Part 39 (1/2)
”Possibly.”
”I know how to make you keep your promise.” She took his toe in her mouth and brushed it playfully with her tongue before biting it, ever so lightly. ”So I will tell you anything you want to know.”
He scarcely knew where to start.
”What was it about the harem, the _zenana_, that you liked so much?”
She sighed. ”We had everything there. Wine and sweet
_bhang_. And we bribed the eunuchs to bring us opium and nutmeg and tobacco. We could wear tight trousers, which none of the women here in Surat dare for fear the mullahs will condemn them.” As she spoke, her eyes grew distant. ”We wore jewels the way women in Surat wear scarves.
And silks from China the way they wear their dreary cotton here. There was always music, dance, pigeon-flying. And we had all the perfumes-- musk, scented oil, attar of rose--we could want. The Moghul had melons brought by runner from Kabul, pomegranates and pears from Samarkand, apples from Kashmir, pineapples from Goa.” She remembered herself and reached to place a rolled betel leaf in his mouth. ”About the only thing we weren't supposed to have was cuc.u.mbers . . .” She giggled and took a betel leaf for herself. ”I think His Majesty was afraid he might suffer in comparison. But we bribed the eunuchs and got them anyway. And we also pleasured each other.”
Hawksworth studied her, not quite sure whether to believe it all. ”I've heard the harems of the Turks in the Levant are said to be like some sort of prison. Was it like that?”
”Not at all.” She smiled easily. A bit too easily, he thought. ”We used to take trips to the countryside, or even go with His Majesty when he went to Kashmir in the hot summer. In a way we were freer than the poor third wife of some stingy merchant.”
”But weren't you always under guard?”
”Of course. You know the word 'harem' is actually Arabic for 'forbidden sanctuary.' Here we call it by the Persian name _zenana_, but it's still the same. It's really a city of women. All cities must have guards. But we each received a salary and were like government officials, with our own servants. We each had our own apartment, immense and decorated with paintings and bubbling fountains at the door. Except there were no doors, since we were always supposed to be open to receive His Majesty.”
”Wasn't there anything about it you didn't like?” He examined her skeptically. ”It seems to me I could list a few drawbacks.”
”A few things. I didn't like the intrigues. All the women
scheming how to lure His Majesty to their apartment, and giving him aphrodisiacs to try to prolong his time there. The beautiful ones were constantly afraid of being poisoned, or spied on by the older women and the female slaves. And some of the women were always trying to bribe eunuchs to bring in young men disguised as serving-women.” She took the stem of a flower and began to weave it between his toes. ”But there are always intrigues anywhere. It's the price we pay for life.”
”You've never told me how you came to be in the _zenana _in the first place. Were you bought, the way women are in the Levant?”
Kali burst into laughter. ”_Feringhis_ can be such simpletons sometimes. What wonderful legends must be told in this place called Europe.” Then she sobered. ”I was there because my mother was very clever. The _zenana_ is powerful, and she did everything she could to get me there. She knew if His Majesty liked me, there could be a good post for my father. She planned it for years. And when I finally reached fifteen she took me to the annual mina bazaar that Arangbar always holds on the Persian New Year, just like his father Akman did.”
”What's that?”
”It's a mock 'bazaar' held on the grounds of the palace, and only women can go. Anyone who wants to be seen by His Majesty sets up a stall, made of silk and gauze, and pretends to sell handiwork, things like lace and perfume. But no woman can get in who isn't beautiful.”
”Was that where the Moghul first saw you?”
”Of course. Arangbar came to visit all the stalls, riding around on a litter that some Tartar women from the _zenana _carried, surrounded by his eunuchs. He would pretend to bargain for the handiwork, calling the women pretty thieves, but he was really inspecting them, and the daughters they'd brought. I was there with my mother, and I wore a thin silk blouse because my b.r.e.a.s.t.s were lovely.” She paused and looked at him hopefully, brus.h.i.+ng a red-tipped finger across one nipple. ”Don't you think they still are? A little?”
”Everything about you is beautiful.” It was all too true. As
he looked at her, he told himself he much preferred her now to how she must have looked at fifteen.
”Well, I suppose Arangbar must have thought so too, because the next day he sent a broker to pay my mother to let me come to the _zenana_.”
Hawksworth paused, then forced nonchalance into his voice. ”Did s.h.i.+rin, or her mother, do the same?”
”Of course not.” Kali seemed appalled at the absurdity of the idea.
”She's Persian. Her father was already some kind of official. He was far too dignified to allow his women to go to the mina bazaar. The Moghul must have seen her somewhere else. But if he wanted her, her father could not refuse.”
”What eventually happened to you . . . and to her?”
”She became his favorite.” Kali took out her betel leaf and tossed it aside. ”That's always very dangerous. She was in great trouble after the queen came to Agra.”