Chapter 11: Punishment

Outside, the Emir said to the Rifleman, "What am I to do with you?"

Wisely there were no suggestions forthcoming.

"Go to the Adjutant and take your punishment. While you are there tell him that in future all evening passes are to be extended up to thirty minutes before a soldier's next duty. It is the soldier's own problem to be back in time, fit and ready for that duty. This applies at all times unless we are at war."

The General agreed with the Emir that this was not unreasonable in a modern professional army, but privately he expected that the defaulters' line would be longer for some time until the men got used to this freedom, and its concomitant responsibility. The other change to come from the visit to the barracks was in the Golden Palace harem.

As they drove back to the Palace, the Emir said, "I was intrigued in the brothel by the girl who was so rude."

"Master, it was you yourself who decreed she should not be punished," Kamal Qumsiyeh reminded him.

"Oh, yes, I know. It wasn't that. Can you have her brought to the Golden Palace later today, dressed exactly as she was, in that rather dirty gown?"

"As the Master wishes," said the Head of Protocol, looking worried.

"No, no," said the Emir, "I don't want her there for me, or permanently. She will be returned later today to the brothel."

Some two hours later, Pamina was completely bemused to be bundled into an abaya and taken some distance in a closed van, only find herself in the most opulent surroundings she had ever seen. She was much impressed when the Chief Eunuch confirmed that this was indeed the harem of His Magnificence, the Emir Mahmoud Abdullah, may he live for ever, situated in the Golden Palace. Since the Emir had said nothing of what was to be done with her, or why she was there, the Chief Eunuch had her prepared as for the Emir's bed, with special emphasis on bathing, and had her dressed in the usual Royal harem costume of bolero jacket and transparent split trousers.

When the Emir was told that she was in the harem and now fit to be seen, he wandered in to find a very frightened woman with the Chief Eunuch in the Interview Room. Clearly a lot of work had been done to try to make her presentable, and those efforts had not been wholly unsuccessful. She was now clean and her hair shone gold in the afternoon sunlight filtering through the glass roof. Although much skill had been used in applying her make-up, it had not been possible to conceal the fact that she had led a hard life and was now nearly forty years old.

'In the harem dress, cleaned up, ' the Emir thought, 'she looks almost appetising.'

Then he remembered where she had come from and dismissed at once any thought of retaining her, thinking, 'Who knows what diseases she might be carrying?'

"Where are her original clothes?" he asked.

"Master, they have been washed and are drying," replied the Chief Eunuch, silently praying that they had not been destroyed as too filthy to bother with.

"Have them brought here."

After some minutes, during which the Emir walked slowly round the woman and then sat in front of her, he asked "So, Pamina, now do you believe what you were told?"

"Master," she stuttered, falling to a grovelling obeisance, and after that words failed her as she remembered her rudeness to a man who held the power of life and death over the whole nation.

"Forget it," the Emir said, "In your position I would not have believed it either, especially in that company."

When the still damp dressing-gown was brought by a junior eunuch, the Emir said, "Please put it on for a second."

Mystified, Pamina changed into the wet garment and the Emir said to the Chief Eunuch, "That's what I want for our new harem dress, but a bit shorter, knee length perhaps, and in pastel shades of very fine silk material."

"As the Master wishes," said the Chief Eunuch.

"Right, take the wet gown off before you catch cold," said the Emir to the bemused Pamina, "Now you are going back, but you can keep the harem clothes you are in if you want."

Her face lit up in gratitude, then it fell a little as she realised she had to go back to the military brothel.

"You may tell them if you wish, my exact words mind, that the Emir took such pleasure of you as he desired, and that you are forbidden to go into details. That should be worth something?" he offered, seeing her disappointment.

"Master," she breathed, "If I may say that, I will be transferred to the officers' quarters and life will be much better."

"Well you will even have the Golden Palace uniform to prove it," he said, and then added to the Chief Eunuch, "Give her a set of each colour to take with her. After all we won't need them now, will we?"