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By Root 1601 0

’s dearest friend, Firousi, she waited until she knew—thanks to her own spies—that Khurrem Kadin would be unavailable to Suleiman. The sultan was then invited to his aunt’s for a family evening, to see his half-sister and their children. Unsuspecting he went and after a time was discreetly hustled into a private room by Firousi. There he found Esther Kira who made him obeisance, and then without speaking a word handed him the letter. He broke the seal, little knowing that Esther, at his mother’s command, had already read the letter, and reseated it She watched as his face went from white to red, then white again.

“I must destroy the letter when you are sure you’re through, my lord sultan.”

“Why?”

“Because the sultan valideh Cyra Hafise is dead, my lord.”

“Do you know what is in this letter, Esther?”

“Yes, my lord Suleiman. Your mother wrote me, also.”

“I have already married Khurrem”

“I know, my lord.”

He didn’t seem surprised. Esther Kira, like his mother, had her ways of knowing things. “What shall I do, Esther? If mother heard rumors that I might marry Khurrem what will happen when she knows I have?”

“You married Khurrem in secret my lord. Divorce her the same way.”

“Two months ago I stood before an old mufti and wed with her. The old man died shortly afterwards. There are no witnesses to our marriage. I cannot divorce her without a witness.”

“I will be your witness, my lord. If I stand behind a curtain she need not know who it is; yet I can write your mother with truth.”

“Khurrem will be so angry with me, Esther. She has nagged and nagged at me for months to marry her.”

“Of course she will be angry, my lord. You should not have given in to her. If she complains, you must remember you are sultan! Besides, would you raise her above your mother?”

Several days later Sultan Suleiman, known in the Christian West as “the Magnificent,” stood in a hidden kiosk deep within the gardens of the Eski Serai and said to his wife of just two months, “I divorce thee. I divorce thee. I divorce thee.”

For a moment she stared horrified at him, then laughed.

“My lord, you must not frighten me again that way.”

“It is no game, Khurrem. I have divorced you.”

“You cannot without a witness!” she gasped

“There was one. Behind the tapestry, now gone through the door back there. If need be, this witness can be brought forth,”

“Why, my lord? Why? I thought you loved me!”

“I do, my dove, but I cannot raise you above my mother, the late valideh.”

“Sultan Selim never loved your mother as you love me! He could not have! He had four kadins, and god knows how many other concubines.”

“My father held my mother above all women, and not simply because she gave him four sons. Zuleika gave him as many. He recognized her greatness as I did I married you to stop your nagging. I divorce you because I have come to my senses. If you speak one more word to me on the subject, woman, I will have you sewn into a sack and dropped into the sea! Get down on your knees and thank Allah that I have made you my second kadin!”

Suleiman then stormed from the kiosk leaving a very frightened Khurrem, He was usually so manageable. The only time he ever showed any spunk towards her had been after his mother, Allah curse her, had spoken with him. Now the old bitch reached out from the grave to her! Perhaps Suleiman had some spine after all. Khurrem shrugged her shoulders. You could live with a man for years and not really know him. Oh well, she would simply be more careful in the future. Besides, Suleiman had been kind enough to divorce her privately. The rumors were thick that they had married She had seen to that Who need ever know that they were not married? The witness, whoever it was, would say nothing unless called upon by the sultan. She was safe, and no one would ever know the truth.

That very day Aaron Kira and his cousin, Moishe, began their return journey to the headwaters of the Vistula, to Hamburg, to Scotland, to Sithean.

46

THE YEAR 1536 was an eventful one for Janet

On April 5th, Ruth was delivered of her second son, Hugh. Marian was