After reading a few chapters back, my thoughts for the 2nd concubine candidates are:
- Bona, obviously his best choice. Good chemistry, competent in her craft, approved by both Fransesco and the King. The only problem is that the both of them aren't interested.
- Lucrezia, the exact opposite of Bona. Also seems like the most useless of the bunch. A liability as her concerns have so far been quite selfish, which makes her quite susceptible to coercion.
- Taraye, looks like a good business woman. Clearly has good connections and well travelled. Second best choice IMHO. Just don't know if she's interested or not. She can probably see the benefits though.
- Fikriya, great in magic. Clearly can become an asset. But her current intrest is also focused on magic. She's as focused as Bona, but unlike Bona it doesn't seem to connect with Zenjirou.
- Nazeema and Shula, currently hard to seem them connect with Zenjirou. Mostly out in the field like Freya. They have very low contact with the royal family because of their traditional life style, so I'm not sure how acceptable that would be for the twin kingdom.
Married women obviously don't count.
In rare cases, they were foreign royal women, though only if actually marrying them to other rulers failed, since at least under Chrisendom, this kind of arrangement was not recognized as marriage.
I really thought that was the norm. Though I admit, I'm not really familiar with the situation for concubines or multiple wives in Europe. In Asia and the middle east, the lesser kingdoms seem to love offering their daughters as wives to other kingdoms.