“Father,” Adam said, “I am going to marry Rayna.”
Lord Delford said to the earl, “You know, my lord, Rayna is my daughter.”
“I had forgotten how like her mother she was. You are to be congratulated, Adam. Well, child, do you want my son?”
“With all my heart, my lord.”
The earl paused a moment, and his brow furrowed. “I am not certain that it is a match I approve. After all, Delford, you have scarce behaved toward my son in a conciliating manner.”
“Clare—”
“I believe you even called my son a scoundrel. Scarcely a term that a father could appreciate.”
“He will change his mind, sir, when he gets to know Adam,” Rayna said with great seriousness.
“Do you really believe so, my dear? I do not know. Perhaps, Delford, you can convince me that your daughter will content my son.”
“Your jest wears thin, my lord,” the viscount said.
“Perhaps you are right,” the earl said. “Why don’t we send our children away and share a bottle of wine?”
Arabella giggled, then quickly coughed into her hands. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Yes, I would like a bath. Poor Hassan, he looks like a worried aunt, surrounded by all these foreigners. Rayna, I’ll take you to the harem.”
“Harem.”
“She will join you in a moment, Bella,” Adam said, drawing Rayna’s hand through his arm.
“I suppose,” Arabella said, eyeing the two of them, “that you want to kiss her and tell her all sorts of nonsense.”
“Indeed,” Adam said. “Now that I can forget about you, my dear, all my attention can shift to this little nuisance.”
“Nuisance? Arabella, don’t believe him. Had it not been for me, I am certain he would have done something unbelievably foolish.”
Adam flung up his hands. “All right, enough from both of you. Rayna, I swear you are no longer a nuisance. Father, Lord Delford, if you don’t mind, Rayna and I will stroll for a few minutes in the gardens.”
The viscount looked as though he would protest, but the earl gently nudged him in the ribs and led him away.
“Well, thank heaven, it’s all over,” Rayna said.
“And all of us are in one piece.” Adam smiled down at Rayna. “It would appear that I was right to have faith in my sire’s ability to bring your father around.”
“True.”
Adam kissed her and watched her follow one of the slaves to the harem. When he rejoined his father and the viscount, he heard Lyndhurst say, “I don’t like it, Clare. A harem. It’s ridiculous. You are certain they will be all right?”
“They will be surrounded only by women, my dear Edward,” the earl said. “Certainly safer than with the men they’ve decided to wed.”
“Father—” Adam said, his eyes narrowing.
“Ah,” the earl said, “here is Kamal. Perhaps you would like to accompany him, my son. I will become acquainted with him later.”
“Father,” Adam said, “Kamal is not what he appears. He was educated in Europe.”
The earl nodded.
“I had no idea,” the viscount said slowly, once they were alone again, “that Cassie had been harmed. She never told me.”
“No. It has been many years now, yet every once in a while she still dreams of it.”