Chapter 40: Fall From Favour

Zeinab was the granddaughter to Ramzy El-Najjar, through one of his daughters whom he had given to a French diplomat as a present. When the mother was returned ten years later at the end of the diplomat's posting to Kobekistan, the child was wholly trilingual in Kobekistani, French and English. Six years later, she was still in the harem of her grandfather, mostly because she was quiet and timid, as was her mother. The blunt fact was that Ramzy El-Najjar had forgotten she existed.

When he chanced on her during a visit to his harem, she was obviously too old to marry one of his fellow Kobekistani, so he pondered what to do with her. Then he had a bright idea and had her brought to him. The girl was very apprehensive, expecting an incestuous defloration to be imminent; obedient to tradition she knelt at the foot of his bed waiting for him to lie down so that she could start kissing his feet.

"No, no," her grandfather said when he realised her intentions, "Do you still speak French and English?"

"Master, a little, but I have not practised them for a long time," she replied, relieved that she was not apparently to be used immediately.

"You must learn them. If the eunuchs and the other harem women give you practice, can you learn them again in a week or two?"

Zeinab's head dropped and she whispered, "I can only try, Master. Although I have occasionally used French with the Chief Eunuch, I have had no practice at all."

He thought for a moment, then said, "No. Of course it will take longer than that."

She was dismissed and the next morning discovered that nobody in the harem would speak to her in any language but English or French. When she spoke to one of the eunuchs in Kobekistani she was dragged before the Chief Eunuch and accused of disobeying Ramzy El-Najjar's orders.

In spite of her protestations that she did not deliberately disobey, she was punished. For the first time in her life she was shackled to a whipping frame and a paddle was used on her pleasantly curvaceous arse as it stuck high in the air.

SPLAT!

One olive cheek turned much darker as the blood rushed into the abused area. For Naima it was pure hell. The only time she had ever felt pain like this was when she had inadvertently stepped into a bath that had water in it which was far too hot. The scalding sensation continued apparently unabated until:

SPLAT!

The other cheek darkened to match but the pain was more intense and seemed longer lasting.

Ramzy El-Najjar's Chief Eunuch was really quite a soft-hearted old man and he loved this child who could speak to him in the language of his childhood in the Congo. He let her rise and warned her in French, «The Master has ordained that you speak no Arabic at all in this harem. You will be punished much more than that if you don't obey him.»

Ramzy El-Najjar was a patient man and he waited. Twelve months later, when the girl was fully practised in English and French again, he suggested to the Emir that he would wish to honour his Master with a gift, one which would be more personal than the hunt quarry he usually provided. The Emir graciously agreed to accept such a gift. Zeinab was bundled up in an abaya and taken in a closed van for a journey of some twenty minutes. Then she was rushed along corridors and into a long narrow room with doors at both ends, but no windows. It was lit by a glass roof and Zeinab correctly surmised that it was part of her new Master's harem. There were several eunuchs present and her father; there was also the man she assumed would be her new Master, who was sitting on a small throne on a dais. She went forwards and made deep obeisance.

Her father spoke about her, over her head in Kobekistani, saying to the man on the throne, Your Magnificence, may you live for ever, the worthless virgin granddaughter of your humble Master of Quarry who kneels before you would be honoured if you would deflower her. She would be even more honoured if you were to allow her to remain here in the harem of the Golden Palace.~

Her heart sang, though she gave no sign of her excitement. She was being given to the Emir himself.

His formal reply pleased her immensely, and was in English, "I am pleased to accept this valuable concubine, and will lose no time in enjoying her."

She was helped to her feet by a eunuch and the abaya was removed, leaving the girl standing nervously before the first whole man she had seen, other than her grandfather, since she had last seen her father when she was ten years old. She was dressed in the uniform favoured by Ramzy El-Najjar for members of his harem, which is to say nothing but slippers and multiple jewelled trinkets, and she had many of these. Lighter skinned than most Arabs but with glossy dark brown hair worn long, Zeinab was supple, tall and slim by Kobekistani standards, though her breasts were by no stretch of the imagination boyish and her rump projected pertly enough. A tiny bit of pubic hair had been left on the body, carefully shaped to form a hand pointing downwards to the clitoris and the entrance to the tunnel of love.

~May I see her in my harem dress? I do like that pubic adornment; do all your harem have that?~ asked the Emir.

