"You want me to spy on the princess," Yara said finally. "That's basically what you're asking for, isn't it?"
"Nem." Yes. The answer didn't seem enough, with Yara still frowning, and in truth, he expected as much. "There is still something that bothers you?"
"You're asking me to do this...because you care for the princess. It's not because you don't trust her and she's just bait to get her father to talk. Right?"
The sheikh simply looked at her, and Yara could only smile weakly. Right, right. This was Altair Al-Atassi, after all. He didn't fight dirty like all the others did, Yara reminded herself. He was the most honorable man in the kingdom, and she was just being her usual paranoid self.
Chapter Five
Dear Mama,
I wrote to Papa again. It's been eight months since I last saw or heard from him. Will you visit him in his dreams, just to see if he's okay?
SAFIYA PUT HER PEN down as soon as she was done writing and closed her eyes in prayer. After a moment, she carefully tore the letter into pieces before standing up and throwing the scraps into the fireplace.
While baring her heart on paper was entirely therapeutic, she also knew that her innermost feelings could only be a hindrance in her position, and it was times like this...
Deep breaths, Safiya.
Deep, deep breaths.
It wasn't as if the sheikh hadn't given her a choice. He had asked her if she wished to enter university, and it had been her choice to say yes. But then—-
How was she supposed to have known that the sheikh would not care to visit her while she was in Mushriq?
Surely she hadn't been foolish in thinking he would visit her, even just once?
It was rare for her to feel sad and irritated, but oh, when she thought of the six months that had gone by, and all she had gotten from the sheikh were perfunctory calls that made her heart race and ache all at the same time—-
You have become greedy, Safiya!
The thought popped out of nowhere, and Safiya's fists clenched involuntarily. She had become greedy, hadn't she? It wasn't so long ago when she had been living in her small and barren room in Farigha, her every move monitored and restricted. And now here she was, her life as pampered as the princesses she only used to read about—-
I'm sorry, Mama. I'm sorry, God.
Safiya only left the library once she was done praying all fifteen decades of the rosary as an act of repentance. From there, she went straight to the university's elegantly furnished dining hall, and Safiya saw that her friends were already at their usual table.
Just like always, Aurora was flirting over the phone with the Crown Prince of Layla, and Safiya almost found herself smiling at the cooing tone her flaxen-haired friend was using. As Aurora was fond of saying, to bring havoc to her husband's life was her reason for being, and the naughtier things got, the better.
As for Safiya's other friend Ella, well...
"You're sitting in Safiya's seat," Ella told her husband when Safiya made it to their table, food tray in hand.
"Easily rectified," Ella's stepbrother-turned-husband murmured with a wicked grin.
Ella was about to ask how exactly their seating shortage would be rectified when her husband suddenly scooped her off her seat—-
Shit!
Ella struggled hard to get off her husband's lap but then she felt something big and hard start poking her, and she realized too late that all the squirming she did had just made Khal a happier man.
Khal smirked down at his wife. "All done?"
Safiya, seeing that Ella seemed to have admitted defeat, asked politely, "May I take Ella's seat then?"
Khal, knowing that his wife's new friend was a serious little thing, said just as politely, "Yes, of course."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Safiya took her seat and calmly started on her soup while Aurora, after giving Safiya a little wave, went on flirting on the phone with her husband. Ella, in the meantime, was back arguing with Khal. The difference between both couples' relationships was like night and day, and yet it also felt exactly the same because their love was true.
As for Safiya's own love...
Even though she knew she was being foolish, Safiya couldn't help but glance outside the dining hall's windows, which boasted of views of Mushriq's unique cityscape of skyscrapers and sand dunes. Would the day ever come when it was Sheikh Altair she'd see outside these windows?
A sigh nearly escaped her, but Safiya determinedly reminded herself to focus on the bright side.
Ever since Mushriq's emergence as one of the world's best college towns, it had become common practice for the wealthiest families in the region to send their children to study in Mushriq. Moreover, it was also nowadays known as the training ground for royals. Since the city was situated at the southernmost tip of the kingdom of Najma, this also meant Mushriq shared borders with the neighboring kingdoms of Ramil (where Safiya was from), Kivr (which Khal ruled), and Layla, whose Crown Prince Mihail was Aurora's husband.