A Singular Hostage

Sent to India to find a husband, Mariana Givens is facing the prospect of returning to England ignominiously single. India has, however, been a revelation. And before her stay is finally over, she is to accompany the Governor-General's vast camp on its journey into the Punjab to meet, and they hope to forge an alliance with, its ageing, one-eyed Maharajah.

Without her knowledge, Mariana is being pulled into the fate, not just of the army's Afghan expedition, but of a child of whose existence she is not even aware. Eighteen-month-old Saboor, the son of one of the Maharajah's courtiers, is being held hostage by the capricious old man, who views him as a talisman against approaching decrepitude.

But the Maharajah has no concept of a child's needs and, his mother poisoned, Saboor is dying from neglect. According to Saboor's grandfather, the mystic, Shaikh Waliullah, the young woman from Sussex has been chosen to save him. If only she can be persuaded to do so . . .