Under Wraps

by Patricia Green

  She pulled away and offered her back. "You're embarrassing me," she said, cheeks hot. "And you're wrong."

  He sighed. "No, I'm not. But as I cannot prove otherwise to you, I'll do the next best thing: change the subject."

  She glanced over her shoulder and saw his grin.

  He shrugged. "Missus Harriet Pfeiffer will undoubtedly be grateful for your stubbornness."

  Glee turned back toward him and rested her chin on her upraised knees. "The ship captain's widow? I've heard whispers about you and she. Why would she be grateful to me?"

  He tugged on his earlobe. "Because this conversation has left me in a deucedly randy way, and she at least can appreciate it."

  "Oh, really Raymond! I'm shocked!" She tried to look appalled, really she did. But it was a fight just to keep from laughing at his antics.

  "Don't laugh, cuz," he teased. "I'm pitiful."

  Chapter 4

  T he dam burst and Glee rolled with hysterics. She heard him laughing too. When she had regained her composure she sat up and took his hands. "I think you must be my very best friend, Raymond."

  "It's an honor, mademoiselle," he said on a smile. "Now tell me how I can help you in this folly of running off to California."

  She bit her lip. "The travel arrangements are too complex for me to send Hakki to make. Would you be willing to assist me with them?"

  "You want me to book passage on a ship to San Francisco?"

  "No, no. I don't want to be traced. Should either Uncle Martin or Abdülmecid choose to look for me, a ship would be too easy. I want to go overland."

  He frowned. "Lord, Glee! Do you know how dangerous that is? It takes much longer than a ship and there are Indians and pestilence all along the route." His light brown hair flew as he shook his head. "I really can't condone it. You wouldn't be safe."

  "I wouldn't be alone. There are wagon trains, are there not? And I'll be taking Amina, Erdogan and Hakki."

  "All your little strays."

  "That's not very nice."

  He flushed. "Sorry, cuz, but I really don't like this plan. It's already autumn and I'm not sure how late in the year government wagon trains continue to depart."

  "Can't you just make the rail arrangements for us to get to Independence, Raymond? The wagon trains leave from St. Joseph, only a few miles from Independence. I just know if I can get there I'll find a way. Surely it's not that late. It's only September 12th."

  "And Winter comes to the western prairies in late October, Glee."

  She pressed his hands. "Please."

  Raymond turned away and rose to his feet, looking down on her, his expression going from doubt to resignation as she watched. "I'll make train reservations, Glee, but on one condition only."

  Her smile was bright. "What condition?"

  "That you promise not to set out alone if a wagon train cannot be found. You don't know the hazards of the trail, nor would you be able to find your way with any degree of safety. California's a long, long way away."

  She rose and hugged him. "I promise, I promise!" Her lips found his cheek. "Oh, Raymond you are the most dear, sweet, wonderful-"

  "There you are," Esther's strident voice called.

  Glee broke away from Raymond and stood at his side as Esther and Hamilton approached through the grass.

  "Up to no good, too!" Esther held up Glee's stockings and shoes. "Wait until I tell Mother, Raymond." Her blue gaze narrowed on Glee. "What have you been doing to my brother, you, you, seductress?"

  Glee returned her spectacles to her nose and looked down at Esther with contempt. "If you would pull your mind out of the gutter for a brief moment, Esther, you might learn a thing or two. We've been having a conversation, if you must know." She grabbed her discarded footwear and sat down to put them on.

  Esther watched Glee begin to pull a cotton stocking up a very shapely leg and realized, with proper horror, that her heathen cousin would be exposing that smooth limb past the knee. "Oh, you are outrageous!" The dark haired girl turned to Hamilton Cage and pressed her hand over his eyes. "Don't look Hamilton! She's only trying to get to you, too."

  Glee threw a look of utter annoyance in Esther's direction and then glanced up at her smirking cousin Raymond. "Whatever is she going on about? She's angry that I've removed my stockings and shoes, and now she's angry that I'm putting them back on!"

