TWENTY-NINE
[CRICKET'S CHIRPING]
[RATTLINGS]
🎶"Each morning I get up, I die a little, can nearly stand on my feet... Take a look in the mirror and cry, lord what are you doing to me!....
Lord!!!
Somebody! Somebody! Anybody, find me!! Somebody to love.!" 🎶 [HUMMING] Kleo and Miriam hummed, dancing around the daffodils garden.
I walked with Miriam, just the two of us, trailed by two guards in the garden.
[LEAVES RUSTLING]
"Princess![PANTING] Your presence is required in the palace." One of the guards said.
"[GROANS] Thank you! I will be there in a minute." She said groaning, she needed peace, A quiet time to think, but every time she wishes for it, there is always a call from her father or mother, or her sister bashing through the doors of her chambers.
*******************************
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
"Do you think this will be Zosar doings or...?" She heard her mother talking. Zosar! What has he done? She wondered.
"Father! You wish to see me?" She curtseyed before standing upright to see the fear in her mother's eyes and disappointment in her father's face.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
[SIGHS]
"Sit!" Her father said. She sat by the right hand of her father.
" Dearest! [PAUSE] Your father and the lieutenant are to be present in court this noon and you will go." Her mother said, Kleopatra cocked her head, still not understanding what she had said.
"Darling, Zosar has taken the marriage deal to court and I am afraid he is doing it forcefully to get... you" Her father looked down in pain.
"Father! Mother! No, he cannot do that, they have got to be a way to stop his rationalized actions." She cried.
"We are not above the law, so we must be at court by noon, get ready." Her mother said. Kleopatra stands to leave but her father calls her.
"Wait! There is something else." He said. She turned to listen to her father.
"The lieutenant has asked for my permission to propose."
"So soon?" Her mother said in surprise.
"lan 'ujbir ealaa alzawaj min shakhs la 'arghab fi alzawaj minh , fa'ana la 'uhibuh ya 'abi." ( I will not be forced to marry someone I do not wish to wed, I do not love him, papa.) She stormed out of the room. This was the first time after how many years that she had spoken Arabic to her parents.
********************************
[CUTLERIES TINKLING, PLATES CLINKING]
"Eating my first meal with my bride-to-be and her parents, indeed this is a great feast," Zosar says. [LAUGHS, SNORTY, BELCHING]
[SULTAN'S LAUGHING FORGEDLY]
"That's quite delicious [SIGHS]" The queen said watching the lieutenant rush his food, unmannerly.
"Your Majesty! The Prince wishes to see the princess." Ahmed walked into the dining room and bowed before standing upright to speak.
"The prince! Wishes to see me?" Kleopatra squealed, jumping off her chair, bored from the long turbulent dinner with the lieutenant.
"Kleopatra! Sit, we will invite him for dinner." Her mother said, displeased with her manners at the table.
"Alright, mother" She whined.
The prince walked into the dinette, dressed in royal Nashville blue suede coats with Black pants and Polished black riding boots, topped up with a black top hat. He was indeed stunning, but Kleopatra wasn't flattered by his looks in romantic ways but in a friendly way. She was happy to see him, save her from the non-ending boring talks of the lieutenant.
"Evening your grace!" Charles bowed before smiling at Kleo, showing off his perfect white teeth.
"Evening, Charles." The king and the queen greeted. Zosar boiling in anger is not happy with the whole situation.
"Please, join us for dinner." The queen offered. He sat beside Kleo, while Zosar sat opposite the king, by the head and tail of the table.
"I heard you say, you wish to see my daughter?" The king asked.
"Yes, your grace I did.[SIGHS] I wanted to check if she was alright and well and to my greatest dismay, she looks completely well." Charles smiled at Kleo.
[CHUCKLING]
"Thanks for your kindness, my prince, I rest assured you that my daughter is in good hands." Her mother said before taking a deep sigh as she stared at the lieutenant. It was written all over her face that she had wished her husband had not made a deal with the devil. She worshipped the prince's decency and wished her daughter would have cared for the way he showed it all. But it was too late.
"Do you know, I still sit right here, before you... I do not wish to be insulted... you are welcome to a feast that I had called for family." Zosar growled.
[SILENCE]
"Family! Yes, it's indeed a family feast." Her mother smiled.
"No Hatsheput, You do not call this a family feast when you welcome a stranger and murderer to our table" Zosar spat out pointing to Charles in anger.
"How dare you speak ill of Charles, He is a family! Whether you like it or not. And besides, you are not a family yet, so do not come to our home and give us orders that do not satisfy us." Kleo roared, dragging the attention off the table. "And, Sir! Do not disrespect my mother or anyone else on this table ever." She spat out.
"Why are you boiling princess? I only speak the truth... a concealed one and this young man is a murderer" He growled at Charles, Who, was looking at him quietly and a little bit of anger stared up at him. Was the lieutenant speaking the truth? Is he a murderer?
"Do not say unholy things about the prince." The queen said.
Zosar stood up, smashing the plate before him into the wall behind The queen. The king and The prince stood up in aghast.
"Zosar, leave! You are no longer welcome in this palace." The king growled.
[HEARTBEAT THUMPING FAINTLY]
"You will hear from me tomorrow...at court!" He dashed out of the room, and then through the halls.
Kleopatra rushed to her mother's side, holding her tight, a minute ago she was scared that she thought she would have lost her mother through Zosar's acts of foolishness.
"My apologies your grace," Charles said to the queen.
[EXHALES] "No! I should apologise, my prince for the disastrous dinner tonight, it wouldn't happen again." The queen pleaded.
After Kleo had walked her mother to her chambers and her father had gone to speak with the guards about Zosar threat's in the palace, She walked past Charles out the door of the palace and stood for a while before speaking to the dark, indirectly to Charles who stood five steps away from her.
"Charles! What did he mean by Fire? Blood? And Death?" Kleo asked. Charles shakes his head in disagreement.
"He called you a murderer, Charles or had I heard wrongly?" She cried.
"I am not a murderer Kleo! Do not listen to what he said. I did not kill anyone, it was just an accident." Charles begged as he watched kleo in tears.
"Just an accident? Really, you killed someone by accident...[SNIFFS] I will see you at court tomorrow." She said walking to the door.
"Please Kleo, believe me, I am not a murderer. Do not believe what he had said."
"I said, I will see you at court tomorrow, I do not wish to see you tonight... or even talk to you." She left him in the dark. He walked to his carriage, ordering his carriage men to ride him home.
[LADY SULTAN]
"Surely, our prince didn't go home to cry himself out or seat in the bathtub drunken away. He searched for ways to hold the lieutenant down at court tomorrow, which I tell would not go well. Prince Charles's side of the story is out, Zosar wouldn't take it easy on the prince and The sultan, just to get what he wants... Poor Princess, betrothed to a man she's not in love with and left unfaithful by her only friend."