Page 14 of Sheikh's Quarantine Triplet Baby Daughters

Samyar should be here,she thought with an ache, and then the fear welled up. Nothing had changed, had it? She was still who she was, only pregnant. He was still the king with the weight of his country on his shoulders. They couldn't, not in a million years.

Dr. Ramamurthy sighed.

"I know this is a lot to take in. How about if I email you this information? There are a list of foods for you to eat, things to avoid. In general, the earlier in a pregnancy you start adhering to these things, the better."

"Oh! Yes, please," Diane said, sitting up straighter. She had always been a straight A student, and suddenly she felt as if her teacher had caught her slacking.

She left the palace clinic with a bag full of vitamins, nearly a binder's worth of handouts, and her head buzzing with thoughts.

Diane needed to walk, and she made her way to the greenhouse again, which she was beginning to love for its warmth and its broad and quiet paths. Most people in lockdown at the palace tended to go to the gyms or to the outdoor gardens when they wanted to stretch their legs, but the greenhouse was the size of a garden anyway, and she almost never ran into anyone during her walks.

She realized that she was hungry, but what in the world was safe to eat for her babies? She loved sushi, and she thought that that was probably right off the list for the next eight months or so. Her mind instinctively rebelled against being without one of her favorite foods for so long, but then another voice said that she could celebrate having her three kids with a sushi dinner.

Eyes wide, she dropped her hand tentatively to her belly. The gesture felt oddly instinctive for all that her belly was still the same soft surface that she was familiar with. There was no curve there except the one that she knew, and the knowledge struck her like a hammer that she was going to have three babies. This time, it was love that struck her, not fear, and she started to smile.

"You look happy."

The words broke her out of her daze, and of course, it was the person she was least prepared to see at the moment.

Samyar, with his crisp white shirtsleeves rolled up and his jacket slung over his shoulder, looked like he was playing hooky, and she remembered with some chagrin that she was the one who had told him that the greenhouse was a great place to catch his breath when the day got to be too much.

"I... I am." It was nothing but the truth, and Samyar smiled.

"I'm glad. It's good to see you smile again, no matter why."

"How are things going?" she asked, dropping her hand self-consciously to her side. There was a gleeful little voice in her; one that didn't care about consequences or heartbreak, that wanted her to tell him, to tell him immediately. Somehow, she clamped her jaw against it.

"It's going... as well as anything can be expected to go," he said with a shrug. "We're being held up in the region as an example of what should be done to fight the virus, which is flattering, but I feel like it's for all the wrong reasons. We're doing things that other countries aren't used to doing, and it's not like everyone's blindly following my word—"

She walked beside him, letting his tide of words wash over her.

Can you hear him? she wondered, glancing down. Can you hear at all yet, and can you tell how important he is, to me, to you?

"—and to add even more insanity to the pile, my council is back on the same old horn about getting me married."

The words hit her like rocks when she had been expecting rain, and Diane stopped dead in her tracks, looking at him.

"Excuse me?"

Samyar laughed, shaking his head.

"You know, that's what I said! They said that it would lift the national spirits, show the detractors that I did care about traditional values— Diane, are you all right?"

He had realized that she wasn't walking beside him any longer and returned to her, a concerned expression in his eyes.

"Um, I'm fine, I'm fine," she said, almost tripping over her own tongue. "I mean, aren't you a king who cares about traditional values, at least that's what you said—"

She cut herself from tripping straight into that one. It was too raw, and she had the feeling that if they went too far into it, she would end up screaming, or even worse, crying.

Samyar, however, had no such reservations.

"When we fought in Paris," he said, his golden eyes suddenly pained. "I know. I told you that I had to be a man who upholds the traditions of my people."

Diane forced herself to stand up straight. She was going to be a mother. She refused to let her children – still such a strange idea, but one that was becoming more familiar with every passing moment – have a coward for a mother. She wasn't going to flinch from the truth, and after all, that was exactly what Samyar had said.

"That's what you said," she agreed levelly. "You said that there was nothing more important to you. That there was no one who could be as important to you as that."

"I have learned better," he said, looking into her eyes. He was facing her fully now. He reached for her hand, which suddenly felt very cold. Everything felt very far away.

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