  Raymond watched the soft cotton cling to calf and knee and then get tucked beneath the edge of Glee's anything-but-dowdy white silk pantalets. She jerked at the pale blue ribbons to tighten a stocking in place, and then moved to do the same to her other leg. He recovered himself just enough to answer her question, only barely remembering that she had asked. "I think she's upset because you're exposing your legs, cuz. Strictly speaking, a proper Bostonian lady doesn't do that."

  "Stuff!" Glee fumed. "What a lot of utter nonsense! You've seen a woman's legs before, haven't you Raymond?"

  He chuckled. "Oh, once or twice."

  "And you have, too, haven't you Mister Cage?"

  The young man blushed behind Esther's masking hand. "Well, I, er... I admit that I have, Miss Montrose."

  Glee did the last of the buttons on her shoes and stood to tower over Esther. "There, you see, Esther? My legs are no more mysterious and improper than your bare arms, let's say, or the tip of your nose." She gestured to Hamilton. "And let that poor man go, will you? I'm perfectly decent now, even by your standards."

  Esther's hand fell away, but her face reddened and contorted. "You've been away in that dreadful, Godless harem too long, Glee Montrose. You haven't the faintest idea what decency is anymore! I'll be glad to see you go back to your perverted Sultan and be his son's mistress! It's probably nothing new to you anyway."

  Glee's hands curled into fists and her spine stiffened. "Frankly, Esther, I would far prefer to be intelligently educated in such matters, regardless of the social costs, than to be an ignorant, puritanical, stiff-limbed prude like you."

  "Oh!" Esther's eyes filled with tears and she stamped her foot. "Wait until I tell my mother! Why they'll ride you out of Boston on a rail!"

  Esther grabbed Hamilton's arm and began to trounce from the meadow, wiping her tear-streaked face on her taffeta sleeve. "Come along Hamilton. I don't care to dirty myself in her presence any longer." She paused halfway up the little slope and turned back to her brother. "If you know what's good for you Raymond, you'll get away from that, that fallen woman. She probably has a disease or something."

  Raymond frowned. "Go back to Mother, Esther. You don't even know what you're saying anymore."

  The girl huffed and pulled her escort up the rise again.

  Raymond turned and took Glee's hands, chaffing them to bring their warmth back. "Are you all right?"

  Glee nodded, glad that her eyes were hidden behind dark glass. "Mmhmm."

  "She's a jealous, spiteful child, cuz. You mustn't let her get to you."

  "It's always the same, Raymond. I just don't fit in with society." Her hands trembled and she withdrew them from Raymond’s grasp. "Please make the arrangements as soon as you can. I'm so tired of fighting."

  "I'll see that you have reservations on the first train leaving next week." He put his arm around her shoulders and led her up the rise. "In the meantime, I want you to think about Friday. The masquerade. Let's you and I give Boston the old what-for. Make 'em realize just how much they're missing when you've gone."

  Glee smiled weakly. "Aren't we in enough trouble with your parents?"

  He laughed. "Oh, no! Not nearly enough!"

  Raymond was taken aside by his father the moment he and Glee topped Rogue's Hill. Glee was left to her own thoughts, though she suffered more than a few scathing glances from both Esther and her sister Sophia. Even Sophia's husband, Tom, seemed hesitant to come near her. Aunt Ulalie was strangely silent, busying herself with packing up the picnic remnants and teasing her grandchildren.

  Glee, Raymond and Amina were commanded to ride in the carriage with Aunt Ulalie and Uncle Ma
rtin, all others stuffed into the other coach. Raymond was the last in, and, precisely because he knew it would irritate his parents, Glee expected, he chose to squeeze himself onto the bench next to Glee. It was a silent, uncomfortable ride back into the city, but it suited Glee's somber mood.

