Chapter Twenty-seven
“I’m not sure I want to invite you in with that long face, Haji,” Rahine remarked when her old friend appeared at her door. “Didn’t Jamil like Noura’s surprise feast?”
“He seemed pleased.”
“But not enough to mend his temper?”
“On the contrary, he seemed in very good spirits,” Haji replied as he curled his old frame onto the pillow next to Rahine.
She sighed in exasperation when he said no more than that. “Spit it out, then. What did not happen as expected?”
“He wondered why Shahar was not among his favorites to enjoy the feast with him.”
“What?” Rahine gasped. “But he must have been joking! A concubine cannot reach the status of favorite until she has found favor in his bed.”
“He knows that, Rahine. But this situation is rather unique, you must agree. Never before has a new slave been summoned by him and then returned to the harem a virgin. As far as he is concerned, that first summons changed Shahar’s status, regardless of how their evening ended.”
“More deviations from custom?”
“So it seems.”
“But doesn’t he realize the confusion and resentment this will cause among the other women? You did point that out, didn’t you?”
“Certainly.”
“And?”
“He said he would rectify the situation tonight.”
Rahine groaned. “No! How can he do this to me? Did he think I would do nothing when the girl defied him and made him so furious that he recklessly risked his life? Only by the grace of Allah and Jamil’s own skill did he return that night unscathed.
Does he think Shahar has been languishing in comfort just waiting for him to summon her again? He knows me better than that!”
“Perhaps with everything else that is on his mind right now, he simply didn’t consider the possibility that you would punish her,” Haji offered.
“Possibility!” Rahine shrieked the word. “There was no uncertainty involved. The girt deserved to be punished. I am only surprised that Jamil didn’t attend to it himself.”
“Perhaps that alone should have given us pause, Rahine. The fact that Jamil didn’t punish her himself, especially when he has been so quick to deal with the slightest offense lately, should have made us at least hesitate—”
“You agreed with my decision at the time!” Rahine pointed out scathingly.
“I know, I know, and what is done cannot be changed. At least she has been in the kitchens only two days. How much damage could have been done in so little time?”
“But he doesn’t know, does he? Or did you have the courage to tell him where I put her?”
Haji shook his head. “Maybe she won’t mention it,” he said hopefully.
“Don’t count on it, Haji. I will have to tell him myself.”
“Don’t be a fool, Rahine. Why stir the pot to boiling when it is only simmering?
If she mentions it, that will be soon enough to bear the brunt of his anger.
And you only acted in his best interest. Perhaps these few days have changed the girl’s disposition.
If so, he will have reason to be grateful, not furious. ”
“Perhaps.” Rahine sighed. “But Allah’s mercy, Jamil hasn’t been the same since he first laid eyes on this girl. He has become completely unpredictable.”
“Which is not a bad thing at this time,” Haji remarked. “If we cannot predict what he will do next, neither can his enemies. He certainly surprised them the other night.”
“But Omar was unable to learn anything from that cutthroat Jamil brought back with him. I still shudder to think how close they came to succeeding in killing him. He had no weapon on him, Haji! When has Jamil ever left the palace without a weapon before?”
“Which only proves the power this girl has over him, if she could upset him that much. I think it would be wise to be extremely careful in our dealings with her henceforth.”
“I will see she has anything she wants if she is deserving of it,” Rahine said with glowering irritation. “I won’t change my policies in dealing with his women just because he has.”
Haji shook his head at such stubbornness, but Rahine wouldn’t be Rahine without it. “Will you at least strive for your renowned control where she is concerned? She seems to have the power to make you lose it, as well as your son.”
Rahine made a very unladylike sound that caused the eunuch to grin before she demanded, “I assume that you have already set things in motion and sent someone to fetch her to the baths?”
“Of course. The feast won’t last but a few hours.”
“Again we are expected to work miracles. So be it. What color did you select for her?”
“Blue, to soothe her nerves and his temper, should it arise again, Allah forbid.”
Rahine’s lips quirked finally. “Very appropriate, but then you can always be depended upon to think of such things. I will bring along my sapphires to complement your choice. Hopefully the next time he summons her, she will have her own jewels.”
“Your attitude is already improving, Rahine.”
“Let us pray hers has as well.”
Their prayers were not to be answered. One of the bath attendants met them before they reached the hammam.
Breathless from running, the girl cried fearfully, “You must hurry, lalla! Kadar is having difficulty restraining the English girl without hurting her!”
“Restraining? Why?”
“She is fighting him, lalla.”
Rahine scowled darkly. “Was someone stupid enough to tell her she had been summoned by the Dey?”
The girl’s horrified expression was answer enough. “You can’t blame them, Rahine,” Haji said reasonably, though he was frowning now, too. “It’s an honor, after all, that anyone would assume—”
“The whole harem knows why she was banished to the kitchens! You can’t keep secrets here.
” But then Rahine groaned. “Oh, never mind. What’s done is done.
So much for hoping she might be more agreeable this time.
” And then, determinedly: “Haji, you had better fetch something to calm her, and quickly. With all that we have to do to prepare her, there is no time for this silliness. I’ll meet you there. ”
Rahine ran the rest of the way to the hammam, which was fortunately empty at this time of the evening except for a few attendants.
The sight that met her eyes at first glance seemed an embrace, for Haji’s slave, Kadar, had his arms wrapped around Shahar, her back to his chest, his head bent to her ear.
It was only when Rahine saw Kadar’s hands gripping the girl’s wrists, which were crossed in front of her body, and the two bleeding stripes on Kadar’s cheek, as well as the many smaller scratches on his arms, that the illusion ended.
Shahar’s face was also beet red from her straining with all her might to get free of Kadar’s hold.
