This Heart of Mine (62 page)

The Mughal’s great caravan was now strung out along the main road into Lahore. The single drummer thrummed his monotonous cadence as they moved steadily toward the city. Forced to the side of the road by Akbar’s passage were great commercial caravans of heavily ladened camels, smaller caravans that were donkey-borne, peasants, merchants, and nobles astride fine mounts, their women in carefully curtained palanquins. Past them all rode the Grand Mughal and his household, moving majestically through Lahore’s main gate and into the city, where the caravan wended its way through narrow streets, past great mosques and minarets, past the Mughal fort, to the northwest corner of the city where the palace was located.

Here the section of the caravan carrying the women and their servants was brought directly through the main courtyard of the palace and into the women’s portion of the building. The camels knelt so that the occupants of the palanquins could disembark. The elephants, however, were brought one by one to a high mounting block where each howdah’s occupant was assisted out. As Akbar’s newest wife, Velvet was the last to leave her elephant.

“I should be glad,” she said, laughing to Jodh Bai and Rugaiya Begum as she joined them, “that our lord did not bring all his wives else I would have been here the entire night!”

“Youth and beauty are not always first and foremost.” Rugaiya Begum chuckled. “It is a good lesson for you to learn, Candra.”

“Are you as eager for a bath as I am?” asked Jodh Bai. “Those birdbaths we were permitted along the way were only frustrating. I wonder if I shall ever get the dust out of my hair and off my skin. I am certain it has bored right into my face!”

“Must I be the last to the baths as well?” asked Velvet with a mournful face.

“Not if we hurry while the others are busy greeting their friends and relations,” said Rugaiya Begum with a mischievous twinkle in her dark eyes. “Each wants to be the first to spread the news of Akbar’s bride and new favorite. Look! Already you are being cast envious looks.” She took the others’ hands and hurried them into the palace. “Come! We will be steaming and soaking before they can decide which one of them is clever enough to take Akbar from you.”

“Oh, Rugaiya! I should die if my lord deserted me now,” wailed Velvet nervously. This was something she had not thought of, and suddenly she realized it could happen. She cast a backward glance at the clustering women behind her. “I have not half the beauty those women have,” she said, worried.

“Little silly!” said the practical Rugaiya Begum. “He loves you! Do you not believe it? I do, and I have been with him longer than any of the others. There will be times he will turn to the others to assuage his manly lusts and desire for variety, but that is only natural in a man. Not yet though. You occupy his thoughts constantly, Candra. Remember you were the only woman he called to him each night along our line of march, except for the nights you were unclean.”

“There are few he really cares for although he is kind to them all,” put in Jodh Bai, understanding Velvet’s need to be reassured. European women, Velvet had told them, did not share their men. The Christians permitted their men only one wife, something Jodh Bai personally thought appalling. How could one woman be all things to a man? It was barbaric and impossible, not to mention very unfair to the poor wife who must be at her lord’s beck and call at all times. Once sweet Candra saw the advantages in being one of many wives she would appreciate it greatly. Jodh Bai smiled to herself, her smile broadening as they reached the baths. “Ah, at last,” she said as a cloud of perfumed steam hit her.

The three women were divested of their dusty clothing by clucking, fussing bath attendants and were halfway through their ablutions by the time the other travelers arrived. The latecomers eyed the three sourly.

“Hah!” teased Rugaiya Begum. “How did you manage to pull yourselves away from the other gossips?”

“Someone had to explain who the ugly foreigner was,” replied Almira. “After all, a woman with skin like sour milk and hair the color of cattle dung is unusual.”

Velvet flushed, understanding enough of Almira’s words to comprehend the insult, but before either of her two friends could defend her, she said slowly in Persian, “In my country … we know how to … make … strangers welcome … even if they do not look … like us. You are very … rude, Almira.” Then she turned her back upon the woman and continued her bathing.

Almira gaped in surprise at this rebuke, her face growing mottled as the women with her tittered behind their hands, and both Jodh Bai and Rugaiya Begum grinned openly,
pleased with the success of their new friend and protégée. Then they, too, returned to their washing.

“Well done, Candra,” whispered Jodh Bai. “She is over-proud despite the fact that Akbar grew tired of her long ago!”