  * * * *

  The rest of the week was no more pleasant than that cold carriage ride. Aunt Ulalie had decided that Glee was to be given a new, more suitable wardrobe. Consequently, and despite Glee's protests, the older woman ushered her from seamstress to furrier to milliner. Velvets, silks, satins, of all the newest cuts and patterns were stitched and fitted, and refitted, until Ulalie was satisfied that her niece was as properly attired as possible. Glee had no intention of wearing the garments, of course. She went along because protesting did no good. When it came to giving up her spectacles and turban, though, she put her foot down quite firmly. Under absolutely no conditions would she have her hair artfully arranged in tortured curls or flowing with ribbons. She was loath to admit it, but in reality, Glee felt rather naked without her hair coverings. She remembered how men looked at her when she was revealed, how much trouble it had gotten her in Constantinople, and her determination was stony.

  Feeling victorious in the battles, if not the war, Ulalie let it go. Discovering that her niece had a perfectly lovely figure, even if she was too tall, had been a pleasant surprise, and she knew that once she was exposed to the eligible bachelors of Boston, Glee would relent. What young woman could help but be flattered and charmed by masculine attention? It certainly kept Esther fluttering about.

  When her new wardrobe was delivered on Friday morning, Glee had Amina stuff it into her father's old trunk, where it could rot and be eaten by moths for all she cared.

  Late in the afternoon, Amina prepared a scented bath for her and she soaked for a long, lazy time, luxuriating in the slippery soap and the heat of the water. She caught herself giggling as she stepped out of the tub and into a linen towel. Amina looked at her quizzically.

  "Raymond would shake his finger at me if he knew how right he was," she explained. Amina's brows arched. "He thinks I'm a sensualist in hiding."

  The black maid's head bobbed, and Glee, now dry except for her hair, whirled around her room, finally settling onto a bench by the hearth where Amina would brush her waist-length red-gold hair to a gleaming, silk sheet. As her maid began to ply the brush, Glee sighed. "Tonight, Amina, just for one night, I'm going to show Boston another side of me." She bit her lower lip then smiled. "Raymond doesn't know the half of it."

  Amina snapped her fingers, her equivalent to clicking her tongue.

  "Oh, now don't go chiding me, Amina. I don't even know how to belly-dance, so how naughty can I be?"

  She felt Amina’s sigh.

  After her hair was dry and pinned out of the way, Glee had Amina sneak Erdogan into the room. The poor man had been beside himself for nearly two weeks with nothing to do but mend the loosened hems of Glee's old dresses and listen to kitchen gossip, much of which he didn't understand.

  "Did you bring sandalwood oil, Erdogan?"

  He nodded with a smile. "Yes, mistress." A small bottle was produced from beneath his vest.

  Glee climbed onto her bed and sprawled across the coverlet, her nudity unremarkable after two years in the harem. "Then get to it, my friend," she said softly. "I've missed my massages very much."

  * * * *

  Erdogan began rubbing fragrant oil into Glee's skin. He knew he was especially talented at this task, and he took pleasure in his mistress' soft sighs and murmured compliments. When one side was done, she rolled over and he worked the oil into the pores on the other. Her pale skin took on a rosy glow and fairly vibrated at his touch.

  He was never sexual but, after working so many years in the harem, he recognized the heat of the girl's innocent sensuality as her muscles relaxed beneath his hands. She was beautiful, like a fine ruby, and Erdogan knew that when she returned to the Ottoman Empire Prince Akmed would be intoxicated with her. This pleased the portly eunuch very much, because as Glee rose in status in Akmed's harem, so would Erdogan among the eunuchs. Anything he could do to make her more appealing was to everyone's benefit as he saw it. He only hoped this journey to the west would not take too long. America was very strange and often frightening.

