The Golden Princess: A Retelling of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Return to the Four Kingdoms Book 4) by Melanie Cellier

Author:Melanie Cellier [Cellier, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Luminant Publications
Published: 2022-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

My fear kept my acting sharp throughout the following days. I didn’t hear a single whispered question or doubt from anyone. Everyone in both the household and the city appeared to believe the situation was unfolding exactly as we portrayed.

The day after my visit to the market, Nyla tearfully announced Kasim’s death to the assembled servants. The next day, he was buried. Nyla and Layla had dressed him in ornate clothing to hide his wounds. He really did look as if he could have died of some unknown fever, and for a disorienting moment, even I believed our story.

But the day after the burial, Nyla went into the traditional mourning isolation, and Ali and Mariam moved in. With their constant presence, it was impossible to forget the reality of the situation, even for a moment.

I already had much to be grateful to Mariam for, however. Without children, or any surviving family of her own, Nyla was left to isolate alone, instead of surrounded by family as she should have been. Given she was expected to keep to her suite of rooms for two full weeks, custom dictated she could choose someone to stand in as family and isolate with her. But Nyla had no true friends—certainly no one she wished to be cloistered with for any length of time.

I fully believed her spite was great enough that she would have selected me, just to give her someone to torment. But as Mariam’s new personal servant, I was no longer an option, and poor Layla bid us all a gloomy farewell for two weeks.

“I wouldn’t mind the task if she were actually grieving,” she told Yara and me. “But that woman only truly cares for herself. She’s already irritated at being expected to complete the mourning period, and she’s only going to get worse as the days drag on.”

Yara promised to send all of Nyla’s favorite dishes, as well as Layla’s, and to include as many treats as she could when the meals were left at their door.

“I don’t know how she endures it,” Yara confided in me when Layla was gone. “I couldn’t work so closely with that woman.”

Her words took me by surprise. None of Nyla’s servants were fond of her, but I had never heard the head cook speak with such open disrespect. I soon discovered the reason for her new sense of freedom, however.

Nyla’s haste in seeking to claim the gold had caused her to make a significant strategic error. Had she realized her mistake now that she had all those long hours to think? Or was she in for a shock when she emerged from her seclusion?

If Nyla had introduced Mariam and Ali to her household at any other time, I could only imagine the battles that would have resulted. But she had gone to them immediately, and they had taken her invitation at its most literal—moving in as soon as she disappeared into her mourning seclusion.

And it was clear from the moment of her arrival that Mariam intended to make full use of the opportunity inadvertently presented by Nyla.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.