Chapter Thirteen #2
Derek looked away before saying, “I remember her words when she took me down to that ship.” ‘I can’t go back, Kasim,’” she told me.
“ ‘And even if I could, I can bear no more children. You are the only one who can carry on my family line, and that means as much to the English as it does here. Jamil was the firstborn. Your father would never let him go. But you, you are all I can give my father, and I love him, Kasim. I can’t bear to think of him dying alone, with no hope for the future. You are all that he will have of me. You will be his heir, his joy, his reason to live. Please, don’t hate me for sending you to him. ’”
“She had no right!”
“No,” Derek agreed softly. “But I also remember her tears as I sailed away.”
They looked at each other for a long, silent moment before Jamil finally admitted, “I know. I often heard her crying when she thought she was alone, but I was young and unforgiving then. I hardened my heart to the fact that she missed you as much as I did. I refused to believe that she could still love you after what she did. And I hated Mustafa for a long time for letting her convince him to go along with it.”
“He had many sons at that time, even if we were his favorites.”
“Don’t make excuses for him, Kasim. Serves him right that he began to worry later when half of those sons died before they left the harem.”
That spiteful statement made them both suddenly grin. “You don’t mean that,” Derek said.
“No,” Jamil replied. “But he did finally bemoan the fact that he only had five sons left, one of which he had willingly given away, and as everyone believed this son dead, he might as well be. Of course he could rail at Omar, the only other one to know about it, for not stopping him from being so generous with his favorite kadine.”
When they both turned for Omar’s comments on this, they found that he had quietly left them alone for their reunion.
They smiled at the old man’s thoughtfulness and moved onto the cushions scattered about the low dais.
Jamil offered a long Turkish pipe with an amber mouthpiece, but Derek declined.
He sprawled back in a very English pose, leaning on one elbow, his other hand resting on a bent knee.
Beneath his now-open burnoose was revealed a white linen shirt with open collar tucked into clinging buff-colored trousers, likewise tucked into knee-high boots.
Jamil’s Turkish trousers were large and loose, ending at the knee, easily accommodating the Eastern fashion of sitting cross-legged, as he did now.
His feet were bare, his collarless tunic green silk and lined with yellow gems about the neck and in several layers about the cuffless sleeves.
An emerald the size of a walnut was in the center of the turban that he removed now that they were alone, giving his head a shake to loosen coal-black hair that was worn at least three inches longer than Derek’s.
When their eyes met again, Jamil asked pointedly, “Did you forgive her?”
“I think I understood her motives better once I came to know Robert Sinclair. I came to love him, Jamil, just as she does.”
“And how I hated him for being the reason you were taken from me.” This was said quietly, without the earlier heat Jamil had displayed.
“I did, too, at first. I hated everything English. But then a little girl of no more than six put me in my place, demanding of me, ‘What have you to be so high and mighty and god-awful arrogant about? You’re just a boy, and an orphan at that.’”
“An orphan?”
“It’s the story our grandfather put out, to explain why I showed up alone on his doorstep.
My father was supposedly a foreign diplomat my mother had met and married while abroad, and both parents died, leaving the Marquis to raise me.
It kept things simple and generated sympathy.
Ah, the sympathy.” Derek chuckled. “When I was only twelve, there was the prettiest little kitchen wench who insisted on showing me how very sympathetic she could be.”
“Twelve?” Jamil snorted. “And our father made me wait until I was thirteen before any female slaves were allowed to serve me.”
They both grinned, remembering their first attempts at making love and how very hesitant and scared they had been at that early age. Then Jamil added, “And the unwise female child who insulted you?”
Derek laughed. “She became my closest friend.” He laughed harder at Jamil’s incredulous look. “It’s true. She made me realize what an utter ass I was for taking out my loneliness and resentment on everyone around me. I was there, and there to stay, so I began to make the best of it.”
“But a female friend, Kasim? I know Europeans feel differently about women, but you’re only half English.”
“I had only just left the harem, Jamil. It felt more natural for me at the time to associate with this girl rather than with the men of the Marquis’s household.
And as you say, Europeans feel differently about it.
There, it was all right for me to remain friends with Caroline, even as we grew older.
