Emissary by Fiona McIntosh Read Free Book Online Page A

health more than she did now.
    Ana bowed low and gracefully. ‘You wished to see me, Valide?’
    ‘I did, child. Come, walk with me in the courtyard. This mild weather is too delicious to waste,’ Herezah replied, noting with surprise how different Ana appeared since she had last paid her any close scrutiny. Herezah detested the girl so much she had deliberately ignored her, had in fact had so little to do with the girls these most recent moons that she had allowed Ana—and no doubtsome of the older odalisques—to suddenly blossom into womanhood without noticing. That was a mistake and most unlike her but then no-one understood how the death of Lazar had personally affected her. For all her outward goading of him, her public rebukes and the hardships she could force upon him, this was the one man over her lonely lifetime who had made her otherwise cold heart burn.
    She had never loved Zar Joreb but she had admired and enjoyed him. Without his favour she shuddered to imagine what would have become of her, and Boaz would have suffered the hideous death his brothers had. In truth, love was something she had never experienced, so whether she loved Lazar she could not say. But did her lust overflow for him? Yes! She had never wanted any other man with that kind of intense passion but he had ignored her advances, denied her even simple pleasures—a kind word, a smile. Since Ana had arrived in their lives, his polite shunning of Herezah had crystallised into hatred, she was sure of this. He despised her for denying him access to Ana. Still, Herezah’s heart could jump at the mention of his name after all this time, could also ache when she allowed herself space and time to think about his loss. And so, very unwisely, amidst her most private sorrow and her desire to improve her relationship with her son, she had permitted the harem, her seat of power, to essentially functionwithout her closest supervision. Here she was paying the price for that error as she watched Ana approach. It was never too late, though; striking woman or not, Ana was still just an odalisque and far beneath the Valide’s status.
    ‘And how are you, my dear?’ Herezah asked, not at all interested but keen to appear as friendly as possible.
    ‘I am well, Valide, thank you,’ Ana answered as she followed Herezah into the small, private garden.
    ‘Come and stand in the light, Ana, so that I may look at you,’ Herezah suggested. She watched the girl glide towards the column of sunlight that cut through the cypress pines and warmed the stone flagstones beneath her sandals. She felt instant envy at the way the girl’s hair blazed brightly beneath the golden rays, glinting as she tossed that free-flowing hair without knowing what effect it could have on the onlooker, particularly a male one. ‘You have changed, Ana.’
    ‘How so, Valide?’ Ana asked politely.
    Herezah considered. ‘You are taller, you have an eye for costume, I see, and fuller of figure too—which is a good thing, for you were on the narrow side.’
    ‘I try not to eat too many of the sweet dishes that the kitchens tempt us with, Valide,’ Ana replied but not defensively.
    ‘I don’t think you have to worry too much, my dear. At your age I could eat a camel for a snackand not put on so much as a sheld. It’s after childbirth that you have to observe new eating habits. You wouldn’t have been acquainted with the old Zar’s harem,’ she said.
    ‘It was disbanded just prior to my arrival.’
    ‘Well, you’d have seen a queue of fat women waddling out of the palace, I assure you,’ Herezah said, more viciously than intended.
    Ana betrayed no recognition of the insult on her expression, which remained somewhat frustratingly serene under Herezah’s gaze. ‘I was once told that roundness of body meant prosperity, Valide.’
    Herezah blinked in irritation. The girl was far too forward in presenting her own thoughts. ‘That may well be, Ana,’ she said, instantly regretting her