there was a sudden, shocked silence.
'You have a fine sense of the dramatic,' the eunuch observed wryly as they left the main room of the harem and entered the baths.
'Ahh, here you are.' Azura hurried forward, smiling.
'I will leave you in the lady Azura's competent hands while I return to restore order out of the chaos you have created. Half of the ladies will be weeping with fear from your fierce remark.' The eunuch departed.
'What on earth did you do?' Azura asked India.
'Those common creatures made unkind remarks about me as I passed through their domain,' India replied. 'I only considered out loud which one of them I should kill first. Surely they didn't really believe me. I only did it to spite them.'
Azura laughed. 'You will have frightened them to death,' she told India. 'You come from a land where the women are free in comparison to the women here. Your women may own land, walk the streets unveiled, in many cases even have a say in choosing their own husbands. Those vapid creatures peopling the dey's harem are incapable of such independence. Their sole reason for being is focused on pleasing Caynan Reis, and any new inhabitant of this harem is considered a threat to be frightened away. You, however, were not in the least intimidated by the ladies of the harem. Indeed, you threatened them with violence, and having heard of your attempt on the dey's life this morning, they fully believe you capable of such an act. It was most naughty of you to terrorize them so.' Then she laughed again.
'Where is your homeland?' India suddenly asked Azura.
'I was born in Poitou,' Azura said quietly. 'Like you, my father was of the noble class, and I, his eldest daughter. I was sent one summer when I was twelve, and a marriage was being arranged for me, to visit relatives near Marseilles. One day, Barbary corsairs stormed ashore, and I was taken, along with my cousins, into captivity. The former dey, Sharif el Mohammed, was my only master. I have lived in this palace for thirty years.'
'You had no children?' India couldn't resist being curious.
Azura shook her head. 'Sharif el Mohammed had no offspring,' she said. 'Women, of course, are blamed in such a situation, but my good lord knew better, which is why he never put me aside.' She smiled at India. 'You are so full of questions, my child, and I must get you bathed. You have never seen baths like these, I will wager.'
And indeed India had not. The room into which they entered was constructed of creamy marble. Domed, its pillars were of a pale green marble. In the center of the room was a round pool directly beneath the dome. Around the room were fountains with gold spigots set into the walls, above shell-like indentations in the marble floor. There were marble benches in varying heights set about. The room was warm and damp, and the air was scented with roses. Several slave women hurried forward, bowing politely to the lady Azura.
'Here is the new maiden,' Azura said. 'You must prepare her properly for our master. She has been aboard ship for many weeks, and is in need of much attention, but unlike many of these girls, she does bathe regularly as you will see by the softness of her skin.'
The bath attendants took India in their charge.
'I will remain with you,' Azura assured her.
The bath women tsked-tsked over the condition of India's thick, dark curls, admired her golden eyes, and then set to work. She was stood in one of the floor shells and rinsed. A young woman with a small curved silver instrument ran the implement over India's entire body. To her surprise, India saw dirt being scraped off of her skin. She was rinsed again. Next she was washed very thoroughly by two ladies holding large sea sponges filled with a foamy soap. When they had finished, and she had been rinsed off a third time, another woman knelt to examine India's body so closely that India blushed with embarrassment.
'Our men do not like body hair on a woman,' Azura explained as the bath attendant lifted each of India's arms in turn and spread her mixture beneath the upraised arms. 'The almond paste will remove the offense. It won't take long, I promise.'
While they waited for the depilatory to do its work, India's hair was thoroughly washed, and then toweled almost dry. Azura admired the girl's tresses, for India had hair that curled naturally even to the end of its length, which was about midback. The older woman lifted a handful of the curls admiringly, feeling its texture and thickness.
'It's lovely,' she said. 'Here in the sultan's realm maidens with golden or flame-colored hair are usually the most valuable, but your marvelous ebony curls are quite wonderful,' Azura told the younger woman. 'These curls are truly your crowning glory, my child.'
The pink paste was washed away, and India found herself feeling shy again as her Venus mound was suddenly so prominently displayed. Azura led her into the bathing pool, which was warm and quite relaxing. India was surprised to see what a fine body the older woman had despite her age.
'When you are feeling relaxed, we shall leave the pool, and the slaves will massage our bodies with sweet oils,' Azura explained.
'Do you do this every day?' India asked her.
'Yes,' Azura replied. 'Bathing is a very social amenity. The poor go to the public baths, the hours being specified for men and for women. There they wash, and exchange gossip and just talk.'
'Does the dey heed your words, my lady,' India asked. 'He must if he entrusts his harem to you. You must tell him that I am a very wealthy girl and can buy my freedom. I must be returned to my family. Since Adrian and I snuck away just as my family was to return home to Scotland, it is just possible that no scandal has arisen from our behavior. If I could just get back home again it would be all right.'
Azura was very quiet for a long moment, and then she said, 'I will not lie to you, my child. Caynan Reis has not need of your wealth, for he is wealthy beyond all. It is highly unusual for a young and beautiful woman to be ransomed out of Barbary. Once I thought as you did. My heart was broken, and only when I accepted my fate was I able to be happy again. You are not like the little fools peopling his harem. You are clever, and you are intelligent. You can win him over with those qualities if you will but try. I do not believe he has ever loved, which is why it is so easy for him to give his women away when he tires of them, and that is often, for they bore him. I suspect he may have once been betrayed by a woman he was beginning to care for, and so he trusts no woman entirely, not even me. If you displease him enough, he will dispose of you by offering you to someone he wishes to honor, or if you anger him, he will give you to his soldiers to be a barracks whore. He has done it before.'
'Has he no heart then?' India asked, a little frightened now.
'Oh, he has a heart,' Azura answered the girl, 'but it is buried deep within the ice of his soul. Someone must touch him, and melt that ice one day. I think that someone could be you, India.'
'I don't know how to make love to a man,' India half whispered. 'And how can I allow a man I do not even know the freedom of my body?'
'Of course you don't know how to make love,' Azura said with a gentle laugh. 'You are a virgin, and such knowledge has not yet been imparted to you. Once you have been unburdened of your maidenhead, I will tutor you myself in the arts of love. I have never before done this for any girl, but I believe you can become the dey's true favorite.' She patted India's cheek comfortingly. 'Come now, and let us have our massage, my child. You will feel ever so much better after it.'
They stepped from the warmth of the pool to be dried with thick, fluffy, warm towels such as India had never before seen. Then they lay down upon separate benches, each of which had been padded with a small mattress, and the masseuses began to knead their bodies with fragrant oils, their strong fingers digging deep into muscles, and India finally began to relax. She was being seduced by this delicious luxury,
