A Love for All Time (50 page)

“All of it is strange to me,” she said quietly.

“Have you a servant? You will be the first woman in my house here.”

“The Dey of Algiers sent me to Istanbul with a eunuch called Jinji. If I might, my lord, I should like some women about me. I find it strange to be dressed, undressed, and bathed by one who looks like a man even if he isn’t.”

“We shall send this Jinji to the slave markets tomorrow to buy you some handmaidens,” Javid Khan answered.

“My lord? Would it be possible for me to go to Istanbul also? It is not that I don’t trust Jinji, but if these women are to be my companions, I should prefer to choose them myself. Jinji does not know me well enough to do that.”

“I see no harm in it,” he answered her, “as long as you are properly chaperoned. What kind of women would you choose?”

“I am not certain, but perhaps women who like myself are new to slavery, and frightened.”

Her words gave him pause for thought. He was rather charmed by her soft heart. “Are you frightened of me?” His blue eyes searched her face curiously.

“Yes,” she admitted honestly.

“You have no need to be, but tell me, why are you afraid?”

“I do not know what is expected of me, my lord. A year ago at this time I was a virgin daughter mourning the death of my father who was my only surviving parent. Seven months ago my queen had me married to my husband. Less than three months ago I was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Everything has happened so quickly for me in the last year. Before that my days were calm and orderly. Now I find myself seated in a boat next to a strange man who I am told is to be my
master
. I am afraid, my lord. Can you understand why?”

“You need not fear me, Marjallah. I will be quite frank with you when I say that had you not been a gift of my liege lord that I would not have accepted you. As it is I did not have the choice. You will live in my house, and I will try to see that you are as happy and as comfortable as you can be under these circumstances.”

The words slipped out before she could think. “Do you not like women, my lord?” She had heard of men like that.

Rather than being offended Javid Khan was amused. “Are you asking me if I prefer the Temple of Sodom to the Temple of Venus? The answer is no, I do not. I very much enjoy women.”

“Oh.” Aidan’s face fell. He didn’t want her. Here was the final humiliation. Once again she was a loser in this game of life. It seemed that only Cavan FitzGerald, damn his black soul to hell, had been a winner. Then she had a brighter thought as the hurt of his rejection began to fade. “If you do not want me, my lord, would you consider applying to my family for a ransom? We are very wealthy, and my husband would pay well for my return.” It mattered not what Safiye Kadin had said earlier. She would rather face the shame of her captivity in England than chance being sold from Javid Khan’s household because he did not want her.

“To sell the sultan’s gift to me, even back into her own land, would be considered an appalling breach of etiquette, Marjallah.” The tone of his voice indicated that the matter was closed. He sat staring straight ahead, and did not touch her, or speak to her again until they had reached his palace. Then he escorted her from the caïque through darkened gardens into the building where Jinji was waiting.

As the eunuch bustled forward, brimming over with his own self-importance, the prince tipped her face up to his, and said in a quiet voice, “Good night, Marjallah. I hope you will sleep well.”

Watching him disappear down a hallway she felt a tiny pang of regret. What kind of man was he? What did he really want of her? If he did not want her then why did he insist upon keeping her? Would the sultan be
that
offended if Javid Khan ransomed her to her family? Would such a great monarch even know, or care about such a trifling matter as a slavegirl ?

“Why are you not to go to him? Have you angered him already?” Jinji fumed about her. “You cannot offend a great prince.”

“Be silent!” she ordered the startled eunuch, speaking sharply, and showing spirit for the first time since her capture. “The prince does not want me tonight. Perhaps he is courteous enough to want me to get some rest after my long voyage.”

“Of course, my lady Marjallah, of course! Why did I not think of that in the first place myself.” He was all smiles again.

