Free A Reluctant Courtesan (Harem Masters #1) (Harem Masters Series) by Nora Weaving

A RELUCTANT COURTESAN:
    Harem Masters #1
     
     
    By
    Nora Weaving
     
     
     
    Kindle Edition
     
     
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    PUBLISHED BY:
    Infinite Muse Press on Amazon KDP
     
     
    A Reluctant Courtesan: Harem Masters #1
    Copyright © 2013 by Nora Weaving
     
     
    This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to
persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. 
The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used
fictitiously.
     
     
    Adult Reading Material
    The material in this document contains explicit sexual
content that is intended for mature audiences only and is inappropriate for
readers under 18 years of age.
     
     
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    A RELUCTANT COURTESAN:
    Harem Masters #1
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    Kalliope stayed in the shadows, watching the other women
move in and out of the darkness. Kalliope knew this place well, she had been
here most of her life. She watched Kassandra, the favorite of the men, saunter
into the waiting area and move towards one of the men. The man smiled a
sideways grin, clearly having enjoyed the wine that was offered. He seemed to
not believe his good fortune in having been given Kassandra. Clumsily, he stood
up, brushing the dirt from his cloak. Kassandra swayed in front of him, leading
the way, her somewhat-dirty peplos dragging on the ground behind her. All of
the women wore some type of peplos, or dress, but Kassandra's was the nicest.
    “Tomorrow night,” Gaia whispered in Kalliope's ear.
    Gaia was standing beside her, smiling, as she watched her
girls satisfy the customers. Gaia was the closest thing Kalliope had to a
mother and she had been more than good to her. Many of the girls in Gaia’s
brothel had been put to work when they were fourteen, fifteen or sixteen. Gaia
had allowed Kalliope to continue to earn her keep through her seventeenth year.
But here on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Kalliope knew that tomorrow she
would become the brothel’s newest addition.
    Kalliope gave Gaia a weak smile and hurried back to the kitchen
where she quickly busied herself. It had been twelve years since Kalliope had
seen her family and she wondered what they were doing now and what their lives
were like. She refused to be bitter about the hand she had been dealt, but she
sometimes found it hard. Her mother had died during childbirth when Kalliope
was only six years old. The infant son had survived and her father had barely
shed a tear over his wife’s death. Her father believed that wives were only worth
the fruit they could bear, and until that very moment, Kalliope’s mother had
been useless, bearing three girls before the son.
    Her father had taken to the son immediately, hiring a wet
nurse, Minthe, to care for the boy. Kalliope’s oldest sister Hagne had
immediately taken over the household chores, cooking and cleaning. But
Kalliope’s father complained tirelessly of his three girls and what he would do
with them. Hagne had been seventeen, an appropriate marrying age, and within
three weeks of their mother’s death, Hagne had been married off to a family who
lived in the next village.
    Kalliope wept for a week.
    Kalliope’s other sister, Ligeia, was fourteen years old, and
she quickly filled Hagne’s role and began to care for the household. But still
their father complained of the two extra mouths to feed and within a month,
Ligeia had been sold to a neighboring farm. Ligeia would work on the farm and
when she was old enough to bear children, she would wed the farmer’s son.
    That time Kalliope had wept for two weeks.
    Kalliope had tried to cook, but she was still so young. She
burned food, which infuriated her father, and she often went days without
eating. Her fingernails would be caked with dirt and she remembered hiding out
in the yard, looking for scraps or berries to eat. Her father didn’t bother to
look for her and he only seemed interested in his son. While her father was
busy working, Kalliope remembered