Love Wild and Fair

by Bertrice Small

  Asher Kira was to escort them safely to the Kira house in Istanbul, and he would teach them the rudiments of Jewish domestic life. Bothwell and Conall were to be introduced into the household as a distant cousin and his servant, come to study the business methods of the main branch of the Kira bank. This would deflect curiosity and allow the two men freedom to move about the city.

  Bothwell had grown a fine bushy auburn red beard for disguise, and dressed in the baggy pants, wide-sleeved blouse, turban, and embroidered sash and vest of the country, he was the very essence of the Turkish citizen. Conall with his black beard was even more impressive.

  Asher Kira had piloted them successfully and they had arrived in Istanbul in mid-December of 1598. The trip had taken them exactly three months.

  It was now April of 1599, and Bothwell had been waiting several months now for a chance to rescue his wife. Late one afternoon a servant entered the room where he was working on accounts and told him that Esther Kira would speak with him in her garden. When he entered the old woman's presence she motioned him to the bench next to her. Though she looked as if a puff of wind could blow her away, her voice was strong and her gaze unwavering.

  "How do you get on, my friend?" she asked him.

  "Well, madame, but I grow more anxious daily to complete my mission."

  "I spent this morning at the palace. The vizier will be leaving the city for the Hungarian province in a few days. I would say that you will be able to retrieve your property several days after he's gone."

  "Is she all right?"

  "Yes. But it has not been easy for her, and the next few days will be the hardest. She knows the time is near, and she must use all her wiles to convince him to leave her on his island. That is the safest place for the rescue. I have thought and thought, and there is simply no way to take her from the vizier's palace without raising an immediate hue and cry which would bring almost certain recapture, with all its ensuing difficulties. The island is the only place we may take her from and still have time for getting away." She stopped for a moment. "My lord," she spoke gently to him, "my lord, there's something you must know. You were told that the vizier prizes Incili above all women. You were not told that after he obtained his royal wife's permission, he made Incili his second wife."

  Bothwell swore a ripe oath under his breath, and Esther smiled briefly before continuing. "So, my lord, you will not simply be retrieving your wife, you will also be stealing his!"

  Francis began to laugh. "What is it about the wench that all men who love her want to make her their wife?" he chuckled. "My poor cousin no sooner took his royal Danish bride for dynastic purposes than he was trying to force Cat to accept the position of maitress en titre. Her first husband, Patrick Leslie, had to chase her over half of Scotland for almost a year before he could get her to the altar. And I, may God help me, ended up an exile without lands or country for-among other alleged sins-trying to make her my wife. Now you tell me that Cicalazade Pasha asked permission of his royal Otto-mon wife to take my wife for his own?"

  The old woman's cackling laughter joined Bothwell's deep chuckle. Stopping, she wiped her damp eyes and said, "We will go over our plans in a few days."

  PART VIII. THE ESCAPE

  Chapter 57

  SHE straggled up through the blackness, fighting the smothered feeling that overwhelmed her, clawing at the hard hand clamped over her mouth. Full consciousness returned as the voice in her ear became wonderfully familiar.

  "Shhh, love!’Tis me.’Tis Francis!"

  Her eyes flew open and then widened at the sight of the bearded man bending over her. The hand was taken away. Catching her breath, she laughingly sobbed, "Damn me, Bothwell, ye look like the sultan himself!" Then the tears spilled out of her and she flung herself at him, weeping soundlessly.

  Holding her closely, he smoothed the head beneath his hand and said in a gentle, teasing voice, "Can I not go off to earn us a living, madame, without yer getting captured by pirates? Ye've led me a fine chase to be sure!" Her shoulders shook all the harder. "Sweetheart, 'tis all right," he soothed. "I am here to take ye home. Dinna weep, lass. Ye've been so brave. Esther Kira has told me how brave ye've been."

  She squirmed out of his grasp and turned a stricken face up to him. "Do ye love me, Bothwell?"

  For a moment he looked stunned, and then he mused, "Now, let me think a bit. I've crossed three seas and come through two straits. I must now turn about and go back the same way, dragging two women wi me. It will be a bloody miracle if we get to Italy alive! Perhaps I did it for the adventure of it? Christ, madame, what do ye think?"