“Aye, his passion cooled quickly with her.” Rugaiya Begum chuckled. “She was fortunate that she was with child and bore Akbar his second son, else he would have never looked at her again.”

“His passion could cool just as quickly with me,” Velvet remarked.

“His passion for Almira cooled because she was greedy and carping, Candra. You are not at all like her. Akbar will never grow tired of you,” said Rugaiya Begum.

Clean and refreshed, the three women left the baths and returned to the zenana where both Rugaiya Begum and Jodh Bai had spacious apartments, but before they could reach them Adali hurried up and bowed.

“My princess,” he said to Velvet, “You are to come with me. Our gracious lord had caused your own palace to be prepared as he promised you. If you will but follow me.”

“Come with me!” Velvet begged her friends, and they nodded their agreement, looking meaningfully at each other, frankly very curious to see the home Akbar had ordered readied for Candra.

“Your own palace,” said Rugaiya Begum. “You are most honored. In Fatehpur-Sikri we had our own palaces, but no one has had their own home here in Lahore. Large apartments in the zenana have been the best we could hope for here.”

“You will be very envied,” murmured Jodh Bai.

“I don’t care as long as you two remain my friends,” said Velvet. “The others are nothing to me.”

“Even in paradise one must have friends,” counseled Rugaiya Begum wisely.

“Perhaps this is not paradise,” teased Velvet, and the two other women laughed.

“Candra, you are really unpredictable,” said Jodh Bai. “One moment you are all sweetness, the next you are spice!”

“The better to keep my lord fascinated, dear friend,” came Velvet’s saucy reply, and once more the two older women were forced to laugh at their young companion.

The three women followed the eunuch through the women’s quarters, down a narrow flight of stairs to a short corridor, and out into the vast palace gardens. Hurrying behind Adali, they moved deep into the gardens along paths of chipped white marble lined with tall, graceful orchid trees. The warm air was
filled with the richly fragrant scent of the light purple flowers, which had deeper purple centers streaked with cream and carmine. In the flower beds bordering the orchid trees were tall stands of white and rosy-red Crown Imperials, their large pendant flowers arranged in rings at the top of each plant’s stem and topped by tufts of green leaves. The path led past a beautiful turquoise blue tiled fountain that had pale green marble basins set in tiers, with crystal water dripping from the top basin down into the second and finally into the pool itself where bright orange goldfish swam, darting between the shafts of sunlight that dappled the waters of the pool.

Following Adali a little farther, they came upon a small palace of creamy marble, a perfect little dome centered on the roof, set like a perfect jewel amid the greenery of the garden.

“What a beautiful building!” exclaimed Jodh Bai. “I did not know such a building existed here in the palace grounds.”

“It was originally built for a favorite of Babur,” replied Rugaiya Begum. “Akbar and I played here as children. It has not been used for many, many years.”

“I was not aware Akbar lived here as a child,” replied Jodh Bai.

“He didn’t, but I did,” said Rugaiya. “He came once to visit me as we were betrothed. We spent most of our time here. I thought he had forgotten it even existed.”

“Come along, ladies! Come along!” fussed Adali, turning back to hurry them with gestures.

Velvet said nothing, but followed behind her two friends. She was touched that Akbar had kept his promise to her. She had really dreaded living in the zenana with all the other women. She would never get used to the lack of privacy, but her own little home would certainly help. Both Rugaiya and Jodh Bai had said that living in a spacious apartment as they did she wouldn’t even know that the other wives existed, but nonetheless she had been very uncomfortable with the idea. How caring of Akbar to have sensed her feelings. He really was the most marvelous of men.

They entered the little palace through an arched doorway that led into a two-storied reception room that ran the length of the building. Above them rose the dome, light coming in through thin sheets of latticed jasper set in at its bottom. A golden chandelier hung down into the area to light it in the evening. About the long room were decorative tubs of cardamom with their long leaves and sprays of yellow-green flowers that had blue and white lips. There were also tubs of sweet-scented
ginger lillies, the long-tubed flowers of cream, white, and yellow perfuming the air.

Velvet was enchanted, but Rugaiya and Jodh Bai clapped their hands and exclaimed with delight.

“How exquisite!” Akbar’s eldest wife said. “Trust Akbar with his artist’s eye to fashion a perfect setting for a perfect jewel.”

