9. Kareem
CHAPTER 9
KAREEM
A fter dinner was over and the plates had been cleared, Kareem’s father rose quickly to his feet.
Kareem was glad of it. It would have been inappropriate for anyone to rise from the table before the king had done so, and it was only just now occurring to him that Keira might not know that. She hadn’t dined with royalty before, so she couldn’t be expected to know the protocols. The dinner had gone very well — the fact that she had eaten the kibbeh had been especially beneficial to their cause — but the whole thing might be ruined if she inadvertently caused offense on such a large scale.
Suddenly, he was eager to separate his father from his new wife. “I think Keira and I will head home for the evening, Father,” he said, standing up himself. “We’ve had a long journey, and I know she’s probably eager to rest.”
In fact, he wasn’t sure she was. He would have expected her to be terribly jet-lagged. It was seven o’clock in the evening here in Qalmar, but it was nine in the morning back in Las Vegas, and Keira hadn’t slept on the plane.
But she continued to surprise him. She was sitting upright, not slumped the way he might have been if he was overtired. Her eyes were wide and alert as she looked around, taking everything in.
“You can’t go yet,” his mother said, speaking for the first time. Kareem was momentarily startled. Her voice was so rarely heard when someone was visiting the palace.
But then, that didn’t apply to his brothers’ wives. Maybe things would be different with Keira. Maybe…
He shook his head. No, that didn’t make sense, because Keira wasn’t really his wife. Whatever he was experiencing now, it wasn’t going to last. This was all temporary, and he had to remember that.
His father turned to face his mother. “Rajiyah, I think Kareem is right,” he said, his voice low and quiet. “We should allow them to go home. They have traveled a long way.”
“Nonsense, Hassan. This young lady is my new daughter-in-law, and I’m eager to get to know her better,” Kareem’s mother said. She turned to Keira. “Allow me to take you for a tour of the palace gardens, my dear.”
Kareem swallowed hard. His mother had done this with both his brothers’ wives, but in their cases, it had happened before the marriages were official. The dinner had been his father’s way of determining whether his choice of a wife was a worthy one. A tour through the garden was his mother’s way of doing the same thing — and this time, it would happen without Kareem there to intervene.
But eventually Keira would have to stand on her own two feet, and he knew she was more than capable. He forced himself to remain where he was as his mother led Keira away.
She didn’t even look over her shoulder as they left, and Kareem’s heart swelled with pride. The more time he spent with her, the more he was pleased with his choice. It was hard to imagine bringing anyone better home to meet his parents. The fact that she had been able to hold her own against his father at dinner was nothing short of awe-inspiring.
His father was also watching the women walk away. “I must admit, there’s more to her than I’d imagined,” he said.
“You do approve, then?” Kareem asked, turning to face him.
“I didn’t say that.” King Hassan folded his arms across his chest. “You still made a rash decision, Kareem. Marrying someone without having her vetted by the palace — truly, I can’t imagine what you could have been thinking. You saw what we went through when each of your brothers chose to marry.”
“And can you understand why I would want to avoid all that when it came to my own marriage?”
His father sighed. “None of us want to do the things we have to do sometimes as members of this family,” he said. “To be royal is a great privilege, Kareem, but it’s not without its duties, and you’ve never understood that. You’ve never taken the responsibility of your position in life seriously. I don’t know how to make you see that some things are more important than what you want. I don’t know how to get you to take your duties to heart.”
“At least I’m married now. I thought that would make you happy, Father. After all, you’ve expressed your wishes many times that I settle down. And Amir and Saif are even worse — they’ve tormented me about it for years.”
“Everyone just wants to see you happy, Kareem. That’s all we want.”
“It isn’t, Father. I know that’s not all you’ve ever wanted, because you know I’ve been happy to date women all this time. You wanted me to marry for the good of the crown, even though I’ll never inherit.”
“It reflected badly on the family, the things you were doing.”
“And now those days are at an end.”
Kareem felt a pang of guilt as he said that. His days of womanizing and having fun weren’t at an end at all, and he knew it. He would set those things aside for the duration of his marriage to Keira so as not to blow their cover, but he had every intention of going back to the pursuits he’d always enjoyed once this fake marriage came to an end. He was intentionally misleading his father right now and he knew it.
“You should have told me,” his father said sternly. He fixed his eyes on Kareem. “You shouldn’t have just done this in the United States without so much as speaking to anyone in your family about it first.”
“I know. You wish you had been able to vet her. I promise, you won’t find anything when you do.”
“It isn’t only that — although how you can claim to know that when you’ve known the woman such a short time baffles me. But you should have given us a chance to know her. Didn’t you see how hurt your mother was?”
Kareem blinked. “Hurt?”
“She was devastated. You couldn’t tell?”