  "I am used, Bothwell. I am terribly used. I hae been the vizier's favorite. Do ye still want me back?"

  He began to laugh, then became serious again. "My ever honest Cat. Do ye think I dinna know what yer life has b^en? Angela di LiCosa made it very plain what kind of a man her brother was. If all I wanted was a body in my bed, Cat, I might-though not easily, I'll admit-have substituted another woman for ye." He wound her tawny hair about his hand and pulled her to him. His mouth gently brushed hers, and his warm sapphire-blue eyes smiled down at her. "But then, my dearest love, who would have sworn at me in Gaelic, or helped me to raise our bairns, or talked wi me of Scotland on the long winter nights in the years to come?"

  She caught her lip in her teeth, and her eyelids closed in a futile attempt to hold back the hot tears that poured again down her cheeks.

  "Aye, Cat, I love ye," he said. "Now let us stop this foolishness. In less than two hours the sun will be rising.’Tis best if we're quickly gone from here."

  The guards?" she asked.

  "Conall and I dispatched them."

  "There were six. Did ye kill them all?"

  "Aye."

  "The bodies?"

  "Where they died."

  "No! The vultures will get them, and the birds will be seen by the peasants. Someone is bound to get curious and investigate. The supplies for my week's stay came yesterday. No one will come here for at least a week unless something is amiss. Weigh the bodies with stones and sink them into the sea. Then there will be no carrion for the birds, and therefore no curiosity."

  He shook his head admiringly. "Madame, ye constantly surprise me," he said, and handed her a bundle from the floor. "Yer traveling clothes. Get dressed while I get Conall and attend to the other business. Susan is waiting in the boat. Go down to the landing when yer ready, and dinna be fearful of the young man there.’Tis Esther's great-grandson, Asher. He goes with us partway."

  " 'Tis nae the young men who frighten me, Both-well."

  Standing up, he grinned rakishly at her. "Yer a fetching sight, madame, with yer pretty tits pointing at me like that. Would that we had some time. This bed looks comfortable."

  "Never here," she answered him vehemently. "I've spent too many unhappy hours here! I'd sooner be tumbled under a hedgerow!"

  "Once we are safely away from here, madame, I will see if I can accommodate ye," he chuckled, and ducked a well-aimed pillow. Laughing, he ran from the kiosk.

  Cat sprang from the bed. I am alive again, she thought triumphantly. Once more I have survived!

  And she laughed aloud as she undid the bundle he had given her. She found women's underclothes, but the dark-blue pantaloons, white shirt, vest, sash, boots, and turban of a young man. Dressing quickly, she pinned her hair tightly and covered it with a bandanna before placing the little turban on her head. Pulling on the boots, she stood up and wrapped the sash about her waist. Catching a glimpse of herself in a mirror, she unwrapped the sash, removed her shirt, and bound her full breasts with a linen cloth. Then she dressed again, adding the embroidered vest over her shirt. Another look in the mirror brought a smile to her face. No one looking at the young man would suspect him of being the vizier's beautiful second wife!

  She looked about the room a final time, but there was nothing she wanted to take with her. From her conversations with Esther Kira, Cat knew that whatever she needed for the long journey would be p
rovided by the Kira family. She would take none of the jewelry given her by the vizier. On her right hand she wore the heart-shaped ruby that had been given her by Patrick Leslie, and the turquoise ring Esther Kira had given her to hold potions. On her left hand was the great emerald wedding band Francis had given her. She needed nothing else. She didn't even turn back for a last look as she went through the kiosk door.

  She walked swiftly through the lovely gardens. It gave her a savage pleasure to think that the man who had used her body as he might have used a dumb animal would no longer enjoy his beautiful island. That would be her small revenge on Cicalazade Pasha. He would always associate the island with her, and he would quickly hate his pleasure palace with its hundred memories.

  Suddenly she stumbled over a body in the center of the neat gravel path. It was Osman. She felt no regret. Stepping over it, she continued on her way, carefully descending to the quay where the boat waited.

