Her sister enveloped her straight into an unusually emotional hug before sighing. ‘I didn’t phone because I had too much to tell you. For starters, this week I heard that Brett and my erstwhile friend, Janice, had split up.’
‘Oh…good,’ Lily pronounced. ‘That’s justice.’
‘Well, it may well be.’ Hilary gave her a wry scrutiny. ‘Apparently, Brett has done something dishonest with Janice’s divorce settlement and the police are involved there too. There’s a rumour that he’s been gambling—’
‘Gambling?’
‘I suspect that explains what he did with all the cash he helped himself to from Harris Travel,’ Hilary said with fierce resentment. ‘But I can be grateful for two things…one, that Brett has been such a useless father that the girls won’t ever miss what they’ve never had, and two, thank goodness, I wised up to what a louse I’d married years ago!’
Lily blinked at that blunt and surprising assurance. ‘You…did?’
‘Unfortunately, I hadn’t the slightest idea that he couldn’t be trusted with money,’ Hilary conceded heavily. ‘But just before Joy was born I realised that he was running round with other women. By then, though, Dad had gone and signed over the house and that and the girls made me feel that I had to try and keep our marriage together—’
‘I can understand that, but if you didn’t love Brett any more why did you always look so sad after the divorce whenever he was mentioned?’ Lily prompted.
Her older sister winced. ‘Put that down to the awful knowledge that I’ve wasted the last few years of my life. I just got on with being a mother and I turned a blind eye to Brett’s affairs. If I had ever dreamt what was really going on under my own stupid nose, if I had known that, way before you even left school, Brett was threatening you…’ she breathed painfully and slowly shook her head with bitter regret ‘…I’d have slaughtered Brett long ago!’
Thrown by that declaration, for Lily had still had no plans to tell her sister quite how low her ex-husband had sunk in the more distant past, Lily exclaimed, ‘How did you find out?’
‘Rauf brought me up to date and, no, don’t you dare criticise him for interfering because I just know that you weren’t ever going to tell me!’ Hilary admitted ruefully. ‘And after finding out about that, learning that my ex-husband is on the run from the Turkish police didn’t phase me at all. If I knew where Brett was, I’d hand him over personally—’
‘Are you serious?’ Lily interrupted, for she had been wondering how on earth they would cope if Brett was caught before the wedding and had feared that her sister would be very distressed by any such development.
‘I want him prosecuted and locked up too.’ Hilary breathed in deep, her fine features rigid and flushed with anger. ‘In fact, when Rauf told me about Brett having the neck to come here last night and try his old tricks on you, my blood just boiled!’
The sisters talked for over an hour and then Lily finally asked Hilary what she thought of Rauf.
‘He just adores you. It shines out of him like a light,’ Hilary quipped with sudden amusement. ‘Why are you looking surprised? I mean, you’ve got to know that after he hauled you off to the altar so fast. I couldn’t believe it!’
He adores you. Lily almost mentioned that Rauf had rushed into that civil ceremony primarily out of a wish to protect her reputation, but thought better of it because she could see that Hilary was charmed by the belief that she was on the sidelines of a true romance. Rauf was warm, tender, romantic and everything she had always known he could be, but he had yet to mention that word ‘love’ and Lily was already so happy that she was determined not to let that bother her.
At dawn the following morning, the pre-wedding preparations began. Lily was ushered out to the hamam, wrapped in a sturdy sarong and, surrounded by animated women, whisked through the entire invigorating process of being warmed, cooled down again by playful scoops of cool water tossed over her and then enveloped in loads of bubbles from head to toe and scrubbed by a lady built like a human tank with an abrasive mitt. It was fun and Lily giggled a lot. Finally rinsed clean while Hilary looked on in awe, Lily’s hair was subjected to a camomile bath that left the strands as sleek and glossy as pure silk, and she was settled onto a couch where she was massaged with fragrant oil. Far from it being the over-vigorous process she had feared, it was very relaxing.
In the outer room, she was served with apple tea and her nails were manicured before an elaborate henna pattern was painted onto her right hand. ‘To soothe Nelispah,’ Rauf’s mother whispered, explaining that the old lady had been a little disappointed to be told that Lily would not be entering the hotel ballroom, where the wedding would be celebrated, on the back of a white horse.
A couple of hours later, Lily pirouetted in front of a full-length mirror, hopelessly in love with her gorgeous wedding gown. The simple traditional design she had selected made the most of the exquisite fabric. An elaborate and beautiful gold necklace arrived from Rauf as a bride gift and Nelispah’s bright gaze shone as much as Lily’s at that evidence of custom being observed. Beneath her gown, Lily wore a blue satin garter that Hilary had given her as well as the raciest set of silk lingerie in her possession and when her nieces, Penny, Gemma and Joy, danced in to surprise her with their pretty bridesmaids’ dresses she was delighted.
She left the Kasabian home on her proud father’s arm to climb into an open carriage drawn by two white horses. But without a doubt the moment that was the highlight of her day was when she entered the opulent hotel and saw Rauf waiting for her. He just stared with such blatant appreciation that she blushed, her own gaze equally absorbed in taking in how drop-dead gorgeous her husband looked in a superb dark suit.
‘You take my breath away, güzelim,’ he confided huskily, dark golden eyes possessive as the wedding march was played and he led her into the ballroom with their families and all the guests trooping in behind them.
The ceremony over, they ate a meal that began with the official wedding soup and afterwards they cut the cake and offered it round to their relatives. Rauf claimed a kiss at that point that sent her heartbeat racing.
‘I wasn’t expecting that,’ she confided breathlessly as he whirled her out onto the floor to begin the dancing.
‘Perfectly acceptable at our wedding.’ His brilliant smile warmed her like the bright clear Turkish sunlight. ‘But don’t be surprised when I disappear later. My family bring my bride to the very door of my home and then we get a month’s break from the whole lot of them—’
‘I love your family!’ Lily protested.
‘Tomorrow we set off on our honeymoon cruise round the coast on my yacht,’ Rauf imparted with satisfaction. ‘And if we get tired of that, we can go anywhere, do anything—’
‘Or sneak back to Sonngul,’ Lily whispered. ‘It still feels like my favourite place in the world.’
Her own family were staying on for a week’s vacation with Rauf’s family and Lily parted from them with farewell hugs to be borne off in a limousine containing Nelispah and Manolya, for the bridegroom’s mother was not allowed to play a part in delivering the bride to her future home.
Set down before yet another ancient and huge house where Rauf awaited her, Lily laughed as he swept her off her feet and carried her indoors. ‘It’s been a wonderful, wonderful day,’ she told him happily.
‘It’s not quite finished yet.’ Rauf set her down with pronounced care and guided her into a glorious light-filled bedroom that overlooked the very waters of the Bosphorus. ‘Do you know that I have never said the words, “I love you” to any woman and even today I feel ashamed to offer you my love?’