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

sneaking into her mother’s room and fingering
her fine peploses. Her mother had a closet full of beautiful gowns and Kalliope
wept for the mother she had lost. All love and kindness seemed to have left
Kalliope’s world.
    She tried desperately to please her father, trying to cook
and keep the house clean. One time she put on one of her mother’s garments,
only to have her father go into a rage when he saw her dressed in the brightly
hued garment, the fabric much too long and dragging on the floor. After that
incident, Kalliope spent most of her time hiding in the attic and playing
outdoors.
    Kalliope began to notice her father paying more attention to
the wet nurse, Minthe. He would watch her nurse the baby and when the baby was
done nursing, her father would play with Minthe’s breasts, gently rubbing them
before wrapping his mouth around them. Kalliope watched with fascinated horror
and finally had to look away when Minthe began to moan softly.
    Her father began to hang around the house more, and Kalliope
would hear funny noises coming from the room where her father and Minthe would
reside. Minthe began spending more time at the house, cooking and cleaning.
Kalliope tried to be friendly to her, but Minthe would snap at her, or strike
her, yelling for Kalliope to get out of her sight.
    One day Kalliope was sneaking downstairs when she had seen
Minthe dressed in her mother’s best gown. Kalliope had lunged at Minthe,
yelling and crying for Minthe to take off her mother’s dress. Kalliope’s father
walked in to see Kalliope pulling at the dress and screaming. He picked up
Kalliope and struck her before locking her in the cellar. Minthe and her father
didn’t try to mask the noise as her father fucked Minthe in the kitchen.
Kalliope could see everything through a cracked stone, and she turned her back
on the disgusting image of the whorish wet nurse wearing her mother’s best
peplos as her father drilled into her from behind.
    Kalliope shuddered as she continued to scrub the pots and
pans in Gaia’s kitchen, recalling the not so distant memories. The day after
her father had locked her in the cellar was emblazoned in her mind…
    “Baba, where are we going?” Kalliope asked as she
stumbled after her father. She hoped he was not mad at her anymore. She had
told him she was sorry, but she was not sorry to Minthe.
    Minthe did not deserve her apology.
    “Just keep up,” her father huffed as he pulled her along
the dirt road. They had walked through town and were now going down a street
Kalliope had never seen before.
    “Baba, why do you love baby brother so much?”
    Her father ignored the question and continued to pull
Kalliope along.
    “Baba, when will I see Hagne and Ligeia again?”
    “You won’t.”
    “Ever?” Her lower lip trembled. Hagne and Ligeia promised
they would see her again. They said that sisters were forever and they would
all be sisters back together again soon.
    Her father didn’t answer and Kalliope felt two fat tears
trickle down her cheeks. She missed her sisters, but most of all she missed her
mama. She hated her baby brother but she was too afraid to tell her father.
Yesterday he had hit her hard. Hard enough to leave big dark marks and for
Kalliope’s skin to ache. Then he and Minthe did the dirty thing in the kitchen.
    Kalliope saw everything and she did not like it.
    Finally, a stone building emerged and Kalliope looked
hard at the building. It was big, but it looked crude. It did not look like a
place she wanted to visit. She clung harder to her father’s hand.
    “Baba,” she whispered.
    “Shush!”
    Kalliope shrank back.
    Her father knocked hard and a woman answered. Kalliope couldn’t
tell if she was old or young. Her face was kind however and she smiled at
Kalliope. A shy as she was, Kalliope smiled back, before ducking behind her
father’s legs.
    “Good afternoon, sir. Please come in. We have a place the
child can sit while we attend to your business,” she said