  Exactly one week later the vizier's caique arrived to take his wife back to the palace. There was no one waiting on the quay, and after several minutes the oar-master climbed the stone steps to the island's top. He found both the gardens and the kiosk empty. He called out for Osman, but his voice died in the clear morning air. It was frighteningly obvious that the island was deserted. Running back down the steps to the caique, the oarmaster shouted, "Back to the palace!"

  The caique made a tight turn and glided back down the Bosporus the way it had come. The oarmaster did not even wait for his boat to dock, but leaped to the landing and ran at top speed to find Hammid.

  Finding him with the lady Lateefa Sultan, the oarmaster flung himself to his knees and cried, "Disaster, Hammid! There is no one living or dead on the Island of a Thousand Flowers. It is deserted. I searched myself."

  Lateefa Sultan watched as Hammid turned ashen. Momentarily her loyalties were torn between the eunuch who had been with her almost her entire life and the beautiful woman who was her cousin. She was genuinely sorry about Hammid's position, but she was relieved that Incili was gone. The immediate problem was Hammid. Cica Pasha was going to hold him responsible for Incili's loss, and his anger would be fierce.

  "I will go to the island myself," said the eunuch. "You must be mistaken. There has to be someone there!"

  "There is no one, I tell you," repeated the oarmaster. "I even called out. The island is deserted."

  "Change the rowers," commanded the eunuch. "I am going."

  Several hours later he returned and sought Lateefa Sultan. "The island is indeed empty. There are no signs of violence. No blood. No bodies. Nothing. It is as if they never existed. What am I to tell the master, my princess? He adores Incili. She was to bear his child. What can.I say to him? He will kill me." This last was said with a sad finality, and Lateefa felt so sorry for the eunuch that she was almost tempted to tell him the truth-almost, but not quite.

  "Tell him the truth, Hammid. You obeyed his orders. You sent Osman and four others to the island as my lord Cica instructed. You sent supplies for seven days, and at the end of that time you sent the caique. There has been no report of trouble. Why should you suspect that anything was amiss? Is it your fault the island was deserted?"

  "I must go back to the island tomorrow," said Hammid grimly. "There has to be something that will tell me what happened! I will find it!"

  "Do what you think is best," answered Lateefa Sultan.

  The following day Hammid returned to the Island of a Thousand Flowers. Knowing he would spend a restless night otherwise, he had gulped a strong sedative so he might sleep and be clearheaded for his task.

  Slowly he ascended to the garden, eyes on the ground, carefully studying the gravel paths. There had been no rain to wash away any evidence such as blood for seven days. The Starlight Kiosk was silent. He opened the doors and stood for a moment observing the room. The huge bed was rumpled and unmade, the faint imprint of her head still on the pillow. He walked closer and saw that her sleeping garment lay where she had thrown it. Nothing else in the room was out of place. Her clothes and jewels were neatly stored in her chest. Nothing was missing.

  There were no signs of force. Eight people were missing, and he had absolutely no idea where they were or how they had gone. But he was going to do his best to find out. It was all well and good for Lateefa to say that he must tell the truth to the vizier, but what truth? My lord vizier, your second wife has mysteriously disappeared and we know not how. Cicalazade Pasha was not going to accept that.

  Outside again in the garden, he gazed out over the Bosporus. The sunlight dappled the blue waters, and then, suddenly, he saw it. Six dark patches were contrasted against the aquamarine of the sea. Hurrying as quickly as his bulk would allow, he returned to the quay and spoke in low tones with the oarmaster. The caique was rowed out a bit into the stream and one of the rowers, stripped of his clothes, dove deep into the Bosporus. He surfaced moments later and was pulled aboard.

  "What is down there?" demanded Hammid.

  The rower shivered. "Bodies, lord. Six bodies, all with their throats cut."

  Hammid nodded. "Return to the palace," he said, sinking wearily to the cushions. Now he knew, or thought he knew, what had happened to Incili. The eunuchs had been taken by surprise and murdered. Incili had been carried off. But, remembering the neatness of the kiosk, he revised his theory.