“Why indeed, Jinji? Now where are my rooms? Why are you making me stand here like a beggar at the gates?” She almost laughed aloud as he tumbled over himself to escort her to her rooms. If she had learned one thing today it was that in the strange world of the harem the woman must be in charge else the eunuch overrule her. She had watched both Safiye and Nur-U-Banu today with their servants, and they had both kept the upper hand. “Tomorrow,” she continued, “my lord Javid Khan has said that you and I may travel to the slave markets in the city and obtain a bevy of maidens to serve me, and to keep me company. This household is naught but men. Take this heavy pelisse from me, and give me my sleeping garments. Did you bring the kittens that the valideh promised me? I would see them before I sleep.”

He scurried about like a small bug, desperately trying to keep up with her. Removing her clothing he passed her a comfortable caftan, exclaiming at the marks that the heavy golden girdle with its baroque pearl decoration had left upon her hips. “The valideh’s chief eunuch said that the kittens would be sent to you within a few days, my lady, and not a moment too soon, I say. This palace has been closed up for many years, and I have seen mice.”

“Not in my apartment, I should hope.” She moved quickly through the haremlik of the palace exploring the space that had been set aside for the women of the household. There was a very large salon with a center fountain off which were a dozen, windowed cubicles. There was a good-sized tiled bath, as well as the small tiled bath that was attached to her private apartment within the harem which consisted of a small salon, her bedroom, and several small servants’ rooms. Since it was night she could not tell what was outside of the windows in the harem but when morning came she discovered that her salon windows faced both onto the sea, and onto a private garden. It was much too big a space for one woman, she thought, but perhaps the prince would eventually fill it.

They traveled the following morning to the city by water in a larger caïque than had been used the night before. The prince had not forgotten his promise to her, and had supplied Jinji with a more than generous purse.

“He said,” the eunuch said excitedly, “that you were to purchase anything else you so desired. You have caught his eye, my lady Marjallah! I know you have!”

Their vessel was big enough to hold her litter as well as the four black slaves necessary to carry it, and once they had arrived in the city, she entered her transport, and was brought thusly to the slave markets of the Great Bazaar. They went to a market that dealt in women only, and there Aidan realized how truly fortunate she had been not to have been sold at public auction from the block. The entire place reeked of misery, but then how could anyone be content in the state of slavery? she thought. She was soon to learn that many slaves were precisely that: content. For many it was a perfectly acceptable way of life for they had been born to it. For others it was an escape from poverty, but there were enough captives, formerly free, and enough women being sold from situations in which they had been happy, to make for an air of discontent.

The women’s slave market was mostly peopled by men although there were a few heavily veiled women like herself, carefully chaperoned by their servants. She concluded her business as quickly as possible for it disturbed her greatly to have to stand helplessly by and watch as other women were stripped naked, and minutely examined by their prospective buyers. She saw some tears upon the faces of these women, but saddest of all was the look of utter hopelessness in the eyes of too many.

By having Jinji obtain the ear of the owner of the slave market she was able to quietly voice her needs. She wanted, she explained, three servants, European if possible, for she sought to rescue in her own way at least a few of her sisters in captivity.

The bazaar owner smiled, showing yellowed teeth that somehow reminded Aidan of a dog’s teeth. “Please tell your gracious mistress that I have exactly what she seeks,” he said for Jinji. He would not speak to Aidan for she was only a woman, but she was also socially above him by virtue of belonging to Prince Javid Khan. The bazaar owner clapped his hands, and gave instructions to a slave who came running. “I have a mother, and her two daughters,” he said to Jinji. “They do not speak Turkish, and they appear totally incapable of learning it. They are also extremely stupid, and although I had high hopes for the two daughters it has been impossible to separate them. Each time we have tried they have created the most terrible trouble. They have even tried suicide. I wish to Allah I had never laid eyes upon them, but perhaps your lady can do something with them. I have told you this openly because I am an honest merchant. Unless I can sell them together into a situation like this one, I might as well strangle them for they are costing me a fortune in food!”

Aidan held up her hand to Jinji when he went to repeat what the merchant had said. “I understood him,” she said. “Let us see these three.”

The trio who shuffled into the room were indeed a discouraging-looking lot. They were tall, big-boned women with dark blond hair that was now matted, and filthy. Sullen-looking creatures she could see the mutinous light in their eyes. It did not look very promising she thought.

