The Sheikh's Son (8 page)

“I didn’t know you could grow them in gardens in Yazan,” she said.

 “A desert rose in this country is rare,” Akbar explained, “but to find one in a private garden is rarer still. The owner didn’t cultivate it; it sprang up of its own accord. The seeds must have floated across on the wind and decided to settle here.”

“Is this why you brought me here? To show me this?” she asked.

“To show you all of it.” Akbar opened his arms out wide. “Ali, what do you think of the garden and the house?”

“It’s way better than our place in London. Who lives here?” Ali asked.

“You do! It’s yours!”

Sarah wasn’t sure that she’d heard him correctly. “What do you mean? We aren’t going to stay in your camp? Have you rented this place?”

“No, I bought it for you and Ali to live in and, of course, I plan to stay here, too, when I’m in the city.”

It was an amazing and very generous offer, but Sarah couldn’t spend her life locked up in a walled house, no matter how gilded the cage was. She knew that many local women spend years locked away in houses, sometimes for their entire lives, never going out, just waiting for the husbands to come and see them.

“But what will I do?”she asked. “I can’t just leave my job in London.”

“You can work here. I’ve arranged for you to have an interview at the Women’s Hospital tomorrow morning.”

“But I’m not prepared for an interview. I didn’t bring any of my papers or certificates.”

“They have all of that on their records from when you worked there before and from what I understand, it will be
you
interviewing
them
. They want to give you your old job back, if you’re satisfied with what they can offer.”

Sarah was thrilled, but there still remained the question of the letter of consent. “So you’ll grant me permission?”

Akbar pulled a letter out of his pocket, slowly unfolded it and passed it to Sarah. In beautifully written calligraphy was an official letter stating that Sheikh Akbar Al-Zafir granted permission for his wife, Dr. Sarah Greenwich, to work full-time at the Women’s Hospital.

“I asked a friend to write it,” he explained, “but I wrote my signature myself.”

Sarah looked and there at the bottom of the letter, in a clear hand, was Akbar’s name written in Arabic.

“Thank you, but I can’t accept this.” She handed back the letter.

Akbar looked stunned. “Why ever not? I thought you’d be pleased. This way we can all be together. You can live and work here in the city. I can come and visit, and then at weekends you can come out to the camp. That way we can all be together, at least most of the time.”

“But what about Ali? Where will he go to school?”

“I’ll be fine, Mum, don’t worry about me,” Ali said, completely unaware of what local school conditions were like.

Akbar walked back into the villa and then returned to the garden a few moments later, holding something that looked like a glossy magazine.

“Our son has a British passport, so he can go to the British International School here. It’s small, only three hundred students, but the facilities are excellent. Look.” He gave her the magazine, which was the school prospectus. On the cover was a picture of happy, smiling children of various nationalities. “I’ve already asked them and they’d be willing to accept Ali next term, starting in January. That is, if you agree.”

Sarah flipped through the prospectus. The school certainly looked impressive. “We’ll go and visit the school while we’re here and if Ali likes it . . .”

“I’m sure you’ll love it and love living here, won’t you, Ali?” Akbar turned to his son for his opinion.

“What about my horse?” Ali asked.

“Your horse is with me at my camp. You can come out every weekend and we’ll go out riding together in the desert. Would you like that?”

Ali thought it sounded great.

“I’ll have to go back to London to sort out our things and the house,” Sarah said. “But I can think of nothing better than living here.”

Although she and Akbar would be apart for some of the time, they would still be a lot closer than they had been, and even if the living arrangements had their imperfections, all Sarah could think was that no marriage was perfect. There was also the question of the school for Ali. The prospectus looked great, but then they always did. However, at that moment, standing in the garden, with the scent of lemons, oranges, and jasmine in the air, and her husband and son at her side, she was as near to being in paradise as she thought it was possible to be.

* * * * *

Follows Sarah’s story in Parts 1 and 2 of
The Desert Sheikh
series:

    

Available from all Amazon sites, including Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

* * * * *

From the author

I hope you enjoyed
The Sheikh’s Son
, the third part of The
Desert Sheikh
series. After I wrote my first novel,
The Royal Sheikh
, many of my readers asked me whether I could write another sheikh romance. However, this time I decided to write about a different type of sheikh. Unlike Sheikh Rafiq in
The Royal Sheikh
, Sheikh Akbar is not a member of the international jet-set. Instead, he comes from the more remote parts of the Arabian Peninsula and rules over a local Bedouin tribe.

The initial idea for this sheikh romance was inspired by a story I heard many years ago about a family that was travelling to the airport in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, and on the way there, they were kidnapped by a local warlord. They were released two weeks later and reported that they had been treated very well by their kidnappers, more like guests than hostages. The memory of this story started me thinking about what would happen if the person who was kidnapped was a single woman instead of a family, and what would happen if she fell in love with the warlord?

If you would like to find out what I’m up to at the moment, you can connect with me online at the following places:

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/KatherynLane

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/KatherynLane.Author

Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/KatherynLane

My blog:
http://katheryn-lane.blogspot.com

You can also contact me at:
[email protected]

I would love to hear from you!

Best wishes,

Katheryn Lane

* * * * *

“The book is a must read for the romantic at heart. . . If you believe in romance then you will want to read this book.” - Regina Puckett, author of
Waiting for Mary Elizabeth

“I think this is an incredible read and it will remain on my shelf for years to come.” - Michelle Hughes, author of
Defying The Sheikh

Clare McKay is a dedicated architect with no time for womanising men. That is, until she accidentally meets Sheikh Rafiq Al Kahil, an Arabian prince, known in the international press as the Playboy Prince. Clare is intent on not falling for his seductive charm, but when he asks her to design a mansion, he presents her with an offer that she can’t refuse. Once she finds herself alone with him in the Arabian desert, how long will she be able to hold out against his advances? And will he be able to cast aside his womanising past for her, as well as a secret engagement to an Arabian princess?

THE ROYAL SHEIKH
is available from all Amazon sites, including
Amazon.com
and
Amazon.co.uk

* * * * *

"Great entertainment . . . You will fall in love with the spirited damsel in distress that doesn't fear anyone" -
Readers Favorite

"There was such great chemistry between Mary and the sexy Paulo, I couldn't stop reading" - Sarah Elle Emm, author of
Marrying Missy

When Mary Delaney is offered an all-expenses paid, luxury holiday in South America with her journalist boyfriend, the last thing she expects to happen is to find herself stuck in the middle of nowhere with no boyfriend, no money, and no way of getting back to London. When an irresistibly sexy landowner, Don Paulo de Castile, tells her that he has just won her in a game of poker, should she believe him, or try to find out what has happened to her missing boyfriend?

Paulo didn’t realise at the beginning of his poker game that he was playing to win Mary, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to a person he once loved. However, it takes more than a game of cards to win Mary’s heart and Paulo isn’t the only local man interested in her. As well as battling for Mary’s affection, he has to fight off the attentions of the local mafia in a fight that can have only one outcome . . .

HER LATIN LOVER
is
available from all Amazon sites, including
Amazon.com
and
Amazon.co.uk

* * * * *