The Kadin - Bertrice Small [7]
“You are the sweetest brother any girl could have.”
Adam flushed and wriggled in embarrassment.
Janet turned back to her gifts. On the last tray was a beautifully carved leather saddle.
“Oh, Rudi,” she exclaimed, “it’s wonderful!”
“But it is not from me, cara. It is from your father.”
“But you said you had another gift for me, and there are no others left”
“Greedy wench,” said Patrick.
“Oh, father,” she giggled. “I’m sorry. The saddle is a marvelous gift”
“It goes with something else, little sweetheart. Come out on the terrace and see what your grandmother has for you.”
The entire family adjourned to the terrace. There, standing quietly, was a beautiful white mare, and holding her bridle was a young black man wearing bright red satin pantaloons, a yellow turban with a white plume, and a gold earring in his left ear. His bare chest had been oiled, and it glistened in the bright sun.
“The mare’s name is Heather,” said Patrick.
“And this,” said Rudi, placing a hand on the black man’s shoulder, “is Mamud. He is a tamed and Christianized African, and my special gift to you. I purchased him from a trading ship that put in here last week. He is gelded, and therefore a eunuch.”
Though Janet was delighted with Mamud, Mary Mac-Kay was not She was quite horrified. “Black as a crow, and he’ll bring bad luck, too,” she said. “What could Master Rudi have been thinking to give ye such a gift?”
Mamud regarded the Scotswoman warily out of liquid brown eyes and immediately summed her up as the enemy.
“Don’t be silly, grandmother. Blackamoors are becoming quite the fashion.”
“If he were a child, it would be one thing,” persisted the older woman, “but he is not Gelded or nae, I dinna like the looks of him.”
That evening, Janet stood on her balcony overlooking the sea. The day had been a long one, and she was relieved that it was over. A jagged streak of lightning cut across the sky, followed by a nimble of thunder that echoed into the hills. Soon the rain would begin, bringing an end to this awful heat
Janet moved from the balcony and lay down on her bed. Closing her eyes, she let her body relax and her mind wander. Something had happened to her this evening that seemed to indicate that Rudi was as eager as she to be wed.
They had been sitting in the duke’s garden. Rudi, who up to this point had given her no more than an occasional kiss on the cheek, had slipped his arm around her and kissed her on the mouth. At first she had been startled, but as Rudi whispered soft endearments in her ear, she had allowed herself to be kissed again. Her innocently ardent response had encouraged his hands to begin a gentle fondling of her breasts. Janet had heard herself murmuring in soft contentment as her body grew warm and strangely weak. But the sudden loud sounds of her brother and Rudi’s younger brothers playing a boisterous game nearby had roused her, and she had pulled away, suddenly frightened.
Rudi had smiled slowly at her. “It is a long time until our wedding day, Gianetta.”
“I know,” she had sighed, “but father is firm.”
Reliving that moment in the privacy of her bedchamber, Janet began to wonder if her father weren’t right She loved Rudi terribly, but he had awakened feelings in her she wasn’t sure she was equipped to handle at this moment Perhaps she was too young.
Maybe, she thought, I shall ask father to move the wedding date, and maybe not I have plenty of time to decide.
The rain came in a rush and began to beat fiercely on the red-tile roof of the villa. Flopping over on her stomach, Janet allowed the sound of the rain to lull her, and promptly fell asleep.
4
CHRISTMAS WAS OVER, and the new year of Our Lord, one thousand four hundred and ninety-three, had begun. The holidays, with all their feasting and merriment, had been happy ones. No longer considered a child, but not yet quite a woman, Janet had been expected to take up some of the duties of a future duchess of San Lorenzo. She had appeared with Rudi at all official and church functions,