A horrible thought occurred to him and he stopped in the middle of the hallway. Isla stopped as well and looked up at him and he was startled to realize that his little sister was going to be a great beauty. Would some other man do to her the things he thought about doing to other women?
The idea of his sweet little sister in the arms of another man suddenly enraged him.
“What’s wrong, Rashid?” Isla asked, suddenly worried about the furious expression on his face. He’d been so excited a moment ago, what had changed?
Rashid started to say something, his hand tightening on his arm as he looked down at her innocent expression. “Don’t ever…” he started off, but stopped himself. He knew that his sister would eventually marry, but he gritted his teeth with determination. She wouldn’t marry some jerk! Or someone like him, who….well, just not someone who would think of doing things to her that he thought of doing to other women. Things like kissing and touching their breasts, of moving inside….
No! She would be protected from that! She was sweet and innocent. She shouldn’t even think about having sex, much less doing it. His mind always seemed to be thinking about sex and women and how lovely they were and how soft and pretty.
Dammit! He had a responsibility towards his little sister, and now there were two of them! What was a man to do?
Father would know, he thought to himself. Rashid knew he’d have a talk with his father as soon as possible. He had to protect his sisters now!
“Rashid?” Isla prompted when she saw his jaw clench. She put her hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him as best she could. “Are you ill? Should I call a doctor?” Her mind frantically went through the possibilities but he didn’t have any of the symptoms she’d read about in the medical books she’d snuck out of the palace library. She read them in secret, thinking they were the most fascinating things to read. But none of them helped her right at the moment. She couldn’t discern any problems with Rashid and that scared her.
Just as suddenly as his ager came, Isla saw his face clear up and he smiled down at her. “It’s nothing. I just thought of something I need to discuss with dad.” He squeezed her hand to reassure her. “I promise, it’s nothing I can’t take care of.”
Isla smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. He was right. Rashid could do anything and if he had trouble, father was always there to advise him. She sometimes became irritated with their discussions because they were always filled with boring talk of politics and money or buildings. That was so boring! But they liked it, so she tried very hard to keep quiet when they were intently arguing their side during a conversation.
Rashid pulled her along again and they were walking as quickly as possible towards the area where the palace hospital was located. The closer they got, the more concerned she became.
At the hospital room door, he looked down at her with an eager expression, then shoved open the door to allow her entrance.
Isla looked inside the room and saw her mother and father. “Mother, why are you in here?” she asked, more than a little worried because everything looked strange here. The bed wasn’t comfortable like the one at the palace, and the people all were wearing strange clothes, very plain and dull.
She peered over the high bed, ignoring her mother and father’s huge grins. Something was wiggling and she wanted to see. “What’s that?” she asked as she noticed the baby. “It looks like a baby. Is that what was in your tummy?” she asked curiously.
Lila laughed and nodded her head. Patting the side of the bed, she encouraged her daughter to get a better look. Rashid came over and lifted his little sister up high. “Isn’t she pretty?” her mother asked, her long, tapered finger running down the chubby cheek of the newborn.
Isla looked down, wondering what it was her mother and father saw in the baby. “She looks squished,” she replied.
Lila looked at her husband and they both laughed.
“She’ll get pretty, just like you,” Majid said and took his daughter out of his son’s arms. “Go ahead and hold her, Rashid. You never held Isla when she was a baby so this is your chance.”
Majid came over and lifted Isla out of Rashid’s arms, not giving him an excuse to avoid holding his newest baby sister.
Isla giggled as her father nuzzled her neck, but she watched with rapt attention as her fabulous brother gently lifted the baby out of their mother’s arms. His face slowly changed from wariness to fascination as the tiny bundle opened her eyes and looked up at him.
Rashid looked down at the tiny infant, amazed that such a small human could actually survive. “She’s so small!” he gasped.
Majid tickled his daughter. “Your brother was that size once,” he said and laughed again at her disbelieving expression. “I have pictures,” he said.
Isla looked from her giant father, to her huge brother and shook her head, crinkling up her nose. “Na ah,” she argued. “Rashid was never a baby.”
Rashid just rolled his eyes and handed the infant back to his mother. “I’ve received word back,” he said, his tone ominous and he looked carefully at his little sister. “I’ve decided to accept Harvard’s offer. I think they’re the best school for business, which is what I think I should study for Tasain’s future.”
Isla didn’t understand what he was talking about. “What’s Harvard? And what did they offer you?”
Rashid’s father pumped up with pride. “I know you’ll do very well there, son.”
Isla didn’t like where this was going. Something was happening and she was instantly nervous. Her little arm went around her father’s neck, holding him tighter because her father always protected her from bad things, even scaring away the monsters in her closet when she suspected they’d snuck back into the palace. “What’s he going to do?”
Lila shifted her newborn daughter in her arms. “He’s going to school, dear.”
“But he goes to school here. We’re in the same class.”
Majid shook his head. “Next year, your big brother will be going away to school.”
She didn’t like that at all. “Will I be going too?”
Rashid shook his head. “You’ll have to stay here and take care of our baby sister. Just like I took care of you, Isla. Zarah is going to need you to show her how to do things.”