Anger flared in his face for the first time in the conversation, but it didn’t hurt like it had yesterday.
“You’ve been right here, so close, all this time? How is that possible? Why did you never come to visit?”
I gave him a pointed look. “I’m a servant now, Prince Tarek. Do you think servants can just stroll into the palace and ask to take tea with the princess?”
A flash of embarrassment crossed his face, the emotion rocking me. All this time I had thought the whole lot of them—but especially Rek—were embarrassed at my new position in society. But from his reaction, my status wasn’t on his mind at all. He appeared to have forgotten about it completely in the course of two minutes’ conversation. I had wronged him. I had wronged all of them.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I did try to come once, but I was turned away at the gates. Perhaps I should have tried writing instead. I just thought…” I paused, wishing I had a better excuse. “Everything had changed, and I thought if you wanted to see me, you would come to me.” I made a face. “Of course, that was when I believed you knew where I was.”
“You mean you thought we’d dropped you because you were no longer the daughter of a vizier?” The hurt in Rek’s eyes pierced me, especially since it was deserved.
“At first I thought it was your parents,” I said hurriedly. “I know none of you were in control of your own movements before you came of age.”
One of his eyebrows quirked upward. “But I came of age not long after you left. So then you thought it was me keeping the others from resuming contact.”
I winced. He was too insightful. Even after all this time, he knew me too well.
“I’m sorry,” I said again.
Rek shook his head, but the old knowledge went both ways. I could read his eyes as the hurt softened and faded from them.
“This is an unexpected visit,” said a new voice.
I spun around, suddenly realizing how close Rek and I had gotten. I took a hurried step back, keeping my gaze on Navid.
“Prince Tarek is just here to—” I broke off, suddenly realizing I didn’t know why Rek had come. I didn’t dare assume it was purely because of our old friendship.
My eyes flicked to the prince, but he was focused on Navid, his gaze assessing.
“A little late, aren’t you?” Navid crossed his arms. “By three years or so.”
I stared at him, astonished. Navid was the only other friend I had confided in, knowing more about my history than Kali, but unlike the miller’s daughter, he had always seemed to accept the reality of the situation. I had never heard him express anger at the royals before. What could have possessed him to talk to the crown prince in such an antagonistic way? The last thing his family needed was to invite extra scrutiny right now.
“We’ve just discovered that was all a misunderstanding,” I said in repressive tones, trying to give him a warning with my eyes.
He didn’t uncross his arms, however, and Rek had developed a similarly stiff stance, his eyes only flicking to me briefly before focusing back on Navid.
“That’s a big misunderstanding,” Navid said, although his tone did soften a little.
“Yes.” I nodded. “We only discovered the truth because we happened to see each other in the forest yesterday.”
“The forest?” Navid’s shocked face made me groan internally.
Hadn’t Ali told his son the whole story of how we encountered the thieves? Either way, Navid was going to have to work on his acting if he wanted to pull off a deception on the whole city.
I glared a further warning at him before turning to Rek.
“This is Navid, Ali’s son. He’s a good friend of mine.”
I said it to try to ease the tension between the two men, but Rek’s face only tightened, his eyes raking over Navid’s tall frame.
I bit my lip. Had he misinterpreted my words? I stayed silent, unwilling to correct any possible misconception. Any innocuous explanation for Navid’s behavior was far better than the least hint that his family had something to hide.
But neither could I let the two of them go on, sizing each other up. “Prince Tarek—“ I began, only for him to cut me off.
“Rek.” The correction was short and clipped, at odds with the friendly sentiment, and his eyes remained on Navid.
I raised an eyebrow, but even without turning to see it, he apparently heard his own tone because he threw me an apologetic look.