Seductive Wager (42 page)

Kate was despondent. Even though Anis al-Jalis was almost friendly now, and Nuzhat al-Zaman and the other wives had ceased to frown so fiercely, she still felt lonely and threatened. She had heard nothing of Brett, and the dey refused to even talk about him anymore. By now she was certain he would not let her go. He hadn’t said so, but she could see it in his eyes. They became more possessive each time she visited his apartments. Even while she slept, she could almost feel his eyes on her, boring through her clothes to the soft skin underneath. It made her feel uncomfortable; it also made her feel unsafe. She had seen enough of the dey to suspect that no kind of duplicity was beyond him. She wouldn’t put it past him to deny any knowledge of her, to say she had been killed, that the pirate ship had gone down at sea with all hands,
anything
to achieve his own ends.

Kate thought desperately of escape. Even though she knew anything could happen to her on the outside—she could even be captured again!—she couldn’t remain here. Somehow, she had to convince Olema to get a message to Brett. Once he knew she was in the dey’s palace, Kate didn’t believe he would wait even one hour before he would try to secure her release. She
knew
he would come after her; the problem was to find a way to let him know where she was being held. Olema’s entrance interrupted her thoughts.

“Anis al-Jalis would like for you to join her in the garden,” Olema announced.

“I’ve got to talk to you first.”

“You must go to the garden at once. You cant keep one of the royal wives waiting.”

“But I must talk to you about getting a message to my husband.”

“Don’t. Even the walls have ears here. Never speak to me of escape or sending messages. Even if I just listen to you, it could mean my death.” Olema turned to leave, and Kate had no alternative but to follow her.

Anis al-Jalis sat in one of several small courtyards within the extensive gardens that surrounded her house. “I love sitting here in the spring when the bulbs are in bloom,” she said of the tulips that bloomed in profusion around the tiny courtyard. “You should have seen it earlier when the crocus and cyclamen were in bloom. It was really lovely.”

“I’m certain it was,” Kate said, too disheartened by Olema’s outright refusal to even consider helping her to be interested in flowers of any kind. “They are beautiful in England, too, especially the daffodils.”

“Let me show you my favorite tulips,” Anis said, rising. “I just got them last year.” The two of them walked over to a corner where dozens of pink tulips with lacy edges bloomed against the wall of Anis’s house. “They even have a nice fragrance,” Anis said, kneeling to smell the delicate flowers. Kate knelt also, but she could detect no scent from the flowers.

“Do not move or make a sound,” Anis said in an urgent undervoice. “I have something of importance to tell you, but we must whisper. I have received a message from outside the palace that your husband knows where you are and will come to take you away soon. Shh” Anis hissed imperatively. “You must not move, or we shall all be discovered and die.”

Kate’s first impulse when she heard the news was to shout with joy, and only Anis’s urgent command kept her from leaping to her feet. Her heart beat so ecstatically she could hardly think. Brett knew where she was! Brett was coming! She no longer had to shiver before the dey’s cold eyes, have nightmares about his embraces. Soon she would be in Brett’s arms, and Kate swore that once there she would never leave them again.

“My servants will make sure no one comes close enough to hear us, but keep moving and do not talk unless we are kneeling. The eunuchs can read your lips.” The women moved to another spot in the garden and knelt again. “I do not know when he will come, but you are to be called for by your ladies.” Kate looked sharply at Anis, but did not speak. “As soon as they come for you, we are to make a disturbance in the harem, one such that all the guards will be drawn away from the dey.” They moved to another group of flowers.

“How did you hear of this?” Kate asked as she inhaled the heavy fragrance of a spray of deep yellow flowers. “How can you be certain this is not a trick?”

“I have relatives in Algiers who depend upon my generosity. They would not lie to me for fear it would stop. Shh! Here comes one of the guards.” The women continued to move from one clump of flowers to another, alternately sniffing their fragrance and talking about their beauty.

“The dey wants to see you in his apartments at once,” the huge black man said to Kate. “I am to take you now.”

“I need to go back to my chamber. I can’t go to the dey dressed like this.” She glanced helplessly at Anis, but she shook her head indicating that she didn’t know what the summons could be about.

“The dey said you were not to wait for anything. I am to bring you at once.”

It was not a long walk from the harem to the dey’s apartments, but Kate felt it was every bit as far as it was to England. She was plagued by worry every step of the way that something had happened to Brett or that somehow his plan had been discovered. She hoped her face did not show how frightened she was, but she was certain the dey would know something was afoot.

“Come in,” the dey said, inviting her to make herself comfortable. Kate, settling herself on a cushion as far away from him as she dared, felt as though metal bands were tightening around her chest, making it impossible for her to breathe.

“It seems your husband is ready to bargain for you, and I thought you might help me decide just how far he would be willing to go for you.” Kate’s muscles relaxed and she took a deep, slow breath. Brett was all right and the dey did not know of their plan. She was worried about what he had in mind, but for the moment that was enough. She would deal with everything else as it came.

“I’m sure he knows what you want of him,” Kate said, trying hard to keep her voice steady. “You might wait for him to make an offer. Then you will know how much room you have to bargain.”

“That is an excellent suggestion,” the dey said, his hard eyes watching Kate more keenly, his wintry gaze as repellent as even. “In fact, it is such an excellent suggestion, I begin to wonder if there may not be something behind it I do not see.”

“But there isn’t,” Kate insisted, alarmed. “I haven’t been married very long and I know almost nothing about his mission, so I don’t know what he will do. I really don’t.” Kate could tell from the dey’s expression that he did not believe her. She redoubled her effort to convince him.

