Lion's Bride - Iris Johansen [61]
“She was never unkind to you.” She met Maya’s eyes. “And she was better than you. A dog in the streets is better than you.”
Color flared in Maya’s heavily jowled cheeks.
Selene knew she should have kept silent. She would pay in the workroom tomorrow. She didn’t care. She could stand only so much from Maya.
The gong sounded the signal for bedtime.
A gong to rise, a gong to summon them to meals, a gong to order them to the workroom. Sometimes she heard that gong in her dreams, deafening her, suffocating her.
She passed Maya, who was muttering low threats, and moved reluctantly toward the house of women.
She will never come for you.
Maya’s words repeated over and over in her head as she settled down on her pallet.
Thea would come, she thought desperately. Thea loved her. She would never leave her alone.
But Mama had loved them and left them alone. Her arms had been holding Selene and then they had fallen away.
But Thea was different. She was as strong as Mama had been weak. She would not let Selene stay in this place. She would come for her.
She fought back the stinging behind her eyes. She had not cried since Mama died. Tears changed nothing. She had heard Mama weeping in the night sometimes, and it had not helped her. Her life had not got better. She had not lived. Mama…
Don’t think of Mama. Don’t think of Thea. One minute at a time. She could bear life that way. Thea would come for her.
But what if Maya was right and the young merchant chose her and took her far away from Constantinople?
Panic soared through her. Maya was wrong. She would be here when Thea came back for her. God would not be that cruel. Kadar ben Arnaud would choose one of the others.
“I told you,” Maya said softly, her eyes drinking in Selene’s shock and suffering as if it were a honeyed drink. “You are only a child and a slave. You can do nothing about it. Our master says you must be ready to leave on the morrow.”
“You lie.” Selene steadied her voice. “It’s not true.”
“It’s true. You sail tomorrow evening. But Nicholas is far from pleased. The young rooster was a much cannier bargainer than he had hoped. They argued all day, but Nicholas could not squeeze more from him.” Maya sailed away toward another group of women to spread the word.
Selene sat down on the bench. She was shaking with anger as well as fear. She could not leave. He had no right to tear her from her only hope of freedom.
You can do nothing.
Perhaps Maya was right and she was too young to fight this world of grown-ups who cared about nothing but gold.
Thea, help me.
Thea was not here to help her, and she was not a child. Children were young, and she had lost her youth the night Mama had died.
She must help herself.
“She is gone?” Kadar repeated.
“But I’m sure we will find her,” Nicholas said quickly. “She is only a child. Where could she go? No doubt when she gets hungry she will return.”
Not even if she was starving, Kadar thought grimly. Christ, he should have gone to her last night after the deal had been struck. But what good would it have done when he would not have been able to talk to her without that muscular mamba hovering nearby? “When did she leave?”
“Some time during the night.” He frowned. “She must have climbed the garden wall. None of the guards saw her.”
Then she’d had hours to lose herself in the city.
“She has been sheltered under my roof and knows little of the wickedness she will find on the streets. Trust me, she will come running back in a few days.” Nicholas paused. “But you understand the bargain was struck. She is now your property. I’m not responsible.”
“You’re saying you won’t return my gold?”
Nicholas did not answer directly. “She’s not my responsibility.”
Yes, the bastard definitely needed his throat cut. Too bad Kadar had to keep him alive to find out if Selene returned.
“You’ll postpone your sailing and stay until you retrieve her?” Nicholas asked.
“I can do nothing else. You made sure she was too costly to leave behind.”
“Not that costly,” Nicholas said sourly. “Perhaps fate decided to punish you for cheating