Chapter 4: The Golden Palace

The sumptuous Triple Palace, its façade covered in ruby, emerald and gold inlays, impressed Tamsin tremendously. Although it was already dark, the whole building was floodlit.

"Am I to stay there?" she asked, her voice muffled through the abaya which he had insisted on her wearing throughout the journey.

"In the Golden Palace, the central part," replied Kamal Qumsiyeh.

When they drew up at a small side entrance, Tamsin was handed over to a fat negro with an odd voice and hurried along a corridor tiled with mosaics in geometric designs and into a long narrow room with doors at both ends and no windows. It was lit by a glass roof which was frosted to prevent the sun from being too strong. There was a small dais with a throne, and several other chairs round the walls. In the centre of the floor was another dais which was about three feet square and had no chair on it. The walls were decorated with mildly pornographic mosaics depicting couples in various forms of sexual congress, some more possible than others. It reminded Tamsin of the time at school when an illustrated copy of the Kama Sutra had been passed around surreptitiously.

The fat man said, "You may remove the abaya now and stand on the empty dais."

As she did so a youngish pale-skinned Arab entered the room and Tamsin watched in amazement as the fat man fell to the floor and pressed his head to the floor.

~Up, said the young man in Arabic and the fat man struggled to his feet.

Turning to Tamsin he said, in perfect English, "You do not make obeisance when your Master enters a room?"

"I don't kow-tow to anyone," she replied pugnaciously.

"Yes, I see. Kamal Qumsiyeh said you were not trained to our Kobekistani ways. That will be remedied. Why do you think you are here?"

"My father is the Emir's new Captain of the Imperial Voyager and he said I was to come here to live and be educated, instead of going to a boarding school."

"I happen to be the Emir and this is my home. You are now a member of my harem and you will do exactly what I want. The Admiral has given you to me as a present on his appointment."

"He can't have. Nobody can give people away like that."

A frisson of mixed excitement and fear went through her. She was speaking to an Emir, in person; on the other hand, he seemed to think he owned her.

"Not in England, of course, but they can here, and he has. Now you are simply my newest concubine. Do you understand that word, at least?"

"It means a woman who lives and sleeps with a man without being his wife."

"Yes. You have been given to me for my sexual amusement. Tonight you will share my bed."

Tamsin felt a thrill in the depths of her belly at the thought of at last having real sex, with a man. She had played with some of the boys at school, but apart from some mutual groping, nothing had gone remotely that far. Some of the other girls claimed to have gone much further, usually with older brothers. For some time now she had been plagued by thoughts of sex at the most inappropriate moments. Somehow her own hands did not fully satisfy her at night, and she constantly found herself visualising what all sorts of unsuitable men would look like naked.

"What if I don't want to?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Then you will be whipped until you do."

Tamsin considered the threat. She had never been spanked, even as a small child and she did not really believe that he was serious. The next statement from the Emir was an entirely unmistakable order.

"Undress. I wish to see what I have been given."

Slowly and feeling a mixture of shyness and expectation, she unbuttoned her school white blouse, revealing a sensible cotton brassière a little too large for her and padded with handkerchiefs. The plaid skirt was next, and her sandals, leaving her standing in her brassière and a pair of small white cotton knickers.

'At least it isn't cold in here, ' was the inconsequential though which crossed her mind.

The Emir looked her up and down in a way that made her shiver in timid anticipation. She could not imagine what it would be like to have a man, this man, push his stalk into her, but the idea excited her tremendously. When she made no move to remove any more clothing, he frowned at her. Taking the hint she unclipped her brassière and dropped it, mortified that one of the padding handkerchiefs fell out. Then, finally she slipped her knickers down and off her feet. Her arms went across her body in a vain attempt to hide her nipples and cunt from his gaze.