Chapter 28: Robinson's Present

A few weeks after the unsatisfactory session with Charlotte, it occurred to the Emir that Robinson, the butler, might like to have another English woman in his harem as a concubine, and that Charlotte, the English captive from Tirfil, might fit better into that environment than the Golden Palace harem where she was still clearly in awe of the Princesses and envious of the younger and more beautiful concubines. That would not have mattered to the Emir had she been any good in bed, but she was clearly unhappy sleeping with him. She seemed to think that love was a prerequisite of sex.

Robinson had just finished serving dinner to the Emir and Princess Ayda and was about to take his leave of them when the Emir stopped him and said, "There is a woman in the Golden Palace harem you might care to have as a present from your grateful Master. She's five or six years younger than you, and is English. We captured her in Tirfil where she was the resident mistress of an ex-pat engineer. Now she is a slave here, and I must admit she had a hard time, both in Tirfil and on the way back here, but if you want her, she's yours. Frankly I think she is afraid of my title and has never met anyone from the nobility before."

Robinson realised that any woman captured in Tirfil had probably been raped thoroughly by the army before the Emir acquired her, and he did not really fancy the army's leavings. However he knew that it would be impolite to refuse, and he could always sell her if he didn't like her, or even give her to his deputy, Colin.

"Thank you, Sir," he said.

"Her name is Charlotte somebody. She is healthy, and I have used her myself, so don't worry on that score," explained the Emir.

Naturally nothing was said to Charlotte, and due to a misunderstanding on the butler's part it was three more days before she was moved into the rooms allotted to him. The first she knew of the move was when a eunuch came up to her and told her to take off her silk gown and put on an abaya. Swathed from head to foot she was taken along some corridors and left standing in a well-appointed room which might have been in England, but for the ever-present eunuch standing by the door. Then a man came into the room who was clearly English and who greeted her with a smile and a command to take off the abaya.

"What's happening?" she asked the woman when she had removed the abaya and was standing before him naked.

"The first thing is to get you some clothes," said the butler.

"You're English?" she asked.

"Yes. Now who are you, and how do you come to be in a Kobekistani harem?" he replied.

"I am Charlotte Harrison, well, sort of. My ... husband ... was killed in Tradagha during the war. I was captured and brought here as a slave and was being sold in the square when the Emir rescued me. Who are you?"

"I have the honour of being the Butler to His Magnificence, the Emir Mahmoud Abdullah, may he live for ever," replied Robinson, "I am your new Master."