The Kadin - Bertrice Small [151]
At a few minutes to ten o’clock that evening, Cyra Hafise was leaving her apartments when there came a terrible wailing sound. The startled valideh sent a eunuch to discover the source of the appalling noise. He returned to say that Gulbehar, garbed in black, had locked herself in her bedchamber and was now weeping.
Cyra frowned angrily. “She should be beaten, but I suppose that would only worsen things.” She turned to the eunuch. “Break the door to Gulbehar’s bedchamber open, and bind and gag her.”
The eunuch nodded and hurried to carry out the valideh’s orders. He had been in the harem a long time and knew the customs surrounding the sultan’s romantic liaisons. Every door and window in the harem must be shut. Only the way from the favorite lady’s chamber to the sultan’s apartment was left open. Above all, there must be silence. Nothing must distract Suleiman and his chosen one from their pleasure.
Shortly afterward, Cyra entered Khurrem’s chamber and, drawing from her pocket a necklace of golden flowers studded with tiny pink diamond chips, fastened it about the surprised girl’s neck.
“Madam,” whispered Khurrem, “it is beautiful.”
“Its owner far outshines it” replied the valideh.
She stood while her charge was placed in the golden litter, and, escorting it to the doors of her son’s quarters, said to the Russian, “May you know only joy, my daughter.” The Utter entered, and the doors to the sultan’s suite closed.
Returning to her own quarters, Cyra stopped at Gulbehar’s apartments. The kadin’s attendants, huddled around the tiled corner stove, turned frightened faces to the sultan’s mother. The valideh entered the bedroom and stood for a minute, staring down at the younger woman.
“Cut her bonds,” she commanded the kadin’s eunuch, “and remove the gag.”
Gulbehar sat up and began to rub her wrists.
“Khurrem is now with her lord and master,” began the valideh.
Gulbehar shrieked wildly.
Cyra raised her hand and slapped the girl. “Be silent!” She turned to the eunuch. “Leave us. I will speak with Gulbehar Kadin alone.” She turned to the girl, “Control yourself! Khurrem is now a fact Face it!”
Gulbehar’s voice was low. “I am lost.”
Cyra was becoming more annoyed as the minutes slipped by. “You are still the sultan’s bas-kadin and mother of his heir,” she snapped. ‘This day you have behaved disgracefully, and you have failed in your duties. Khurrem is but the first of my son’s harem to grace his couch. There will be others, but no matter the number, it is your son who will follow my son—may Allah grant that be many years hence.”
“Ah, my mother,” replied Gulbehar sadly, “do you think I would have objected to my lord’s taking another woman to his couch if he had made the choice himself?”
“But he did make the choice. From his entire harem he singled out Khurrem,”
“No. You chose her. You placed her strategically, and trained her, and favored her. How little you know this man who is your son. For eleven years I have held him, and I knew be was bored with me, though his fondness for me would never diminish. Soon he would have chosen another maiden to share his bed, and I would have rejoiced that he found joy. But you have given him a viper. Khurrem is ambitious and cruel. She will never be satisfied with being merely the second kadin.”
“How can you say that Khurrem is cruel? Ambitious, I know, but certainly not cruel.”
“Your spies have obviously not told you of what your protégée did to the keeper of the linens. When Khurrem became a guzdeh, she had her eunuch force Cervi to kneel before her, and then she placed her foot upon the woman’s neck. This was not cruel?”
Cyra had not known of this incident but pretended she did. “A childish prank,” she said.
“Khurrem will try to destroy us all,” repeated Gulbehar.
“Bah! I am mistress here, and I promise you that she will not harm you or your little Mustafa.”
The morning following the Russian’s first visit to her lord, Cyra joined her pupil