The Kadin - Bertrice Small [86]
Her eyes shining, the child gathered up the reins. “Yes, father.”
“Selim,” protested Cyra, “she is too little for such a big horse.”
“She is an Ottoman princess, and all Ottomans ride well naturally.” He tapped the horse lightly on the rump, and it trotted off to the stable with Nilufer proudly on its back. The prince turned to his men. “You have done well, my Tartars. Go now and enjoy the pleasures of the bath. This evening there will be feasting and entertainment for you all.” Turning back to his family, he escorted them into the palace. “Tonight I shall dine with my oldest sons and their mothers.” A slave took his dusty cape while another removed his dirty boots.
“Cyra, come with me, I want to speak with you.” He strode off to his quarters. “How is my aunt? Why did she not greet me?”
“She is very well, my lord, but exhausted from her labors these past weeks. She bade me ask you to visit her when you have bathed and changed.”
He nodded, then queried, “What in Allah’s name did you do to the people of this province? There wasn’t a village where I wasn’t stopped and offered a selection of refreshments and nubile virgins.”
They entered his apartments.
She laughed. “I simply distributed food and gold in your name following the earthquake. Did you not notice that the homes are all repaired and the fields filled with growing grain?”
“I did. Except for a few scars on the land itself, you would not know the quake had touched this region.”
“But it did, dearest. The waters from the sea swept all through our estate. Had it not been for the storm that followed, we would have been a salt desert now.”
“I thank Allah you were not in the city, my dove. The waters poured over the city walls. Hundreds were drowned. What wasn’t ruined by the waters burned in the fires that followed. The sultan himself narrowly escaped death. The sea inundated his private apartments at the Yeni Serai. He had left them but an hour before. Three slaves who were cleaning the rooms were drowned.”
“How horrible! We were lucky in losing only one slave.”
The prince continued his story. “We set up tents in the gardens of the Eski Serai, but when it became apparent that the aftershocks would continue, the sultan moved the court and government to Adrianople. Before we left, he opened the granaries to the people of the city, and for the time I was with him in Adrianople, he did nothing but plan the rebuilding and repair of Constantinople. It has started already. Poor father was so worried about my family. However, Hadji Bey assured him you were all safe. Besma was naturally quite disappointed to hear you were all out of danger.”
“That woman!” hissed Cyra, her eyes narrowing. Then, remembering, she spoke again. “My lord, you must forgive me for acting without your authority, but it became necessary to dispose of the chief eunuch, AIL He was Besma’s spy.”
“Ali?”
“Yes, my lord. Once I told you I did not know who Besma’s spies were. I spoke the truth. However, several years ago Hadji Bey felt it best that I know. The others were a white eunuch in your aunt’s quarters, a bath attendant, and one of the slave girls attached to my suite. Ali died an apparently natural death.” Selim raised an eyebrow, but Cyra continued. “I have appointed Hadji Bey’s protégé Anber to the position of chief eunuch.”
The prince nodded his approval. “And the others, my love?”
“The slave girl I rewarded for her service to me by marrying her to a prosperous farmer in the region who has always been of service to us. The bath attendant slipped while alone in the baths, hit her head, and drowned. The white eunuch was caught trying to run away with half of Lady Refet’s jewels in his pockets. It was necessary to execute him as an example to the other slaves that we will not tolerate that sort of thing.”
Selim whistled softly. “I shall be