The Di Sione Secret Baby. Майя Блейк

gaze lowered and swung across the room to the exquisitely carved console table, on which rested six stunning pieces of art. The intricately designed eggs were immediately recognisable as the much-fabled Fabergé eggs once belonging to the Russian dynasty. And those weren’t the only jaw-dropping items in the room.

      Everywhere Allegra looked, objects of priceless beauty graced surfaces, from rare Egyptian coins in glass cabinets to solid gold bridal head ornaments from India.

      The article she’d read on the plane had mentioned Rahim and his parents as being great collectors of art. But how could they find beauty in inanimate objects while the economy suffered?

      A knock came on the door before she could let loose the frustration growling through her belly. At Allegra’s beckon, Nura entered, her slippered feet gliding silently across the marble floor.

      ‘Mistress, can I get you anything? Some tea and sandwiches, perhaps? Or I can summon your personal chef to prepare a light meal if you wish?’

      ‘No, Earl Grey tea with a dash of lemon and sandwiches would be perfect, thank you.’

      Nura lifted a nearby phone and relayed the request, then turned just as Allegra was making her way to the bathroom.

      ‘You are travelling outside the city walls with His Highness this afternoon?’ she enquired. At Allegra’s nod, she continued. ‘You’re going to visit the Nur-Aram tribe. It is the place I was named after.’ She smiled, then worry creased her youthful face. ‘It is a difficult place to get to. The journey can be quite rough.’

      ‘It’s fine,’ Allegra reassured. ‘I’ve visited worse places, I’m sure.’

      Nura continued to look worried, but then dashed forward when Allegra reached the wide marble bathtub. ‘I will draw your bath for you, Mistress.’

      ‘Please, call me Allegra.’

      Nura looked horrified, her soft brown eyes widening in alarm. ‘No, I cannot.’

      Surprised, Allegra asked, ‘Why not?’

      ‘Because it would be disrespectful to call a mistress of His Highness by her first name.’

      Allegra wasn’t sure why her stomach dropped and rolled with such acrobatic skill it would’ve made an elite athlete proud. She was pretty sure something had been lost in translation. Or assumptions had been made because of where Rahim had placed her in his palace? ‘Are there a lot of mistresses in this wing?’ she blurted before she could stop herself.

      Nura nodded. ‘At this time of the year, all of the fifteen residences are occupied.’

      Nausea rose in Allegra’s belly. She tried to bite her tongue, but the next question spilled out anyway. ‘And all the fifteen occupants...they’re related to Sheikh Rahim?’

      Nura looked puzzled as she straightened from checking the temperature of the four gold-plated taps that gushed water into the cavernous bath. ‘No, they are not His Highness’s relations. But they’re very important to him.’

      Allegra tried to laugh but the sound came out skewed. ‘Wow, next you’ll be telling me there’s a secret passage between this wing and the sheikh’s bedchamber, like in the movies.’

      Nura’s laugh was more natural, a shy twinkle in her eye as she plucked warming towels from a rail and laid them within arm’s reach of the bath. ‘There is a connecting passage, but it’s not secret. Everyone knows it is the last door along this hallway.’

      Allegra’s nausea increased. She’d visited enough cultures around the world on behalf of her charity to know that harems and the taking of concubines were still a thing, even in the twenty-first century.

      She didn’t know how else to ask the question burning on her tongue without coming straight out with it—does the sheikh keep concubines?—so she pulled hard on her diplomatic nerve and bit back the urge.

      As detestable as the idea was, it was none of her business. Rahim Al-Hadi’s sexual conquests, singular or numerous, shouldn’t be something she wasted valuable time or brain matter over.

      With a wrench at the master tap, she shut the water off. ‘Thanks for your help, Nura. I’ve got it from here.’