Chapter 21: Selima's Wedding

The women of the harem were all excited at the prospect of Selima's wedding and Maryam was no exception. Naturally, they would not actually be present at the wedding, Selima would be the only woman present, and she not for long, but the Emir had arranged that they could all watch the festivities on closed-circuit television. Selima's mother and sisters had travelled specially into the Golden Palace to see their sister have an unprecedented state wedding.

When the Emir finally left the festivities, the Chief Eunuch said to Selima, "Come along. I expect the Master will want you now. He has that right, even though you are not a virgin."

Dutifully, Selima rose and went with him, and Maryam, watching the closed circuit television, felt a twinge of jealousy. She would dearly have loved to go to his bed again, and for two reasons. She wanted to consolidate her position as number three, and she had enjoyed the young Emir's sexual attentions in a way she had not thought possible before. All her previous bedroom encounters had been chores; with him it had been a pleasure. He had even made her come several times, not accidentally in the course of his own enjoyment, but actually setting out to arouse her with his hands and encouraging her to come.

Then a thought struck her, 'Selima was number two, but in the morning she will go to her husband's harem and I will be number two! And the number one is the Master's mother and she doesn't count in bed. I shall be number one in bed.'

To everyone's consternation Selima returned a few minutes later in floods of tears. Apparently the Emir had refused to let her into his bed. This was unheard of on a wedding night and she must have offended him mightily. The Chief Eunuch was completely at a loss to explain this, but wisely decided that her punishment would be the responsibility of her husband and his Head Eunuch, not a matter for the Emir's harem staff.

Remembering the old Emir's penchant for older women, he suggested that it might be that the Emir expected Ghada Baroud to send his first wife, Marseeneh, as a mark of respect, so she was quickly prepared for the royal bed and whisked off to the Emir's bedroom. Again it was only minutes until she returned and said that the Master did not want her, and that he had also rejected her suggestion that he might want a boy's arse and that Selima's brother would be happy to oblige.

Then Maryam's heart sang as Marseeneh said, "He has asked for someone call Maryam to be sent to him."

Quickly she was oiled front and rear and her face make-up was repaired. There was thought to be no time for the customary feeling up to stimulate her clitoris and, with a little trepidation, Maryam slipped into the Emir's bedroom and took a deep breath as she moved to the foot of the bed.