Omar's voice was calm and so completely confident that Anna said, "But I won't change! I will be different!" with a firmness that told Omar she meant it.
"Mademoiselle is spirited," he remarked, his expression unchanged. "It is a trait which pleases the master."
"But I will not please him!" she burst out, exasperated at the failure of her words or anything she did to affect him.
"It is better to please than to displease the master." He eyed her seriously. "The mademoiselle must understand that in the desert there are many who have little to eat, and not even a tent to sleep in. There are many then who come to El Abadan-many eager to serve the master where there is plenty to eat and gardens and pleasant entertainments. You are honored, mademoiselle, having been chosen by the master himself. But one cannot be foolish and forget that those who anger the master must die."
The black eunuch continued his advice. "All of us must please the master. When the master is pleased, the servants are pleased. But when the master is angry, the servants are afraid and unhappy. One follows the other, you see? And it becomes only intelligent to please rather than displease."
Anna was staring at him and asking herself for a last time if this could actually be possible that she, a civilized Frenchwoman, was to become the slave of her husband's murderer. Then, refusing to show how frightened she was, Anna lifted her chin and turned her back, refusing to speak again or even look at the food which was already being brought forward on trays. She would not eat! What more could she lose now, and what reason to go on living?
Two more days passed, and then another night, and rumors circulated through the harem and were told and retold concerning the new girl.
“She is a royal princess from a tribe to the north," one said, and the others nodded. Of course, what else but the indulgence of a royal upbringing could explain this one's bold ways?
The white girl's wild behavior and refusal to eat lasted nearly a week and they watched her grow pale and even thinner than before. But it all ended one day when the head eunuch, in his wisdom, strangled a. worthless female infant and threatened to do the same every day as long as the white girl's rebellion continued. The hot-eyed girl had screamed then until she fainted and had to be revived. But after this she became obedient, and as the days continued, the harem settled once again into a peaceful, if less eventful routine.
Indeed, Anna found herself outmaneuvered by Omar Zatan, who had so quickly discovered how to use her sensibilities against her. So now, afraid to rebel for the sake of the squalling babies so readily sacrificed, Anna had no recourse but to submit to whatever they wanted. This turned out to be what seemed an endless series of baths and grooming, and worst of all, meals of rich food which she had to force down her throat that still was constantly tight with unshed tears.
Omar Zatan praised her then. "This was necessary," he told her in his cooing voice. "Life can be so pleasant; you must try to enjoy it."
And in spite of her determination not to change, the lazy, seductive atmosphere of the harem began weakening her resistance as days became weeks. Just the fact the sheik had not appeared relaxed her sense of impending horror. Perhaps he would never come, she told herself. And finally, having learned to speak more Arabic, Anna unbent enough to talk to the other women.
To her surprise, they told her they were not prisoners. Most of them had come to El Abadan as gifts from their fathers to the sheik. Far from being distressed at their situation, they considered it a great honor-though not so great an honor as becoming first wife. And when the women mentioned this they often rolled their eyes in her direction.
From them Anna learned about the harem, about Salsabil and the rivalries of the past, about the sheik, his feats of strength and bravery, and of his temper, which they told
Anna could be fierce.
He was to be feared most when he was angry, they told her with hands raised in gestures of wonder. He had been known even to personally execute the one daring to offend him without waiting for a guard. "Even my father and brothers fear him as do all men," said Zaier, a girl Anna knew to be the daughter of the headman of one of the tribes allied with the sheik. "Ah, he is magnificent," she finished, sighing. But then, seeing Anna's reaction, Zaier took one of the white girl's chilled hands into her own as she added, "But you must not worry. You are certain to please him."
As always at these times, Anna looked away and said nothing. The routine of the harem never varied, so when Anna entered the main room of the harem one evening to find the whole indolent atmosphere changed, the women chirping and preening before the burnished brass disks that served as mirrors, her heart seemed to stop with a thud.
Activity like this could only mean that a visit from the sheik was imminent, and she was just calculating a hiding place when Omar entered with a dozen servants in his wake, directing them in rapid Arabic and waves of his fat cocoa hands.
Immediately Anna found herself in the care of four women who would hear no protest as they led her into an oval tub whose steaming rosewater eddied up in dream-like mists.
Since her capture, Anna had been bathed twice each day. But now was different and they scrubbed her skin and then her private parts with extra care before washing and rinsing her hair with something that made it soft and radiant.
She was taken out then, and dried and perfumed, and draped in filmy veils the same blue of her eyes and so light they revealed her slender limbs in alluring shadow even as they covered them.
The women made small admiring noises as they put tiny embroidered slippers on her feet and slipped three thin gold bands along her upper arms. Then, using a soft brush, Omar Zatan himself blackened her eyelids with kohl and stained her lips and suddenly pale cheeks with carmine.
When it was all done he smiled and gave her a satisfied pat on her wide-eyed face. Then the servants took her near the fountain like a fragile ornament and placed her on a cushion there before leaving to help the other girls ready themselves.
