Chapter 3: The Golden Palace

When Sister Annamaria woke she was totally disoriented. She could remember little of what had happened, and nothing of how she came to be in what was obviously a hospital room.

A nurse appeared at the bedside and asked, “How are you feeling now?” in English.

As she sat up, she realised that she felt quite well and realised that her first thought, that she had been hit by a car, was wrong.

Using the same language, albeit with an accent, she asked, “I feel fine, but what happened? Where am I? Why am I here?”

“You sound well enough,” said the nurse, ignoring her questions, “You can dress if you wish.”

“Where am I, exactly?” she insisted.

“In the hospital wing of the harem in the Golden Palace.”

“What Golden Palace? I don’t know a Golden Palace? Harem?” she exclaimed.

“Calm down, get dressed and we can talk in a moment,” the nurse was all professionalism.

“Tell me now, exactly where I am!”

“Exactly? You are in room 273, in the Golden Palace, in Kobek city, the capital of Kobekistan. You will now dress and go downstairs where someone will explain everything.”

“But, but, but...” the nun spluttered to the disappearing back of the nurse.

She found her clothes in the small wardrobe beside the bed, neatly laundered and ironed. A few moments after she finished dressing she was on her knees praying for guidance when a large man wearing only voluminous trousers came into the room.

“Please come with me,” he said.

“Where to, and does nobody speak Italian?” she replied, not getting up.

“To see the His Magnificence the Emir, may he live for ever, and I don’t think so,” replied the eunuch, who was under strict, if incomprehensible, orders from the Emir himself not to antagonise or chastise this woman.

Sister Annamaria rose and followed him, thinking that perhaps now she would get some answers. She was led to a large, airy room which was quite empty, except for two gilded chairs near the door, and in the middle a low dais. As she looked around her, disgusted by the mosaics on the walls, all of which seemed to depict sexual acts or physical violence, the eunuch who had accompanied her suddenly threw himself face down on the floor. A man she judged to be in his thirties, with a vaguely Arab cast of countenance walked in.

“Please sit down, Sister,” he said as he took the seat opposite her.

When they were seated she leant forward and started to ask, “Where am I and what... ?” but he interrupted her by raising one hand.

“Please let me explain,” he started, “Questions afterwards.”

She subsided back into her chair and waited.

“First, I must apologise for what happened to you. It was a mistake for which I am truly sorry. What happened was that I said I needed a female teacher of science, and that was interpreted as a wish to buy one in the slave market. My Chief Eunuch ordered one from a slave dealer, he asked one of his agents to procure one, so you were kidnapped and brought here. It never occurred to my staff to advertise in the educational press, nor to me that I would have to specify that they were to do that. That was three days ago, and the first I knew of what had happened was when they said you were here.”