Watching his father interpret his mother’s emotions when his mother always kept her cards so close was like watching a magic trick. “She didn’t say anything.”
“She wouldn’t, in front of a guest. And she didn’t want to hurt your feelings. But you’re her son, Kareem, and now you come home and tell her that you fell in love and decided to marry without ever letting your family know. She would have wanted to celebrate that with you. Surely you can see that.”
Now Kareem was beginning to feel sick to his stomach. He clenched his fists at his sides to keep himself from resting a hand on his gut to try to settle it. “I thought it would be a good surprise. For you and for Mom.”
“Wouldn’t it have been a good surprise for you to bring her home to us and tell her that you intended to marry her? To let us enjoy the moment with you?”
“Father, you wouldn’t have enjoyed it.” Kareem couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Don’t you remember when Saif brought Laila home and told us of his plans to marry her? You and Mother thought she was unworthy, and her father is a sheikh in his own right.”
“We always believed Saif would marry the daughter of a king,” Kareem’s father explained.
“Yes, I know. Laila was noble — a member of high society — and she very nearly wasn’t good enough for you. Now I come home married to a woman whose position in society couldn’t possibly be more different from ours. Do you really expect me to believe it wouldn’t have bothered you at all?”
His father sighed. “Kareem, I don’t wish to be unkind, but you must know that we never had the same hopes for you as we did for your brothers. We always knew you were willful. To me, the miracle is in the fact that you’ve chosen to take a wife at all. I didn’t anticipate that happening any time soon, and I’m very glad that it has. The fact that she isn’t noble… I can look beyond that as long as you’re happy. And it’s clear to me that you’re very happy indeed.”
“Is it?” Kareem’s heart missed a beat.
“I’ve never seen you smile as much as you did at dinner tonight — or as openly . Usually, when I see you smile, it looks as if you’re enjoying some joke that no one else is a part of. There’s something prideful about your smile. But tonight, it was like you didn’t even realize you were being watched. Every time you looked at Keira, I saw you relax. How could I not be happy about anything that brings my son such joy? I’m glad to see you married, Kareem. I’m glad that you will finally bring honor to this family, that you’re finally settling down and living up to the expectations of your station. But I’m equally glad that doing so is making you happy, because you deserve to be.”
And then Kareem’s father reached out and placed a hand gently on Kareem’s shoulder.
For a moment, Kareem couldn’t move. His feet were rooted to the ground, and his muscles were so tense that they ached. His mind whirled.
When was the last time his father had put a hand on him?
King Hassan had never struck any of his children in anger. He wasn’t that sort of man. But he also wasn’t the sort to embrace them in love, especially now that they were grown men. Pride in their accomplishments was communicated verbally, or occasionally with a rare smile, and actual affection was never seen.
His father’s hand on his shoulder was nothing short of miraculous.
All too soon, though, the moment passed. His father stepped away. “You had better see to it that the young woman gets home,” he said. “Your mother will keep her out in the garden all night long if we allow it.”
“Right.” Kareem stepped back too. The world seemed to have turned upside down. He had never imagined leaving here with anything like approval from his father, and though approval wasn’t exactly what he had gotten, he had come much closer than he would have dared to dream he might.
He moved toward the doors that led to the garden, but as he did so, he saw that Keira and his mother were approaching from the other side. A moment later, the doors were pulled open and the women entered.
“No, it was wonderful,” Keira was saying. “I’m so looking forward to a longer tour sometime in the future.”
“That’s right,” Kareem’s mother agreed. “We’ll make sure that happens soon. I suppose we have all the time in the world now that you and Kareem are married — though we will have to plan a royal wedding. It would be simply too scandalous not to have one. I’ll start making the arrangements at once.”
Keira’s eyes darted to Kareem, who could tell that she had no idea what to say.
He spoke up on her behalf. “It’s no great rush, Mother,” he said. “We’ll have a royal wedding eventually. I know how important that is to you and Father. But since we are already married, there’s no reason to hurry things along.”
“People will find out you’re married if you wait too long,” his mother fretted.
“That’s all right,” Kareem’s father spoke up, and everyone turned to look at him. “It’s all right if people know,” he repeated. “They’re young, and they fell in love with one another. It happens. Looked at in a certain light, it’s very romantic, and I think the people of Qalmar will appreciate that. And they’ll appreciate that this young woman, who knows so little of our customs, was willing to come all the way back here and seal her vows in the Qalmese way.”
He looked at Keira, a penetrating stare, and Kareem heard the implied mandate. You must do it our way if you want to make it all right that you rushed this marriage .
Keira nodded. “Of course,” she said. “Honoring Qalmese customs is very important to me. I’m happy to respect your marriage traditions.”
She glanced at Kareem, whose heart swelled with sudden affection for her.
And then he remembered — she’s only saying that because she knows she’ll never have to follow through.