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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 women. I wish for only one, for I believe in monogamy.’
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 woman but—far more crucially—she was a virgin. He was telling his people that he had found a bride who, although she might 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 attempting to bribe her with unimaginable riches to stay away from the Sheikh. But then he had seen her playing 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 my Sheikh had grown 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 slimy lump on the back of her hand and Sienna giggled 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 transformed! Gone was the starchy formality and the slow glide of numerous servants who catered to his every whim. Instead, there sat his beautiful Sienna, with their gorgeous wriggling son on her lap.
‘What a merry dance he leads you,’ he observed ruefully.
‘Ah, but what wonderful co-ordination he has,’ cooed Sienna. ‘Only eight months old, and he’s practically feeding himself!’
‘Indeed,’ he murmured diplomatically, as another dollop of fruit was relayed across the linen tablecloth by the lively Prince Marzug.
Hashim had long given up trying to get Sienna to bring their son up in the conventional manner of royal princes, and she had resolutely refused to have child-care except when strictly necessary.
‘No one can love a baby like his mother,’ she had told him firmly. ‘Or his father,’ she had added impishly.
And in that he could not argue with her—though he enjoyed trying. For Marzug had stolen his heart the moment he had made his first lusty bawl. There was so much love in Hashim’s world now. His senses were raw and on fire with it. And Sienna had started it all. He looked at her.
Hard to believe as she sat in this scene of cosy domesticity, despite the grand dimensions of the room, that last night she had stunned the visiting French Ambassador at a reception given at the Palace in his honour. Hashim had watched with pride and love and lust as she had danced—slender and graceful as a flower swayed by the summer breeze. And alone afterwards, in the glorious privacy of their apartment, she had…she had…Hashim swallowed.
‘Are you all right, darling?’ Sienna questioned innocently, her words cutting in to a train of thought which was probably not advisable when he was due to inspect the Qudamah army in a little under an hour.
‘Yes, my beauty,’ he murmured, watching her pick up a cream sheet of paper. ‘What are you reading now?’
Absently, Sienna dropped a kiss onto Marzug’s curly black hair. ‘Oh, just a request—asking if I will be patron of the new children’s charity which is being set up in Nasim.’
‘Another charity?’ Hashim frowned. ‘But you do enough already.’
‘I know. But some of the work is extra-special, and…’ She put the letter down on the table, out of Marzug’s reach, and smiled at him. ‘I’m just flattered to be asked,’ she said simply.
And he understood. Perfectly.
Because it hadn’t been all plain sailing to get to where she was today. Sienna had had to work hard to get the people of Qudamah to accept her. Some of them hadn’t—certainly not straight away—but she had understood their doubts and fears about their beloved Sheikh marrying a woman from so far away, who knew little of their culture.
And there were some who had not finally thawed until she had produced the plump and bouncing olive-skinned infant Prince and fireworks had lit up the skies behind the Palace. Then they had finally taken her into their hearts.
