Adora

texture of it. It was as soft as thistledown, yet not too fine.

Damn! The tsar was a sly old fox! He would certainly never love the girl, but he now lusted to possess her and that fabulous hair. He heard himself say, “The girl is a virgin?”

Smiling, the tsar nodded. Irritated by Ivan’s show of superiority, Murad said brutally, “I shall require proof of my own. Just before I bed with the girl my own Moorish physician will decide the matter. Rest assured that I can tell a real virgin. No amount of weeping and feigning pain will fool me. So be sure, Ivan, that you deal honestly with me. If you or your daughter are lying to me, I will give her to my soldiers when I have finished with her.”

The girl paled, gasped, and swayed. Catching her before she fell, Murad was unable to resist caressing a small breast. Thamar shivered first and then reddened with embarrassment. It told Murad what he wanted to know. Though he would still have the physician check, he was certain the girl was innocent.

Now the day had come for Thamar to enter the harem of Sultan Murad. Since she came as a concubine, not a wife, her arrival was a subdued one. When she stepped from her litter she was greeted, not by the sultan, as she had expected, but by a beautiful, richly clad young woman.

“Welcome to the Island Serai, Thamar of the Bulgars. I am Theadora of Byzantium, the sultan’s bas- kadin.”

“I expected the sultan to greet me,” replied Thamar ungraciously.

“And so he would have if he were a Christian prince, or if you came as his wife. Alas, Muslim sultans learn different manners and we poor Christian princesses who are sent into political concubinage must learn to cope.” Laughing, she put an arm about the girl. “Come, my dear. I will wager you are tired, hungry, and perhaps even a little frightened. You are to have a beautiful, spacious apartment of your own in the harem. But first a bath to wash the dust of your journey from you and then a hot meal and a good night’s rest.”

Thamar shook the friendly arm off. “Where is Lord Murad? When will I see him? I demand that you tell me!”

Theadora took the girl firmly by the hand and half pulled, half dragged her to the privacy of her own salon in the Court of the Beloved. Releasing Thamar’s hand, she faced her and said firmly, “I think it is time you faced your situation honestly, my dear. You are not to be the sultan’s wife. You will be one of many concubines. Sultan Murad has no wife, nor will he ever have. He has a harem of women to suit his varied moods. And he has one kadin. A kadin, Thamar, is a maiden who has borne him sons and whom the sultan wishes to honor.

“I am my lord’s kadin. His only kadin. My sons, Bajazet, Osman, and Orkhan are Murad’s heirs. I would like to be your friend, for my lord’s happiness is my first duty. Make no mistake, however, Thamar, in the harem only the sultan’s word supplants mine.

“You will see our lord Murad when he so desires and not before. You may demand nothing. Only the sultan demands. My lord thought you would be weary and has ordered that you rest tonight.”

When the girl frowned in obvious annoyance, Theadora’s patience came to an abrupt end. “I had been told you were a virgin, but I have never known a virgin to be so eager for her lord’s bed,” she said cruelly.

The girl flushed with embarrassment. “I am not eager,” she whispered. “I did not expect to be greeted in such a manner. Is it always so here?”

“What were you told of the harem?”

Again Thamar flushed. “I was told that whatever happened I must remember it was for my country. That the peasants would revere me as a saint.”

Adora swallowed her laughter. The girl would be horribly offended. “They also, I am sure, made veiled references to unbridled licentiousness and orgies. I am afraid we will disappoint you, Thamar. The sultan is a very moral man. The Christian nobleman has a legal wife, an openly flaunted mistress, several secret mistresses, and exercises the droit de seigneur on every available virgin. The sultan is far more honest. He keeps a harem of women. The mothers of his children are honored, for the Muslims revere motherhood. Girls who don’t attract his favor are married off to those the sultan wishes to favor. Older women are pensioned. Is such decency as this practiced in the Christian world?”

“Are you a Muslim, my lady?” asked the girl fearfully.

