Bedazzled

the harem, and the lady Azura. She smiled, well pleased. 'Obviously the English girl does not merit the privileges we have been given,' she announced smugly to her companions. 'She cannot have pleased him.'

'Remember,' Deva remarked archly, 'that she is merely his body slave.'

'Exactly!' Samara crowed. 'Her status remains lowly while ours is a favored one.'

'I think she did please him,' the blond Laylu replied. 'Look!'

Azura bit her lip so as not to laugh as the seven pairs of eyes turned toward the dais, where even now Caynan Reis was standing. By his side stood India, her metallic gold veils glittering splendidly in the morning light as the hall grew silent with expectation. The girl's head was lowered just enough to be modest without being servile.

The dey spoke. 'Today I bring you good news,' he began. 'I am the happiest of men, for I have decided to take a wife. I shall ask the chief iman to marry me to this woman before the sun has set this day.' He took India's hand, leading her forward, saying, 'Behold, she who has brought me the greatest joy I have ever known.'

Then, to Azura's surprise, India knelt before the dey, kissing the hem of his bejeweled coat and finally flattening herself at his feet. The hall erupted into cheers even as Caynan Reis raised the girl up, his arm about her protectively. Then he brought her to a small satin stool set on his right hand, and seated her before taking his own throne. Baba Hassan looked toward the carved screen, and Azura knew the look was for her alone. It plainly said what Azura had known all along. India was strong of character. Indeed, she had played this hand beautifully, giving the dey the public respect he must have as the sultan's governor, while cleverly endearing herself to him further. It was obvious that the girl had decided where her fate lay.

'Well, well,' Sarai said softly. 'I should have never thought resistance was the way to our lord's heart.' She shrugged fatalistically.

'Do not despair,' Nila murmured. 'One wife is always followed by a second. We will have our chance when our lord grows tired of the English girl's waspishness.'

'That performance she just put on hardly smacks of pettishness,' Samara observed, wiser than the others. 'She is clever. Far cleverer than I would have given her credit for, the little bitch!'

'Let us give her a chance,' Mirmah said to them, and Leah nodded in agreement. 'We do not really know her. Now she will come to live in the harem with us, and it is possible we may become friends. After all, she is to be the master's first wife, and the first wife always has the most influence.'

'Not always,' Samara replied.

Azura held her peace, signaling them to silence now that the audiences had begun. They would find out soon enough that India was not to be housed in the harem with them, which would, of course, cause further jealousy. Samara was an obvious troublemaker, and she would also have to watch Nila and Sarai. Mirmah, however, had possibilities that Azura had never before observed. She would mention them to Baba Hassan, and they would keep Mirmah in mind for a possible second wife. She could prove to be the perfect counterbalance to the strong-willed India. Mirmah was a Circassian, bred for the harem and taught to please a master in a variety of ways.

The dey moved to get through the public audience as quickly as possible without slighting any of his supplicants. The crowds within the hall, however, understood, and some with but simple matters to be adjudicated requested of the chief eunuch that their cases be rescheduled another time so the dey might get on with his own personal business. The hall emptied quickly, for most in the crowds could scarcely wait to get outside into the town and spread the word of the dey's marriage.

When the public audience was finally over, Baba Hassan stepped forward, bowing to his master, and said, 'Shall I take the lady India to the women's mosque, my lord, to be prepared for your marriage?'

Caynan Reis nodded, and then spoke quietly to India. 'You will submit yourself to a special bath of purification, my precious. Then an iman will ask you several questions. Baba Hassan will translate what you cannot understand, and instruct you on how to answer.'

India remembered shreds of stories she had heard from her family, now pushing into her consciousness. 'You want me to accept Islam,' she said to him.

He nodded. 'If you are to be my wife, you must,' he told her. 'It is customary for all captives to do so in your position.'

Words. She would say words. What was in her heart was known only to God, India thought. Her great-grandmother had, in a similar position, accepted Islam. So had her stepfather's great-grandmother. My own grandfather, whom I never knew, but of whom Mama has always spoken, the great Akbar, believed all religions had value. I do not have to reject Christ, India considered thoughtfully to herself. Then she looked into his eyes, smiling, and said, 'I will do it, my lord, but in return I would have a favor from you.'

'Walk with me, my precious love,' he said, taking her by the arm, his look telling Baba Hassan to remain where he was. When they were a distance from any who might overhear, he asked her, 'What would you have of me, India?'

'I have told you that my mother was the daughter of the great Mughal emperor, Akbar. When she was thirteen she was married to her first husband, a young prince. This prince was a follower of Islam, but while my mother had been raised to respect all faiths, she was, as I am, a baptized Christian. At her request she was also wed, in secret in her own Christian faith. Because he loved her, her prince was willing to acquiesce to her request. Will you do the same for me, my lord? Is there a Christian priest here in El Sinut who would marry us, and keep the secret so as not to endanger you?'

He thought for a long moment, and then said to her, 'I am not certain who I can trust within the Christian community, which is very small, India. I promise you, however, that before our first child is born, I will wed you in your own faith. Will you accept my pledge on that, my precious love?'

'I will,' she replied, 'for I have learned in the months that I have been your body slave that you are a man of honor.'

'Have you?' He was touched by her words. He had not realized she was observing him so closely. Emboldened, he asked her, 'Do you love me just a little, India? Or do you wed me because it is the expedient thing to do?'

'I believe I am beginning to love you, my lord. I know I do not hate you. I realize now that all I have been told since coming to El Sinut is the truth. I will not return to England, and even if I ever did, it would be difficult for me. So is it not prudent for me to accept my fate, and make a happy life for myself?' She smiled shyly at him.

'Yes,' he answered her, content for now with her candid answer. Then he led her back to Baba Hassan. 'Do what must be done,' he told the chief eunuch. 'I will go and see the iman.'

'We must leave the palace, and go to the women's mosque,' Baba Hassan told India. He then gave orders to the slaves about them, and India shortly found herself in a litter once again, leaving the grounds of the palace for the first time since she had arrived in El Sinut five months back.

The women's mosque was a beautiful building of pure white marble. Inside, it was colonnaded with pillars of red-and-white marble holding up horseshoe arches. Baba Hassan put her in the charge of an old woman who took her to the ritual bath already awaiting the bride. It was little different from the harem bath, but India found she was being treated with deep respect by the bath attendants. It is a little bit like marrying a king, she thought, realizing that as wife of the dey, she was indeed very much like a queen.

When they had finished bathing, massaging, and perfuming her, they brought her fresh garments: a cream-colored kaftan embroidered with silver and gold threads, and small pearls and