Lisa J Yarde

Sultana: The Bride Price: A Novel of Moorish Spain Lisa J Yarde

Book #4 of the Sultana series. 

In fourteenth-century Moorish Spain, a marriage of convenience for the sake of peace leads to disaster in the medieval kingdom of Granada. The young queen Jazirah, caught up in a dynastic struggle between warring brothers, fights for her survival. Wed to a husband who looks at her with more suspicion than lust in his eyes, she must escape reminders of a brutal past in a quest to find forgiveness, hope, and love. 

Her husband Muhammad faces greater peril than union with a wife he cannot trust. Surrounded by enemies within his family who seek the throne and undermined by ministers who would alter the course of his country's future, he intends to rule the land of his ancestors alone. How can he endure against his most bitter opponents, not least among them, the woman whom he has chosen for a bride? 

Snippet: 

"Why do you speak of me as if I am not here?" Jazirah demanded. Despite the collective gasps from everyone in attendance, she continued, "We may address each other as equals for we are both the grandchildren of a Sultan of Gharnatah." 

Her father admonished, "Jazirah, you are not the equal of a man, least of all the Sultan! You will apologize and beg his forgiveness. Now!" 

Muhammad raised a hand. While Ismail fell silent and glared at Jazirah, she returned his narrowed stare with intense regard. 

The Sultan said, "Let her keep false words behind her teeth. I would not believe them. What else could I expect, but this behavior from the daughter of a traitor to his people and my father?"