The night of the ball, Zehra was wildly nervous. She had never attended such an event before, but she’d listened for hours at her mother’s knee about what the experience was like. As she descended the stairs to meet Lawrence, his eyes widened and his lips parted. She smiled, yet felt strangely shy. Eva had helped her dress, and she’d felt more like a princess tonight than she ever had in Shiraz.
She wore a sapphire-blue evening gown in a simple but elegant style with thin gold netting over the bodice and part of the skirt. It was a style that reminded her very much of the gowns back home. Its low neckline offered a lovely view of her décolletage and the slope of her neck and shoulders. The bodice was embroidered with gold stars in the shape of constellations. The dressmaker, Madame Ella,
