Princess Sultana's Daughters

more.”
    “Amani. No. Faten is imagining this. It
cannot be true. It is too sick to be real.”
    “I knew you would resist the truth,” Amani
accused. “There is proof.”
    “Proof? What proof? I would like to
know.”
    “Well, there was a man from Pakistan working
in that area of the hospital. He discovered Majed leaving the room,
and when he examined the patient, he saw that the sheets on her bed
had been disturbed. He followed Majed and threatened to call the
authorities. When he was told that Majed was a prince, he demanded
money. To quiet him, Majed gave him what he had in his pocket.”
    “Amani!” Kareem, highly dubious, cautioned
his daughter. “Watch the words that come from your tongue. Rape!
Blackmail! This is too much to believe!”
    “It is true! It is true! You will see! Now
there is going to be trouble.” Amani’s words rushed, one atop the
other, as she tried to convince her father. “Now it has been
discovered that the woman who was in a coma, a Christian woman from
another land, is with child! Even though she has been in the
hospital, unconscious, for six months! She is three months with
child! There is a big investigation in that hospital, and Majed
fears that his name will be made public in the scandal.”
    Thinking for the first time that there might
be some truth to the story, for the details were many, I began to
breathe heavily, wondering how we could avoid this scandal.
    Amani tearfully completed her tale of horror.
“Faten caught him trying to break open the safe in their father’s
office in order to steal cash. When she confronted him, Majed
confided in his sister that the Pakistani has demanded a lot of
money. This man wants one million riyals to remain silent about
Majed’s royal identity. Majed cannot ask his father for that amount
of money without an explanation, and the man is going to name him.
Majed has been given one week to come up with the money.”
    Kareem and I stared at each other, wondering
if what we were hearing was the truth.
    I recalled terrible words that Majed had once
used against Abdullah, ridiculing my son for his refusal to have
sex with what Abdullah had claimed was a particularly ugly
American, a woman twice my son’s age who had been willing to have
sex with a young prince for money. Majed had accused Abdullah of
being a man who did not like women, saying, “A true man can become
excited over a she camel!” I vaguely recalled that Majed had then
told Abdullah something about this woman being better looking than
the last one he “rode”—a woman who was unconscious and had not
known the fun she was missing.
    When discussing the incident, we had assumed
that the woman must have been drunk. Now, in light of what Amani
was saying, had that woman been unconscious from an injury? Had
Ali’s son raped a woman who had no ability to speak for herself?
The timing of Abdullah’s confidence now fit Amani’s story. I wanted
to ask Kareem about that conversation, for he had been told of the
matter by Abdullah and had shared the story with me. From that time
Kareem had forbidden Abdullah to accompany his cousin Majed to
foreign parties.
    Kareem came back to his senses when Amani
said, “Majed has to be punished. I will have to tell Wijdan to
inform her father of Majed’s misdeed.”
    I heard Kareem grinding his teeth. He, as I,
knew that the father of Amani’s good friend was a religious man who
worked out of the royal mosque. While he bore no special animosity
toward members of the royal family, he was a man of religion who
followed his conscience. He would be a difficult man to buy off,
and if nothing else, would insist on discussing the matter with the
religious council and the king. The last thing our familyneeded was
for that particular man to be told of the situation.
    Besides, I still had hope in my heart that a
mistake had been made and Majed was innocent of such unspeakable
and indecent behavior.
    Kareem instructed his daughter, “Amani, this
is no topic for young girls to discuss. I will investigate these
charges, and if they are true, I give you my word that Majed will
be punished. Now, I must have your promise that you will tell no
one what you have just said.”
    Expecting Amani to disagree, I was pleasantly
surprised when my child seemed relieved to discharge the problem to
her father. She promised him all that he had asked.
    Within three days, Kareem had discovered the
ugly truth. Indeed, there was a Christian woman in a local