The Harem Midwife by Roberta Rich Read Free Book Online Page B

had saved both mother and child. Afterwards, there had been nothing but the silent, lonely ride back to the Jewish ghetto.
    The events of that night had turned her life to chaos. When the Conte and his wife died of the plague, Hannah rescued the boy from his uncles, who wanted him dead so that he would never inherit his father’s estate. From this experience, Hannah had learned that one ill-considered act could propel her on a dangerous course from which there was no escape. She was grateful to have Matteo, of course, whom she and Isaac had adopted as their own. But still, her folly haunted her, and a small voice inside her wondered if tonight, yet again, she was taking a path she might later regret.
    The flickering light from the sconces on the wall reflected on Mustafa’s skin, oiled with butter as he peered into the small room.
    “Where is the girl from?” Hannah asked.
    “She comes from some horrid place in the Circassian Mountains. I expect one village is much like the next.” Mustafa gave a wave of his plump, ring-covered hand. “The Valide admires these Circassian girls, but some are as wild as the mountains from which they spring. Although I must admit they can be lovely. And this one is as remarkable in her looks as she is in her—what shall we call it—spiritedness?”
    His voice was wistful. Perhaps Mustafa still desired the pleasure a woman could give to a man. What torture he must endure to be surrounded by the most beautiful girls inthe Ottoman Empire, unable to lay a finger on any of them. She hoped he had a woman he visited from time to time, a woman who knew the secrets of how to pleasure a eunuch.
    “Did her family sell her?”
    Mustafa had once told her that poor sheepherding families—one could only pity them—often had to sell a child to the slavers who passed through their villages. The droughts had been severe for the past year. As the pastures dried up and turned brown, daughters of the peasantry flowed into the city’s slave market.
    When Hannah concluded years ago that she could not conceive, she thought of purchasing a young, healthy girl as a servant and then giving her freedom when she came of age, but Isaac would not hear of it. He had been a slave one terrible year on the island of Malta and believed that everything to do with the buying and selling of human flesh was wicked. It did not matter that Hannah would have nurtured the child and freed her from slavery. For Isaac, this was not enough.
    “This girl was not sold by her parents. She was captured,” said Mustafa. “You know what those marauding Yürüks are like. They would have left nothing behind but the chimney stacks.”
    Stolen from her family, just as Isaac had been stolen from her. It was not difficult to imagine the dreadful things the girl had been subjected to. Isaac had confided to her so many of the harsh privations of his enslavement. Even now, he sometimes awoke in the night in a pool of sweat, the sheets sticking to his body. Isaac wasa grown man and a very strong one. This was a girl, perhaps little more than a child.
    Hannah waited, but Mustafa let his comments hang in the air.
    “How uncharacteristic of you, Mustafa, to reveal so little. They say you know the details of every girl in the harem. The girls joke that you are so well informed that a mouse cannot poke its twitching nose out of a hole without you knowing the number of whiskers it sports.”
    “Do not believe everything you hear. I know very little—especially about this girl.”
    Not even Hannah’s attempts at levity, it seemed, would loosen his tongue.
    “The Valide will present this girl to the Sultan very soon. Many hopes rest on her. First, however, we must know for certain whether she is intact. The Valide requested you specifically to conduct this examination. It is a great honour, as you know.” Ezster had told Hannah that the Valide was keen to find her son, the Sultan, the perfect girl, but dear God, why did Hannah have to be