Johara stiffened at Amjad’s drawling sneer. Shaheen gave her a bolstering squeeze before he turned to his brother.
It was Harres, who’d met them at the palace’s main entrance, who answered him. “It was I who recommended you be one of the two witnesses to the marriage, Amjad. I can easily replace you with Father. Or anyone off the street.”
“And deprive me of the pleasure of handing Shaheen over to the lioness he’s so eager to be devoured by? Can you be so cruel?” Amjad put his arm around Shaheen’s shoulder, looked Johara in the eyes. “So how do you think Johara leaked the info about her pregnancy? She must be rubbing her hands in glee that it created the desired scandal and results. You aren’t the only one who can’t wait for you to marry her now. Everyone—including me—is shoving you at her.”
Shaheen looked heavenward before leveling pitying eyes on him. “Do you drink two cups of hot paranoia first thing each morning?”
Amjad cracked a laugh, gave him a hard tug before letting him go. “I bet they have better taste and effect than the cups of insipid sentimentality you’re guzzling down nonstop.”
“Then how about you try a sip of common, if rare to you, sense?” Shaheen said. “The palace is crawling with aides whose favorite pastime is to monitor the palace’s inmates, and who have nothing but sex scandals on the brain. A female versed in signs of early pregnancy must have guessed Johara’s condition and put the same ‘his and hers’ together that you did and spread the word. Father’s
kabeer el yaweran
thought the rumor too dangerous to ignore and relayed it. Happy now?”
“Ecstatic.” Amjad folded one hand on top of the other over his heart in mock delight. “I’m going to be an uncle!”
Shaheen grimaced. “In theory. In practice, I’m not letting you near your niece or nephew if you don’t revert to being human.”
“You mean I ever was one? Flatterer. But I’ll leave humanity to you. With all the associated stupidities of the condition. Which, I admit, have most entertaining facets. It was very enlightening to learn that you don’t care about sending the region to hell in a handcart as long as you have Johara and your impending offspring. Such a relief to know you’re not perfect after all, Shaheen. I was beginning to really worry about you.”
Shaheen only gave him a serene look. “So, any new accusations for Johara and her father, Amjad? Get them all off your chest.”
Amjad shrugged his shoulders, which were immaculately draped in a navy silk shirt. “Oh, just variations on the old themes according to the developments.” He turned his gaze to Johara. “She’s full of surprises, isn’t she, our Johara?”
Harres punched him in the arm, pointed two fingers to his own eyes. “You keep your eyes here,
faahem?
”
Amjad massaged away his brother’s punch, his grin goading. “I understand. You’re now one of Johara’s lackeys.”
Harres narrowed his eyes. “I
can
order my special forces to take you someplace where you can stew in your poisonous brew until the ceremony is over.”
“You think they’d obey you and not their crown prince? I’m almost tempted to let you see where their loyalties lie.”
“I’ll say it’s on grounds of insanity. You’ve paved those, so it won’t be hard to convince them to cart you away.”
“But-but…mo-
om!
” Amjad did a spectacular impression of a sullen boy and it only made Johara think she’d never been in the presence of someone more dangerous. Or more…lonely. “I’m the only fun one around. What would this party be without me?”
Harres shook his head, intense fondness mixing with exasperation and even regret. “I swear, sometimes I feel you’re the youngest, not the oldest.”
Amjad’s provocation rose another notch. “But you remain stuck in the middle either way, bro.”
“You
said
you’d defer to my opinion. I should have known you would only if it coincided with yours.” Harres turned to Johara with long-suffering apology in his eyes. “I told Amjad that his theories of you being behind the jewel conspiracy and creating a scandal to force Shaheen to marry you cancel each other out. If the conspiracy bore fruit, Shaheen wouldn’t be prince. Why sabotage the status Amjad thinks you’re marrying him for?”
Amjad raised his hand in another impression of an overeager student in class. “I know that one!” Johara turned reluctant eyes to him. The man was electrically charismatic even when he insulted her with every breath. He met her eyes, and still talked about her as if she wasn’t there. “It’s a win-win situation for her. If the conspiracy works, she gets paid off big-time, Shaheen loses the title but retains his wealth and power as a businessman and sheikh, and she retains her chokehold on him in every way. Then, once she has all power in her hands, she negotiates the return of the jewels, at whatever price, through a third party, and has it all.”
Harres gave a hearty snort. “Sheesh, Amjad. You actually live with that thing you call a brain inside your head?”
“You envy me because you live with nothing inside yours? That must be how our head of homeland security and secret service got to be so trusting. I almost feel compelled to report this to the council. I bet they’d expel you from your post and toss you out on your ear if they got a whiff of you being such an oblivious romantic.”
Shaheen grinned at him. “Crown prince or not, Amjad, we outnumber you. How about we throw you out on
your
ear?”
Amjad swept his brothers a bedeviling smile, so secure in his power that he couldn’t be goaded into posturing. “Chill, boys. Haven’t you ever heard of the esteemed position of devil’s advocate?”
