Читать книгу The Governess and the Sheikh - Marguerite Kaye - Страница 3

When I was asked to write my first ever sheikh story for the Mills & Boon Summer Sheikhs anthology, I assumed it would be a one-off. But the exotic magic of the desert cast its spell over me. The allure of an all-powerful prince, master and commander of a fantastical kingdom steeped in sensuality and set in the midst of a starkly beautiful and totally alien landscape, proved irresistible. I had to return.

Cassandra, heroine of this book, made her first appearance in INNOCENT IN THE SHEIKH’S HAREM, which tells the story of Prince Ramiz of A’Qadiz and Lady Celia, Cassie’s elder sister. English Rose meets Desert Prince, and in the process eminently sensible Celia discovers her true passionate nature, while autocratic, invulnerable Ramiz finds that ruling in splendid isolation can be a very lonely business. The enclosed world of the harem, the wild beauty of hot desert nights, the intervention of not only Celia’s father but her formidable aunt and Cassie, too, are the ingredients for a denouement in which Regency England meets exotic Arabia. Of course, true love ultimately bridges the cultural divide.

Cassie was smitten, as was I, with the intoxicating atmosphere of Arabia. Her story was begging to be told, and I was as eager as she to return to the sultry world of the desert in order to tell it. Two years after Celia and Ramiz are married Cassie has her opportunity, when she visits Celia in an effort to heal her broken heart. She swears she will never love again, but of course she’s never met anyone like Prince Jamil al-Nazarri, one of Ramiz’s closest allies. And Jamil has never met anyone like Cassie. Sparks fly from that first meeting. Their encounters are as scorching as the desert sun, as tumultuous as a desert storm.

I hope you enjoy reading Cassie and Jamil’s story as much as I loved telling it. Here in Scotland, as I write this, we’re having our usual damp and driech summer. Outside my window the rain is falling steadily, and the sea is iron-grey. Something tells me it won’t be long before I am transported back to the desert again.