It was always interesting, seeing how people reacted to something that Aradishir and his family simply took as understood. Concubines to serve them was never a matter of if, only when. Though he had for years despaired he would ever find his, given he was the least interesting of his family.

A discussion on privilege and being a spoiled brat, to be sure.

"We're glad you're all right, my lady, " Javed said as he arranged plates of food for both of them.

Aradishir gave a slight nod. "We'll do better about keeping you safe. I did not think they would go to such extremes."

"Neither did I," Kubra said. "I thought they would ostracize me, spread unpleasant rumors, that sort of thing. Not kidnap me."

"Do you know who took you?"

"Yes, I do, and I already named them in the formal report I gave right after the guards found me," Kubra said, voice hardening like steel. "Yusef, Vahid, and Kambiz. I would know their cretinous guards anywhere. They all use the same militia, and the warehouse they took me to is one of Yusef's, though not one on his books. I knew it because I've had him tailed there before, and went to see it myself one night."

"Against my begging and pleading for you to not do so," Masood grumbled.

"Well, it proved useful in the end, didn't it?"

Masood only sighed.

Javed, Heydar, and Merza laughed. "We can commiserate with both sides," Javed said. "If my prince did not have a bad habit sneaking out of the palace and into the city in the dead of night, we would have never met, but that also means he was putting himself in needless danger, which none of us likes him doing."

"It paid off," Aradishir said, sharing a smirk with Kubra.

Masood and his concubines rolled their eyes as one.

"I'm just saying, you should listen to me more often," Kubra added, and some weighty, silent conversation seemed to pass between them.

"I'm listening now, right?" Masood said.

Kubra smiled, bright and happy, all her recent troubles clearly far away for the moment. "Yes, you are."

Wasn't hard to guess what was going on, not really. Aradishir smiled. "So you accepted an offer of marriage, I assume?"

"Yes," Kubra said. "He did! Finally!"

Masood rolled his eyes again, but it was performative at best. "Try to stay out of trouble in the interim, please."

"Don't get your hopes up," Heydar said. "We beg Aradishir the same, and all he does is find more trouble."

"You're exaggerating," Aradishir said, ignoring the looks all three of them sent him. "So Yusef, Vahid, and Kambiz. That does not surprise me. Those three seem to be the leaders in all this. Have we captured them yet?"

A guard by the door replied, "The last report we received, they were still being sought, believed to be in hiding or to have fled the city entirely. That was some hours ago, though, Your Highness. Shall I send someone to get an update?"

"No, not worth the trouble. I'll speak with my parents after this. I'm sure they'll have the latest info."

"Yes, Your Highness."

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