“You mean devil’s assistant.” Harres tsked. “Now of all times. You’re sick, Amjad.”
“I’ll live. But really, when better? Afterward, I’ll have to forever hold my aggression. And with Shaheen thinking with body parts that don’t include his brain, you were my last hope of someone seeing beyond the star-crossed drama unfolding here.”
At that moment the king called Shaheen and Harres away, leaving Amjad alone with Johara.
She waited until they were out of earshot. Then she pounced.
She grabbed Amjad’s forearm, dug her fingers into it with all her strength. She heard his surprise in the sharpness of his indrawn breath, saw it in the pupils that jerked to full expansion, engulfing the uncanny emerald of his eyes.
“Listen, Amjad,” she hissed. “I’m not in any condition to listen to more of your delightful theories about my cunning and long-term treachery. I’ve loved Shaheen since the moment I laid eyes on him, even before he saved my life. I thought living with my hopeless love was the worst thing that I’d ever feel. Then I came back into his life and realized he’s loved me as long and as fiercely, and my pain became agony. I feel like I’ve fallen into a nightmare, getting my impossible dream of having Shaheen, but in this terrible way. All I have to look forward to is a few months with him, if that, then a life without him, when he’ll love and need me and our baby as much as we do him, but be forced to live without us.
“So thank your demons that
you’ve
never loved like this and evidently
can’t
love anyone. You’ll never suffer the agonies and ecstasies of our soul-deep connection, or the despair I’m anticipating when I have to leave him. And I’m
not
letting you add to his troubles. So, to quote Shaheen, from now on, Amjad, shut
up!
”
She fell silent, glaring up at him, trembling with the emotions tearing through her, and thought if stupefaction took human form, it would be Amjad now.
When he remained silent, she let out the air in her lungs on a choppy exhalation. “Now take your mind off of me and concentrate those formidable powers of yours on the most important thing. The jewels.”
He shook his head, as if to wake up from a trance. Then he finally drawled, “It has always paid for me to think the worst and make amends later if need be. So I will do anything I can to atone for my attitude when—
and if
—I become convinced you are innocent.” He bent closer, as if to give her a mind and psyche scan. “So just answer me this, Johara—if you and your father
are
innocent, why didn’t you recognize the fakes?”
“I know why.” Johara jerked around at Shaheen’s declaration. He and Harres reached her and Amjad’s side again. “Berj has been sliding into depression, and his inability to focus on his job—and therefore his failure to notice the fakes—is the reason he’s retiring. Johara hasn’t been near the jewels since she left Zohayd twelve years ago.”
Amjad pursed his lips as he considered those rationalizations. “I still need to interrogate Berj.”
Shaheen exhaled. “The one thing saving you from a right hook to that implacable jaw of yours is that I don’t want to put a swollen hand in Johara’s during the marriage ceremony.”
“I can be your witness with swollen knuckles.” Harres’s feral eyes flashed on a mixture of sheer deviltry and pure danger.
Amjad whistled in mock admiration. “My, aren’t you two full of fine male aggression. Down boys. I’m going to question him as a legitimate party in the investigation, not as a suspect.”
Johara intercepted any reaction from Shaheen or Harres, stuck her face in Amjad’s. “You can interrogate
me
all you like, but don’t you dare go near my father.”
“We need him to examine the fakes,” Amjad persisted.
Johara shook her head emphatically. “
I’ll
do that.”
“Are you qualified?” She glared at him. He raised his hands in concession. “So you are. Fine. What’s your plan?”
“I’ll analyze the craftsmanship and come up with a list of possible forgers. There is a limited number of artists in the world capable of producing such almost undetectable duplicates. I’ve studied each extensively and can distinguish their signature styles.”
After Shaheen and Harres agreed that this was the best plan, Amjad stepped closer, curved his arm at her. She blinked up at him. What was this confounding man up to now?
“What are you up to now?” Shaheen echoed her suspicion.
Amjad eyes crinkled at him on what seemed to be an actual smile. “Johara needs to choose the jewels she’ll wear for your wedding. And since you, as her groom, are forbidden to see her from now till then—” Amjad looked at her “—I’m petitioning that she bestow the honor of escorting her to the vaults on me.”
After a long moment of stunned silence, Harres guffawed. “Wonders will never cease.”
Shaheen seemed to wrestle with indecision before he nodded to her to accept Amjad’s offer. He still put a protective hand on top of the one she hooked in Amjad’s arm, giving his brother a hard glare. “If you say one more word to upset her…”
“Don’t worry, Shaheen.” Amjad winked at her. “When I called Johara a lioness, I didn’t know the half of it. She can evidently defend herself, and you, against a whole army.”
Aliyah laughed at Johara’s comment, turned from sorting through the outfits that had been brought in for Johara to pick from. “My choice of the color of mourning and power in Judar was my way of showing Kamal what I thought of being forced into marriage. His, uh,
very
favorable reaction was an early sign that we
are
made for each other.” Aliyah stopped, alarmed. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking of copying me!”
