Free Harem by Colin Falconer Page A

shuddering bliss. For a few scarlet moments he was free of her and free of his servitude to women, and he gave himself up to it. He slipped through a break in the clouds and never wanted to return. Like a little death.
    But then he opened his eyes. The cold evening drew on; only the terror remained.
    Life was a trap. There was no way out.
     
    ***
     
    The Kapi Aga did not hear of his success from Hürrem herself. One day he woke and found the palace alive with rumour; the iqbal was with child!
    So what should he do now? Surely he could not go to the garden again. She was kadin now, and to be discovered alone with a kadin was an offense to heinous to contemplate. But if he did not, what would the witch do then?
    And then another thought struck him: what if the child was his? No, impossible. He could scarce credit that he had got Meylissa with child. Not Hürrem too?
    He was a pawn in a game he no longer understood. From the first moment he opened that gate to seduce one of the Lord of Life's odalisques, he had lost all power over his own fate.
    There was nothing to do now but wait.
     
     
     

Chapter 17
     
    Hafise sat on the terrace overlooking the shaded, eastern court of the Palace and regarded her son's new iqbal with a practiced eye. She could tell at once that this one was a different proposition to Gülbehar, you could see it in the way she walked, the way she held herself.
    They said she was more clever than beautiful. But that was perhaps not such a bad thing. She had not survived so many years in the harem of Selim the Grim without a certain quickness of mind herself.
    'Hürrem,' she said warmly, extending her hand. 'I am delighted with your news. Come and sit here beside me.'
    It was a warm afternoon and finches twittered in the ornate cedar cages hanging from the eaves. Sherbets and melon and rahat lokum were laid out on the low table in front of them. Behind them the city shimmered in the afternoon haze, the cupolas of the mosques shining like diamonds through the dust.
    'Suleiman is hunting at Adrianople, as I am sure you have heard. I have sent a courier today with a message for him. He will be overjoyed with this news.'
    Hürrem put a hand to her stomach. 'We must wait many months to gauge the extent of his pleasure.'
    A good answer, Hafise thought. If it's a girl, we are all back where we started. 'If God wills it.' She reached out for the girl's hair, held a few strands towards the light. 'You have beautiful hair. Not red, not gold. Where are you from?'
    'My father was a khan of the Krim Tatars, Crown of Veiled Heads.'
    A khan of the Tatars. Listen to her! Perhaps she knows my own father was a Georgian peasant and thinks herself superior. 'And how did you come to us?'
    'My father saw an opportunity.'
    Hafise smiled. 'For you, or for himself?'
    'The spahis tied him to the ground so they could force the money into his pockets. He struggled and screamed. I had to avert my eyes.'
    'You laugh when you say such things, but there is no laughter in your eyes.'
    'Why should I weep? He still lives in a tent, I am in a palace. In the end I won more from the trade.'
    'So you are happy here?'
    'I will be happier when my lord returns.'
    'I was married to the Sultan Selim for many years. I can count the number of weeks we spent together on my fingers. It is a lonely life, Hürrem.'
    'I shall heed your advice gladly. I will go back to my father, then. Can you arrange a horse for me?'
    Hafise laughed, in spite of herself. The girl might be mocking her, but she had a point. Why be miserable over things you do not have the power to change? 'Now you have the Sultan's child, this harem will be your home for the rest of your life.'
    'Then I shall have to arrange for larger rooms.'
    'Like mine, perhaps?'
    'If God wills it.'
    'I should not be at all surprised if that is His design.' Hafise selected a piece of lokum , flavoured with pistachio nut, and bit into it. 'If there is anything that you need, you must tell me. In Islam, the