Atefeh & Baldwin

“I can’t sit through another deathbed confession. I can’t sit there, counting the seconds between his breaths, praying he’ll take another. Say I am a coward, but I cannot live through that again.”

“Has he asked you to be at his bedside when he dies?”

“Do not be cruel, Imad. It does not suit you.”

“My apologies, Princess. I did not mean to offend. I am simply trying to ascertain the arrangement you have with the King of Jerusalem.”

“Of course he has. And you need not remind me that I cannot serve him in that capacity if I am halfway across the continent.”

“But would it not be better to be at the bedside of the man you love when he dies?”

“I have sat, every time, at his bedside. And I realised I’d be there, every time, taking his confession in place of the Patriarch, or even William.”

Part of the From Eden series.