Mirmah’s kind words revived India’s spirit, and she said, “Go on with your tale, ladies. I am learning much just listening to you. I shall attempt to put into practice very soon much of what you have told me this day. Some of it sounds very wicked.”
“There is nothing wicked in pleasing a man,” Deva said. “Particularly if you receive pleasure in return.”
The women all nodded, and Sarai and Nila took up their story once again. They spoke of kisses and caresses, of how the janisssary had asked them to make love to each other, and been aroused quickly by the sight, taking them each in turn immediately afterward. He had been as tireless as they had been. Baba Hassan had seen to several basins and love cloths, as well as a decanter of a restorative liquid the trio imbibed throughout the night, until finally, an hour before the dawn, they had all fallen asleep.
“He says he will have us when he returns to El Sinut,” Sarai told them with amusement. “I wonder if the dey will be so generous again. He told us he was only giving us to this man in order to placate him temporarily. I do not think he will do it again.”
“Aye,” Nila agreed. “There is a limit to our master’s hospitality.”
India remained within the harem to have supper with the ladies, returning to her own apartments in Azura’s company later in the evening. Meggie hurried to prepare her mistress for bed.
“She is a good servant,” Azura noted as the girl bustled about.
“Baba Hassan chose well,” India agreed.
“You are happy?” the older woman said.
“Very happy,” India assured her. “Ohh, Azura! I love him! I would not have thought such a thing possible. A year ago I was but a spoiled child, but now I am different because of him. Oh, yes! I am happier than I have ever been in my entire lifetime.”
“I am happy to hear you say so, India,” Azura answered the dey’s young wife. “I will be frank with you, but perhaps you have already suspected it. Baba Hassan, and I somehow knew you were the perfect wife for Caynan Reis, and we strove hard to make you see it, too.”
India laughed. “It did occur to me, but only when I realized my love for him, Azura.” She flung herself into the older woman’s embrace. “He is the son you never had, isn’t he?”
“Aye, he is,” Azura admitted.
“Mama has always said that one’s life is planned even before one is born. No wonder I could not find a husband to suit me in England or Scotland. Caynan Reis was here in El Sinut. If I had not been so silly as to run away with Adrian Leigh, I should have never found my only true love, Azura. How strange life is.”
The older woman hugged India, and placed a kiss upon her brow. “Allah who sees all, and knows all, led you to us, my daughter.” Then her tone grew brisk, and she released India from her embrace. “You have had a long day. Let your little servant help you into bed. You carry the heir to El Sinut, and he must be protected. Eh?”
India nodded, smiling contentedly.
The next day passed quietly, but the weather, usually sunny, was overcast, a rarity in October. Storm clouds appeared over the sea in midmorning, and, by late afternoon, had swept into El Sinut with a driving rainstorm and much thunder. The town was virtually deserted, and even the intrepid stall owners in the marketplace had closed down.
“We go tonight,” Tom Southwood told his men.
“In this storm, Captain?” Jeremiah James, the second mate, asked.
“They are not used to having such storms in autumn here, and they will all keep to their houses until the morning when it has passed completely. It is the best time, Mr. James. We’ve sailed in far worse blows than this one. No. It’s indeed a perfect time.”
“What are we going to do with the El Sinut crewmen, Captain?” Francis Bolton, his first mate, inquired. “In all this planning it is the one thing you haven’t told us. If we’re going tonight, we need to know now.”
“I’ve thought long and hard on it, Mr. Bolton,” Thomas Southwood said. “I considered giving them leave because of this storm, but there is always the chance one or more of them might return to the ship, find it gone, and raise the alarm. I considered killing them, but I don’t really want to do that if I can avoid it. Our only option is to capture each of them over the next hour or so, bind and gag them, and throw them in the hole. We will leave them with the lighthouse keepers after we have cleared the harbor. By the time any of them gets loose, or is discovered, we will be well out to sea, and away from El Sinut.”
