Total pages in book: 230
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
The man had gone a nice shade of gray.
His mother gasped. “Kashmir!”
Weston merely chuckled. “You have the right, Your Majesty. Still, I think a public execution might overshadow the wedding.”
Hanin stood. “I did my job. I serve this country and the palace. Do you have any idea how hard you make my job? She was right to do what she did. Getting you to focus is like being forced to work with an untrained monkey.”
“Hanin!” At least his mother was shocked by all of them. “Please don’t refer to his majesty in such a fashion or he’ll be right to fire you.”
“He’s planning on firing me anyway.” Hanin stepped back. “The minute you’re gone, I’ll be gone, too, and he’ll probably get rid of his bride as well. A man like him doesn’t change. I feel sorry for your poor bride. She’ll either find herself divorced in a year or the object of everyone’s pity because there’s no chance that you don’t go back to your partying ways within weeks of your mother’s death. Perhaps before. After all, it’s not like you ever cared what she and the world thought of you anyway. Her majesty is trying to save the country, but you won’t care. You’ll ruin us all in the end. I always saw that.”
“Hanin, please,” his mother began.
“Oh, no, Hanin, you continue on.” It was good to see his lord chamberlain for who he really was. “Let me know exactly how you feel.”
Tears had started in his mother’s eyes. “I can’t plan this without him.”
Damn it. She shouldn’t be planning anything at all. She should be resting, trying to maintain her strength.
Fucking fuck and fuck fuck.
Kash stood and attempted to moderate his tone and his expression. All the sweet words in the world wouldn’t mean a thing if he looked like he felt—like he wanted to murder someone. He had to be the king, and the king remained calm and made reasonable decisions. “Hanin, please accept my apologies. It is true that I believe my bride and I will be happier with a new lord chamberlain after we’re wed and I am in the palace most of the time. I would like to do things in a modern way, and you have always emphasized the traditional. Perhaps that is why we seem like we’re at cross purposes. I do, however, promise to make your retirement a lucrative one. And I certainly won’t ever speak of beheading you again. That wasn’t well done of me.”
Hanin turned and walked back to the table. “I will stay for your mother’s sake.”
His mother reached over and patted his hand as though he was a child and had done something well for the first time.
“Shall we talk about the guest list? I’ve got it down to seven hundred.” Hanin opened his notebook.
“I’ll need all those names. Every single person will have to be vetted,” Weston replied. “We’ve got almost no time so I need a finalized list by this afternoon.”
“Seven hundred.” It horrified Kash. The one good thing he could think of about his two-week engagement was going to be the smallness of the wedding. No one could put together a true royal wedding in two weeks. “No. We have so little time and there are no plans. We should keep it small. No more than twenty.”
His mother’s face lit up, and for a brief moment he saw the woman who had raised him, youthful and full of joy and strength. “No plans? I’ve been planning for years. Everything is already in place. It will be the grandest wedding, Kashmir. I’ve already found someone who will release a hundred doves as you and Day are pronounced husband and wife. And, of course, we must be seen observing all the rituals.”
He shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
Weston was watching his mother. “Rituals?”
“Yes, Loa Mali has many beautiful rituals for the bride and groom.” His mother put her hand over her heart. “The Palm Ritual is lovely. I have many pictures from your father’s and mine.”
“Mother, it’s the twenty-first century. I’m not hiding in a group of palm trees getting my arse cut up so I can steal a woman who has already agreed to marry me. Nor will I allow my best friends to tie me up and beat my feet with fish.”
What Loa Mali had was a group of crazy antiquated and downright ridiculous rituals meant to ward off evil spirits and generally make everyone getting married think twice about doing it in the first place.
He saw the glint in his mother’s eyes and knew he was in trouble.
Day sat back with a smile, the steam from the spa deliciously warm. “It’s supposed to ward off bad spirits and build the groom’s strength for the wedding night.”
Phoebe Murdoch’s lips curled up as she laughed. “Fish? They’re going to beat Kash’s feet with fish and that will give him virility?”