Chapter 34: Pregnant

After the debacle of her failure to gain her freedom by two minutes, something snapped in Rubina's mind and she finally gave in to the pressure and accepted her slavery. However, like so many slaves with strong wills, when she had finally been broken she was more or less useless. She walked around like a zombie for some weeks, doing anything she was told, but doing literally nothing if she had no orders. Someone had to tell her to eat or she would have starved to death. It was only after some eight weeks that she was given some news which roused her from her depression. The Chief Eunuch had more or less given her up as useless and was content to let her starve herself to death if she so desired, but then he had some news which reawakened his interest in her. She was pregnant, and carrying a girl child.

Calling her over to him in the harem he said to her, "Nabiha, you are carrying a child. All this nonsense must now stop, since the infant is the property of the Emir and you must not neglect it. You will eat a proper diet and take suitable exercise."

This seemed to rouse her from her torpor and she burst into tears.

"Why so sad?" asked the Chief Eunuch in a kindly tone, "You will have the child until she is grown to womanhood and the Emir decides to whom she is to be given. She may even stay here in the harem and be honoured by the Master himself."

A renewed flood of tears greeted this helpful advice and the Chief Eunuch handed her over to Princess Zubeydeh to comfort her and to find out what was wrong.

Later Zubeydeh told him, "She is distraught because the child cannot be her husband's. In her society it is the ultimate stigma to have a bastard child. Do we know who the father is?"

"No," he replied, "I understand from the Master of Quarry that conception must have occurred when she was 'killed' after her second hunt. Nobody can remember precisely who, or even how many of the hunters used her in that way. The Emir says we must nurture her as he wishes to see if her good looks breed true. If they do, he will probably have her deliberately mated again. I imagine it will have to be done artificially, as she seems unlikely to co-operate."