Chapter 19: Gift

The new young concubine, a gift from the chief of a wandering Bedouin clan, was dragged into the harem at the Golden Palace kicking and struggling. As the all enveloping abaya was removed she butted the nearest eunuch in the face, causing blood to pour from his nose. Immediately she was overpowered, shackled over a whipping bench and the Chief Eunuch spoke to her.

After three tries he discovered she understood some English and said to her, "You will have to be whipped for attacking my assistant. If you carry on misbehaving, I will carry on whipping you, but I am certain we neither of us want that. No matter how you have been treated anywhere else, you are now in the harem of His Magnificence, the Emir Mahmoud Abdullah, may he live for ever, and here you will be treated well. In return you are expected to behave well."

As soon as the gag was removed she let out an ear-piercing screech, and continued to do so for some minutes. Giving up on his attempt to reason with her the Chief Eunuch drew back his arm and thrashed her with his whip, three strokes in quick succession as hard as he knew how.

THWACK!!

THWACK!!

THWACK!!

At the end of this the screeching had been replaced by agonised screams and sobs. As the Chief Eunuch approached her to try reasoning with her again, he incautiously allowed his hand to stray near her head and she tried to bite it. Clearly this one was going to be a problem; well, tranquillising her would be a start and so she was injected in the buttock with a suitable drug prepared by the resident medical staff of the Golden Palace. Even under the tranquilliser she tried to fight. True, her movements were sluggish but the spirit was clearly intent on resisting anything and everything. Finally it was decided to let one of the other women talk to her, and Fatima formerly Laura, the American, was selected, partly because she spoke fluent English, and partly because she too looked European.

Rubina, who had been renamed Nabiha, was left naked on the floor of the harem, bound hand and foot, and gagged. This pinioned body was the sight that greeted Fatima as she arrived to try to discover what ailed this woman. She was a beautiful young woman of Italian or Spanish extraction, Fatima thought; glorious shiny black hair framed a pale face in which there were sparkling green eyes which flashed hatred at the whole world. She had an ample figure with nice wide child-bearing hips, full breasts, and arse cheeks which would bounce and jiggle as she walked. For the first time, she thought, Fatima saw a slave in the Arab region with her plump mons veneris neatly thatched with the same lustrous black hair as grew on her head. Also this was a very desirable woman by any standard of beauty, provided the beholder liked his women with some flesh on her bones.

Addressing her from a safe distance, Fatima asked, "If I take off your gag will you promise not to bite or scream?"

A violent shake of the head told Fatima that she had an uphill fight even to talk to this one. She decided to try explaining a few things.

"Very well, stay as you are, but you will hear what I have to say. You are, I imagine, Italian or Spanish and you have been kidnapped, raped a lot, beaten a lot, and sold into slavery. Well, you are relatively safe here. The Emir is not going to have you beaten for fun and he is the only man allowed to touch you, and that won't be often. You will be well fed and live in comfortable surroundings."

Noticing that the girl was eyeing the eunuchs with obvious fear, Fatima had them withdraw out of sight, though well within earshot in case of trouble.

"There, they have gone now and will only return if I call them. If you persist in fighting then, under a policy of total non-co-operation, you will eventually be beaten into submission, or failing that whipped to death. Do you understand me?" she asked.

A mixture of nods and head shakes clearly meant that she understood some of it.

"The question is, which bits did she understand?" Fatima muttered to herself.

Mime was next. Fatima mimed taking the gag off and then put her finger on her lips. The girl nodded. The gag was removed. The girl just lay still.

"Are you Spanish?" asked Fatima.