Horns for the Harem Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

somehow doubt my army of informants is wrong. Keep your wits about you boy, I can always adopt another son.”
    Before Arad could respond, his father turned, and kicked up a cloud of dust that stung the prince’s eyes as the older ibex dashed back in the direction of the palace.
    Arad followed closely, but stopped at the stream where he and Crane always met on nights like this. As usual, the Englishman was waiting for him, smoking a pipe. “He found you then?” Crane asked.
    “Come on,” Arad grabbed his friend, who was well past being surprised at the prince’s post-shifting nudity.
    “Put this on first,” Crane said, handing over a suit of fine silks. “I might not be abashed at your glistening bottom, but I’m sure someone would.”
    With a grunt that was half laugh and half scoff, Arad snatched the bundle of clothing. “We meet tonight,” he said. “Make it happen.”
    Before Crane could reply, the prince was jogging – then running full tilt – back to the palace that lit the entire night sky.
    “As you wish, dear friend,” Crane said, a curl of a smile playing at the left corner of his lip. “As you wish.”

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    “B ut me ? I mean, I got the letter, and it set my heart and certain other parts of me aflame. But it’s real?” Helena pinned the veil that covered her nose and lips into the back of her tossed-back hair. “ Me ?” she asked again, as though the visitor would change his mind.
    “I thought you’d take it with a bit more enthusiasm,” Crane said in his long, almost lazy tongue. “But yes, the prince wishes to see you sooner than later. The banqueting ends at what time, usually?”
    Helena shrugged. “I’m new here. I just do what I’m told. And tonight I’m told I’m seeing to the king after he rides. He gets sore legs.”
    “Sore legs,” Crane said flatly. “Is that it?”
    “Yes.”
    “I see. And he’s been riding, is it?”
    “Yes, riding. Hunting, whatever you want to call it.”
    The woman was plainly frustrated at her unexpected circumstance. “I thought I was to meet the king – as I was told to do, need I remind you – and then the prince. It seems safer.”
    “I have to grant you that one. The prince’s way almost never seems safe. But it usually is exciting, if that’s the sort of thing that catches your fancy.” He paused for a moment. “And from the look you’re giving me right now, I’d say that it does.”
    “What look?” she asked. “I’m shadowing my eyes. I haven’t any idea what you’re talking about.”
    I really need to stop biting my lip every time I’m interested in something. Maret keeps telling me to stop or I’ll give myself away. And giving myself away is the last thing I want to do. I need to keep myself under control if I ever want to succeed at this whole harem business .
    But even as she thought those things, Helena felt her lip curl in a snarl.
    “What is it?” Crane asked. “What’s making that pretty lip look so bitter? Bad date?”
    “More than you know,” Helena said, sideways out of her mouth.
    With that, Crane stood up from the chair where he’d been sitting – really, lying down in a kind of lazy drape – and brushed off his lapel before checking the time. “Either way, it’s getting to be late. Almost eleven by my watch. If the king hasn’t summoned you yet, he might just have got too drunk to care.” He shrugged easily in a way that reminded Helena of the prince, just a bit. “Doesn’t matter,” he yawned. “Spend the night with the fat old king, or the strapping young prince who’ll make you crawl up the rafters. Makes me no difference.”
    “Then why are you still here?” she asked, shrewdly. “If you just shrug your shoulders at the prince’s doings, then why devote so much of your time to making sure I get the message that he wants me?”
    “He’s my friend,” Crane said simply, picking his teeth with a fingernail. “I want to see him happy, and for some reason