Chapter 1: England

One of the assets that David Ransome, now His Magnificence Mahmoud Abdullah, may he live for ever and have many sons, inherited on becoming was the Imperial Voyager, the royal yacht. It was the size of a medium sized cruise liner, about eleven thousand tons displacement, four hundred feet long overall, and had palatial accommodation in forty guest suites which included space for all the necessary concubines and staff. The a crew numbered three hundred, including eunuchs and hostesses thoughtfully provided for guests who had not bothered to bring women with them. Officially it was part of the Kobekistan navy and was skippered by an Admiral, an ex-German navy martinet by the name of Peitsche. The new Emir did not care much for this man, who seemed to think that it was his ship, and that anyone using it was indebted to him for the privilege. It not very long after the accession of His Magnificence, the Emir Mahmoud Abdullah that this German took 'voluntary' retirement with a handsome pension.

Two years after the Emir's accession, fourteen year old Tamsin's father announced that he had taken a new post as Master of the Royal Yacht, the Imperial Voyager, belonging to His Magnificence, the Emir Mahmoud Abdullah of Kobekistan. The family were to travel to Kobekistan within a week for Henry to take up his post and the plan was for Janice, his second wife, only ten years older than his daughter to start house hunting.

Tamsin's mother, Jennifer, had died after a long illness some four years earlier and Henry, who was second officer on a Cruise Liner had felt the need to provide a mother for her, as he was at sea for long periods. In the first couple of weeks after his wife's death the young blonde twenty year old Entertainments Officer on his ship had provided first a shoulder to cry on and then later a body to cling to, and eventually to couple with. In his grief, Henry mistook her cold calculation and his reaction to grief for true love, and married her. She, of course, immediately left the ship and settled down to be his wife, a rôle she relished. Unfortunately it implied also being a step-mother, which she regarded as a real chore. Tamsin was brought home from her grandmother's house, where she had been quite happy, and a very uneasy relationship between her and her father's new wife steadily became worse.

Tamsin didn't know whether to treat Janice as an older sister or a mother. She bitterly resented Janice taking her mother's place in her father's life, and yet felt the need for someone in whom to confide. Her grandmother had been perfect as a confidante, if a little indulgent, but Janice soon stopped any chance of friendship between herself and her step-daughter by showing her resentment of Tamsin. The two had a flaming row when Tamsin discovered that every trace of her mother's possessions had been thrown away, either into the dustbin, or to a charity shop. Janice insisted then that she was now in charge of the house while Henry was at sea, and Tamsin had better toe the line. When Henry next came home on leave, he too was surprised that his late wife's influence on the home had been so thoroughly expunged, and so he decided to move the whole family to a new environment to see whether the relationship could be patched up by a fresh start.