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you felt you had to get away from home. I’m just sad you couldn’t tell me.’
    ‘I didn’t feel I could tell anyone at the time.’ Georgie admitted. ‘I haven’t told any of my friends. I just thought Mike … He seemed so solid, so mature …’ She looked over at her sister. ‘But it turned out he was a bully, like Dad—except he wore a suit and instead of beer it was expensive whisky. It only took a few weeks for me to come to my senses. I’m lucky …’
    ‘Lucky?’
    ‘A lot of women stay. I got out of it quickly. It just took a couple of years to face up to the paperwork and legalities and then another year of waiting. My divorce came through just as I was leaving for here. I’m finally free.’
    ‘You’ve been free for ages,’ Felicity said, but Georgie didn’t try to explain her feelings to her sister. How some principle had held her back, how until her divorce was through she hadn’t felt free to start dating, and in many ways it had been the healthiest thing for her—that time had taught her that she didn’t need a man to escape to, or run to. Everything she needed, she possessed already.
    ‘You won’t tell Mum.’
    ‘God, no!’ Felicity’s response was immediate. ‘Anddon’t talk about it here, they just wouldn’t understand at all.’
    ‘Promise me that you won’t tell anyone.’ The intimate conversation was interrupted. Headlights flooded the lounge with light. The sound of a car unfamiliar to Georgie in the large grounds was followed by chatter and laughter and then the slam of a car door. There was the running of feet on the stone stairs and Felicity’s lips tightened.
    ‘He’s so inconsiderate. It was the same last time he was here.’ And when a wail came up over the intercom she pulled open the lounge door to address Ibrahim, who was talking loudly to a sleepy maid.
    ‘You’ve woken Azizah.’
    ‘Not necessarily.’ So effortlessly he slipped from Arabic to English. ‘I may be mistaken, but I’m sure I read somewhere that babies tend to wake in the night.’
    Sarcasm suited him, it
so
suited him that Georgie let out a small giggle, but Ibrahim did not look at her. Instead he spoke to Felicity. ‘I’m sorry if I woke her … I forgot there is now a baby in the palace.’
    ‘There’ll be two soon!’ Felicity said. ‘So you’d better start remembering.’
    ‘No need. I’m flying back to London in a couple of days, before the palace turns into a crèche.’ As Felicity headed off to tend to her baby, he acknowledged Georgie, his voice distinctly cool when he did. ‘I was not expecting to see you here.’ Ibrahim said. ‘You never mentioned you were coming.’
    ‘Neither did you,’ Georgie pointed out.
    ‘Your flight?’ Ibrahim checked. ‘How was it?’ And something told her he was concerned that she
had
seen him, that she knew the sleek, poised man who had arrived in Zaraq had not been the man that left London, but Georgie chose not to tell.
    ‘Wonderful.’ Georgie said, but didn’t elaborate, and Ibrahim said nothing to fill the stretch of silence, just walked across the lounge and sat on the sofa opposite as a maid brought in his drink. She didn’t know what to say to him and he certainly wasn’t giving her any help. Georgie was relieved when her sister called from the stairs. ‘Georgie! Can you give me a hand with Azizah?’
    ‘I’ll say goodnight, then.’ He didn’t return the farewell, but she watched his jaw tighten when clearly she hadn’t jumped quickly enough and Felicity called to her again. As she walked past, Ibrahim caught her wrist. ‘That’s what maids are for.’ She looked down at his long fingers wrapped around her pale wrist and she wished he would drop the contact, wished he would not look up at her because her face was on fire. ‘Tell her you are taking refreshments with me.’
    ‘I’m happy to help my sister with Azizah.’
    ‘At one in the morning?’ Ibrahim said. ‘Does she have you on call all night?’ He