1
Aisha held up two pairs of earrings in front of her ears—one set in a dangly, chandelier style and other small, reasonable diamond studs. The chandeliers were her favorite. The specialized light in the walk-in closet and dressing room, meant to highlight the best features of every outfit and every piece of jewelry, danced across the chandeliers’ filigree and stones. They were the best, weren’t they? Playful and lovely.
Perhaps too playful.
She handed them back to Sanaa, her right-hand woman and the person who had been her most steadfast advisor since before Aisha’s father had died and she’d been launched into the hunt for a husband. Aisha frowned at her reflection while she put the diamonds studs in, one then the other. It had not gone according to plan—her life, that was. Her father wasn’t supposed to die suddenly of a heart attack before she’d had a chance to think about the kind of man she’d want at her side.
“Aisha, are you sure about the earrings?” Sanaa hovered off Aisha’s shoulder, watching her every move in the mirror. “The chandeliers are so lovely on you.” She kept her tone careful, though the women were close—as close as two people could be, when one worked for the other.
“I know what you’re really saying.” Aisha met Sanaa’s eyes in the reflection and arched an eyebrow. “You’re saying that you think the chandeliers are more flattering. That they’ll catch his attention more than the diamonds, since he pays such close attention to women.”
Sanaa pursed her lips, looking like she was trying to hide a smile. “You know me too well.”
“You’re easy to get to know.” Aisha gave her a small smile in the mirror. “But I’m not changing the earrings. He’ll have to take me as I am.”
They’d had a similar discussion about her outfit, which was a businesslike skirt suit. The one concession she’d made to the fact that this was supposed to be, in part, a social occasion was the color—a pale pink that brought out her dark eyes.
“You do like the chandelier earrings.”
“I do like them.” Aisha smoothed her hands over her hair, making sure not a single strand was out of place. With the help of the palace cosmetologist, she’d had it swept into a neat chignon behind her head. There would be no tossing her long brown locks over her shoulder to impress Nadim, the sheikh from Raihan. “But I’m simply not interested in giving him the wrong impression. We’ve wasted too much time on wrong impressions.”
Since her father had died, Aisha had met a stream of men who couldn’t have suited her worse if they’d tried. And some of them had really seemed to try being boorish, unintelligent, or just plain power hungry. Aisha had gone into her search knowing that marrying one of them—any of them—would guarantee her her rightful place as Kendah’s queen. It was one rule in the set of laws governing the country, and her least favorite. Because if she didn’t find a man to marry within one year of her father’s death, the throne would pass to her next closest male relative, her second cousin Jamad.
And Jamad...
Aisha caught herself scowling into the mirror, and so did Sanaa.
“Try to keep your spirits up,” coaxed Sanaa. “I feel very hopeful about Nadim. At the very least, he won’t be coming here for his first chance at being royalty.”
Aisha took a deep breath. “Whatever he’s coming here for, his best outcome is that he gets a seat on the throne and a partner to rule with. This kingdom cannot get ceded to Jamad. He’ll run the entire country into the ground inside of a month.”
She gave herself a final once-over, trying to shove down the sadness that bubbled up whenever she thought about her father’s death and how terribly wrong everything afterward had gone. Aisha had always known that she’d have to be careful when she selected a husband. She’d always known that the man she married would have a seat at the table when it came to ruling Kendah. But she’d never imagined that it would come to this—a place where love and attraction couldn’t factor into her own marriage plans.
Time was running out. She had only months left to find and marry a man. It seemed like no time at all.
“So. Nadim.” There was no time today to dwell on the set of circumstances that had brought them here. “He’s not my first choice—I’m not sure I believe he’s capable of running a country. Or