Synopsis
Alexandria, 1798. The French have taken the city, and Layla Hassan has taken a new name to survive among them. By day she is Mademoiselle Lambert, translator to the occupying staff. By night she carries her father's secrets through narrow Mamluk streets to the resistance that trusts her. Every word she renders could free a man or hang him. Then a new general arrives from Cairo. They say he is different. They say he is quiet. He notices the things other men miss, including the breath she holds between one language and the next, and the prisoner in the cellar she pretends not to know. Caught between the man she serves and the cause she serves in secret, Layla guards a translation that could undo her with a single misplaced syllable. He is watching. He has already heard too much. In a war fought in whispers, the most dangerous thing she can do is let him understand her. A slow-burning, atmospheric historical romance for readers who love forbidden longing, divided loyalties, and a heroine who belongs fully to no one but herself.
