Chapter 13: Retraining Zeinab

The following morning, Zeinab rose and as she lay soaking voluptuously in her bath, she said to the attendant eunuch, Pass the long brush so I can scrub my back.~

The eunuch neither moved nor replied.

~The long brush. I want to scrub my back, ~ she repeated.

Again there was no reaction.

This both puzzled and annoyed her, so she called out, Ali!~

The Chief Eunuch materialised from nowhere and said, «Oui, qu'est-ce que tu veux?»

Then the penny dropped. She was to be forced into using French or, presumably, English all the time.

Carefully she tried her English, "What can I say?"

"English or French," replied the Chief Eunuch, "But for the use of Kobekistani twice this morning already, you will be punished after your bath. The Master ordered you to use the other languages as much as possible and so it is forbidden to disobey him."

After she had finished her morning bath she was led to a whipping bench and made to lie face down on it. Her ankles and wrists were shackled firmly down and her ornamental waist chain was moved as far up her back as it would go. The harem of Ramzy El-Najjar wore nothing but ornamentation and slippers, so there were no garments, however flimsy, to get in the way of her punishment. She shuddered a little, for although she had often seen others punished, as the honoured grand-daughter of the master she had never been whipped in her life. As she shuddered the Chief Eunuch watched the two perfect globes presented to him shake like little olive coloured jellies. He had long wanted a chance to punish her for something, just because such punishment was forbidden except by specific order of his Master, Ramzy El-Najjar.

SPLAT!

The blow with the paddle was perfectly placed, the Chief Eunuch noted with satisfaction. And area the size of his hand turned from pale olive to much darker hue as the blood rushed into the target area. Zeinab screamed in a way most of the women did only on the odd occasion they were given the bastinado. The young woman had had no idea what pain felt like until this moment. No one had ever been allowed to punish the Master's favourite granddaughter when she first arrived and the rule had never been changed. Now he would take full, but very circumspect advantage of the privilege. It would not do to damage her precious skin, but the Chief Eunuch knew many ways to inflict pain without doing any permanent harm to the body's appearance in the slightest.

SPLAT!

The second blow was also well-aimed and turned a similar patch on the other cheek dark to match the first. The screams were not quite so loud this time as the young woman was not so surprised by it. The Chief Eunuch waited until the buttocks before him were clenching and unclenching with fear before he applied a generous helping of cold cream to both sides at once, directly on the darkened spots. The shock of the sudden application of the salve was quite enough to start another scream and then Zeinab subsided into steady sobbing.

"I'll leave you there to think about things," said the Chief Eunuch, "And we will see later if you need any more paddling, or whether you will remember the languages you are meant to use."

With that he waddled away, sure she would slip again, and often; if she did not he would ensure that she was tricked into doing so. He looked forward to punishing her again, and he knew that if no single punishment was too strong, she would forget herself more easily.

As he left he warned her in French, «The Master has ordered that nobody is to speak Arabic with you in this harem. I will make sure that you are punished much more severely than you can imagine if you disobey him.»