And now,” he added with a grin, “I’m going to marry the lady when I return. ”
Jamil shook his head. “You have waited a long time to marry.”
“It takes a bit more time to think about it when you’re stuck with your first choice.”
“Yes, only one wife.” Again the Dey shook his head. “Can you be satisfied with only one?”
“Come on, Jamil. You know very well that Europeans enjoy as much variety as you do. We just have to be discreet about it. Actually,” Derek added truthfully, “I still wouldn’t be getting married just yet if the Marquis hadn’t insisted on it. He wants to see some children before he passes on.”
“You have none yet?”
“None that I know of. And you? How many are there now?”
“Sixteen, but only four are sons.”
“Then you’ve had three more daughters since I last heard from you? Congratulations.”
Jamil started to shrug that aside, for daughters were not considered at all important except when it came time to marry them off, but the fact was that he adored all his little girls, and they were all still young, under the age of six.
He was grinning proudly when he replied, “My first wife has given me two daughters now, as well as my oldest son. They are angels, Kasim, the youngest only three months old.”
“I hope I’ll get to see them while I’m here. I am their uncle, after all.”
“Of course,” Jamil said with some surprise, for if Kasim agreed to Omar’s idea, he would see not only Jamil’s children while he was here but all of his women as well.
“Didn’t Omar tell you—” He fell silent at his brother’s bland look, only to explode, “That son of a camel’s turd!
He didn’t tell you why you’re here, did he? He left it to me!”
Derek grinned. “Actually, it didn’t come up. We ended up discussing horse breeding instead.”
“Horse breeding!”
“Yes, because of the matched pair of Thoroughbreds I brought along for you.”
Jamil’s expression changed to one of boyish delight. “You did?”
Derek chuckled. “Yes. But now that you’ve mentioned it, why am I here?”
Jamil cringed at the reminder. “It was Omar’s idea.
I refused at first to even consider it, but he wouldn’t give up badgering me about it, and finally I let him convince me to at least ask you.
Even so, I would have refused if I weren’t certain Selim is behind this plot.
He hates me, Kasim, and always has. You know that.
You must remember. He was even worse than Mahmud in his spitefulness and cruelty.
If he succeeds in eliminating me and comes to power, he would see that my wives, my children, all perish. ”
Derek did indeed remember Selim. “Yes, I’ve no doubt of that. So what is Omar’s idea?”
“For you to take my place.”
Derek was not surprised. He had already surmised this was what he was needed for, the only thing he could be needed for.
But he wasn’t about to become the next Dey of Barikah, even if he was next in line for the position.
He simply didn’t want that kind of power and the headaches that went along with it.
He had lived the simple life of an Englishman too long, even if he had spent a few years embroiled in intrigue and spying for Marshall.
It was one thing to have a little adventure, a little risk for the sake of excitement, when you knew you only had to cross the Channel to put it behind you. Here, it would never end.
“I won’t succeed you, Jamil. I’ll tell you that right off.
As far as anyone here is concerned, I’m dead and forgotten, and I’d like to leave it that way.
But temporarily, for the few days it would take to see your family safe if Selim does succeed, of course I’ll take your place.
You didn’t even have to ask. But as long as I’m here, why don’t we see that nothing happens to you instead. ”
Jamil did not show the relief Derek expected. “I think you misunderstood, Kasim. Omar’s idea is not for you to impersonate me if I die, but before it comes to that.”
For five seconds Derek said nothing, and then he said in a rush, “Jesus Christ! Do you know what you’re asking?”
The pain in Jamil’s eyes said he did, but he, too, misunderstood, in this case Derek’s reaction. “You are right. It is too much to ask, to risk your life—”
“To hell with the—”
“No, no, I should never have brought you here. And I wouldn’t have for myself. It is my loved ones…but you are right. The danger is still there, whether it is you or me. Omar was a fool to even think of it.”
“Jamil—”
“All he is concerned with is Barikah, not the lives he endangers—”
“Jamil, shut up!” Derek finally had to shout to get his attention.
Jamil did. That there wasn’t a single person in all of Barikah, not Omar, not their mother, Rahine, not even Jamil’s beloved Sheelah, who would have dared speak to him so was irrelevant. Jamil had barely noticed, and Derek wouldn’t have cared if he had.