Page 1 of At the Sheikh's Command
PROLOGUE
Gleave College, University of Oxford
“We have to find the Bahr Al Noor diamond,” said Dr. Leonora Cooper, looking across the highly polished dining table at her two colleagues. “That is the task we’ve been given and which I’ve accepted on our behalf. In six months, it will be the two hundred-year anniversary of this college, and the Chancellor has given us a significant grant to research the whereabouts of the diamond. It’s an opportunity we can’t pass up. It’ll make our careers.”
Dr. Janey Montgomerie, who looked more like a swimsuit model—all long, tanned limbs and sun-kissed hair—than a research fellow, frowned. “But surely there’s no way we can find it in time for the anniversary celebrations?” She shrugged. “I mean, the ancient texts talk of its unrivaled beauty, greater even than the Koh-i-Noor. It’s priceless. How do we stand a chance of finding it when others have failed for centuries?”
“Because,” said the last woman in the group, Sheikha Rosana bint Sumayya Al Khal—a princess in her own right and an exotic beauty who’d had to fight every inch of the way to gain respect from the men in her patriarchal homeland to use her excellent brain. “Each of us has unique knowledge that could help us find the diamond.”
“Exactly,” confirmed Leonora. “We are arguably the best equipped people in the world to locate it.”
“More so than the scholars of the countries to which the diamond is connected?” asked Janey, who still looked doubtful.
Both the other women nodded.
“They don’t have access to the college archives like we do,” said Leonora. “They don’t have access to the joint research you and Ashley have produced on harems.”
“True,” conceded Janey. “Now Ashley has married Sheikh Zyir, she’s passed on her research to me to continue.”
“And nor do they have access to your research, Rosana,” said Leonora.
Rosana bowed her head in dignified agreement.
“But where do we even start?” asked Janey.
“We start here.” Leonora pointed up to the ornate ceiling, whose centerpiece was an elaborate cut-glass dome. “With the newly revealed inscription. Thank goodness the college acted on our hunch to remove the false ceiling. The Persian text inscribed around the glass has to be the key. Two hundred years ago, Lord Gleave returned from his explorations in the Middle East and founded this college. And that was the last known sighting of the diamond.”
Janey put her hands behind her head, slipping down in the chair, and looked up at the ceiling to read the inscription out loud.
“In that elevated place of sensual indulgence, you shall find what you seek in the eye of heaven.”
She sighed. “Could mean anywhere.”
“No. It means somewhere very precise. Previous searches have focused on the belief that the diamond was stolen, either taken by Lord Gleave and ending up here, in England, which we know to be false. Or else it was stolen by bandits and taken to India. I don’t believe it’s there either.”
“Where do you think it is?”
“Sifra.”
Janey’s eyebrows rose. “Sifra? Um… That could make sense, given the literature I’ve read.”
Rosana looked thoughtful. “I agree. It would fit with the evidence we have.”
“And it makes sense to me, too. I spent many months in Sifra and I believe it will still be there.”
“So, what do you propose, Leonora? I mean, Sifra is hardly a country you can enter with ease. How do we go about locating the diamond if the country is a closed book to outsiders?”
Janey and Rosana fixed their gazes onto Leonora, as the most senior academic.
“We open the book,” Leonora said simply, swirling around her brandy and taking a sip, and then looking at the women. “We’ve discussed before each of our theories. I propose we take it in turns to travel to Sifra, enter the country by whatever means we can, and test our hypothesis. Say two weeks max each and do whatever we have to do in order to locate the diamond. Are you in?”
Janey nodded. “I’m in. Sounds cool. A bit of an adventure. And I’d love to see the harems I’ve read so much about.”
“Good. Rosana?”
Rosana was more cautious than Janey. And she had good reason to be. Sifra bordered her own country, which she avoided as much as possible. She bit her lip for a moment, then lifted her chin and shot them a brief, guarded smile. “I will go, too. After all, my studies on royal traditions are directly applicable. I’m sure we’ll find the diamond as part of a crown, or throne, but unadorned, so as not to attract notice. I doubt it will be fun, but it will be interesting. Count me in.”
Leonora expelled a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. If she wasn’t successful following her own area of expertise—religious symbolism in Middle Eastern culture—she needed these women. Between them, she was sure they’d find what they were looking for, to secure her professorial chair.
