“Oh, right, of course,” he said. He blushed. He should have known it was that simple, and he was suddenly ashamed. But I fully understand such gaps, such random and sudden inabilities to grasp the simple or the sublime in the midst of the flow of so much powerful knowledge. He watched me manage these small tasks. “You’re as beautiful to me now as you were in the mirror,” he said. “You’re as beautiful to me as you were the first night at Trinity Gate when I saw you in the mirror through your eyes.”

He was startled. He looked around anxiously. I hadn’t heard anything or seen anything. “Just watching for them,” he said. “They’re going to be coming for me because I won’t call for them to come. Ah. I knew it. I always experience this frisson…that’s one of your words…this frisson when I’m being watched. There they are now. I love you. I’ll see you again. Vow to me, we’ll meet again here as soon as we can.”

I held his hand. I wouldn’t let him go.

I had no idea of the names of the four women who came towards us, except that they were clones of Kapetria, or of Kapetria’s clones. They were magnificent with the same deep shade of bronze to their skin and the same large black eyes with flecks of gold in them, and lots of gold in their long hair. They wore rouge on their lips and they had on sundresses of light cotton with only straps over their beautifully molded shoulders, and bright gold bracelets on their naked arms.

“Good evening, Prince.”

“Good evening, ladies.” I pushed the chair back and rose to my feet. “Can’t you give us just a few minutes longer?”

“Amel gets overexcited, Prince,” said the one who had spoken, while the other ones nodded. “Tell you what…we’re double-parked. We’ll go around a couple of blocks and come back. With this traffic, it will take us a little while. But only if you promise you’ll both be right here when we return.”

“Promise, cross my heart, hope to die!” said Amel. His face was wet with tears. “If you take me right now, I’ll never forgive you.”

Off they went, piling back into their large black Land Rover and steering the car into the sluggish stream that was moving on the boulevard.

He shuddered, and tried to swallow his tears. “I love them,” he said. “They are my people now, and I am of them. But I—. I can’t endure their relentless control.”

“There’s so much I want to ask you,” I said. “So much I want to know. They won’t prevent us from knowing and loving one another.”

He appeared doubtful, sad. A dark fear gripped me.