Seductive Wager

by Leigh Greenwood

  All of them appeared to be quite young, many of them even younger than Kate, and all were attractive in some way. A few had classical beauty, but most had flaws of face, figure, and probably personality, but there was something about each of them, if nothing more than animal magnetism, that drew the eye. Kate had seen some dance while others sang or played instruments. They were all trained in the ways of love, costumed to arouse the senses, and taught to move and speak with sensual grace. Yet now, with no one but women of their own age for company, they were acting much like young women acted anywhere, all talking at once, laughing in high-pitched squeals, and moving about the room with boundless energy. How different from the manner they would assume if called to visit the dey.

  What did any of these women care about Kate? Why should they risk their positions in the harem, possibly their lives, for a stranger? Surely there would be more additions to the harem in the coming months and at least one of them would be certain to have blond hair. She found it very difficult to understand, even after Olema and Anis had both explained it to her very carefully, why these girls were happy to be in the dey’s harem, how for them it was the pinnacle of achievement. They understood their position and they accepted the addition of new girls as naturally as they accepted the fact that they would be called to the dey no more than two or three times a year unless they were lucky enough to become one of his favorites. Most of them would never visit him at all, and only two or three of them would be elevated to the status of wife.

  Anis and Nuzhat, on the other hand, did have a position to protect, but again, they had so much more to lose than gain by helping Kate. Nuzhat was the mother of the heir and thus one of the most powerful women in the harem. Even though she was too old to be called to the dey’s bed—she seemed to have accepted being replaced by Anis without any of the anger she leveled at Kate—she would always have a close relationship with the dey, and one day she would be the mother of the ruler. Why should it matter to her whether the dey’s bed was occupied more often by Anis or Kate?

  Anis had nothing to fear from Kate but pride of position. She was just as lovely as Kate and could expect to remain the dey’s favorite, or at least one of his favorites, for a long while yet. Could she fear that if Kate took over her position, she would never conceive a child and would lose her standing in the harem as well as in the dey’s affections? Kate saw Olema approaching and decided to abandon her thoughts for the present. She would seek out Anis as soon as she could and try to learn more from her, but for now she could find no answers to her questions.

  “Neither of you is to utter a sound or do anything to draw attention to yourselves until we have Kate safely outside the palace. He’s going to be suspicious enough about my wife having a female servant as tall as Charles.” Brett was explaining his plans for the evening to Wiggins, Ibrahin, and Charles. “Wiggins, I’m depending on you to help me keep the dey’s attention off Ibrahin and Charles. I’ll be as argumentative as I can. I want you to support my demands and at the same time position yourself between them and the dey. The less he sees of them the less suspicious he’s going to be.”

  “How do you propose to get us into the harem?” Ibrahin asked. “As anxious as I am to restore your wife to you, I also want to see how the dey’s women compare to my father’s.”

  “The problem that concerns me the most is getting Kate out,” Brett stated impatiently. “I’ll refuse to even begin talking about a compromise until I can see for myself she’s all right.”

  “Do you think the dey will agree?”

  “I am sure he will expect Mr. Westbrook to demand some confirmation of his wife’s well-being,” Wiggins said. “What better proof can he offer than Mrs. Westbrook herself?”

  “I’m still worried,” Brett continued. “I don’t think he means to let me take Kate away with us. I suspect he’s going to want me to leave before he releases her, have her sent to England after me, or something like that. Whatever he does, I imagine he’s going to want to keep us apart. The more distance he can keep between us, the less likely I am to do anything to thwart him. It’s crucial that we keep his attention off you two, that you do nothing to make him suspicious. Everything must happen too quickly for him to be able to figure it out.”

  Brett was referring to Charles and Ibrahin, each dressed in a long robe that covered everything from their necks to the tips of their sandals. Each also had a headdress equipped with a veil that covered their face leaving only their eyes exposed. Ibrahin’s short stature made it comparatively easy to disguise him; his muscular development could be disguised as plumpness, but it was his extraordinary eyes which made him convincing as a female. If the dey did become curious about Kate’s two servants, Brett hoped it would be Ibrahin’s eyes rather than Charles’s height that attracted his attention. Charles was short for a man, but he made a tall woman and only his thinness made it possible for him to pass as a female.

  “If everything goes according to plan, the only guards we’ll have to overpower will be the dey’s personal bodyguard,” Brett explained.

  “They are especially chosen for their strength and loyalty,” Wiggins pointed out.

  “Nevertheless, if we can’t get them out of the room, we must overpower them. And it has to be done before the dey can escape or call for help. The disturbance in the harem will only hold them for a short time and it won’t pull all the guards away from the palace. If we don’t succeed, you will have to escape with Kate from the harem itself.”

  “It cannot be done,” Ibrahin stated emphatically, “not unless you plan to have el-Kader and his horde pounding on the front door.”

  “I’ve convinced el-Kader it’s in his best interest to withdraw from Algiers and let the dey make his own mistakes. He’s convinced the dey will provoke the French into attacking and that hell then be able to take over the city.”

  “The dey does not know this?”

