‘Who with?’ Harriet asked, not wanting to seem to understand too much too soon.

‘With you.’

She’d known that this moment was coming, but without warning she was embarrassed. Watching him sitting there in the corner, the candlelight on his face, he was suddenly too much; too forceful, too attractive, too like an irresistible gale storming through her life, flattening all before it. Too much.

‘Hey, hold on,’ she said, playing for time. ‘Things aren’t done like that these days.’

‘In some societies marriages are still arranged-or at least, half arranged. Suitable people are introduced and the benefits of an alliance considered. My parents’ marriage was created like this, and it was very happy. They were compatible, but not blinded by emotions too intense to last.’

‘And you’re asking me-?’

‘To think about it. The final decision can be taken later, when we know each other better. In the meantime I’ll sort out your financial problems. Should we make a match I’ll wipe the loan out. If not we’ll part friends, and you can repay me on easy terms.’

‘Whoa there! You’re going too fast. I can’t take this in.’ It was true. She’d thought herself well prepared, but everything was so different to her imaginings that it was taking her breath away.

‘You can’t lose. At the worst you get an interest-free loan that will save your shop.’

‘But what’s in it for you?’ she demanded bluntly. ‘You can’t get married just to please your mother.’

It seemed to her that he hesitated a fraction, then answered with a little constraint. ‘I can if that is what I wish. It’s time for me to have a settled life, with a family, and it suits me to arrange it in this way.’

‘It will give us both time to think,’ he went on. ‘You return with me, try out life in my country-your country, and consider whether you’d enjoy it permanently. If you and my mother get on well, we’ll discuss marriage.’