“Don’t be a fool,” she hissed. She was looking into my eyes, trying to tell me something. Take,” she went on.
“You will find it … good … just what you need now. Drink … drink …I am your friend.”
There was some hidden meaning in her words. I took the goblet and drank the contents. It was revolting.
“Soon …” said Nicole.
“Soon …”
After a few moments I began to feel very ill. Nicole had disappeared with the goblet. I tried to stand but I could not. I felt giddy.
One of the girls called for Rani, who came in great consternation. I could feel the sweat running down my face and I caught a glimpse of myself in one of the mirrors. I was very pale.
Rani was shouting to everyone. I was put on to a divan. I felt very ill indeed.
Nicole had appeared. I fancied she was smiling secretively.
I was not presented to the Pasha. I lay on my divan feeling sick unto death. I really believed my last moment had come.
I thought of Nicole smiling her secret smile. She had done this. She had feared that I would please the Pasha and bear a child who would oust Samir. Could this be so . or was she truly my friend? Whatever the answer, she had saved me from the Pasha that night.
In a day or so I began to recover and with my recovery came the belief that Nicole had done this to save me from what I had dreaded. True, at the same time she was helping herself. Why not? Nicole was French and took a realistic view of life. The fact that she could serve herself and me at the same time would make the idea doubly attractive to her.
As I began to feel better, I realized I had riot been so ill as I had believed. If I had, I could not have regained my health so quickly.
Nicole told me that when Rani had sent her to the cupboard to bring the aphrodisiac which was given to some girls before they went to the Pasha for the first time, she had substituted it for a draught which she knew would make me too sick to be sent.
“Was it not what you wanted?” she demanded.
“Did you not say that anything … anything …”
“I did. I did. And I thank you, Nicole.”
“I told you I was your friend. Aida was the chosen one. She has not yet returned. She must be in high favour. She would never have been if you had been there.”
“I am so glad. She longed to be chosen.”
“The little horror will be unbearable when she comes back. It is a great honour to be kept there in the Pasha’s apartments. She will be too important to speak to us … insufferable. You will see.”
I was slowly recovering from my sickness and Rani from her disappointment. But she was a little reconciled because Aida had found such favour.
After three days, Aida returned. She had become a very important personage. She swept into the harem, her manner completely changed; she was languid and regarded us all with contempt. She had a pair of beautiful ruby earrings and a magnificent ruby necklace about her throat. Rani’s attitude towards her had changed. Little Aida had become one of the important ladies of the harem.
She was certain she was pregnant.
“Silly creature,” said Nicole.
“How could she know yet?”
All the same, Nicole was worried.
“It may be you are safe for a little while,” she comforted me.
“For if he liked her so much as to keep her for three days and nights he might send for her again. That was what happened to me in my day.
The most grateful woman in the harem must be Aida and that gratitude should be for you.”
“Perhaps he wouldn’t have chosen me. He might have liked her better.”
Nicole looked at me disbelievingly.
It was with great relief that I heard, through Nicole, who had it from the Chief Eunuch, that the Pasha had gone away for three weeks.
Three weeks! A great deal could happen in that time. Perhaps I should hear something from Simon. If it were possible to devise some means of getting out of this place . and if anyone could do it, surely he could.
A few days passed. Aida was making herself very unpopular. She wore her rubies all the time and would sit by the pool taking them in her hands and admiring them, reminding everyone of the favour she had found and how she pitied them all for not having the beauty and charm necessary to enslave the Pasha.
She appeared languid and assumed the ailments of pregnancy.
Nicole laughed at her. So did the others. One of them had quarrelled with her so violently that they fought and Aida’s face was maliciously scratched by the other.
That sent Aida into floods of tears. When the Pasha returned she could not go to him with a wound on her face.
Rani was angry and the two girls were shut away for three days. Rani would have liked to beat them, Nicole told me, but she was afraid of bruising their bodies, particularly Aida’s. One thing about a harem was that its inmates were not submitted to physical violence while they were part of it.
However, it was a relief, said Nicole, to be free of the arrogant little creature if only for three days.
Aida emerged not in the least repentant. She was as languid as ever, even more sure that she was pregnant and carried a male child. She slept in the ruby necklace and kept the earrings in a jewelled case beside her bed. As soon as morning came she put them on.
In spite of myself, I was caught up in the intrigues of the harem. My friendship with Nicole had done that. She told me that violent quarrels blew up now and then, and that there was great jealousy between the girls. Aida, like Fatima, was one who created trouble.
They had been chosen and they could not forget it. If Aida were pregnant and bore a male child, that would add greatly to the rivalries.
“But Samir is the eldest,” said Nicole.
“He must remain first favourite son.”
I said I was sure he would.
I sensed that Nicole was less confident. She was going to work all the time on Samir’s behalf, but she knew the matter was one which she must constantly bear in mind.
At this time Nicole’s thoughts seemed to be fixed entirely on Aida.
She was not the only one. Fatima’s were too. They had been the main rivals, both possessing sons with a claim on the Pasha’s wealth. Now they both watched Aida.
It was unusual for one girl to satisfy the Pasha for three nights in succession also for her to be kept in his apartments. So there could be no doubt that Aida had made a certain impression on him.
Moreover, she had been long enough with him to become pregnant and there was a good possibility that she might have achieved this happy state. Therefore she was an object of concern to all, but especially to Nicole and Fatima.
It was in the early hours of the morning and I was half asleep. I was just aware of a sliver of a waning moon shining into the dormitory.
Through half-closed eyes, I thought I saw a movement in the room. An outline of a figure bending over one of the divans in the corner.
Sleep claimed me and I thought no more of the incident at the time.
The next day there was consternation. Aida’s ruby earrings had disappeared. She wore the necklace all the time, she reminded us, but the earrings had been kept in the jewelled box beside her divan.
Rani came into the dormitory, demanding to know what all the fuss was about. Aida was shrieking in her fury, accusing everyone. Someone had stolen her earrings. She would tell the Pasha. He would not have thieves in his harem. We should all be whipped and sent away. Her beautiful earrings must be restored to her. If they were not returned this day she would ask the Pasha to punish us all.
