The Forced Bride Of Alazar

Irritation, and something deeper and rawer, rippled through him. ‘If I am not mistaken, you have known about your arranged marriage for nearly your whole life. Why are you resisting now?’

‘Because.’ Johara looked away and said nothing more.

Azim regarded her coolly. ‘Because of me, you mean.’

She shot him one wild glance before turning away again, giving him a view of her profile, the high forehead, the smooth curve of her cheek, the heavy mass of hair pulled back in an elegant chignon. ‘You have made your intentions clear,’ she said. ‘You have no interest in getting to know me.’

‘Did Malik?’ He hadn’t wanted to mention his brother, hated even thinking about Johara married to him, sharing his bed. Quickly Azim banished the image. ‘Well?’ he demanded when Johara did not answer. ‘Did he?’

Johara glared at him, the lift of her chin now seeming stubborn rather than courageous, and entirely aggravating. ‘Not particularly,’ she said after a moment, the words drawn from her reluctantly and yet ringing with stark honesty.

‘Well, then.’ Azim didn’t know what point he’d been trying to prove. That his bride-to-be objected to wedding him more than his brother? That she was repelled by him, by the scar on his face? What would she think if she saw the scars on the rest of his body? Not, of course, that she ever would.

‘If I’m honest,’ Johara said after a moment, her voice quiet, ‘I wasn’t looking forward to marrying Malik, either. What woman wants to marry a stranger for the sake of a crown?’

‘I imagine there are many.’

‘I am not one of them.’

‘But you agreed.’ He cocked his head. ‘Your father insisted on that.’

‘He would.’ A new bitterness spiked her words and she looked away again. ‘I agreed because I’ve known nothing else. Because...’ She shook her head, clearly not wanting to say more.

‘If you were so reluctant, why did you not say something to my brother?’

‘I just didn’t want to think of it. I...I pretended it wasn’t going to happen and I told myself I could carry on with my life as normal afterwards. It was easier to do that, since I hardly ever saw him. We only met a couple of times, for no more than a few minutes. And I had my life in France.’

A life she seemed desperate to get back to. Was someone waiting for her there? Perhaps his bride was not as innocent as her father claimed, although considering her obvious naiveté he found that a difficult notion to entertain. ‘It seems remarkably shortsighted,’ he remarked. ‘Your marriage was in a matter of months.’

‘I know.’ She hunched her shoulders. ‘The closer it got, the less I tried to think of it. A child’s response, but perhaps I was a child.’ Her lips trembled again and to Azim’s horror he saw a single, silvery tear slip down her cheek. She dashed it away with a grimace. ‘Perhaps I still am.’

‘You are not a child.’ The response he’d felt in her earlier, the woman’s body he saw now, told him as much. ‘But you are innocent and have lived a sheltered life. That is not a bad thing.’