  * * * *

  Glee lay on her bed for several minutes after Erdogan left her. It occurred to her that while she was both stimulated and relaxed by the eunuch's sterile touch, that very sterility made the experience less than satisfactory. Her heart lurched at the thought. She had vowed to Raymond, only days previous, that she could do without that particular fulfillment. And she could, she told herself. Something never experienced could not be missed. Or...or could it? Raymond and her harem friend Nilüfer had both thought so. But what did they know? They both knew what they were talking about...or something like that. Stuff! Now she was confusing herself.

  "Amina, let's get to work. I've got a masquerade to attend!"

  Within an hour, Glee was fully dressed in harem garb. Her tiny vest, just covering her full breasts and buttoning between them, was made of heavy rose damask, embroidered with gold and black paisley patterns. Beneath it was a chemisette of sorts, which did little to cover her cleavage and ended with the vest, just under her breasts, dangling tiny cap sleeves off her arms. It was of pale, rose silk; so lightweight and translucent it formed a mere blush against her skin. Her ribs, waist and the flat glossy plane of her belly were scandalously bare, save for the fragrant oil which perfumed her skin. Her legs were encased in full, flowing pantaloons, common to the kadinlar of the harem. Translucent rose silk left the length and shape of her limbs enticingly outlined. They hugged her hips with a band of brass-colored damask, embroidered with gold and black paisley, and her ankles were encircled similarly. On her feet she wore rose colored slippers; their toes pointed and turned up in a curl with a tiny bell dangling from each point.

  Glee's hair flowed loosely down her back and was covered with a transparent white silk net, dotted here and there with miniscule gold beads and seed pearls. The rose silk veil which would cover the lower half of her face hung to one side now, waiting to be attached over her other ear later. For jewelry she wore delicate gold bands twisted into the shape of serpents over her slim upper arms, and long gold earrings, made up of a dozen tiny hollow tubes which tinkled with each turn of her head. A long, heavy-linked gold chain encircled her hips and dangled a tail down one of her legs. On each of her middle fingers and thumbs she wore a tiny brass cymbal, intending to make music wherever she went. Her final ornament was an enormous, paste ruby that she fit into her navel. It winked with wicked red light at her every move.

  She was finishing rimming her eyes with navy blue kohl, darkening their turquoise to deep indigo, when Amina scurried back into the room. "Raymond is downstairs waiting," she signed.

  Glee stood and pointed toward the bed. "Bring my chador. We can't let Aunt Ulalie or Uncle Martin see me like this, and anyway, I'd like to tease Raymond a little."

  Amina smiled at the prank and quickly covered Glee in a dark blue over-garment. It hid Glee's costume completely, from the gold trimmed hood that was fitted to her head to cover her eyebrows, hair, and the lower part of her face, to the tips of her toes where the shroud touched the floor. Not even her hands were visible. The mischievous glint of her eyes was the only hint of her identity.

  She did a little turn for her maid. "How do I look?"

  Amina smiled and signed, "So proper you could go to church."

  Glee laughed and found her way downstairs to the parlor where Raymond, dressed as a Sultan, waited impatiently with his parents. Esther and Hamilton Cage had left nearly an hour earlier; she dressed as a fairy princess and he as a French musketeer.

  Raymond stood at once as she strode into the room. His frown was immediate and brought an undetected smile to Glee's hidden lips.

  "Oh, my, don't you look exotic," said Ulalie with approval.

  "Unrecognizable
," added Martin.

  "Hm, yes." Raymond went for the door. "We'd best be off, cuz."

  They bid the elder Montroses farewell and hurried outside to the waiting carriage. Raymond sat across from Glee, frowning and twisting his fake moustaches.

  "You look very regal, Raymond," Glee tried.

  He nodded. "Thank you." His glance was cursory. "You look very... very..." He slapped his knee. "Damn and double damn, Glee! I thought you were dressing as a harem slave, not some Turkish nun!"

  "You don't like my chador?" She made her voice twinge with pout.

  The fake diamond in Raymond's tall teal blue turban twinkled in the light from the gas street lamps. "It's not what I expected. That's all."