The Kadin - Bertrice Small [76]
“Your hospitality is excellent my dear Selim, but then so, I understand, is the beauty of your harem. Why is it I have not yet seen your women?”
“The sweets, my brother, should always be served at the end of the meat”
Prince Ahmed laughed. “Well said, Selim! I am prettily reproved. My mother has always said my manners were gross.”
Selim nodded to a eunuch and then turned to his brother. “Join me on the dais, Ahmed, and I shall present my women to you.”
They moved from the table to a raised, pillow-strewn marble dais. Lady Refet sat on a leather stool nearby. Two slaves swung wide the large doors to the reception hall, and a veiled figure in a gold-bordered, light-green wool caftan glided into the hall. She moved to the foot of the dais, where a slave removed her robe. Her trousers were striped in wide bands of gold and green, a bodice made from cloth of gold covered her sheer white blouse, and her feet were encased in green silk slippers. Red-gold hair flowed over her shoulders and down her back. It had been brushed to a sheen that caught the light and glowed. Around her throat glittered an emerald necklace, and emerald earrings bobbed from her ears. Falling to her knees before Selim, she pressed the hem of his robe to her forehead first, then to her lips.
“Rise,” he said. “Ahmed, my bas-kadin, the lady Cyra. You may remove your veil before my dear brother, love.”
Her slim ringed hand gently pulled the sheer green cloth from her face. “Welcome to the Moonlight Serai, Prince Ahmed. May your stay with us be a happy one.”
Ahmed stared for a long moment into the cool, unwavering green eyes, then his glance took in the rest of her face and her slender body. “Brother Selim, I would give my inheritance for one night at her couch.”
Selim laughed pleasantly. “My thanks, dear brother,” he said, “but I prefer the life of a country gentleman. Your empire is safe. Come, sit next to me, Cyra.”
A second figure appeared in the main doorway. She, too, wore a gold-bordered wool caftan, but in Persian blue. When the slave removed the caftan, Selim saw that her costume was identical to Cyra’s except for the colors—blue and gold. Her silvery-blond hair had been dressed high on her head to give her the illusion of height. Around her throat she wore a necklace of sapphires. Kneeling in front of the dais, she made her obeisance, removed her veil, and flashed a dazzling smile at Prince Ahmed.
“My second kadin, the lady Firousi.”
“Magnificent,” murmured the visiting prince.
Firousi moved to the dais and settled herself by Cyra as Zuleika arrived. Standing in front of her lord, Zuleika allowed the slave to remove her gold-bordered, scarlet wool caftan, revealing gold-and-scarlet trousers, a cloth-of-gold bodice over a sheer white blouse, and scarlet silk slippers. A magnificent necklace of blazing rubies flashed fire from her throat Her shining, blue-black hair was drawn back high on her head, to fall in one long, thick braid down her back.
Selim glanced at Cyra’s costume, Firousi’s, and Zuleika’s. A little smile played at the corners of his mouth. “My third kadin, the lady Zuleika.” Zuleika removed her veil, nodded coolly at Ahmed and took her place next to Firousi.
“The first three are exquisite, my brother. If your other three kadins are as lovely, I shall be quite jealous.”
“I have only three kadins, and one ikbal, Ahmed My other two maidens are dead”
A fourth figure in a gold-bordered white wool caftan walked into the hall and to the dais.
“Ah, Sarina, come forward my prickly rose”
Selim was not surprised to find that beneath her robe Sarina’s costume matched those of her companions, her colors being white and gold She wore only plain gold jewelry, for the lovely necklaces worn by her three companions had been gifts from Selim in token of the births of his first three sons. Sarina fell to her knees, her chestnut curls tumbling in delightful confusion about her face and shoulders. She then rose and removed her veil.
“My ikbal, the lady Sarina.”
“Is it not unusual to address