"Saffroned rice with onion and chicken, the bread and grapes you recognize, and a slice of melon, a sweet fruit," he answered her.

India began to eat using a small silver spoon and her fingers. There was neither a fork nor a knife upon the tray. The rice and chicken were nicely cooked and flavored, the bread still warm, and the melon was absolutely delicious, almost melting in her mouth. "It is all very good," she pronounced as she finished. She washed her hands in a silver ewer the slave girl held out, drying them on a small linen towel provided. The tray was removed.

"We will now go to the baths," Baba Hassan announced.

"But I have no clothes!" India protested.

"You do not need clothing to bathe, and you are certainly in need of bathing," was the tart reply. "You have soft skin, and so are obviously used to washing, but I doubt you could have done so aboard your ship. Why are you so modest, lady? There are only women here."

"You are not a woman," India snapped at him.

"Neither am I a man," he replied dryly, helping her to her feet. "Come along now. The lady Azura will be waiting for us." He pulled back the gauze draperies.

They were in a large room, India now saw. Here and there were other partitions formed by the sheer draperies. Beautiful young women lounged about on low, silk-covered furniture and upon satin-covered pillows. Warm air blew through the latticed windows. There were cages of songbirds hung in the windows. India still felt embarrassed to be so vulnerable among these women, but, remembering her cousin's warning, she grit her teeth and held her head high, ignoring the spiteful remarks spoken in French so she would be certain of understanding them as she passed through the harem.

"Her breasts are too small. Are we certain she is a girl?"

"Dark hair. Ho hum, how common," an overblown blonde said.

"She is soooo hairy."

"Her buttocks are nice enough."

"But the dey is not that kind," came the reply, followed by a round of malicious tittering.

"Do you think she's a virgin?" asked another girl.

"She must be. Who would want such a creature?" was the answer.

"She does not look like she will hold much interest for our master once he has taken her maidenhead."

"If he even bothers to before giving her away to some desert sheikeh he wants to believe he is honoring."

There was more laughter among the women of the dey's harem, and India could feel her cheeks flaming. She needed desperately to retaliate so these pampered creatures would not think she was easy prey. She stopped, and, turning about, slowly said with devastating effect, "I wonder which of you I will kill first." Then she continued onward, following behind Baba Hassan with apparent meekness. Behind her there was a sudden, shocked silence.

"You have a fine sense of the dramatic," the eunuch observed wryly as they left the main room of the harem and entered the baths.

"Ahh, here you are." Azura hurried forward, smiling.

"I will leave you in the lady Azura's competent hands while I return to restore order out of the chaos you have created. Half of the ladies will be weeping with fear from your fierce remark." The eunuch departed.

"What on earth did you do?" Azura asked India.

"Those common creatures made unkind remarks about me as I passed through their domain," India replied. "I only considered out loud which one of them I should kill first. Surely they didn't really believe me. I only did it to spite them."

Azura laughed. "You will have frightened them to death," she told India. "You come from a land where the women are free in comparison to the women here. Your women may own land, walk the streets unveiled, in many cases even have a say in choosing their own husbands. Those vapid creatures peopling the dey's harem are incapable of such independence. Their sole reason for being is focused on pleasing Caynan Reis, and any new inhabitant of this harem is considered a threat to be frightened away. You, however, were not in the least intimidated by the ladies of the harem. Indeed, you threatened them with violence, and having heard of your attempt on the dey's life this morning, they fully believe you capable of such an act. It was most naughty of you to terrorize them so." Then she laughed again.

"Where is your homeland?" India suddenly asked Azura.

"I was born in Poitou," Azura said quietly. "Like you, my father was of the noble class, and I, his eldest daughter. I was sent one summer when I was twelve, and a marriage was being arranged for me, to visit relatives near Marseilles. One day, Barbary corsairs stormed ashore, and I was taken, along with my cousins, into captivity. The former dey, Sharif el Mohammed, was my only master. I have lived in this palace for thirty years."

"You had no children?" India couldn't resist being curious.

