“Yo, which noble family’s young lady did you abduct?”

  “What abduction? This is my little sister, Aria,” confidently said Reza as he hooked his arm around Kamaria’s shoulder.

  She turned to look at him and in the next moment, he almost jumped to move away from her.

  “Newly adopted so she still bites a little, let’s be more careful next time Lalla,” he said with a smile while trying to keep Kamaria’s dangerous little hands in place.

  “I can see you have an extraordinary familial relationship,” said the woman with a chuckle.

  Most of the ladies and gentlemen that Reza introduced to the shop were always thoroughly charmed by this charismatic man so they would never have been this playful with him so the two genuinely seemed a little like quarrelling siblings.

  Subsequently, these people who were introduced always ended up becoming loyal customers due to the great reputation of the shop throughout the capital, whether it was the way they dealt with their customers or the quality of their goods.

  He had never taken any of these encounters seriously since it involved business so where did this new little sister come from?

  “I’ve let the Master see something ridiculous, pardon the intrusion,” said Kamaria with a small nod.

  The shop Master had seen all sorts of customers in her years of running the business and this demeanour in such a young woman was rather fascinating. She blew out the smoke of her pipe to the side, before carefully putting the little pipe away in a gilded ashtray.

  “Lord Reza, where could you get such an adorable little thing who would come with you voluntarily? I just don’t believe it.”

  “Stop giving her bad ideas about me and show us a few pieces that will suit her.”

  “Me?” asked Kamaria, pointing to herself.

  “Of course, I said this outing was to show you my sincerity, didn’t I? We’ll need to put together a little look for the birthday banquet amongst other things,” insisted Reza before raising his hand and gesturing to one of the shop attendants.

  It was time to start a very grand project.

  They all knew the generous young Lord who was on good terms with the owner and regularly brought the store some very good business. Naturally a few attendants suddenly appeared to fulfil their duties.

  The shop Master said a few words to them and suddenly Kamaria was involved in a big flurry.

  She was just about carried into a private room and fabric samples were put on her shoulder. The attendant flipped through what could only be described as a sample book.

  “Too dark, the young Lady is attending a birthday banquet. Give us something a bit livelier,” said Reza from his comfortable seat with his one ankle on his knee and a coffee service at his side.

  “I agree, and samples of the patterned pinks,” said the Master.

  “The embroidered lighter silks please, not the brocade, that would be a bit heavy,” added Reza.

  Kamaria could barely keep up with everything that was being said but the attendants seemed to be used to it and became busy as soon as the requests were given.

  “Weren’t we just going to pick jewellery?” asked Kamaria.

  “Of course, but we must know what we’re wearing to pick appropriate jewellery. If we have a connection to one of the capital’s best textile stores, we can offer our customers a full service and mutually benefit each other,” said the Master with a wink.

  It made sense to Kamaria. When a customer came in to buy jewellery and accessories, the attendants could always suggest certain fabrics and outfits that would be appropriate with the pieces, sending the customers to the other business to have clothing made or customised.

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  Whereas if the customer went to the clothing store, they could suggest the jewellery and accessories that could go with the outfits. Both businesses benefited in this type of partnership.

  The visit at the jewellery store surprisingly went by in a flurry of choosing fabrics, threads, beads and crystals with drinks and snacks in-between to keep everyone energetic. Kamaria was convinced that if she fell asleep at any moment, it was highly likely to wake up only the next day.

  “Do you want to choose a few things for the girls?”

  “Are you sure?” she asked while holding onto Reza’s arm.

  “Look at you, you’re more excited for other people than for yourself,” said Reza lightly hitting her on the forehead with his fan but all she did was smile.

  It was the most genuine and silly smile he had ever seen from her in the little while that they had known each other. Even the way she held onto his arm was her just trying to act adorable. It suited her being able to be this carefree. It couldn’t be good for her to always be such a composed little madam at her age.

  “I’m not too sure about what she likes though,” said a young man to another beside him as they followed behind the store attendant.

  “They’re very professional here. I’m sure you’ll find something suitable.”

  “Would the gentlemen like to have a look at our display pieces before a custom order consultation?” asked the attendant.

  “If you wouldn’t mind,” replied the young man that had spoken first.

  “Go on, I’ll just take a look around by myself,” said Urien.

  His family would sometimes invite store attendants to the house to see new goods or when they were shopping for special occasions. With this kind of service, he did not visit the physical store very often so took the chance to look around.

  This was considered one of the premium stores in the capital. The physical building itself was not overly ostentatious, but all the goods were worth their price or lack thereof. Some of the pieces could be found in auction houses around the empire and couldn’t have just ordinary prices.

  Such big businesses usually had very powerful families behind them, but the owner of this store never seemed to be associated with any of them.

  It was run by a woman only known as Master Nazanin who had carved a name for herself in not only business but also social circles as a successful merchant, but it had to be wondered if she was the real owner.

  How could a lone woman without backing behind her be able to stand the bigwigs in the imperial capital if one of them felt offended?

  Rather than looking at the beautiful pieces in front of him Urien’s mind tended to wander and think about all the diplomatic connections that a merchant could possibly have to maintain such a vast luxury goods operation.

  While his mind was wandering, he realized that Khayri’s birthday was not far, and he had not chosen a gift yet. If the disorderly little prince found this out, Urien would never know peace in his life ever again.

  While trying to find something that could catch his eye, he couldn’t help but notice a couple doing some shopping.

  He assumed the pair was a couple from the intimate hold in such a public place though he couldn’t fully see the lady from beyond some of the display cabinets and the angle at which they were standing.

  The man was so eye catching that even a few ladies around were whispering while looking at him. This type seemed popular.

  Having spent enough time Khayri, Urien could recognise people of a similar somewhat frivolous nature, but the man seemed a little more mature with a certain refinement to him.

  He was happily picking out some flowery accessories and by his movements seemed be putting them in the lady’s hair beside him.

  Was it possible for noblewomen to be so easily pleased with just fabric flowers? They were not the cheap since they were silk, but for more prominent families they were usually bought as novel little favours for ladies if one was visiting a household with many women.

  Otherwise, they were given out as gifts to take home after hosting some kind of banquet. Sometimes, they were even for the maids and attendants if their lady or the person courting her was generous.

  It suddenly made him realise that he had not bought much for Lili or Raisa in a while. Just because they were childhood acquaintances didn’t mean that he could get away without pleasing themas well if he wanted to stay in Kamaria’s good books. These two were the closest people to her.

  A few gasps and excited whispers suddenly interrupted his thoughts, and he saw an attendant walking towards the couple with an open box in hand.

  They were likely being shown one of the exclusive pieces which explained people’s delightful surprise. No doubt these type of luxury goods needed people to be in a certain wealth bracket to even see them let alone purchase them, so it made him wonder who the man was.

  Urien only caught a glimpse of shiny pink gems before his friend returned.

  “Turns out I didn’t need a custom order, they only have a few of each design anyway so I found some good things.”

  “That’s great, hopefully she’ll like it, maybe this time next year will be your wedding anniversary.”

  “Oh, shut up,” said the young man with a shy but satisfied smile.