“He will be busy doing something else. I’ll make sure that he will be kept busy long enough to get you home.”
Though I was dying to know what could keep the prince busy enough to not stop someone from doing something he didn’t like or without his permission, I didn’t ask what that could be. I was so scared that Janna wouldn’t be convincing enough, and that would make my doubts about her plan ever working fill me even more than they already were. I just wanted to believe, just wanted to leave.
“Okay,” I let out a long breath then nodded.
“Hide those blue eyes, please,” Janna told me, and said blue eyes widened. I didn’t even think about that! Not to mention I didn’t even know how to hide them! But when I told Janna that, she brought another layer from above my head that was much thinner and see-through, pulling it down to cover the niqap entirely.
Great, I couldn’t breathe properly and now I couldn’t see either. Just brilliant!
“Are you ready?” she asked, and I gazed for a long time into those miserable eyes of hers before I nodded once again with a “Yes,” to confirm my approval.
Janna reached for the door and opened it just the slightest bit before I pushed it back closed, breathing harder than before as the feeling of an approaching panic attack started to make its way to my heart.
“What?” Janna’s shocked voice asked, her eyes widening at my act.
My hand reached for my clothes-covered cross and I gripped it. “Guards,” I gasped out, “Guards everywhere, lots of them.”
I heard Janna huffing, “Seriously, Marie? Guards? Of course there are guards out there–this is the king’s palace we are standing in!”
God! Oh, God!
“B-but how will we leave? They are right outside!” I whisper-yelled.
“They won’t even glance our way, Marie; they’ve been ordered to lower their gazes in the presence of women. It’s the female guards I’m worried about, to be honest.”
“There are female guards, too?” I almost yelled the question.
“Of course, there are! But I have a plan for them, don’t worry,” she reassured me, but I needed to ask, “What plan?”
Janna sighed again. “We’ve had several of my cousins sleeping over since the wedding. I’ll talk to the female guards so they know it’s me going to the airport, and they’ll think you’re one of my cousins who will come back once I’m–you’re–in the car safely. I’ll use another door to go inside again. They, too, will think I’m one of the princesses in the palace since the first ones will report to them that one princess will go back inside the palace in a few minutes.”
The heck if I knew what she was mumbling about! I was even more confused, and I guess my eyes that were still staring at her, unmoving, told her so.
“It’ll be okay,” she assured me again. “Just act bored when I speak to them.”
“But, won’t you have anyone escorting you to the airport?” I asked, because I couldn’t understand how they would let a princess who was about to leave the country do so by herself–all alone.
“Listen, there was a ceremony last night in honor of Yoseph and myself departing to the States. Nora–my maid–was there instead of me, as I’d requested of my family since I wasn’t feeling well. The queen was okay with it as long as, to the public, our image was the same–the new bride leaving with her husband–and it went well, no one doubted anything. Very few people in the palace know the truth that I will be leaving tonight instead; since it’s secretive, they won’t question why I’m leaving an hour earlier, and they’ll think the rest of my bags will be sent later.”
My head was spinning – God knows that half of what she was saying I couldn’t understand, but it sounded like she had everything under control. Still – I only stared, no words.
“Speaking of early, we are running out of time. The ride to the airport will take fifteen minutes maximum, so we need to move it now.” Janna reached for the door to open it again, but she paused for a second. The next thing I knew, Janna was hugging me tightly and telling me that I would be fine–maybe she felt how much I was shaking. Then she opened the door and looked at me. “Head held high, Ameera,” she told me, and for some reason, what I wanted the most in that moment was to see