Self-consciously, Anna tucked her legs tightly under her gossamer skirt. But the material was too short and too transparent and her shapely calves were still exposed. She tried to control herself, knowing that she flushed and whitened by turns, her breaths coming short. But she couldn't control any of these reactions that raged through her.
When would he come? She asked herself. And when he came, what would he do? Did he mate with his women like a rutting stag? Did he take each one away separately, or was it done with the rest watching? And what would he do with her? Anna's imagination flew and she jumped when she heard Omar Zatan's voice behind her.
"Mademoiselle must try to be calm," he said. Glancing up at the eunuch's pleased expression, Anna fought back an impulse to run.
There is nowhere I can go, she told herself again. It would gain nothing but more humiliation. She stiffened her spine and raised her head, and Omar, seeing this, thought she seemed suddenly regal in a way that pleased him more than he could have hoped.
"Your union with Hamid al-Sharif is written in the stars with favorable signs," he said. "We all must bow before what has been fated."
Anna turned her face away. She had learned that, according to Islam, each soul was ascribed a fate on the fortieth day after conception which was indelibly written in Allah's book and could never be altered. But Anna didn't believe this. This was not her fate. No never! There must be some way to escape, to hide.
Her cheek was touched and it seemed the head eunuch understood her thoughts when he said, "Do not worry, little one. The master may not choose you. You are but one of many beautiful women, no?" He indicated the others with a gesture of his hand. "And all will be eager for his favors. With so many flowers near the hive, the bee does not wander far. Perhaps tonight you will only observe and learn what pleases this man who is your master. But do not forget you are his. And when the time comes that he chooses you, there can be no thought of refusal. No woman refuses die master just as no man disobeys him. To do so means certain death."
He stopped s
peaking and when Anna remained silent, her eyes downcast, Omar didn’t say more and it were an abrupt welcoming cry that broke the silence and echoed in the dome above her.
Everyone paused, all turning at once to a tall, hawk nosed figure coming silently down the steps, a black and gold cheetah padding softly in his wake. Then, in a flurry of veils and lip rouge and the tinkling of ankle bracelets, the girls were running to meet him.
Chapter 6
Radiating a sense of unquestionable power, the sheik Hamid al-Sharif strode across the carpets and sat down easily on a large square cushion. The cheetah lay beside him, panting and its ocher eyes rolling toward the gathering girls.
Halfway across the room, Anna slid behind the raised portion of the fountain, blocking herself from his view and peeping around its edge.
How well his harsh features were etched in her memory. hat those eyes had the power to make her stomach churn as she watched the girls, all bright with joy, kiss their master’s hands and look up at him with devotion on their lovely faces.
The sheik spoke to each girl in turn, sometimes fondling this one or that one familiarly, as one might fondle a dog. Then he waved a hand, and in response, a single flute from somewhere beyond a drawn curtain began a haunting melody that echoed alone in the domed ceiling before being joined by the brisk sounds of hand drums.
A tall angular man entered then, wearing a black robe that accentuated his gauntness and a pointed hat displaying all the signs of the zodiac embroidered around its sides. His face was a mysterious intricacy of tanned leather lines, and flourishing a silver wand in wide airy strokes, he produced puffs of blue smoke that made the girls cry out in wonder.
The smoke floated to the ceiling, disintegrating in- the blue dome. But when Anna looked back again, the wand had disappeared, and in his bony fingers had materialized an egg. He closed his fist once before unclasping it again. A green parrot was suddenly there, completely alive and squawking loudly. The girls giggled in the happy notes of children as the bird flapped its wings, and the magician took two steps to put it on the outstretched arm of Salsabil.
Salsabil's dark eyes were sparkling, and she looked to be the essence of earthy sensuality in her coffee-colored veils as she held the bird out, first to the sheik, and then for the others to admire. The magician continued performing one trick after another, producing red light, then lightning, and finally rain from the end of his wand before disappearing himself in a puff of blue smoke.
An awed hush came over the room. Then the girls clapped their hands in another tinkling of gold bracelets and cried out with delight. But the magician didn't reappear, and now the flute grew mellow with sensuality, and with a word from the sheik, Katin and Fatima rose from their places at his feet, lifting their arms gracefully overhead and moving around the tiled floor.
Their hips swayed sinuously, first thrusting and then undulating in perfect rhythm to the drum beats. Then spinning round and round, agile as cats and feather light, their veils twirled high to reveal their thighs and waists and bared jiggling breasts so a new light came into the sheik's half-closed eyes.
Anna shuddered, pulling back closer behind the fountain. If only it would be over and she could escape his attention. At least at the moment he seemed well enough entertained and had not glanced in her direction. Perhaps Omar Zatan was right. With so many willing mates, why search further?
It was then that the parrot noticed the tray of orange slices resting on the tiles near her. With a wild flapping of wings, the bird flew off Salsabil's wrist and soared in a short arc before landing beside the tray of fruit just inches from Anna, drawing everyone's attention toward her.