“Do you speak French?” she asked them.

No answer.

“Are you German?”

No answer.

“Are you Venetian?”

“No, lady,” said the elder of the three, “but we understand the tongue of the Venetians as they trade with our people. We are from a place near the city of Dubrovnik.”

“You were not born slaves?”

“Never! We were free-born women! My husband was the owner of a factory that processed fish. We lived in a house with four rooms, and my daughters had respectable dowries, but business was bad last year. My husband could not pay his taxes to the sultan. Soldiers came, and took our daughters. When I protested they laughed, and said if I was so concerned about my girls I could come with them. That is how we came to be here.”

“If I purchase you,” said Aidan, “will you serve me faithfully? I cannot free you for I, myself, am no longer a free woman. I belong to Prince Javid Khan.”

“What would you want us to do, my lady?”

“Be my servants.”

“You will buy us all, my lady?”

“Yes,” said Aidan. “I would not separate a mother and her children. How old are your daughters?”

“Eleven and thirteen, but they are hard workers, my lady.”

Aidan turned to Jinji. “Pay the slave merchant for these three, and let us return home. This place depresses me.”

Jinji looked her choice over critically. “They aren’t very pretty,” he said, and then smiled knowingly. “Of course, my lady Marjallah! How clever you are! The prince will not even see them! You would be foolish to bring rivals into your own house until you have secured the prince’s total and undying affection.” He chuckled, and set to work bargaining for the trio of females with the slave merchant who now having a buyer had decided that his merchandise was valuable.

“What are you called?” said Aidan turning back to the woman.

“Marta. My daughters are Iris and Fern.”

“I am called Marjallah,” said Aidan, and to her surprise the statement didn’t seem strange to her, and she realized that she was beginning to accept the situation in which she found herself.

“The bargain is concluded, my lady Marjallah,” said Jinji. “This robber who calls himself an honest man has been bested by my superiority.”

Aidan laughed. “Jinji, Jinji!” she scolded him gently. “Have you no shame at all in your quest for high position?”

“None, my lady,” he told her with an engaging grin. For the first time since he had been made her eunuch he was beginning to feel that the venture might be a successful one. She had just teased him, and to him it indicated that she was beginning to feel more comfortable in her position. “These females will need more suitable clothing,” he said to Aidan. “Let us go to the Street of the Clothing Vendors, and purchase something more suitable for the servants of a prince’s favorite. We will also visit the cloth merchants’ quarter, and obtain material for other garments for both yourself and your women; but first let us take them to the Women’s Hamam so they may be bathed. We cannot take them with us into the prince’s caïque as they are. They are ridden with vermin, and I suspect it has been months since their hair was clean.”

Looking closely at Marta and her daughters Aidan had to agree. They were absolutely filthy which she found rather interesting since the Turks seemed to pride themselves upon their cleanliness. Why they would allow healthy slaves to get into such a condition was curious. She shortly had her answer to the puzzle.

“I am going to find you clean and decent clothing,” she said to Marta, “but first I will leave you and the girls at the women’s baths. They will see that you are washed. You do not look as though you have had a bath in weeks, and your hair is a disgrace.”

“A
bath
?” Marta looked uncomfortable. “We have been taught by our priests that bathing is ungodly, that only through mortification of the flesh can one truly find God. Please do not make us bathe, my lady.”

God’s toenail! thought Aidan. What incredible foolishness, but then she said to the woman bluntly, “Your priests are wrong, Marta, but I will not argue the point. You promised me if I purchased you and your daughters that you would serve me faithfully, and obeying me implicitly is part of that service. I am taking you to the baths where you will be thoroughly washed, and groomed. If you cannot obey this simple first command of mine, how will you obey me later on? The choice is yours, however. You may refuse, and I will see you returned to the market; or you may obey, and be happy and safe in my service. I will not tolerate disobedience amongst my servants, nor will I tolerate the sin of uncleanliness.” She looked sternly at the woman, and Marta was thoroughly cowed.