“Oh, look!” Jodh Bai pointed with a graceful finger to the long reflecting pool that ran along the entry hall to the far arches that led into the gardens at the rear of the palace. At the corners of each side of the pool were silver cages filled with colorful birds that shrieked and called now that they had been noticed.

“I will be happy here,” said Velvet softly. “It is so green and cool.”

“Come, come!” called Adali. “Come and see the rest of this wonderful house, my princess!” Bustling with importance, he led them about the main floor of the small palace, which had two wings: the right one housing the kitchens and the baths; the left one a dining room and a salon that looked out into the rear gardens with their beds of flowers and several fountains and pools. Returning to the entry hall, they climbed one of the graceful little marble staircases that led to the upper floor. An open corridor with delicately carved wooden railings that overlooked the main hall ran the length of each wing and connected the two wings to each other. On the left side of the building was a large bedchamber for Velvet, and a smaller room for Pansy lay next to it. On the right side of the palace was a big room with only one piece of furniture in it at the present time. It was a bejeweled cradle, and it had been placed in the exact center of the floor.

Rugaiya Begum chuckled richly as Velvet’s cheeks turned a deep rose. “There is no mistaking our lord’s wishes for the use of this room. May God grant you are able to fulfill Akbar’s desire in this matter.”

“I would like a child,” Velvet said. “I never had one with my first husband. I should like a strong son.”

“There will be no more sons for Akbar,” said Jodh Bai quietly, and Velvet looked at her, surprised.

“My son would not be a threat to yours, Jodh Bai. Your son is already grown, and has children of his own.”

“There will be no more sons for Akbar, Candra, because it has been foretold that he would have only three living sons, and so it has been all these years. The first two, twin boys, lived less than a year. Then came my Salim, Murad two years
later, and finally Daniyal two years after that. There have been no further sons for Akbar in almost twenty years, Candra. If you are fortunate to bear Akbar a child, it will be a daughter, but I myself should have far rather had a daughter. Sons only grow up to break a mother’s heart.”

Rugaiya Begum put a comforting arm about her friend. “Salim is a good boy, Jodh Bai. Truly he is. He only chafes against his father’s will because he is an intelligent man who desires to show his own mettle.”

“He places me between his father and himself,” Jodh Bai said sadly. “There are still those who say his father was wrong to marry a Rajput.”

“They are fools!” snapped Rugaiya Begum. “I am a Moslem, and you a Hindu. Candra is a Christian. These are doctrines created by men, which, although good in intent, have divided God’s peoples all over the earth, and there is nothing good or holy about that. I have learned from our lord husband, and he is right. He could not have united this vast land had he not put old prejudices aside.”

“You flatter me, my dear wife,” Akbar said, sweeping into the room. He stopped to kiss both Rugaiya Begum and Jodh Bai on their cheeks, and then his eyes found Velvet. “You are pleased, Candra?”

“You are so kind, my lord,” she said softly.

“I want you to be happy, my English Rose.” His look told her that he also wanted to be alone with her.

“I cannot help but be happy as long as I am in your favor, my lord,” she replied, her cheeks once more pink for his glance was burning.

Rugaiya Begum almost laughed aloud. Akbar’s desire was so wonderfully obvious. For the first time in his life she saw vulnerability in the man, and it pleased her. He was a great ruler, she knew, but like all great men he needed to be a bit more human. “We must go,” she announced. “I am exhausted from our travels and Adali brought us directly here from the baths.”

“Yes,” agreed Jodh Bai, envying her young friend just the tiniest bit.

“You will come tomorrow, won’t you?” Velvet asked. “I would like to share my good fortune with you both.”

“We will come tomorrow,” replied Jodh Bai, “and I shall bring you a wonderful cook for your kitchens as a gift.”

“I hadn’t thought of that!” Velvet cried. “Oh, my lord, how shall I feed you tonight?”

“Can he not live on love alone?” teased Rugaiya Begum, and they were all brought to laughter by her wryness.

“No!” said Akbar, settling the matter.
“He
must have his supper, and at the appropriate moment it will arrive from the main palace by Candra’s own servants. For now, however, I would like to see the house and the gardens. I sent orders ahead as to what should be done, but this is the first chance I have had to come and see myself. Since I am here we should begin with this room.”