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Hakim smiled and withdrew the file he carried below his arhly detailed picture of an ite the royal jeweller if he could reproduce the Hope of Dharia…’

Rashad stared at him in astonishment ‘But it is lost How can it be reproduced?’

‘What har created? It is a powerful symbol of the monarchy It was the fa there is very little likelihood that the original ring will ever be found,’ Hakim pointed out seriously ‘I feel that this is the optimum time to do this Our people feel safer when old traditions are upheld—’

‘Our people would prefer a fairy tale to the reality that ether a corrupt and power-hungry government,’ Rashad interposed with the bluntness that was his trademark and which never failed to horrify the more diplomatic Hakim

While consternation at such frankness froze the older man’s bearded face, Rashad walked over to the hich overlooked the gardens being industriously watered by the palace’s army of staff

He was thinking about the ring superstitiously nickna had been a gorgeous fire opal of fiery hue, alorn by the King at cereold and inscribed with holy words, the ring had acquired an alht into the farandmother, whose devotion to charitable enterprises had ensured that she was adored throughout the kingdoht wear a crown or wield a sceptre but in Dharia the th and authority had rested historically and e It had vanished after the palace had been looted and, in spite of intensive searches, no indication of the opal’s whereabouts had ever been established No, the ring was gone for good and Rashad could see Hakined replace

‘Order the ring,’ he instructed ruefully

A fake ring for a fake king, he reflected with innate cynicise that he had not been born to sit on the throne of Dharia The youngest of three sons, he had been an afterthought until his brothers died along with his parents He had been left at hoetic and noisy little boy and that reality had saved his life Rashad’s massive popularity with the public still shook him even while it persuaded him to bend his own ideals to become the man his country needed him to be

Once he had wanted to fall in love and then he had got lorious for all of five minutes and then it had died slowly and painfully No, he wasn’t in the ain Yet he had also once believed that lust rong until he fell in lusthis education at a British university Whatever, he was still grateful to have enjoyed that fleeting period of sexual freedom before he had to return honified the rigid court protocols that ensured that Rashad was forced to live in a little gilded soap bubble of perceived perfection as a figurehead that inspired the most ridiculous awe Yes, his people would enjoy the restoration of the ring and all the hoopla of dreams and expectations that ith it…but he would not

Polly glanced at her sister, Ellie, and ed blonde woman approached them after their mother’s short funeral, which had taken place in an almost empty church

Both young wo event Ellie, o years younger than Polly, had no uepresence while she was still very young Their grandirls and the older woman had passed away only a few months earlier For more than ten years the Dixon sisters had not even known if their mother was still alive That hy it had been a considerable shock to be contacted out of the blue by a co