From One Night to Desert Queen by Pippa Roscoe

Author:Pippa Roscoe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-05-11T15:51:47+00:00

* * *

Khalif’s mind screeched to a halt. No one outside the family had visited the oasis. So there was no way that Star could have known about the crossed palms. A sudden memory of him and Faizan digging at the base of the huge ancient trees, convinced there was buried treasure to be found, filled his mind and heart, his ears echoing with the sounds of boys’ laughter and the feel of sand against his skin.

‘What do the diaries say of Hātem?’ he ventured, half hoping she was being truthful and half still disbelieving.

‘Quite a lot,’ Star replied with a smile. ‘That he’d seen what had happened in Egypt and the way it was being torn between Britain and the Europeans, the impossible loan rates and finally the political coup. According to Catherine, Hātem insisted that Duratra had been fine without being under the British protectorate and would continue to be so. He’d been surprised when Catherine had agreed with him though.’

‘Why did she?’

Star bit down on her lip, distracting him momentarily. ‘Because she knew what it was like to live with a gun to her head.’ She turned to look at the desert as if needing to gather her thoughts.

‘When Hātem and Catherine returned from the oasis, it was to news that her father had died. Everything that Catherine had, all she had known, would be inherited by her cousin—a man who had made it clear he intended marriage. Would it surprise you to know that Hātem asked Catherine to marry him?’

‘Yes,’ Khalif barked. And then, ‘No. At this point, Star, I don’t think anything would surprise me,’ he said, reaching for his tea to quench both his thirst and his wonder at all of this...information he’d never known about his ancestor.

‘Catherine knew that he was betrothed to Alyah. She thought Alyah would be a good bride for Hātem.’

‘Really?’ Khalif asked, knowing, of course, that Hātem had married Alyah.

Star leaned towards him with one of the little leather journals she had brought with her gently held open and pointed to the top of one of the pages.

He will be happy with Alyah. Kind, loving and patient... We are too similar, too adventurous, too impatient. But he refuses to see that.

‘What did she mean by that? That he refuses to see it?’

‘Hātem didn’t believe that Catherine had to return to England. She said, Men think women know nothing of duty. Sometimes it is all we’ve ever known. He just couldn’t see why she wouldn’t stay and they parted on not so great terms.’

‘But if they left on such bad terms, how did Alyah end up with the necklace?’ He felt like an impatient schoolboy, desperate to hear the end of the story.

‘I thought this was fanciful and...?’

He cut her off mid-taunt with a glare.

‘Really?’ she demanded. ‘Does that stare really work on your staff?’

‘Yes!’ he groused. ‘Just not with you,’ he said through only half reluctant laughter.

‘Catherine wrote to Hātem when she got back to England. Her marriage to her cousin Anthony was much worse than she had expected.

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