  “Not from me, and el-Kader wants him to think he still has his support so he will go on harassing the French into bringing in their army.”

  “You managed things well,” Ibrahin stated in admiration. “You should have come earlier, without your wife, and we could have arranged the whole matter between us.”

  “I doubt my government would have approved such a collaboration,” Wiggins demurred. “If they don’t want the French to take over Algeria, I doubt they would see Egypt as an acceptable substitute.”

  “Not take over,” Ibrahin said, much in the manner of a French aristocrat refusing an inferior wine. “It is much too expensive to conquer a country. It takes guns and men and camels, and the peasants are the ones who lose the most. It is better to influence them. You have much the same results and it costs very little money.”

  “Your tactics may be the envy of the diplomatic world, but they have nothing to do with this situation,” Brett stated brusquely.

  “They are brilliant, but I will listen to you,” Ibrahin said. “For an Englishman, especially one who is in love with his wife, you do quite well. I applaud you.”

  “Save your congratulations until we’re out of this mess with a whole skin,” Brett retorted irritably. “There are so many things that can go wrong.”

  “There is always much that can go wrong. That is why it is necessary to have men of brains and courage. You are one, so am I, and I have discovered that, though he looks like a sleepy camel, your Mr. Wiggins is a very clever man also.”

  “Good. Well need every bit of cleverness we can muster before this evening is out.”

  “I am eager to see this wife for whom you are ready to tackle all of Algiers. I would bring her out by myself if necessary. And let me tell you, there is no woman in Egypt for whom I would do such a thing.”

  “There is no woman in the-world like Kate,” Brett said. He thought of what failure tonight would mean to her, and his heart nearly stopped beating. Was he doing the best thing in trying to steal her from the dey rather than accept his terms and hope he would return her as he promised? That was the very
issue Brett had wrestled with ever since he learned Kate was in the dey’s palace. If she had still been with the pirate or a slave seller, he would happily have killed the pirate or paid the ransom, but the dey was another matter entirely and Brett did not trust him. He was thankful he had decided to break into the palace. It had given him a chance to measure the dey before the confrontation, given him time to weigh his tactics against the mettle of the protagonist he faced.

  It hadn’t taken long to convince Brett that if he didn’t rescue Kate himself, he would never see her again. Whatever the risk, he was certain the dey would not give her up for anything short of an invasion by el-Kader’s plunder-hungry troops.

  Brett had never been one to be assailed by self-doubt, but he had been forced to wait for a long time and he had had time to question every part of his strategy over and over. Yet, every time he went over his reasoning, or his scheme, he came up with the same decision. This was the only way. It had to work.

  Kate was invited to dine with Anis, and she followed the footsteps of Anis’s servant as she guided Kate through the multitude of courts, gardens, and colonnaded walkways to Anis’s quarters. She couldn’t help but notice the loveliness of the grounds as she followed the servant from the building where the concubines were kept to the part of the compound reserved for the dey’s wives. The gardens of the harem were extensive and meticulously maintained—care of them was one of the few activities the women were allowed to participate in—and each woman who was given a space of her own tried to outdo the other. Under any other circumstances Kate would have been overwhelmed by its beauty and hesitant to rush away without enjoying it to the fullest, but now it represented an artificial world, a world of idle wealth and useless captivity in the midst of grinding poverty, and she could hardly wait to escape. Even more important to her, it represented the bars of a gilded cage that kept her from the arms of the man she loved.

  Kate could remember complaining bitterly that she was in prison when Martin confined her to the castle, but at Ryehill there was always the possibility of escape, and there were limitless opportunities once she was outside. Now she realized how deceptive a real prison could be. It was impossible to escape from the harem, no one ever had, but even if they could reach the outside, escape would only mean poverty, similar incarceration in the home of another and less wealthy man, or certain death if the agents of the dey ever found them. More important, these beautiful women, precious flowers of the eastern world, were imprisoned more securely than she had ever been because they had imprisoned themselves.

  For the first time, Anis greeted Kate with a friendly smile. “Come inside. We will dine at once. The food is already laid out so we can serve ourselves. My servants are loyal, but it is better that no one hears our words. Everyone can be made to talk if the pain is great enough.” Kate was led to a large room in the middle of the house with no windows and only two doors.

  “Do you have more to tell me?”

  “Eat,” Anis said. “It is best that we do not talk now.” Kate wasn’t hungry even though it was clear Anis, or one of her servants, had taken the trouble to talk to Olema and discover the foods she liked. They ate and talked of their lives before they came to Algeria until an old female servant entered through the second door, whispered something to Anis in a language Kate didn’t recognize, and departed once again.

  “It is arranged,” Anis said abruptly. “I did not want to speak of it again until everyone had agreed to do their part.”

  “What is arranged, and who has arranged it?” Kate asked. “I know it’s not my husband. How do I know it’s not a trick to catch us both?”

  “I told you I had relatives in Algiers,” Anis began. “That is true but is misleading. I do not come from Africa, but from a very poor country to the west of Constantinople. Many people leave to seek a better life elsewhere, and long ago a cousin of my father went to Egypt. He was an ambitious man who dared to test the might of the great sultan himself, and today he is governor of Egypt. His son is in Algiers. It is from him that I received the message and am told what to do.”

