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He sent her the briefest of looks before continuing ‘In Qudamah, your Sheikh is permitted by law to have a harem of up to sixty women’

Sienna sat bolt upright She hadn’t known that!

‘But I do not wish to have sixty woamy’

There was an unmistakable ripple in the room—as if he had just come out and declared that he had converted to cannibalism!

Now his eyes were on her, and they were very steady

‘For I have found my very own houri, and I intend to make her my wife’

Later, Sienna would discover the significance of that particular word A houri was a beautiful young wo his people that he had found a bride who, although she ht not at first appear so, was actually a suitable bride for their Sheikh

She would also learn that Abdul-Aziz had travelled to England with the intention of atteinable riches to stay away fro with Cara in the homespun tranquillity of her mother’s house

‘I realised that I had never allowed myself to think beyond the stereotype of what I believed you to be,’ he told her ‘And of course by then I realised that rown to love you—and suddenly I could see why’

And it didn’t take long to realise that Hashim’s mother wanted only her son’s happiness

For when it all came down to it palaces and different cultures counted for very little In the end, the human spirit was the same the world over

EPILOGUE

A DOLLOP of mashed banana landed in a sliled as she wiped it away, looking up into the bemused black eyes of her husband as he surveyed the breakfast scene before him

Hashim smiled How his life had been transforlide of numerous servants who catered to his every whieous wriggling son on her lap

‘What a merry dance he leads you,’ he observed ruefully