Instantly Anna dropped her eyes to her lap. A knot drew tight in her stomach as the girls chattered and laughed at the bird as it picked up an orange slice in one claw, and ate it so quickly the pulp remained sticking to its hooked beak.
Had he noticed, Anna wondered, her mind racing wildly. Would he suddenly call her?
She waited for his voice, her fingers whitening as they clung together. But he said nothing and at last, mercifully, the music began again and dancers dressed in bright purple costumes swept into the harem in a series of dramatic leaps that fascinated everyone.
Still Anna kept her head down, seeing the dancers only from the ankles down and hearing tambourines spicing the music with lusty energy over the sound of her own pulsing heart. Had he noticed her? Of course! But what was in his face? Boredom? Interest? Dislike? Did he plan to kill her as he had Brandon? And when she could bear the suspense no longer, she let her eyes hesitantly move across the tiled floor and slowly upward to the sheik's face.
He was looking directly at her, and her bounding heart jerked to a halt as his charcoal eyes filled with a deep glow so compelling she found herself unable to turn away while a blush heated her cheeks and neck and even her arms.
She could not know that he had always been aware of her, that he had noticed her from the first moment he had walked down the steps, catching her unaware, a frightened angelic child.
How easily he could imagine her wreathed in flowers of heaven and offering nectar to then martyrs as they entered the kingdom of Allah. But not wishing to frighten this most alluring of females, he had ignored her as first, even as his curiosity asked if white women could possibly be made differently from Arab women. He rubbed his cheek and smiled. It was a matter bearing investigation.
It was this smile that broke the spell, enabling Anna to pull her eyes away and pretend an interest in the dancers who performed for several more agonizing minutes before they ended in a finale of drums. Next, the storyteller came and sat before them, opening a large gilt-edged book.
Anna couldn't understand the story, but she dared not look away from the old man who told it. She was woman enough to know that look in a man's eyes-that look of approval, of curiosity, of desire. So when the end of the performance finally came, Anna's gaze again dropped to the floor.
She waited for what would happen next-for him to speak, to come to her. But to her surprise, the sheik ignored her again, not even turning his proud head in her direction when he finally rose and walked up the alabaster steps. Both Fatima and Katin had been chosen and were flanking his sides, their lusty giggles floating back to those left behind as they disappeared down the hall.
There was a sigh from some of the women that hung in the air as relief washed over Anna in a flood and it seemed she could suddenly breathe again. She had been spared. He had chosen other! But in spite of this, Anna didn't feel truly safe until she had hurried to her private chamber. Then after being helped out of her filmy veils and jewelry by servants, who gossiped in whispers about those the master had chosen, Anna slipped into bed, too exhausted to question the miracle of being spared, or to consider what tomorrow, or tomorrow night might bring. And laying her head on the silk pillow, she was quickly asleep.
Chapter 7
Exhausted, Anna slept deeply for hours before the lights of dreaming flashed on, and she was aware of herself standing on a wide, open plain, limitless from, horizon to horizon. In front of her a funnel of mists were rising and a figure within the mists moved ever closer. She stared, trying to see who it was when abruptly the mists were caught and blown apart in a puff of wind and Anna felt herself totter in giddiness before she was running, her arms wide open like wings, and she was calling, "Brandon! Brandon! Oh praise God you are here and alive!"
But Brandon didn't move or return her cries of joy. He remained as solemn as a statue and looked at her accusingly as he pointed to a pile of bloody bodies-those of the English soldiers killed that day. Yes, she should have died then, too, she thought. And looking back at Brandon she saw him suddenly fading, his shape becoming distorted transparent.
Oh God! He must not leave her-not now-not just when she had found him again!
She ran harder, shouting louder, "Brandon! Brandon! Don't leave me. Please!" And then he was there, and she in his arms, weeping and laughing at once, his lips on hers hot and insistent, hi
s hand lustfully wrenching open her blouse to fondle her breasts.
It was not a usual caress. Usually he was so gentle. But now Anna didn't care. He was alive! Alive! And she welcomed his rough hands, pressing even closer as she answered his kiss with eager parted lips.
It was only after that, when she suddenly knew a hand between her legs-that the fog surrounding her began to clear and recede, that with a rush of terror she realized she was no longer dreaming, and yet there was still a persistent mouth over hers, and an exploring hand searching the secrets of her body. She was awake! Really awake, and this was real, the sheik, surrounding her, pressing her harder, drowning her in his hateful grasp. But when she screamed against his driving mouth she was surprised to feel him pull away.
Horrible! Repulsive! And she had returned his touch, his kisses! Struggling then with all her strength, Anna crawled from beneath him, off the bed and onto her feet in a desperate scramble which, to her further surprise, he did nothing to prevent.
There was a single candle burning, and in its light she saw both wonder and amusement on his dark face as she kept moving backward, now unable to look away from the bulge that reared hard and ready beneath his loose trousers.
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