Chapter 5: Discovery

Elinor spent quite some time surfing the Internet for details of Kobekistan and found it difficult to get much information. There was no Tourist Information Office. There were, apparently, no Government web sites. She did find some old press references from when the Emir came to the throne which confirmed the Ambassador's story of an Oxford post-graduate mathematician who woke up one morning to discover that he had, by a set of strange coincidences, inherited the throne of Kobekistan. None of the travel firms seemed to arrange holidays there.

There was an interesting article written by an American journalist called Genni Tiggs containing a slashing indictment of the treatment of women in Kobekistan. Elinor discounted much of this as feminist propaganda and that idea was confirmed when she realised that at the time it was written the woman had never visited the country, but was writing on hearsay at best. Even more interesting was the news item she found which said that Ms. Tiggs had then apparently disappeared after visiting Kobekistan. There was some proof that she had left Kobekistan to go home, but she had never returned to America.

On the architectural web sites she found a number of references to the Triple Palace with its façade set with rubies, gold, and emeralds. She learned that the Ruby Palace was the official home of the Crown Prince, the Golden Palace housed the Emir himself, and the Emerald Palace was traditionally given as a sign of favour to one or another of the Emir's children.

The country lived, and lived well, on oil exports, almost all of which were "heavy crude" which apparently was dug out of the ground rather than being pumped as a liquid. There was a population of three million in the country of whom about one million were described as Kobekistani citizens, one million as women, and the remaining million as eunuchs and indentured servants. This seemed an odd way of dividing the population, and after some thought she decided, correctly, that the citizens were all male and the third category were all effectively slaves.

On an anti-slavery site she discovered the details of indentured servant status in the Middle East and her mouth watered at the thought of having her very own slaves to whom she could do literally anything she liked. Female slaves whom she could degrade and abuse to her heart's content, just like that night after her mother's funeral. Louise had never spoken to her since, though Kevin kept on 'phoning and asking for another date. The thought of Kevin led her into another fantasy where a well-hung male slave, vasectomised of course, had to pleasure her whenever she wanted.

The other interesting fact she discovered was that Kobekistan was an absolute monarchy in the most literal sense of the words. Her father, the Emir, ruled the country by his will alone. Whatever he said was law; there was no parliament and they held no elections. Bad Emirs were assassinated, but good ones were loved by their people. Her father, it appeared, was in the latter category, since he had ruled for over twenty years with no serious attempts on his life. She wondered why her mother had not married him, and determined to go to Kobekistan and ask him.

Then she remembered the locked drawer, so the next day she arranged for a locksmith to come and open it. When he arrived he opened the drawer in a matter of seconds. It contained her mother's old diaries and some letters. After dismissing the locksmith she settled down to read her latest discoveries. The diaries were mostly from her mother's younger days and the letters included the souvenirs she had kept from her visit to Kobekistan, and a series of letters she had had from the Emir's mother after her visit, in which the older woman did try to persuade her to marry the Emir. There was also a press cutting of the marriage of the Earl of Bargoed to a Mrs. Amelia Ransome, who was also reported to be the Emir's mother.

From a careful reading of the letters from the Emir's mother she decided that Pauline had never told her of the pregnancy, so the Countess would not be aware of the existence of her granddaughter.