The Kadin - Bertrice Small [50]
“You will come again?” His eyes adored her. “When my lord commands me.”
“Tonight?”
Her brilliant smile assented. “My lord must officially summon me.”
“You will be summoned.” He stood, picked her up, and carried her to the waiting litter. The astounded slaves kept their faces impassive as they padded back down the cold, silent corridor.
Cyra thought how frightened she had been but a few hours past Now her heart felt as if it would burst with happiness and joy.
The litter returned her to the harem where Lady Refet waited. Cyra ran to her.
“Oh, madam, I am so happy.”
“And so you should be,” smiled the older woman. “Now, I have ordered the masseuse, and your bath awaits. Then to bed, my child.”
Cyra allowed the bath attendant to sponge the perfumed water over her, and the masseuse to lull her overexcited body and mind into a more restful state. When they had finished, Lady Refet appeared again.
“Come, dear child. I will escort you to your new quarters.”
“I am not to go to my old room, madam?”
“It would not be fitting for Prince Selim’s ikbal to sleep in the quarters of an ordinary gediklis,” replied the woman. “For several weeks now, my nephew has had the slaves working secretly on your apartments. They have been decorated to please just you.”
“But he has been away, and returned only today.”
“Yet we have had several messengers from him in that time.”
“But how could he know he would choose me first?”
“He has known from the beginning, Cyra. I know that Europeans find it difficult to believe that an Oriental prince, surrounded as he is by many lovely maidens, could love honestly; but did you find your first visit to my nephew tonight a simple physical experience?”
“Oh, no,” cried the blushing girl. “It was beautiful, and pure, and—” She stopped, suddenly at a loss for words.
Lady Refet smiled gently. “Say no more,” she said, patting the girl’s hand. “Once I, too, felt the same way.” She flung open the doors at the end of the female sleeping quarters, and they entered the reception room of Cyra’s new suite.
The walls were tiled in a rich blue glaze decorated with a yellow geometric pattern. Directly facing them was a small fountain of polished, dark-red stone. At each end of the room was a door.
“The eunuchs guarding you are quartered there,” said Lady Refet, pointing to the left. “Your own female slaves will be here.” She motioned to the right
Beneath their feet the floor was of the same polished red marble as the fountain. On the fountain wall were two doors. One was small, the other a large double door of carved and gilded wood which opened into a charming salon.
Cyra gazed about her in delight The yellow walls were set with heavy wooden beams decorated with painted floral designs in reds, blues, greens, and golds. The paneled ceiling repeated the motif of the beams. The floor was a creamy marble.
In the center of the room stood a round fireplace tiled in red and yellow. Above it hung a highly polished, conically shaped copper hood. The fire, blazing merrily, warmed the salon and cast its sparkling reflection into the windows at the far end of the room. Small glass panes covered almost the entire wall and concealed a door that opened onto a colonnaded porch and out into a private walled garden that hung above the sea.
Walking into the chill of the early morning, Cyra looked about her. The garden had been perfectly laid out Narrow paths wandered among the flower beds. There were flowering trees and shrubs, now dormant with thickly covered buds awaiting the spring to come. There were firlike trees that reminded Cyra of her childhood Scots homeland. Moving along one of the paths, she came upon a pool with a little waterfall designed to appear as if nature had placed it there.
Suddenly the girl realized that the garden had been made to look like Glen Rae, a favorite childhood haunt of which she had often spoken to Lady Refet. Hot, silent tears splashed down her cheeks, and she quickly brushed them away.
“We thought to make you happy, my dear. If the memory is too painful, the garden will be changed.” She