But perhaps there was yet hope. Perhaps the lady Azura would take pity on her despite her honest explanation to India that there was no going back. If Azura pitied her, she would surely speak to the dey. It was India's experience that the rich always wanted more, with few exceptions. Surely this dey was not so wealthy that he couldn't use more wealth. Exhausted, India lay upon her mattress and dozed, praying as she slipped into sleep that the dey might relent and send her home in exchange for a ransom.

Azura had left her charge and gone directly to the dey's apartments. He waved her to a chair, and a servant put a goblet of fresh juice into her hand. Azura sipped the liquid, and then, looking up at the dey, said, "She is terrified, but she will not admit to it, my lord. You must treat this maiden very gently."

"You know I am not rough with my women," he replied.

"My lord, Allah has surely sent you this maiden," Azura told him. "She is of your own race, your own class, and if you can but win her over, she would make you a fine wife. She is very beautiful, my lord."

"I had little time to notice," he said mockingly. "I was too busy defending my life from the little wildcat."

Azura laughed. "Her aim was very poor, my lord. She did not even scratch the skin, the physician tells me."

"You like this wench, don't you, Azura? I have never known you to care for one of my women," the dey said.

"Perhaps I am getting old," Azura replied. "This girl could be the daughter I never had, my lord. I barely know her, and yet I like her. There is something about her that touches me. Mayhap it is her courage, for though she is frightened, she conceals it well. When those silly creatures in your harem insulted her this afternoon, she contemplated aloud which one of them she would kill first and set them into hysterics." Azura chuckled. "It was quick witted of her, and most deftly done. They will think long and hard before attacking her again. Yet she responds well to reason and kindness. I have had no difficulty with her at all."

He was thoughtful a moment, and then he said, "So you think I need a wife, do you, my dear Azura? Why?"

"Surely you want sons, my lord. Every man wants sons," she answered him. "Perhaps one day you may go home to your England again, and bring your sons to your father's house."

The dey's face darkened. "I shall never go home again, Azura. How can I with a charge of murder hanging over me? I need no sons for Oxton, nor a proper English wife. What I want is revenge, and I have the means of enacting that revenge. The young man I sentenced to the galleys this morning, the one your India longs for, he is my younger half-brother, now my father's heir. If he lives long enough for me to ransom him. He did not recognize me, of course, for ten years have passed since we last saw each other. I should not have recognized him, either, but for his pompous bleating about his importance. Aruj Agha has been told, and will look out for him, but Adrian will row his hands raw for a few months before I inform his dear mother that he is a captive in Barbary. And when she pays his ransom, for MariElena will move heaven and earth to redeem her precious offspring, only then will I reveal myself to my sibling."

"And India?" Azura asked.

"Her very presence here will have ruined her reputation in England," the dey said.

"She tells me that her family was returning home when she ran off with your half-brother, my lord. She believes her reputation could be yet salvaged if she could be ransomed. Take your revenge upon your brother, and send India home to her family. You do not need this particular maiden in your bed," Azura concluded. She had had no intentions of pleading for India until she heard the dey's plans. It disturbed her that he could be so vindictive. True, he was a hard man, for to rule he had no other choice, but this was cruel.

"No," Caynan Reis said implacably. "It is going to give me double pleasure to tell Adrian how delightful a bed partner I found his little betrothed. Of course, being the swine he is, he doesn't want her now. He believes she gave herself to Aruj Agha because the agha was kind to her while she was in his charge. Kindness is a quality with which my half-brother is not familiar. Still, he was never one to share his possessions even when he tired of them. The knowledge that I have had the girl when he has not will enrage him, and give me great satisfaction.

"I also suspect that the girl's family did not approve of him, and so he cajoled the silly creature into running away with him to be married. When they learn he has been ransomed, and she is my captive, I suspect his life will not be worth a great deal anymore. My stepmother will not be able to protect him from the lady India's father and her brothers." Caynan Reis laughed grimly. "I can but imagine her terror and her eventual pain."

"But what of your father?" Azura said quietly. "If India's family kill your half-brother, who will follow your father?"

"I know not," the dey replied. "As for my father, he was quick to believe the worst of me, and under the influence of that bitch he married after my own mother died, he disinherited me, I was told. He deserves to have his line die out. How could he believe I was so lacking in honor that I would kill a man over the favors of a well-known court strumpet? That we quarreled over her is true, but neither Lord Jeffers or myself would have killed over such a woman."

"I had not realized before how deep your pain, my lord," Azura said gently.

"The girl, India," Caynan Reis changed the subject. "Do you believe she is really a virgin? If Adrian could convince her to leave her family, perhaps he also convinced her to part with her virtue."

"I cannot answer that question without the physician examining her, my lord," Azura told him truthfully, "but if I were to hazard a guess, I would say absolutely yes. She is a virgin. Her demeanor is modest and quite innocent." She reached out and took his big hand, saying pleadingly, "Promise me, my lord, that you will treat her with kindness."

"Do you know me for a beast?" he demanded curtly, pulling his hand from hers. His blue eyes were indignant.

