Read Online Third Daughter (The Dharian Affairs, Book One) by Susan Kaye Quinn - Free Book Online

Princess Aniri.” He pressed his hands together and bowed, but his eyes never left her, scanning up and down as if to discern some clue to her answer. As he straightened, his brows drew together. He seemed to steel himself for her refusal.
    “I have given a great deal of thought to your proposal.”
A good lie is always laced with the truth.
Where did she hear that? Probably from one of her sisters, in a childhood caper where the consequences were no more important than stolen sweets from the kitchen.
    Prince Malik nodded his head, defeat already on his face. He quickly approached her, covering the lush woven rugs with his long strides until he was at her side.
    He dropped his voice. “Is there any possibility that I may yet convince you to accept this arrangement?”
    “Yes.”
    The shock lifted his eyebrows, and he keenly examined her face once more. “I meant what I said about meeting any condition you demand. Name it, your highness, and if it’s within my power, I will make it so.”
    Conditions?
What made sense, if she were truly accepting his proposal? She floundered, this lie already drowning her. “I... I will need to bring my handmaiden with me.” She scrambled to think of more convincing demands.
    Prince Malik’s cool amber eyes lit with hope. “But of course. I had assumed the princess would need an entourage.”
    An entourage? That might be too much to suit her needs for stealth. “That won’t be necessary, but I would like to bring my guard, Janak.”
    “There cannot be too much security for my tastes when it comes to the future Queen of Jungali, so I am glad to hear it.”
    Aniri frowned. Apparently she wasn’t the only one who thought this would be a dangerous undertaking. “I... I reserve the right to make further demands, as the occasion warrants.”
    “Granted,” he said, his breaths starting to come quicker.
    “And the conditions you stated previously would hold,” she said in a rush, feeling like she had not demanded enough. “There will be no children. I will maintain the ruse, but I may have occasion to... to take a lover, from time to time.”
    “Understood.” He seemed to be holding his breath, and there was no more putting it off.
    “Then, Prince Malik,” she said, pausing to swallow, “I accept your proposal of a peace-brokering marriage between Dharia and Jungali.”
    He let out a small huff of air. An uncertain smile crept on his face, but he seemed to fight it, trying to keep a proper respectful appearance. He surprised her by dropping to one knee and pressing the backs of her hands to his forehead. The fevered heat of his skin warmed them. “Thank you, your majesty.”
    Then he rose and regarded her as if she had transformed into mother-goddess Devkasera right before him. “Princess Aniri.” He seemed to struggle for words. “I think perhaps you are more noble than you believe.” He stepped back, formality thankfully returning to form an invisible wall between them. “I will make arrangements at once. At your leave, we can depart in the morning.”
    She nodded, but her heart sank under his words. Her mind insisted it was all subterfuge, that it would free her in the end, but her heart felt as though the trap were already sealed, and she was plummeting to the bottom of the frozen Jungali Sea.

Great billows of steam rolled along the back of the train, huffing impatience into the sky as it awaited departure. A dozen passenger cars gleamed in the morning sun, the burnished red wood almost as bright as the brass. The train station bustled with passengers and their cargo. The two aft-most cars had been sectioned off, cleared for Prince Malik’s return to Jungali. And Aniri’s first trip beyond the borders of Dharia.
    The daylong train ride would take them through Dharia’s rolling farms and fertile fields, the ones that fed the world with their abundance. Aniri felt that excess more keenly as she surveyed the dozens of trunks being loaded into the baggage car by the