“No, Thamar, I am as faithful a member of the Eastern Church as you are. Father Lucas says the mass each day in my private chapel. You are welcome to join me in my devotions. Now, however, I suggest we return to our schedule: a bath, a meal, and a good night’s sleep.”

Adora escorted the subdued girl to the harem which was located in the Court of the Jeweled Fountains. Thamar attempted to be aloof, but the sight of a room full of beautiful women was both fascinating and unnerving. Her father had instructed her to gain the sultan’s affection so that he might confide in her. She was then to pass on to her father all the information she had gathered. How, thought Thamar ruefully, was she supposed to gain the sultan’s confidence when she would have trouble even gaining his attention?

Not only that, but her father’s information regarding the princess Theadora was obviously incorrect also. Tsar Ivan had assured his daughter that the Byzantine princess was only one of the women in the harem. She had no authority or special place in the sultan’s life. And she was a much older woman, practically elderly. Had she not been Sultan Orkhan’s wife? Thamar was already composing in her mind a strongly worded letter to her sire. Casting a final glance about the harem salon, she realized she had nothing to offer Murad that the other women didn’t have, except possibly her lovely hair.

Adora settled the girl as comfortably as possible, and then left her to her slaves. She could understand Murad’s temptation. The maiden was indeed lovely-lovely enough to hold him if she had any sense at all. Her earlier show of temperament gave Adora cause for concern. She was not sure if it stemmed from strength of character or from stubbornness. She hoped it was the latter.

Back in the main salon of the harem the other women clustered in small groups, talking. This new princess was lovely and as different from Princess Theadora as dawn is from dusk. Would she supplant the favorite? Should they become Thamar’s new friends now and thus be in line for her favors when she overcame Theadora?

A lovely Italian girl who was an occasional favorite of Murad’s laughed mockingly at the others. “You are a pack of fools,” she said, “to even contemplate choosing this new girl over the lady Theadora. Most of you have not even yet been in the sultan’s bed. I have, and I can tell you that there is no one who will ever replace Princess Theadora in our lord Murad’s heart. He is like a great lion who enjoys the company of many young lionesses but is truly mated to only one.”

“But he must give this Thamar a child or her dowry will not be paid,” said another girl. “When a man has a child by a woman he is always more attentive to her.”

“Attentive, perhaps. In love with, no,” came the Italian’s reply. “The babe will be for Princess Thamar’s amusement. And let us pray to Allah she conceives a girl child, for Prince Bajazet and his brothers are our lord Murad’s heirs and Princess Theadora will brook no interference in the succession. Choose sides if you would be so foolish. But if you do, be sure you choose the right side. At least with our princess Adora we have a predictable quantity.”

The women of the harem were strangely silent. They did not see Thamar until the next day when the entire harem, led by Theadora, participated in the ritual bridal bath. Thamar would go to the sultan’s bed that night. Seeing the Bulgarian’s nude, youthful beauty lost Thamar most of her support. The bored young beauties of the harem spent every waking hour working to entice the sultan. Here came a princess who would have no greater position than they had, yet she was being rushed to the sultan’s bed. Had it not been for Adora’s kindness, they would have turned on their new rival and torn her to pieces.

Adora, however, could afford to be generous. She was pregnant again. When she had learned that Murad intended taking the Bulgarian into his harem she had decided to forgo her previous precautions. As she knew that Murad would continue to bed with Thamar until he got her with child, Adora intended to make her own condition known quite soon. Nevertheless, she felt a stab of jealousy as she escorted the girl to Murad’s apartment in the Court of the Sun.

So frightened was Thamar that she had to be practically pushed into the room. Ali Yahya stepped from the shadows, removed her plain white silk robe, and departed. Before her loomed a large, velvet hung bed. Thamar reluctantly stumbled forward. Remembering what she had been taught that afternoon, she kissed the embroidered hem of the coverlet and then crawled up from the foot of the bed to the sultan’s side.

He watched her progress with amused, narrowed eyes. She had a deliciously provocative bottom. He sat cross- legged, his lower body hidden by the coverlet. As his chest was bare, she suspected the rest of him was too.