~She was adorned thus especially for your Magnificence, and of course you may dress her as you wish, Master, replied Ramzy, She will be yours, if you accept her.~

Quickly she was stripped of the jewellery and she was dressed in a short satin dressing-gown, reaching only to the tops of her thighs and without any buttons, except at the throat, or belt to hold it closed. Other than that she was completely naked, not even slippers were provided. She lifted her hands to her head and slowly turned to show off her body to its best advantage. When she faced him again she opened her legs until her feet were about eighteen inches apart and bent backwards until she was in a full gymnast's bridge offering a gaping cunt in the direction of her new master. The lewdness of this pose by Western standards had its inevitable effect on the Emir. He marvelled again at the willingness of these cloistered females to display their most intimate treasures in a totally uninhibited fashion to a man who was, he had no doubt, only the second complete man she had seen since the onset of puberty.

Zeinab was very excited by this moment, the culmination of her thoughts and ambitions which had been carefully nurtured for years. She was to be married, or at least to become an official concubine. This was it! She would be deflowered in a few minutes and then, if this man fell in love with her, she would soon be Head Wife to the Emir! Her ideas of the love between man and woman came mostly from reading French women's magazines before she was ten years old; she had no illusions about sex, however, and did not really connect it with love at all.

~Is she pleasing to my Master?~ asked Ramzy El-Najjar.

The Emir was well aware of the demands of good manners, in that he had to accept her, and would have to deflower her here before the watching grandfather. He also knew that protocol demanded that he must not seem too eager to have her.

~She is pleasant. How has she been trained?~

~She understands perfectly the needs of a Master such as your Magnificence. She understands the horizontal arts, though of course still a virgin in every orifice. She also speaks French and English as well as Kobekistani so that your Magnificence may order her as you see fit.~

"Does she now. Well girl, what should I call you?" he asked, switching to English.

"My Master calls me whatever he wishes. My grandfather calls me Zeinab," was the careful and correct reply.

Addressing Ramzy, the Emir asked, "And is she trained to the whip?"

"Master, I have not used her that way, but I assure you she will be pleased to be whipped if it is the Emir's pleasure."

The Emir nodded to the Chief Eunuch and the girl was quickly bent over the divan with her arse high in the air. A second nod and the whip flew through the air to land with a resounding WHAP on her buttocks.

A single sob betrayed her pain, followed by a respectful, "One Master. Thank you Master," in English.

The Emir was tempted to discover how many strokes it would be before she forgot herself and spoke in Kobekistani, but it would be very impolite to try that now. Tomorrow, perhaps. Moving forwards and waving the eunuch out of the way, he gently opened her labia with one hand and pushed his three-quarters erect penis into her oiled vagina. He was not surprised that he met a firm hymen; in these circumstances anything else would have been a gross insult to him from Ramzy El-Najjar. Some fathers had been known to have their daughters half sewn up in order to make them bleed more in these circumstances.

The girl behaved very well, in that she pushed back on to his invading member and he burst through. She was unable to suppress a yelp of pain as he entered her and pumped hard for three or four strokes to ensure her complete opening. Then as politeness demanded, he withdrew and showed his bloodstained weapon to her grandfather, wiping it clean on the harem trousers the girl was now wearing.

Her reverie of courtly love between the handsome Emir and the beautiful young concubine had been rudely interrupted when something hard and warm was pressed into her vagina. Whatever it was, it was too large and she felt herself tear as an agonising pain spread throughout her innards. She thought she would die, then the thing was gone and the pain dulled a little. Something was seeping down her thigh and a quick check confirmed that it was blood. This was the defloration that the harem women raved about? This was sex which they schemed and fought over? They could keep it.

"Prepare her for me for tonight," the Emir ordered.

Everyone in the room, except the girl, knew he didn't mean it; it was just as much a part of the formalities as the whip stroke and the defloration. Since the formalities were now over, the girl was led away into the harem where she would spend the rest of her life, and her new and former owners went off to the throne room to enjoy some coffee, and perhaps an illicit glass of brandy.

In the harem the arrival of a new member was the cause of high excitement. Zeinab was surrounded by the younger girls all asking different questions about where she had come from, and had she been deflowered, and had it hurt, and who was she, and was it the Emir himself, and did the whip hurt, and why had she screamed.

"Silence," a female voice of authority rang out across the room.

The Princess Maryam came forward and said, "I am the Princess Maryam, the Wife of the Emir and Mother of the Crown Prince."

Zeinab could hear every one of the capital letters in that pronouncement.

"You will obey me and you will give obeisance when I enter the room," was Princess Maryam's next order.