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“You’ll do no such thing!” snapped his mother, Aisha.
Keisha flinched at the sudden venom in her voice, but tried to remain calm. She swallowed back the sense of sadness of being so wholly rejected by his parents.
“Mother,” Ahmed answered, a chiding tone lingering in his voice, though it was careful and calculated.
His mother fell silent only for his father to speak up once again. “How could you do this?” His deep voice was stern and unforgiving. His sharp eyes were fixed on Ahmed, pointedly refusing to look at Keisha. “This… this woman has no right to be here amongst we of noble blood. To marry her is ludicrous!”
“Call it what you’d like, father,” Ahmed answered. He sounded calm and collected, but Keisha could see the slight tremble in his limbs. “But she is my wife. And…” he hesitated. His gaze left his father briefly, darting to her. There was an uncertain frown on his face.
Keisha could not guess as to what was going through his head—there was so much to deal with just then to fathom which facet he was worried most about. When he spoke again, however, she could not have seen his words coming.
“And she is pregnant with my child.”
All of the air was sucked rapidly from the room as everyone in it froze. Keisha felt a blush rip across her cheeks, her skin burning with embarrassment, not from what they had done, but from what his parents would inevitably think. It took all she had to keep from tightly clenching her eyes shut against the inevitable reaction of his parents.
She did not even want to think of it.
Aisha looked about ready to faint once again, her face paling even further, her lips pulling together to make her look as though she were sucking a cut lemon into her mouth. For his part, Sheikh Itamar looked simply livid. And it would not be near as terrifying if it weren’t for the fact that he’d turned his gaze to Keisha instead of his son.
“I apologize for the… trouble,” he told her, sounding strangely soft. “I realize this must all be difficult for you and the adjustment is hardly expected to be easy.”
Keisha was surprised by the sudden… sweetness of the Sheikh, and it seemed like Ahmed was, too. It told her that this kindness was uncharacteristic and it worried her. As much as Keisha wanted to believe that it was out of some love for his grandchild growing in her womb, the tugging together of Ahmed’s eyes told her that it was unlikely.
Still, she hoped.
“Thank you…” she whispered, just barely. The only thing she had said inside the walls of the palace the entire time she’d been there. “You are very kind.”
Sheikh Itamar smiled at her, an expression that looked so foreign on his face that it almost looked foreign. “Of course. I’ll have you escorted to a more comfortable room where you might relax. Once I have finished discussing the situation with my son, I shall send for you and we might figure this out together.”
Although Keisha did not like the idea of leaving Ahmed alone—or rather being left alone without him—it did sound nice to rest some. She was not so far along with child that she was already getting tired early on, but the stress was a lot for any woman and she was relieved at the prospect of some sort of reprieve.
Ahmed, however, seemed less convinced. “You think you can just hide her away and maybe she’ll disappear?” he accused with a spark of anger in his voice.
Keisha frowned. She hadn’t interpreted it that way, but should she have?
The Sheikh fixed his son with a cool stare. “As you have mentioned, she is with child. If there is too much outside stress, it might negatively impact that child. Whatever you think of me, surely you must know that a grandson above all else is my priority.”
Ahmed remained unconvinced, but Keisha already felt better about the whole thing.
They will accept me, she thought amidst feelings of relief and happiness. They will love this child and in time, they will accept me.
She placed a staying hand on Ahmed’s arm before he could do anything rash and ruin the whole thing. Smiling sweetly at him, she whispered, “Please. I am so very tired now.”
Ahmed frowned, but thought it over, finally he sighed and nodded his head slowly. “Whatever you need.”
Chapter Six
It was nearly four hours later when Ahmed finally got away from his parents. They were badgering him about his life choices—What were you thinking shaking up with some common whore? Did you think marrying her would force us into acceptance? How could you have brought her home pregnant?—but when they’d asked him to give her up, he’d stood firm.
He would not leave Keisha out in the cold, no matter what it might cost him.
Now, he was walking hurriedly down the halls in search of Keisha. She had been sent to one of the guest rooms so that she could “rest” though Ahmed knew that it really was merely an excuse to get her away long enough that they might get a moment alone with their son to “convince him” that he’d made a horrible mistake.
Clearly, they had been unsuccessful.
He had an idea which room Keisha had been taken to, though after the explosion with his parents, Ahmed was not about to ask them one way or the other. He’d settle for searching every room in the castle before he spoke to them again.
As Ahmed turned a corner he ran straight into the youngest of his sisters (still a full two years older than he), Lilac. She was beautiful if a little short and a little fuller than his other sisters. She wore a bright blue Sari with golden trim and soft lace hanging as an accent. Her makeup was done to make her already large eyes seem even wider, giving off the effect of her being almost doe like. It was a play for innocence, of course, as Lilac was desperate to hold onto her claim as being the youngest—even when Ahmed came along to disrupt her spot.