Azura shook her head. "Sharif el Mohammed had no offspring," she said. "Women, of course, are blamed in such a situation, but my good lord knew better, which is why he never put me aside." She smiled at India. "You are so full of questions, my child, and I must get you bathed. You have never seen baths like these, I will wager."

And indeed India had not. The room into which they entered was constructed of creamy marble. Domed, its pillars were of a pale green marble. In the center of the room was a round pool directly beneath the dome. Around the room were fountains with gold spigots set into the walls, above shell-like indentations in the marble floor. There were marble benches in varying heights set about. The room was warm and damp, and the air was scented with roses. Several slave women hurried forward, bowing politely to the lady Azura.

"Here is the new maiden," Azura said. "You must prepare her properly for our master. She has been aboard ship for many weeks, and is in need of much attention, but unlike many of these girls, she does bathe regularly as you will see by the softness of her skin."

The bath attendants took India in their charge.

"I will remain with you," Azura assured her.

The bath women tsked-tsked over the condition of India's thick, dark curls, admired her golden eyes, and then set to work. She was stood in one of the floor shells and rinsed. A young woman with a small curved silver instrument ran the implement over India's entire body. To her surprise, India saw dirt being scraped off of her skin. She was rinsed again. Next she was washed very thoroughly by two ladies holding large sea sponges filled with a foamy soap. When they had finished, and she had been rinsed off a third time, another woman knelt to examine India's body so closely that India blushed with embarrassment.

"What is she doing?" India asked Azura as the woman began to smear a pink paste that smelled of almonds over her legs and Venus mound. "Does she have to touch me so intimately?"

"Our men do not like body hair on a woman," Azura explained as the bath attendant lifted each of India's arms in turn and spread her mixture beneath the upraised arms. "The almond paste will remove the offense. It won't take long, I promise."

While they waited for the depilatory to do its work, India's hair was thoroughly washed, and then toweled almost dry. Azura admired the girl's tresses, for India had hair that curled naturally even to the end of its length, which was about midback. The older woman lifted a handful of the curls admiringly, feeling its texture and thickness.

"It's lovely," she said. "Here in the sultan's realm maidens with golden or flame-colored hair are usually the most valuable, but your marvelous ebony curls are quite wonderful," Azura told the younger woman. "These curls are truly your crowning glory, my child."

The pink paste was washed away, and India found herself feeling shy again as her Venus mound was suddenly so prominently displayed. Azura led her into the bathing pool, which was warm and quite relaxing. India was surprised to see what a fine body the older woman had despite her age.

"When you are feeling relaxed, we shall leave the pool, and the slaves will massage our bodies with sweet oils," Azura explained.

"Do you do this every day?" India asked her.

"Yes," Azura replied. "Bathing is a very social amenity. The poor go to the public baths, the hours being specified for men and for women. There they wash, and exchange gossip and just talk."

"Does the dey heed your words, my lady," India asked. "He must if he entrusts his harem to you. You must tell him that I am a very wealthy girl and can buy my freedom. I must be returned to my family. Since Adrian and I snuck away just as my family was to return home to Scotland, it is just possible that no scandal has arisen from our behavior. If I could just get back home again it would be all right."

Azura was very quiet for a long moment, and then she said, "I will not lie to you, my child. Caynan Reis has not need of your wealth, for he is wealthy beyond all. It is highly unusual for a young and beautiful woman to be ransomed out of Barbary. Once I thought as you did. My heart was broken, and only when I accepted my fate was I able to be happy again. You are not like the little fools peopling his harem. You are clever, and you are intelligent. You can win him over with those qualities if you will but try. I do not believe he has ever loved, which is why it is so easy for him to give his women away when he tires of them, and that is often, for they bore him. I suspect he may have once been betrayed by a woman he was beginning to care for, and so he trusts no woman entirely, not even me. If you displease him enough, he will dispose of you by offering you to someone he wishes to honor, or if you anger him, he will give you to his soldiers to be a barracks whore. He has done it before."