She appeared not to hear at all the calming, beseeching words he was whispering in her ear.
“So we resort to violence again, do we?”
Chantelle glanced up to see Rahine’s disapproving countenance and snapped, “Go to hell, madame!”
Rahine clucked her tongue. “I hope we aren’t going to rehash the same arguments, because the consequences of resisting your master still apply, you know.”
“My so-called master isn’t here, but if he was, you can bloody well believe I’d—”
The rest of that tempestuous statement was squeezed off as Kadar tightened his arms around her midsection. Rahine stepped closer and lifted Chantelle’s chin to meet pure fury in the narrowed violet gaze. If eyes could snarl…
“So you obviously are incapable of learning from your mistakes. You are not ready to be returned to more comfortable quarters?”
“Never!” Then Chantelle accused, “You said he would forget me!”
“Wishful thinking on my part, I’m afraid,” Rahine returned dryly.
“What happens this time when I resist him?”
“I honestly don’t know, my dear. You’ve sorely tested his patience already. He isn’t used to waiting for what he wants.”
“Too bad,” Chantelle sneered with such derision that Rahine actually chuckled. That only increased Chantelle’s outrage. “I’m not going this time! Tell him I fell into a vat of stew and drowned!”
“Don’t be ridiculous, child, You know very well that you have—”
“No choice?” Chantelle spat out. “Hah! You’ll have to carry me there this time, and I swear I’ll blacken Jamil’s eye, too, if he lays one hand on me!”
“Too?” Rahine said in bemusement, glancing up at the eunuch, who met her look with a grimace. “Why, Kadar, is that actually swelling around your eye?”
He stoically refused to answer, but there was indeed a slight puffiness, though with his dark skin, no bruise was visible yet. Rahine shook her head in amazement.
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you, Shahar? But this really can’t continue, you know.”
“No, indeed,” Haji said from behind her, having heard enough to realize that Rahine was wise in deciding to drug the girl.
Rahine had never approved of resorting to drugs, not that it had ever been necessary since Jamil had come to power.
But for her sake, he tried one other tack first, hoping to terrify the girl into compliance.
“As long as we must carry her to Jamil, it won’t matter too much if she has a taste of the bastinado first.”
It didn’t work, for Chantelle turned her lethal stare on him, screaming, “Go ahead! I don’t give a bloody damn anymore what you do to me! It can’t be any worse than submitting to that monster you all worship, that two-faced whoremaster, that bloody tyr—”
The word was choked off as Haji took advantage of her open mouth to shove a vial halfway down her throat.
Fortunately, it wasn’t made of glass, for Chantelle bit down so hard in reaction, she would have broken it with her teeth, cutting her mouth horribly.
But Haji was the one to get hurt as she bucked and strained violently to shake the thing from her mouth.
One foot caught him brutally on the shin, making him leap back.
Chantelle immediately spat out the vial.
“You bas—tard.” Her eyes closed slowly, then popped back open. “Damn you—” The eyes closed again.
Rahine gripped Haji’s arm in alarm, watching Chantelle fight to keep her eyes open. “By the Prophet’s beard, how much did you give her? It has never taken effect this quickly!”
Haji was himself alarmed. “No more than necessary.”
“Did you take into account her frailty?”
“Frailty?” he snorted, rubbing his shin before he frowned. “No, actually, I was in too much of a hurry to recall her skinniness in comparison—”
“Forgive me for interrupting, master,” Kadar cut in as Chantelle sagged in his arms, “but I was told by one of the kitchen women that the girl was worked from dawn until dusk preparing the Dey’s feast. She was sleeping in a corner when I arrived to fetch her, so exhausted that the noise of two dozen chattering women could not keep her awake. ”
“By Allah, and still she fought like a demon,” Haji said with a degree of admiration. “How does she do it?”
“She’s English, Haji,” Rahine said in answer, as if that were answer in itself.
Haji gave a snort of disgust for the pride he detected in Rahine’s tone.
“English or not, she can’t be trusted to remain unconscious for long, no matter how tired she is.
The girl’s will is much too strong to succumb to mere exhaustion, even with the help of the relaxant I gave her.
We had better take advantage of her incapacity and get her bathed and ready while we can.
” He nodded for Kadar to carry Shahar into the nearest bathing cubicle, motioning the cowering attendants as well as the terrified Adamma, who had arrived behind him with her cosmetic tray, to follow.
“We might have an easy time preparing her now,” Rahine said, “but you realize Jamil is going to be furious if she arrives in this condition.”
“We will have to get some coffee into her to counteract the drug,” was all Haji could suggest.
“Will that work?”
“It should,” he replied, hoping against hope that it actually would.
His assurance relieved Rahine, enough to send her thoughts onto a different path. “At least I can take this opportunity to get rid of the rest of her body hair. Thank Allah, Jamil didn’t proceed far enough last time to discover her sinful state—”
“Rahine,” Haji interrupted, “he did proceed that far. He even mentioned it to me, wanting to know how it was possible that she retained the curls between her legs.”
“Did you tell him?”
He nodded, though his expression now held a touch of bemusement. “He actually laughed.”
Rahine’s brows shot up. “Laughed, as in amusement?”
He frowned at her own levity. “Yes, as in amusement,” he retorted. “And he specifically ordered me to see to it that those silver curls are left alone.”
Rahine found no humor in that. “But it’s forbidden.”
“Nothing is forbidden the Dey,” he reminded her unnecessarily.
“The other women will see it when they bathe with her.”
“Yes, and will want to grow their own hair back to emulate the current favorite.”
Rahine sighed. “Do you really think Shahar will reach that status, to become his first ikbal?”
Haji pursed his lips before replying, “If Jamil doesn’t kill her in a fit of fury before he beds her.”