“I don’t care about el-Kader or the French or Algeria, I just want to go home. But I know if you push him too far, he won’t budge and then something awful will happen. He has a terrible temper and he’s likely to do the most unsuspected things.”

“I know.”

“What do you mean,
you know?”

“I should have listened to you in the beginning.”

“Why? What happened?”

“He has already gone to el-Kader and talked him into threatening to bring his troops stampeding into Algiers. Then he had the impudence to break into my palace to tell me about it.”

“Brett was here? Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you let me see him?”

“I must admit he caught me by surprise, and I was not prepared to deal with him. He is to return soon, and now that I have talked with you, I feel we may be able to deal better together. He must give me certain assurances, but I am anxious for an agreement. It is not just you and your husband who will suffer if we fail to come to an agreement.”

“And if you don’t get them?” Kate’s knees felt weak.

“I would prefer not to think of that just now. For the moment you may rejoice that your husband has come to seek your release and that I feel I know him well enough to hope we can reach an agreement that will satisfy us both.”

“When will he come?”

“I really cannot say.”

“Will it be soon?”

“I think within the next few days.” Kate tried to hide her disappointment. “I will let you know when he arrives. I imagine he will be unwilling to make any promises until he can see for himself you are unharmed.”

Chapter 24

Kate returned to the harem, her thoughts in a muddle. Brett was coming for her, and the dey had promised to let her see him. It was wonderful news, yet she felt unaccountably ill at ease. Why? If there was something wrong, she couldn’t put her finger on it. She didn’t trust the dey, but she was also certain Brett would never leave the palace without learning whether she was alive and within its walls. Once he knew where to find her, she was sure he wouldn’t leave without her.

Then why was she so uneasy? Could it be the message Anis had received? What did that have to do with Brett’s coming for her? Surely it was not from Brett. Wiggins couldn’t know Anis’s relatives and Brett certainly wouldn’t.

Her eyes swept over the hundred or so women in the room. She had no friends among the concubines, no one she could trust, but if there was to be an uproar loud enough to draw all the guards away from their posts, then they would have to be part of it. In fact, because of their numbers, they would have to take the largest part in the disturbance. Kate paused by a fountain, trailing her fingers through the cool water, and studied the women as unobtrusively as possible.

All of them appeared to be quite young, many of them even younger than Kate, and all were attractive in some way. A few had classical beauty, but most had flaws of face, figure, and probably personality, but there was something about each of them, if nothing more than animal magnetism, that drew the eye. Kate had seen some dance while others sang or played instruments. They were all trained in the ways of love, costumed to arouse the senses, and taught to move and speak with sensual grace. Yet now, with no one but women of their own age for company, they were acting much like young women acted anywhere, all talking at once, laughing in high-pitched squeals, and moving about the room with boundless energy. How different from the manner they would assume if called to visit the dey.

What did any of these women care about Kate? Why should they risk their positions in the harem, possibly their lives, for a stranger? Surely there would be more additions to the harem in the coming months and at least one of them would be certain to have blond hair. She found it very difficult to understand, even after Olema and Anis had both explained it to her very carefully, why these girls were happy to be in the dey’s harem, how for them it was the pinnacle of achievement. They understood their position and they accepted the addition of new girls as naturally as they accepted the fact that they would be called to the dey no more than two or three times a year unless they were lucky enough to become one of his favorites. Most of them would never visit him at all, and only two or three of them would be elevated to the status of wife.

Anis and Nuzhat, on the other hand, did have a position to protect, but again, they had so much more to lose than gain by helping Kate. Nuzhat was the mother of the heir and thus one of the most powerful women in the harem. Even though she was too old to be called to the dey’s bed—she seemed to have accepted being replaced by Anis without any of the anger she leveled at Kate—she would always have a close relationship with the dey, and one day she would be the mother of the ruler. Why should it matter to her whether the dey’s bed was occupied more often by Anis or Kate?

Anis had nothing to fear from Kate but pride of position. She was just as lovely as Kate and could expect to remain the dey’s favorite, or at least one of his favorites, for a long while yet. Could she fear that if Kate took over her position, she would never conceive a child and would lose her standing in the harem as well as in the dey’s affections? Kate saw Olema approaching and decided to abandon her thoughts for the present. She would seek out Anis as soon as she could and try to learn more from her, but for now she could find no answers to her questions.

“Neither of you is to utter a sound or do anything to draw attention to yourselves until we have Kate safely outside the palace. He’s going to be suspicious enough about my wife having a female servant as tall as Charles.” Brett was explaining his plans for the evening to Wiggins, Ibrahin, and Charles. “Wiggins, I’m depending on you to help me keep the dey’s attention off Ibrahin and Charles. I’ll be as argumentative as I can. I want you to support my demands and at the same time position yourself between them and the dey. The less he sees of them the less suspicious he’s going to be.”

“How do you propose to get us into the harem?” Ibrahin asked. “As anxious as I am to restore your wife to you, I also want to see how the dey’s women compare to my father’s.”

“The problem that concerns me the most is getting Kate out,” Brett stated impatiently. “I’ll refuse to even begin talking about a compromise until I can see for myself she’s all right.”

“Do you think the dey will agree?”

“I am sure he will expect Mr. Westbrook to demand some confirmation of his wife’s well-being,” Wiggins said. “What better proof can he offer than Mrs. Westbrook herself?”

“I’m still worried,” Brett continued. “I don’t think he means to let me take Kate away with us. I suspect he’s going to want me to leave before he releases her, have her sent to England after me, or something like that. Whatever he does, I imagine he’s going to want to keep us apart. The more distance he can keep between us, the less likely I am to do anything to thwart him. It’s crucial that we keep his attention off you two, that you do nothing to make him suspicious. Everything must happen too quickly for him to be able to figure it out.”