Chapter 403

It had stopped snowing when they left Ingledean. The evening air was crisp and cold, and Kate shivered in the cream linen skirt and jacket that she had changed into for the journey. Ahsan had warned her that it would be hot in Qubbah, and she only hoped he was right.

At least she no longer looked like a "menial domestic," she thought, recalling his scathing description of her when he first learned that she was Farhan’s widow. Stung by his remarks, she had taken time with her appearance and teamed her suit with a pale blue silk blouse, swept her unruly curls into a knot on top of her head, and even added a touch of make-up—just a soft taupe shadow on her eyelids and pink gloss on her lips.

She had felt supremely self-conscious when she’d walked down the stairs to where he'd been waiting in the hall with Hazem, and the flare of sexual heat in his eyes had caused her heart to jerk painfully beneath her ribs.

Her doubts about taking Hazem to visit his family in Qubbah were intensifying by