As’ad glanced at his aunt. “No one seems to be on the roof.”

“I’m sure things have calmed down,” she told him. “Regardless of that detail, you can clearly see there is a problem.”

He returned his gaze to the woman protecting the girls. “She doesn’t look like a nun,” he murmured, taking in the long, red hair and the stubborn expression on her face.

“Kayleen is a teacher here,” his aunt said, “which is very close to being a nun.”

“So you lied to me.”

Lina brushed away the accusation with a flick of her hand. “I may have exaggerated slightly.”

“You are fortunate we have let go of the old ways,” he told his aunt. “The ones that defined a woman’s conduct.”

His aunt smiled. “You love me too much to ever let harm befall me, As’ad.”

Which was true, he thought as he walked into the room.

He ignored the women and children and moved over to the tall old man.

“Tahir,” he said, nodding his head in a gesture of respect. “You do not often leave the desert for the city. It is an honor to see you here now. Is your stay a long one?”

Tahir was obviously furious, but he knew his place and bowed. “Prince As’ad. At last a voice of reason. I had hoped to make my journey to the city as brief as possible, but this, this woman-” he pointed at the redhead still guarding the children “-seeks to interfere. I am here because of duty. I am here to show the hospitality of the desert. Yet she understands nothing and defies me at every turn.”

Tahir’s voice shook with outrage and fury. He was not used to being denied and certainly not by a mere woman. As’ad held in a sigh. He already knew nothing about this was going to be easy.

“I will defy you with my dying breath, if I have to,” the teacher in question said, from her corner of the room. “What you want to do is inhuman. It’s cruel and I won’t allow it.” She turned to As’ad and glared at him. “There’s nothing you can say or do to make me.”