  Incili had escaped. But who had helped her? She was in a strange land, cloistered from the world, yet she had managed to find aid and escape. As he searched his mind he kept returning to one constant: Esther Kira. The venerable grande dame of the House of Kira was the only person from outside the palace who had known Incili. Yet why would the old woman risk her family to aid a captive?

  He commanded the oarmaster to row him to the Yeni Serai. There he spoke with his friend and mentor the Aga Kislar. The aga agreed that the situation was a delicate one, but he disliked the friendship between his mistress, the Sultan Valide Safiye, and Esther Kira. The old woman was a virtual institution with the valides, having been an intimate to four of them. She seemed indestructible, but if she was involved in this scandal then this was his chance to be rid of her.

  The aga gained the sultan's ear, telling him only what he felt he should know. "Cicalazade Pasha's second wife appears to have been stolen from the vizier's island," the aga said. "We believe that we know some of the people involved, but we need your permission to proceed further. Will you sign this order?"

  Recalling the conversation with his vizier of just two weeks ago, Mohammed III gave the aga his permission, and affixed his tugra seal to the order giving Hammid and the aga carte blanche to pursue their investigations. Soon a troop of janizaries was dispatched to the Kira house in the Jewish ghetto. The two black eunuchs followed them in litters.

  Eli Kira greeted the two men and led them into a salon, where they were served coffee, honey, and almond-paste cakes, and sticky red and green candies. The banker knew there was something wrong when these two men came calling with a troop of the sultan's elite.

  He waited a discreet time, indulging in small talk. Then, looking to the aga, he asked, "Well, my lord aga, why do you come to my home so heavily guarded? Is something amiss? Is there some unrest within the city that I have not heard about?"

  "The wife of Cicalazade Pasha was stolen off his island retreat, Eli Kira. What do you know of it?"

  The banker's face remained impassive. Not a muscle twitched, nor did any expression ruffle his features. There is no way they can know anything, Eli Kira silently reminded himself. His dark eyes now widened in surprise. "Lateefa Sultan stolen?" he exclaimed, hoping his look was incredulous enough.

  A faint smile touched the aga's lips. Hammid's suspicions were correct. The Kiras knew something. "Not Lateefa Sultan," he said patiently, "but the vizier's new second wife, the lady Incili."

  "Why should I know anything of this?" asked the banker haughtily. "I did not even know the lady."

  "Perhaps you do not," conceded the aga, "but I will wager your grandmother doe
s. The lady Incili was a stranger to this land. The only person from the outside she ever had contact with was Esther Kira, and the lady needed outside aid to escape."

  "I thought you said she was stolen," said Eli Kira. "Is it not possible that she bribed the eunuchs to aid her? Why do you assume that because my grandmother casually knew this woman she has masterminded a plot? Where is your proof? You are insulting, my lord aga! I shall personally complain to the sultan about your actions!"

  Slowly the aga drew from the sleeve of his robe a rolled parchment, which he handed to the banker. "If you will but take the time to glance at this, you will find that it is an order from the sultan giving me permission to take whatever action is necessary in this investigation. The sultan does not want his friend and valuable servant, Cicalazade Pasha, to be unhappy. And believe me, Eli Kira, the vizier will be very unhappy when he finds his favorite wife gone."

  Eli Kira looked steadily and directly at the Aga Kislar, and then he turned his gaze on the vizier's grand eunuch. "I know nothing of this affair," he said firmly, "and if you have no tangible proof other than your outrageous suspicions, I must ask you to leave my house."

  "No, Eli Kira. I intend questioning other members of your family. At this very moment, on my orders, my janizaries are entering your women's quarters."

  "How dare you!" shouted the banker, his face going purple with outrage and anger. And he ran from the room towards the other end of the house, followed at a surprisingly swift pace by the two eunuchs.

  They could already hear the shrieks of surprise and terror coming from the Kira harem, and the scene that greeted them was quite satisfying to the aga. He had wanted to instill just this type of fear in the Kira women. Now, as his reptilian gaze swept the room, he knew what tack to take.