Adaira’s voice contained just the right amount of surprise and delight. ‘Well, I suppose you wouldn’t. He is remaining incognito for very good reasons, after all. Even I found out only yesterday.’
‘Who?’ Caroline demanded, sounding as if she were ready to tear the secret out of Adaira if she didn’t give it willingly. ‘Who is a prince? Where is he?’
‘Why, right over there.’
Cautiously, I leaned forward just enough to peek around the screen - just in time to see Adaira raise a hand and point one delicate finger straight at Karim, who was still grimly contemplating needle and thread as a possible murder weapon and didn’t notice a thing.
‘Him?’
‘You must be joking!’
‘I…I thought he was supposed to be your brother’s bodyguard!’
Smiling the smile of the all-knowing, Adaira leaned back. ‘That’s what he would like everyone to believe. He’s running around, posing as my brother’s bodyguard under the name of Karim. But honestly! Look at him. Don’t you see the nobility in his eyes? Haven’t you noticed his commanding posture? A bodyguard? Honestly, I ask you!’
‘Well…’ Caroline murmured, ‘now that you mention it, I have to admit…’
‘His true name is Utairah Jafri fi al Qurram Qumrah III,[8] heir to the principality of Bakavasa[9] in India. He is here to negotiate a business agreement with my brother.’
‘Is that so?’
‘Oh yes. British goods in exchange for tons of Bakavasian gold and ivory.’
The ladies’ eyes went big. ‘Tons, you say?’
‘Yes. The prince is quite eager to have all the most modern conveniences in his five palaces, and that does not come cheap.’
‘I would imagine so. Five palaces?’
‘Five.’
‘I say! And that little vixen wanted him all for herself. Well…’ Rising to her feet, Caroline let her fan snap open. ‘That ends here and now.’
‘What do you mean?’ Lady Dorothea sprang to her feet.
‘I mean, of course, that I am going to make the acquaintance of His Highness the Prince.’
‘I saw him first!’
‘No, I did!’
A brief struggle ensued. By the time it was over, five other ladies had already noticed what was going on. The news spread through the room like the plague, only much, much more dangerous: a prince! There was a prince in the room!
‘Your Royal Highness?’
Karim stood there, staring grimly ahead, arms folded, unaware of the approaching doom in silk and satin.
‘Your Royal Highness?’
‘Prince Utairah?’
Finally, after the third time that a female right next to him addressed the air with royal titles, it began to dawn on the Mohammedan that maybe, just maybe, they were not addressing the air. Maybe they were talking to him. Slowly, he turned his head and surveyed the two females before him.
‘Hrm?’
That was what the noise he made sounded like. A bit like the noise a tiger would make when he means to enquire ‘Should I eat you now?’
The ladies giggled.