Chapter 23: A Wife

"This is my harem," said Bukhari, not quite believing that he was personally giving his captive a conducted tour of the parts of his residence that she would inhabit.

His three concubines were all over him, rejoicing that he was home safely and that they would not, therefore be sold. The captive he had brought from Tirfil was older than any of them and looked to be no great competition for his attentions. Moreover he had promised to marry when the war was finished and each of them had been doing her best to prove to him that she was the best woman he owned.

Sadia, for her part, was depressed to see such young rivals in the harem, and expected that he would soon tire of her and sell her. Naturally he would use them for the first few days he was home, and she wondered if she would ever share his bed again. After she had been dressed in the costume of his harem, a pair of sheer gauze traditional split crotch trousers and little else, he looked her over and nodded. Then he turned and left the women to their gossip. The biggest news was that he had met the Emir himself, may he live for ever and have many sons, and had come back from that meeting a Sergeant, a rank to which he could not have aspired for at least ten more years in the normal course of events.

Later that night, all four were surprised that his choice for his first night home was the new captive. Their thoughts were very similar; three of them consoled themselves and Sadia feared, that he would use her for that night and probably sell her within a few days.

In his room she was beaten with a paddle for his pleasure and he used her three orifices before settling down to sleep. In the morning she woke him by using her mouth on his morning erection and was again fucked, in the cunt, where he left a copious deposit. She was taken in to act as his bath girl and she willingly drank his morning piss as he seemed to be considering using her as a permanent servant.

'He has been fairly good to me, and better the devil you know, ' she thought.

Mid afternoon all four women were in the harem when Bukhari entered with a very old mullah.

"I said I would marry after the war," he announced, "and the mullah is here to perform the ceremony."

He looked from woman to woman and saw with some satisfaction that they were all in considerable doubt as to which of them he had chosen. What he did not understand himself was why he had picked the one he had.

"Sadia, come here to me," he ordered.

She moved quickly to where the two men stood and made a deep obeisance to him. That finally decided him; none of the other three was as graceful and mature as she. He didn't want a flighty young wife; the concubines were fine in his bed for pleasure, but he remembered a line from a film he had once seen. "Respect your wives and love your concubines," it ran.

"This one," he said to the mullah.

The old man mumbled something and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Bukhari asked him.

"It is done. She is your wife," said the old man and left.

"Up, wife," he said to Sadia.

She stood and he kissed her on the lips, something he had never done before.

"You are my wife," he said, "These three are now your responsibility. See that they behave, and please me, or it will be the worse for you."

Then he walked out of the harem, leaving the four women all completely nonplussed by this turn of events.