The Reign of the Favored Women by Ann Chamberlin
Author:Ann Chamberlin [Chamberlin, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 16th Century, Action & Adventure, Fiction, Harem, historical, romance, Turkey
ISBN: 9780312865924
Google: IcSGHAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0312865929
Publisher: Forge
Published: 1998-04-14T23:00:00+00:00
XXXV
What Gul Ruh suspected after that I didnât know. But I had begun to have suspicions of my own.
It was incredible. Such things happened only in the Thousand and One Nights. Gul Ruh, for whose childâs idealism life still had the qualities of a fairy tale, might leap to such conclusions easier than I. That I should begin to reach them, too, was one more point towards substantiation.
The matter was clinched, in my mind, at least, by the events of the very next morning.
âAbdullah, come here.â
From my masterâs tone I caught the fact that we were on display now. From his eye I caught more than that: an almost desperate look that I must not fail him now.
âMaster?â I replied, and made obeisance to the ground, a formality we never had recourse to when we were alone.
âAbdullah, these men would like a word with you.â
He turned, and turned me with him, to the room. The visitorsâif they could be called that, for they had penetrated far into the house, to the very door of the mabeinâwere brazenly making a search of every alcove, pulling back curtains, opening blanket chests, and peering into large jugs. Their uniforms and swords told me at once who they were: from the palace, the Sultanâs personal bodyguard.
And my master and I were on the opposing side.
âYou the head of the Grand Vizierâs harem?â One of them confronted me.
âBy Allahâs most merciful favor,â I replied, bowing again.
âTell me, khadim, howâs the honor of your harem?â
âBy Allah, itâs my life if my masterâs honor is not beyond reproach.â
âBut might it not also be your life if you do not aid your master in concealing something behind the walls of your precious harem?â
âSir, my honor and my masterâs cannot allow you to continue in this vein. You will please retract such insinuation.â
The captain of the troop now came face-to-face with the mabein door. He looked at it hard as if he wished to see through it, his hand reached out to try the door, but in the end the sanctity of the place kept even him from trying it. He turned his piercing stare on me then and I met it with what I hoped was discretion as solid as the wood of the door.
âVery well,â the captain said. âIâll take your word, khadim. But you should know that this is a very serious matter.â
âWealth belonging to the Imperial coffersâto the Caliph of all the Faithfulâhas been lost,â my master explained quietly, with a quiet hand on my shoulder. âLost in the business of the death of Joseph Nassey.â
ââStolenâ is more like it,â the captain said. âAnd if you are found to have had connection with this business, it will not go easy with you.â
My master replied: âGood man, I assure you and his graciousness the Sultan, once again I assure you that no crime has been committed at all. My agents sold the Jewâs goods exactly as I commanded them and every akçe was brought to the treasury.
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