His Forbidden Diamond

Excited shouts went up in less than a minute. The birds had been spotted. They travelled fast, and it was only a matter of seconds before they returned. They could travel at over ninety miles an hour, Jazz remembered.

‘The male’s back first,’ Tyr noted, grimacing as he stared up at the sky. ‘Small and fast.’

‘But caring too.’ Jazz laughed as the male bird she was flying hovered instead of landing on her hand, as it should have done. It continued to wait in the sky until the female had landed safely on Tyr’s gauntlet. ‘You win,’ she conceded.

‘Only because your bird waited for his mate before he came in to land,’ Tyr observed as they rewarded the kestrels with tidbits before replacing their hoods. ‘They mate for life.’

She flashed a look at him. ‘This I know.’ Her cheeks warmed as her heart filled with love for Tyr. For the first time since their marriage ceremony, she really did feel like a young bride on the brink of a new life and a lifelong adventure with the man she loved.

‘And now there’s only one thing left to do,’ Tyr remarked as they watched the villagers start to pack up and leave.

‘And what’s that?’

‘Make love to my wife.’

‘I have to agree,’ Jazz said softly as they joined a group of villagers heading for home.

Linking fingers, they walked in silence, their steps in perfect harmony until the pavilion came into sight, when they started to walk faster. Jazz hoped that no one noticed they were practically running now. If anyone had noticed, they were far too polite to mention it.

EPILOGUE

THEY RENEWED THEIR vows in a very different land from Kareshi. In Skavanga beneath an ice-blue sky, where the heat of their love threatened to melt the tundra, along with Tyr’s three sisters, Britt, Eva and Leila, who attended this very special ceremony of dedication and renewal of their marriage vows with their husbands, Sharif, Roman and Raffa. Leila and Raffa brought their twins along, as well as their newborn baby boy, while both Britt and Eva were heavily pregnant, though even in the last months of her pregnancy Britt had gone the extra mile to work her usual magic on the party.

The ceremony was being held in the open air on the shores of the frozen lake, outside the cabin that had been in the Skavanga family since that first prospector had followed his dream and slammed his pickaxe into the icy ground. Back then there had been no facilities to speak of at the cabin, but each generation had made improvements, and now it had been transformed into a twinkling haven of warmth and welcome: a cosy nest amidst the snow, with flowers of the desert arranged around the door, and around the wedding arbour outside, beneath which Tyr and Jazz would stand.

‘I’m happy to get you off my hands,’ her brother teased Jazz as he kissed her warmly on both cheeks.

‘No more wedding plans to make and break?’ she teased him back.

Sharif’s eyes were warm with amusement. ‘I knew this would happen before you did, but if I’d said anything...’

‘My stubbornness would have held things up even more,’ Jazz suggested wryly.

‘So long as you’re happy, Jasmina.’

‘You can see I am, Sharif.’

‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘I can. And as my wedding gift to both of you,’ Sharif said in a louder voice so everyone could hear, ‘I am happy to announce that I am going to hand over control of home affairs in Kareshi to my sister, Jasmina, and to her husband, Tyr—my dear and trusted friend, who is like a brother to me. I do this because I know you will both put the interests of our people above your own, and I hope this edict will allow Jazz to continue with the work she has already started so successfully in Kareshi.’

‘Just hearing you call me Jazz is a great step forward.’ Laughing, Jazz threw herself into her brother’s arms and hugged him tight. ‘Thank you. Thank you, Sharif. There’s no limit to what we can achieve together.’

‘I think this might work, don’t you?’ Sharif turned his dark amused stare on Tyr.

‘I never had any doubt, Sharif.’

‘Oh, no. You don’t do that,’ Jazz exclaimed as she moved to stand between them. ‘I am never going to be invisible again.’

‘Invisible? Jazz?’ Eva exclaimed.

The two men exchanged a look over her head and laughed.

‘Not a chance,’ Tyr whispered as Sharif left them to join his wife, Britt. ‘You are the least invisible person I know.’