"You are angry, my lord, but the girl is English," Azura said wisely. "Remember, you yourself believe she was cozened by your half-brother, who probably acted on your stepmother's instructions. She is as much their victim as you once were. Be kind to her, my lord."

"No wonder Sharif Mohammed loved you," Caynan Reis said. "Your heart is too good, Azura, but I will promise you that I shall not harm the girl. Provided, of course, that she does not attempt to harm me again," he concluded with a small smile. "I shall make certain I am not wearing any weapons when we meet later this evening."

"Then I shall bring her to you, my lord?"

"I must first bathe, Azura. I have not had the time today before now. Bring her to me in an hour's time, and then you may go to bed. Tell Baba Hassan that I will keep her with me until dawn. He is to come for her then, and escort her back to the harem."

Azura arose, and bowed to the dey. Then she hurried from the room to find the chief eunuch. Baba Hassan was ensconced most comfortably in his own elegant quarters, smoking on a water pipe, when the lady Azura joined him. Wiping the mouth of the pipe, he offered it to her as she seated herself opposite him. Drawing upon the hookah, Azura pulled the water-cooled tobacco into her mouth, and then released it. It was most soothing. Rubbing her essence from the mouth of the pipe, she passed it back to the eunuch.

"I have just come from the dey. He will keep the girl until dawn when you are to escort her back to the harem."

"So," Baba Hassan said with a smile, "you have put your little plan into operation, have you, my old friend?"

"I will not reveal to you what I have heard from his lips this night," Azura told her companion, "but he desperately needs to love, and be loved in return. Of this I am convinced. I believe this girl may be the one to find his heart."

"It is not a good time, Azura, for him to be distracted from the business of governing El Sinut," Baba Hassan said. "I hear whispers on the winds. There is trouble coming."

"What do you hear?" she asked him.

"It is the janissaries again," Baba Hassan said wearily. "They are planning yet another revolt against the Sublime Porte. Their people have been all throughout the empire seeking secret support, attempting to find weaknesses in the vassal states. I am told they will promise the rulers of Barbary autonomy, and freedom from paying tribute to Istanbul, in exchange for their aid."

She did not ask from where he had obtained his information, or if the source was reliable, for Baba Hassan would not have brought it to her attention if it were just idle gossip. Her only question was, "Does the dey know yet?"

The chief eunuch shook his head in the negative. "So far no emissary has come from Istanbul to El Sinut."

"And Aruj Agha?" she questioned him. "Do you think he will be loyal to the sultan or to his fellow janissaries?"

"Aruj Agha has been in El Sinut as long as Caynan Reis has," the eunuch said slowly. "I think he would be loyal to the sultan, but the camaraderie of the corps is strong, and his family has a history of service to it."

"And who would they replace Sultan Murad with, Baba Hassan?"

"The Valide Kiusem had three sons by Sultan Ahmed. Murad has two younger brothers, Ibhrahim and Bayazet."

"But it is the Valide Kiusem who is the true power in Istanbul right now as Sultan Murad is just thirteen," Azura said. "What difference does it make which one of her sons rules if she rules for them?"

"They intend to murder both her and Sultan Murad," Baba Hassan replied. "Then they will put their own people in place, and rule for the next sultan, who will be of their own choosing, and much too young to rule for himself. They might even slaughter the other prince to prevent any rival faction like the Siphatis from springing up. The janissaries are not merciful. Remember young Osman whom they brutally murdered a few years ago, my lady Azura? They have grown very powerful in the last hundred years, and as their strength has increased, so has their influence. They are rapacious in their desire for wealth, and for domination over the empire. If they could rule without a sultan, I truly believe that they would."

"Then perhaps it is a good time for the dey to fall in love, Baba Hassan," the mistress of the harem said thoughtfully. "Right now, his heart is cold, his memories of his family and his homeland bitter. He could act rashly, for what has he to lose? But if he loved the girl, if she bore him a child, then his actions would be wiser, for he would not want to lose this new family to capricious fate, as he lost his old family."

"I cannot fault your instincts in the past, Azura," the eunuch said slowly. "Mayhap you are right now, and perhaps the rumors will come to nothing and the janissaries be content for a time."

"The janissaries are never content," she replied, "but Istanbul is a long way from El Sinut. With luck we will escape the plotting and the inevitable betrayals that will come about from this latest conspiracy."

"I pray to Allah, the most merciful and compassionate, that you are correct, Azura," Baba Hassan answered fervently.

She smiled slightly. "So do I," she said. "Now our main goal is to see that India and Caynan Reis find love together."

"They are two difficult young persons. I suspect dealing with the janissaries may be easier," he told her with a small chuckle.

Chapter 8

India had been dozing. She was feeling very relaxed, and the soft fabric of the kaftan against her skin was soothing. Then, to her annoyance, she was shaken awake, and she heard Azura's voice in her ear.

"Awaken, my child. It is time."

India slowly opened her eyes, rolling back over to ask the older woman, "Time for what, madame?"

"Time for you to go to the dey," came the answer.

She was suddenly awake and completely alert. "Tonight? He would really ask for me? After what I did?" Her heart was beginning to pound with anxiety.

Azura gently pulled India from her mattress. "There is nothing for you to be afraid of, my child," she soothed the girl.