The Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan Read Free Book Online Page B

Khan.
    Jagat Gosini had let him go, knowing it would be useless to complain to Jahangir. Hoshiyar was powerful in the harem, true, but she would show them both who was more powerful.
    She clapped her hands lightly. Shaista Khan, never too far from his mistress, immediately came to the door.
    “When does the Emperor go hunting next?”
    “In three days, your Majesty. He is going to take the new Empress with him.”
    Jagat Gosini spoke slowly, enunciating each word, for the eunuch was sure to mistake her command if she did not do so. “Take a request to the Emperor asking if I may be allowed to join the royal hunting party.”
    “At once, your Majesty.”
    Jagat Gosini watched him leave with a small smile. The Emperor was excessively fond of hunting. Jagat Gosini was an excellent shot. In fact, she was the best in the zenana. There was little possibility that Mehrunnisa could have her skill with the musket.
    She had not forgotten Shaista’s other message. So Mirza Mahabat Khan wanted to see her? She would meet him. Now more than ever, she needed Mahabat Khan, but of course, he would never fully know that.
    •  •  •
    It was midafternoon, and Jahangir was taking a nap when the message came to him from Jagat Gosini.
    Shaista Khan was stopped at the entrance to the royal apartments by the guards. They were two hefty women of Kashmiri origin, known to be extremely brave and fiercely loyal to the Emperor. For years, the women of Kashmir had guarded the inner apartments of the Emperors of Mughal India, for no men were allowed into the zenana except for the eunuchs.
    One of them stepped forward, towering over Shaista, and pointed a spear at the eunuch’s chest. “What is your business here?”
    “I come with a message from the Empress Jagat Gosini.”
    The guard looked at her companion and she nodded. She recognized Shaista Khan.
    “The Emperor is asleep and is not to be disturbed,” the guard said. “Come back in two hours.”
    “Surely his Majesty will take a message from his chief Empress?” Shaista asked.
    The guards snickered. “Take the message to the new Empress’s palace. She will answer it.”
    Shaista backed away. “No . . . it is better I relay it to the Emperor personally.”
    One of the guards backed him against a wall and pinned him down with her spear. “Go to Empress Nur Jahan’s apartments if you are fond of your life, you fool,” she hissed in an undertone. “Go!” She pushed him away.
    •  •  •
    A troubled Shaista Khan presented himself at Mehrunnisa’s palace. His mind worked slowly, but methodically. If he disobeyed the guards, the Emperor’s new favorite would wreak vengeance upon him, but if his mistress came to know . . . he shuddered. He had no wish to be caught between the two women, but even he knew who was fast gaining ascendancy in the harem.
    Besides, Shaista was curious. There had been much gossip about Mehrunnisa. She was beautiful, she was cunning and sly, she had a charm no woman could match. How could that be, he thought. She was thirty-four. There were many younger women in the zenana, slim of figure, lithe of feet, with a rippling laughter that even made his toes curl. How could the Emperor love this woman, who had a child by another man? It was incomprehensible to him. But he would find out for himself.
    The Empress was taking her bath when Shaista Khan was announced. The hammam was a room set high in the palace on the top floor, with open verandahs on one end decorated with arches and sandstone screens. A gentle breeze whistled through the chamber, picking up coolness from the Yamuna below. The room was bare with white marble floors polished to a dull shine. In the center was a black slate tub, carved out of one piece of stone.
    When Shaista entered, the room was silent except for a child’s little voice. She was seated at the edge of the tub, fully clad, her ghagara gathered around her knees. Her feet were in the water, and she had a book of poems