“And her ladyship?” Knox, the steward, queried.
“You, Mr. James, and I will rescue my cousin and her servant from the palace as soon as it gets dark, Knox. Mr. Bolton, you will have charge of the ship until we get back. If we do not return an hour before dawn, leave, sail the
Royal Charles
home to England, and tell my family what has transpired. At least they will know where lady India is.”
“How will you get into the palace, Captain?” Knox asked his master. “We ain’t going to just walk in, are we?”
Thomas Southwood laughed. “No, Knox. We aren’t going to walk in at all. We’re going to climb a wall. I have converted two of our smaller anchors into grapnels. They will aid us in climbing over the dey’s palace wall. You, however,” the captain told his horrified steward, “will await Mr. James and me on the street side of the wall, and help the ladies when we bring them down.”
His three companions looked askance, and so Thomas Southwood continued with a more detailed explanation.
“For months I have been going in and out of the palace, always looking, always studying it for a weakness. The dey’s living quarters and his harem are located within an inner court. It would appear that none of its walls is located on an outer avenue. I mentioned this to Aruj Agha, noting it was cleverly done, and similar in design to early English castles. He told me in confidence that the structure was similar to the sultan’s palace in Istanbul, but that it did have one small weakness. A far corner in the dey’s own private garden, just about three feet of wall space, faced on its far side into a small alley, off a quiet little residential street.
“When I asked why the alley had not been blocked to protect such a vulnerable area, Aruj Agha told me that the wall was fifteen feet high, and always kept free of vines and any other growth that might aid a trespasser. Besides, he said, no one had ever realized what was behind that high wall, and the alley was so remote from the main square of the town that not even the street beggars knew of it. I have walked this city each time we put into port, seeking that little cul-de-sac. I found it only recently.”
“Are you certain, Captain, that it is the correct wall?” Mr. Bolton, the first mate, asked him.
“Positive,” was the reply. “I went only a few days ago into the hills above the city. When I found a good vista, I sat down and studied the palace. Eventually I found that little susceptible space. I had brought a small glass with me. Then I followed the wall, observing the street niche, letting my eye take note of certain landmarks. When I returned to the town, I went immediately to the alley, and matched what I had marked perfectly. I have the correct location, Mr. Bolton.”
“Is Aruj Agha aware of what he told you?” the careful Mr. Bolton persisted. “Ye’re sure it ain’t no trap yer walking into?”
Thomas Southwood shook his head. “ ’Tis no trap, Francis. Aruj Agha is proud of his status not only as the janissary agha in El Sinut, but as the dey’s confidant. He is a good soldier, he has a good heart, he is loyal to a fault, but he is prone to bragging about his knowledge and his importance. He did not, I assure you, even realize what he had said, for I was careful not to arouse his suspicions by asking too many questions. Besides, both the dey and the agha are hunting up in the mountains beyond the city. They only left yesterday. Another reason this is the best time for us to make good our escape, and the rescue of my cousin, Lady India.”
“Well, Captain,” Mr. Bolton said, “you got it figured out just so, it would appear. God help and protect us all this night. I ain’t so much worried once we get out to sea, especially with those cannons the janissaries have installed on the ship. We’ll be a match for anyone, I’m thinking.”
“Particularly if we flys the dey’s banner here in the Mediterranean,” Mr. James suggested. “Right now, this is a Turkish lake.”
“Captain,” Knox spoke softly. “Perhaps it might be wise to take yer lady cousin to her grandmother’s in Italy rather than expose her to the long voyage home to England. Particularly as there’s always the chance we might have to fight a battle or two along the way.”
“You might be right, Knox,” Thomas Southwood considered. “Aruj Agha will assume we have headed for Gibralter. It will not occur to him that we have gone to Naples. Lady India would be safe with her father’s mother. Safer there than on the high seas with us. I think we will do just that. Good man, Knox!”
“Thank you, Captain,” the steward said, flushing with pride.
