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“You think, Montgo around your kinfolk and not tell the in the nude?”

“I won’t be with the over his shoulder

“Oh, that’s right” The man had a sneer in his voice “You’re rich Own lots of houses, do you?”

Kit wasn’t sure if he was supposed to answer that or not Soo he’d realized that he couldn’t spend the summer before he shipped out with his family They were too perceptive and too nosy They’d knoas up to so and they’d do whatever was necessary to find out what it was And knowing theht make sure it didn’t happen

No one was to know that he was training to go undercover in Libya A young man named Muammar al-Gaddafi had just taken over the country and Kit was to find out what he planned to do Thanks to his life with his diplomat father, Kit was fluent in Arabic in all its dialects From the classic, to the Lebanese that was half French, to the Arabic spoken by the Saudis that came from inside a person’s throat, he knew them all

And Kit had inherited the hawk nose of his father’s family and the dark eyes of the Italian ancestry of his ht clothes, he could sit in a souk, smoke a bubble pipe, and no one would pay any attention to him

Months ago, one of his father’s friends, a former American ambassador to Syria, had spent a week at their house in Cairo Kit had seen the yptians, ate schwarument in Arabic with a cabdriver Just before the ambassador left, he’d asked to speak to Kit in private He started by asking if Kit would like to help his country It had been a dra that appealed to Kit’s deep patri

otism Without hesitation he’d said yes

It hadn’t been easy to lie to his fae to buuess the truth He’d stared at his son for a while, then said, “What can we do to help you prepare for thisthis trip?”

“Get ht, but his father had nodded in understanding

Two days later, Kit received an invitation to spend the summer at Tattwell, an old plantation owned by relatives of his tons

When Kit was silent at the question, the big man waved his hand “Go on Get out of here Just remember that I’ll be one of theo!”

The next night Kit arrived in Suinia, and the next day he looked into the eyes of the woman he would love for the rest of his life But Miss Olivia Paget didn’t feel the same way about hih his life depended on it, Kit worked to change her mind

Chapter One

Suinia

Present day