“Oh, no. I just hope you don’t expect me to wear white.” Johara ran palms down her still flat belly. “It would feel funny when everyone knows we’re getting married because I’m pregnant.”
“You’re getting married because you’re in love.” That was Laylah, already dressed in the outfit she’d attend the ceremony in, a two-piece dream of gleaming satin and ethereal chiffon in gradations of emerald and turquoise, heavily worked in sequins, beads and pearls. “Don’t let the circumstances fool you.”
Johara conveyed her gratitude with a look. Laylah and Aliyah had been with her all morning, defusing her agitation at the upcoming events. Not that she’d ever visualized her and Shaheen’s wedding, since she’d never thought there would be one, but she’d barely slept all night, dreading the stilted, subdued ceremony that
would
see them married.
Now it was only two hours away. And she still couldn’t bring herself to pick a dress. She shook her head at yet another suggestion of Aliyah’s.
Aliyah sighed as she put the outfit back on the packed rack. “You’re right. None of these are…
you.
”
“Maybe you should attend the ceremony wearing only your jewels.” Laylah winked at her. “Who needs clothes when she’s adorned in the priceless pieces of the Pride of Zohayd?”
Aliyah exchanged a glance with Johara. Laylah hadn’t been told.
Before more could be said, a knock rapped on the door of Johara’s suite, where she’d insisted on remaining until after the ceremony.
Aliyah rushed to answer the door.
After a moment, she swung around with eyes and smile practically tap-dancing in excitement. “Close your eyes, Johara!”
“What…?” Johara said dazedly, eyes widening instead.
Laylah rushed behind the couch Johara was sitting on and placed her hands over her eyes.
“They’re closed,” she called out to Aliyah.
After moments of hearing the giggles of the two women, Aliyah chirped “Ta-da!” and Laylah removed her hands.
Johara blinked. Then she gaped. And gaped.
Held high in Aliyah’s hand was the most incredible outfit she’d ever seen in her life. And in her line of work, she’d seen the best that human creativity and craftsmanship could offer.
“Now
that’s
you,” Aliyah announced proudly. “Courtesy of the man who knows you best and values you most, your smitten groom. It has a note attached, too.”
That ended Johara’s paralysis. She zoomed up and pounced on the truly invaluable part of this gift, the thoughtfulness behind it. Her hands trembled and her eyes surged with tears as she saw Shaheen’s elegant, powerful print, almost heard him whisper the words into her ear, against her cheek, her lips, each inch of her.
Lan ustatee abaddan ann oteeki ma yoofi jamalek huqqun, fahal turdeen an ta’khothi nafsi kollaha awadan, ya joharet hayati?
I can never give you what will do your beauty justice, so will you accept taking all of me instead, jewel of my life?
She was useless for an indeterminate time afterward as Aliyah and Laylah surrounded her, sharing her agitated delight.
Then Laylah finally pulled back. “If you
don’t
want to attend your wedding in only jewels, you better hop into that miracle.”
And miracle was right. One of every gradation of gold and brown that reflected her coloring down to the last hair, amalgamated from finest silk, georgette, chiffon, lace and tulle, flowing into a three-piece outfit that she molded into as if it had been sculpted for her, on her.
Aliyah and Laylah commented that that was the doing of another miracle. A man who knew every inch of his woman, and who could translate that intimate knowledge into such a precise fit.
Burning with embarrassment and joy, Johara rushed to the full-length mirror to inspect herself, unable to even guess how Shaheen had managed to get this outfit, and on such short notice, too.
She’d worn incredible dresses since she’d turned sixteen, but this one wasn’t only her, this was the best her she could be.
The top was corsetlike, accentuating the nip of her waist and the lushness of her breasts, with tiny sleeves and a deep décolleté that showcased the clarity of her complexion and the wonder of each piece of jewelry she wore on her neck and arms.
The jacquard
lehenga
skirt was gathered to one side, hugging her hips in upward sweeps before falling in tight pleats to the floor. The embroidery and cutwork was on a level she’d never seen before, in sequins, silk thread, pearls and gemstones, all Zohaydan traditional motifs built around the first letter of both her name and Shaheen’s in Arabic, boggling her mind more, since it proved this had been made in the past twenty-four hours specifically for her. The finishing touch was a flowing silk and chiffon
dupatta
with the same motifs scalloping its edge and that hung from the middle of her head, secured there with a tiara that would have been worth a queen’s ransom had it been authentic.
She stood there as the picture was completed, her pleasure at the beauty of it all dipping then dissipating.
All this for such a sterile ceremony.
“It’s time, Johara.”
She shook off her dejection, rushed to precede Laylah and Aliyah out of the room. No matter what this was, as she’d told Amjad, it was far more than she’d ever dreamed of.
She was marrying Shaheen. She was having his baby.
Those
were the true miracles.