“Time we got about the business of sorting the wheat from the chaff, Captain,” Mr. Bolton remarked dryly.
“Aye, ’tis time,” Thomas Southwood agreed.
The word was passed swiftly among the English and few Europeans who made up a portion of the crew. The El Sinut men were taken without incident, bound with strong cords, gagged with silk cloths, their eyes blindfolded with dark cloths. Then they were locked in the hole, chained three feet apart along the walls.
“You will be safe as long as you make no attempt to escape,” Thomas Southwood told them sternly. “Any man foolish enough to try will be killed immediately. I will not be deterred, and neither will my men.” He then left them in the fetid and damp darkness.
On the deck the rain still poured down as the thunder rumbled, interspersed by an occasional flash of lightning that brightened the skies briefly.
“How do we get to your alley, Captain?” Mr. James inquired.
“We’ll take the horses assigned to the ship. They’re in the dockside stable with only a boy watching over them. I told the stableman he might go home and keep his wife company on this wet night. I said I expected she would be afraid, and he might comfort her. Then I winked at him broadly, and he could hardly wait to go. The boy is too young to ask questions, and has been fed drugged sweets. We’ll only take three horses not to arouse any suspicion should someone actually be about in the streets. The women can ride pillion on our return. Let us go now,” he said, picking up his cloak and tossing it about his shoulders. He hurried out the door, followed by Mr. James and the faithful Knox, leaving the first mate behind to watch over the ship.
“Good luck, Captain, and Godspeed,” Mr. Bolton called softly after the trio.
The stable lad was only a visible lump in a pile of yellow straw, recognizable by his snores, a half-emptied basket of fruit and candies by his side, his face covered with the remains of pink Turkish paste. They saddled the three horses quietly, leading them from the stable and closing the door behind themselves. Mounting their animals, they followed Thomas Southwood as he led them in a circuitous route through the silent and empty streets of El Sinut. The rain continued to pour down as they finally gained the little alley, which indeed, as their captain had said, was practically invisible. They would have ridden right by it had not the captain been with them.
Entering the alley, they dismounted their horses, and Knox took the beasts in his charge as Thomas Southwood and Mr. James took the grapnels from their saddle horns. First one and then the other grapnel was flung upward, each one burying itself tightly by its fluked spikes into the top of the whitewashed wall. Without a word, the two men began to climb the wall, and when they had reached the top, they pulled their ropes up behind them, and dropped them on the wall’s far side so they might descend. Almost immediately, they slid away and out of Knox’s sight. The ship’s steward waited nervously in the rain with the three horses, his heart hammering, starting nervously at a clap of thunder, but, remembering himself, calming the horses while praying beneath his breath.
Dropping into the garden, Thomas Southwood looked about him. He could see the palace on the far side of the area, and lights flickering through the carved screens that were enclosed by delicate arches. Reaching out, he wordlessly touched Mr. James’s arm, indicating that his second mate should follow him. Silently the two men slipped along the graveled paths. It was as he had expected. There were no guards in the dey’s private enclosure. He stopped, and listened. There was enough light now being emitted from behind the latticed screens for he and Mr. James to see each other. Thomas Southwood put a cautionary finger to his lips, and listened.
“Good night, my lady Azura,” he heard India say, and a door closed firmly. “Meggie, run and fetch me my supper. I am ravenous.”
“Yes, my lady,” was the reply, and again the door opened and closed.
Motioning with his hand for his mate to remain where he was, Thomas Southwood slid a latticed screen softly aside and stepped into the room. “Good evening, India,” he said softly.
India recognized his voice, and, stifling her cry, whirled about. “Tom Southwood! Are you mad?” she whispered. “If you are found here you will be killed, and I will have no power to save you!” Her beautiful face betrayed her anxiety for him.
“I have come to rescue you, India,” he said. “I promised you I would take you with me when I left El Sinut. I am keeping my promise. We go tonight. I am told your servant is Scotch. We will take her, too.”