“I will do as Kamal wishes. We are all leaving on the morrow, aboard the Cassandra. Captain Sordello, as you can well imagine, is dizzy with relief at our arrival and his freedom. Yes, we will leave tomorrow, and then we shall see.”
“Where is my sister now?”
“With Hamil and Lella, admiring their son.”
“I have told your fierce husband, Lella,” Arabella was saying, “how sad you were without him. Now, if only he will see reason, all will be well.”
“Reason, Arabella?” Lella asked.
“I suggest, my lady,” Hamil said sternly, “that you keep your idiotic opinions to yourself, else I shall call my brother to remove you.”
“We will hope,” Arabella said, disregarding him, “that your son has more of his uncle in him, Lella. Look how he is clutching my finger.”
“He is his father’s son and he is trying to break it,” Hamil said.
“Arabella, what have you done to put my husband so out of temper with you?”
“I simply told him,” Arabella said, “that if he is to keep a harem, you should have one also.”
Lella blinked at her, then began to laugh, a joyous sound that made Hamil’s heart swell. “Ah, my husband,” she said, still gasping with laughter, “I have seen a very handsome young soldier. Unlike you, he has no streak of white hair on his head.”
“Lella.” He turned narrowed eyes toward Arabella. “Now that you have stirred the hornet’s nest, I suggest you go torment my poor brother.”
Arabella merely smiled, and hugged the black-haired baby once again. “That,” she said, “is an excellent idea.” Still smiling, she strode to her old room and rang for Lena.
Kamal stood alone in his chamber, a glass of brandy in his hand. He quickly downed it, feeling its warmth all the way to his belly. But it could not erase his mother’s face from his mind. She had said nothing further until he had delivered her into Raj’s care. To Kamal’s surprise, she had raised her face to the eunuch and said quietly, “You have won, have you not?”
“No,” Kamal said now to his silent chamber. “No one has won, I least of all.”
If only, he thought, he had known Arabella’s father, none of this would have occurred. He felt a lurching pain even as he thought of the man’s understanding. The earl’s dark eyes, so like Arabella’s, had but added to his pain. Tomorrow she would be gone from his life, and he would never see her again.
He struck his fist against the wall, but his inner pain was so great that he scarcely noticed.
“Master.”
He turned to face Ali, knowing that the boy knew what had happened, just as everyone in the palace now probably knew.
“Leave me,” he said.
“His highness wishes that you and he dine with the foreigners, master. We must hurry.”
To face Arabella once more. For a brief moment he pictured her beneath him, her hands on his back, open to him. He could practically taste the sweetness of her. And her bravery. A woman to swell a man’s heart with pride. A woman who would wed a man other than himself, and bear his children, not Kamal’s.
“Master, you must go.”
His dazed eyes peered through Ali. “Yes,” he said finally.
“Hassan is beside himself,” Ali said, grinning. “He is running to and fro, praising the return of Hamil, yet wishing that the both of you could rule. What will you do now, master?”
Kamal said nothing while Ali pulled his shirt over his head.
“Will you wed with the beautiful English lady? You will likely have to beat her, master. Her tongue is too sharp and would make a man’s rod soft. Ah, but what children you will make, master. Golden and proud, all of them.”
“There will be no children,” Kamal said. “Give me my belt, Ali.”
Once dressed, Kamal looked a moment about his chamber. “Have all my things removed, Ali. My brother will wish everything to be as it was.” He did not wait for his servant’s reply, but strode from the room. He stood quietly in the doorway of the banquet hall for several moments, watching all the people who had changed his life. All save his mother were there. Lella sat beside Hamil, her smile so radiant that it would have shamed the sun. The girl Rayna was dressed in a European gown, her lovely hair piled high on her head. His eyes went from Adam to the earl, and he recognized them as strong men, honorable men. Where was Arabella? She wasn’t here. He wondered if she had refused to be present. Did she now despise him? Well, he thought, it is what you want, you fool.
“My brother,” Hamil called out, waving to him. “Bring your handsome devil’s face here. My Lella commands it.”