  “But why should they want to help us?” Kate asked, more confused than ever. “I don’t even know anyone from Egypt.”

  “I do not know, but Ibrahin would do nothing that would harm the position of dey, and along with him, myself. At the same time, Ibrahin will do nothing that does not further his own interests, so it must be that he and your husband want the same thing.”

  “How can I be sure?”

  “Ibrahin would not go to all this trouble for nothing,” Anis answered a little impatiently. “It can be too dangerous for everyone if things go wrong.”

  “But why should you take such a risk? And everyone else? You could all die.”

  “We would not die,” Anis said, but she refused to meet Kate’s eyes.

  “There is another reason, isn’t there?”

  Anis nodded.

  “Please tell me.”

  “There is a story told to every little girl,” Anis began reluctantly, “of a woman with white hair who came to the harem of the great sultan many generations ago. She was exceedingly beautiful, just as you are, and the sultan became so bewitched he vowed he would do anything to please her. She was very jealous, very wicked, and she forced the sultan to exile his wives and strangle all his concubines so that she would be the only one left. Everyone in the harem knows how the dey looks at you, how he has not been pleased with anyone sent to his bed since you arrived, and they fear it will happen again.”

  “But you can’t think I would do anything like that, even if I wanted to stay.” Kate was stunned to find Anis’s eyes offered no friendliness.

  “Maybe I do not believe you would do such a thing, but it is still best that you go.”

  Kate wasn’t entirely convinced Anis was telling the truth, but there didn’t seem to be any point in trying to change her mind. For whatever reason, some kind of plan had been set in motion and she was being forced to go along with it.

  “You must be ready to leave the palace the minute the dey sends for you,” Anis continued. “You must have a veil with you at all times. There can be no waiting. The timing must be exact.”

  “I have no preparations to make. I can leave at any moment,” Kate said.

  The excruciatingly slow plop-plop of Wiggins’s tread was like acid on Brett’s nerves; he wanted to pick Wiggins up and hurl him forward through the dark and opulent halls they traversed on their way to the apartment of the dey. He wanted to walk quickly, to burst through every door, to run until his breath rasped painfully in his chest, because each step brought him closer to Kate. But Charles and Ibrahin couldn’t walk any faster. Ibrahin had conceived the clever notion of outfitting them with peasant’s clogs and they minced along like the daintiest of women.

  The guards were different from those of his previous visit—he wondered if the others had been put to death for their failure to protect the dey—yet there was no difficulty in gaining entrance to the palace. Evidently everyone knew Wiggins and didn’t suspect him of being dangerous. Every guard they passed looked at him with curiosity, but evidently he was expected and they allowed him to enter.

  The dey was without his ministers when they entered his audience chamber. Two large Nubians stood guard inside his door and two more without. I’ve got to eliminate at least two of them if we are going to have any chance at all, Brett thought as he eyed the tall, heavily muscled men. With the dey on their side, they outnumber us and they have better weapons.

  “You don’t trust me very much, do you?” Brett said, with just enough mockery in his voice to prick the dey’s pride. “I’m flattered you think me dangerous enough to warrant four of your best guards. There was only one before.”

  “Two of them are from the harem. However, after your previous visit, I did think it wise to employ an extra one today. Won’t you be seated.” His eyes moved to Charles and Ibrahin, but he made no comment. Brett and Wiggins settled down on cushions, and Charles and Ibrahin arranged
themselves so that Brett and Wiggins blocked the dey’s view of them.

  “You will be pleased to learn that my agents have found your wife and that she is at this very moment resting within the harem.”

  “I want to see her,” Brett said, starting up impetuously.

  “All in good time,” the dey replied in a conciliatory voice. “We have certain things to discuss first.”

  “I won’t discuss anything until I’ve seen my wife,” Brett announced. “I’ve got to know she’s all right, that your men haven’t mistreated her.”

  “We only mistreat our enemies,” the dey replied haughtily, “and we do not make war on women.”

  “Nevertheless, I won’t enter into any agreements or even discuss terms until she’s in my arms and can assure me with her own voice you haven’t mistreated her. If anybody has harmed her, I’ll personally break their neck.”

  “I think it would be wise to allow him to see his wife,” Wiggins suggested diplomatically. “He will undoubtedly be able to listen to your offer more favorably if his worries are removed. It is also possible the presence of his wife might influence him to see your position more readily.” The dey pondered Wiggins’s suggestion a moment.

  “I forget that you English take only one wife. I have often wondered why Europeans attach such importance to a mere woman. However, we are not here to discuss Europe or its customs, only to establish an agreement between ourselves. I will send for her.”

  “She will need her women.” Ibrahin and Charles got to their feet.

  “I see you have a native servant?” the dey observed. “The one with the beautiful almond eyes.”

  “Neither my wife nor her maid knows anything of the language or customs of Algeria. It was necessary to provide her with a servant who could act as an intermediary, especially as I had to leave them and go into the desert,” Brett added, his meaning obvious.