The Duke's Runaway Princess Page 0,7
and, for a little while, Zarah was able to ignore her impending nuptials as her friends laughed and joked about their futures and the end of classes.
The laughter was completely gone three days later while Zarah sat in the elegant restaurant, her hands resting under the table as she waited for the first groom candidate to arrive. Rashid had set up lunch meetings over the next two weeks with each of the potential grooms.
The first one was already fifteen minutes late. She was just about to stand up to leave when she heard a commotion at the entrance. And there he stood, surveying the room with a pompous, overbearing attitude. He was short, she thought initially. This man couldn’t be taller than she was and as he approached her table she had to smother her laughter at his enormous entourage. There were probably ten people all trying to follow him, each one attempting to look important and efficient.
She stood up as he arrived at her table and she smothered a groan when she realized that she was at least an inch taller than this man even without her heels. With the shoes she’d selected today, she was about three inches taller than he was and the initial greeting was awkward. He had a very thin frame, narrow shoulders and obviously prized his black goatee since he smoothed it down with his thumb and index finger as he stood in front of Zarah, looking her up and down as if she were some sort of prize horse.
“You are very beautiful,” the man said as he took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “We will make great babies together and you will give me many sons.”
Zarah gasped and pulled her hand away, bowing her head and hoping he thought she was being deferential, while she tried desperately hard to smother her laughter.
“Your Highness,” she replied once she had her amusement under control. “You flatter me with your confidence.”
Zarah wasn’t sure what she ate that day, or any of the next seven meals while the men her brother had lined up for her regaled her with stories of their business prowess, their power, their affluence. One even bragged that he would only have to assassinate eleven of his brothers so that he could inherit his father’s throne. She couldn’t believe that man was so brazen about the deaths of his brothers, but since he was a short, skinny, irritating man who probably had very little power, she ignored his bragging and ended the lunch meeting as quickly as possible. As she left the restaurant after that one, she sent her brother a message that said only, “Are you kidding me?!”
By Friday afternoon, two weeks after her dinner with Rashid, she knocked on Suzanne’s apartment door and flounced onto the couch as soon as her friend answered the knock. “Tell me about Willingham,” she said with a fear that she was doing something monumentally stupid, but also a determination to avoid every last one of the men she’d met so far. None were even remotely interesting and several were outright demeaning of her in particular and women in general.
Suzanne’s apartment looked exactly like hers; filled with boxes as they both worked to pack up their possessions in anticipation of moving on to the next phase of their lives.
Suzanne’s surprise that Zarah was considering tossing it all aside was quickly overcome by her excitement in having her friend come along for an adventure. She plopped down on the worn out sofa next to Zarah and enthusiastically clapped her hands. “Well, it’s a very small village outside of Reading so we’re just over an hour east of London. We could get an apartment together if you’d like? There are several available that I’ve looked at but there’s a two bedroom overlooking the main streets of the town so it would be right in the center of everything.” She looked at her friend cautiously, “But understand that being in the center of the action is dramatically different than what you might be used to. It’s a small village inhabited by sleepy residents who like their way of life slow and friendly.”
Zarah smiled enthusiastically and nodded in understanding. “It sounds perfect. I can’t imagine a better place to hang out for a year while I figure out what to do about Rashid’s need to marry me off and get him to reconsider. Maybe if I show him that I’m serious about finding another path for myself, he’ll let