Виктория Холт - The Captive

“Oh, Nicole, I can’t believe this. For so long I have hoped and tried to think of possibilities. And now … you and the Chief Eunuch are planning to do this for me. I’m not dreaming, am I?”

“As far as I know you are wide awake.”

“The Chief Eunuch is risking such a lot for me.”

“No,” she said softly.

“For me.”

“Nicole, what can I say to you? That you should do this for me …”

“I like to pay my debts. This has to work … or I shall not have done so.”

“You owe me nothing. Anything I did …”

“I know what you mean. But you have done so much for me and it is my joy to give you what you most want.”

“Your escape could have been arranged.”

“There are times in life when it is too late and that time for me is now. It is too late for … us … but not for you. Now… be prepared. Betray nothing. If it is going to work, the utmost caution is necessary.

“I know. I just want to think of what I have to do. You have surprised me. Just now I feel bemused.”

“Think about it,” she said.

“You will have to go very carefully. It is very important that this should work.”

I could not sleep. I could not eat. I went over and over the plan in my mind. To be free once more! Not to have this terrible fear hanging over me . it was a relief too great to be realized at first. To be mistress of my own destiny once more, an individual who made her own decisions, no longer a minion depending on the whim of a master who could command my presence and submission at any time he thought fit.

I thought of Simon. How was he faring? When I was free I must let it be known what had happened to him. He must be rescued. People could not be sold into slavery. That had been abolished. There should be no slaves in the civilized world. Oh . but I had forgotten. Simon did not want to be found. He was in hiding. He might be working as a slave in the Pasha’s garden, but at least he was not on trial for a crime he had not committed.

And what of Lucas? What had happened to him?

But I must not think beyond escape. I must remember that this was for what I had longed and prayed and that it was now about to happen.

Miraculously, I had acquired powerful friends and they were in a position to help me and would do so.

It would be hazardous, I knew, but I must not allow my mind to be sidetracked. I must hold myself in complete readiness for when the moment came.

A few days passed. Then Nicole said to me: “Tomorrow is the day.

Fatima is now in a room alone, waiting to be taken away. She will be angry and very frightened. She will be sent home in disgrace. She will lose Feisal. Rani says she is lucky. She might have been punished by death. If Samir had died . if I had died . then it would have been murder. You saved her from that. She has been in the harem for several years. It is a terrible disgrace. She would kill herself if she could, I know. But enough of her. The Chief Eunuch will come as if to take her but he will take you instead. “

“But she will be left here.”

“Naturally. He cannot take you both. But the trick will not be detected until you are well away. It is the Chief Eunuch’s job to find the women and Rani’s to look after them and prepare them for him. What the Pasha does not know he cannot miss.”

“But what of Rani? She has taken such pains.”

“Oh, she will be angry, but she knows she must not make trouble with the Chief Eunuch. It may be that Fatima will stay after all. On the other hand they might decide to send her away. So, who knows? You may be doing her another good turn. I do not know how it will work out, but that is not your affair. There will be a lot of chatter … much gossip … but these women are too interested in themselves to think long of others.

It will pass. “

“And if Fatima stays after all, what of you and Samir?”

“Even Fatima learns lessons sometimes. If she stays, she will be meek, never fear.

She has come too near to disaster to court it again. “

“I hope she stays. I hope for Feisal’s sake.”

“You forget she would have murdered my son … me too, if she had had the chance.”

“I know. But she did it for love of her son.”

“And for herself. She so much wants to be First Lady.”

“You will be that, Nicole.”

“I intend to be. My Samir will one day be Pasha of that I am determined. But the important thing now is to make our plan work. It will, of course. The Chief Eunuch will see to that.”

“Oh, Nicole, I wish you could come with me.” She shook her head.

“I would not. if I could. My life is now here. Years ago, before Samir came, it would have been different. I have felt all you feel now .

but fate was too much for me. There was nothing I could do and now

this is my life. Samir is to be the Pasha. That is what I want now more than anything. That is what I pray for. “

“And I pray that you will succeed.”

She nodded fiercely.

“I intend to,” she said.

“You may think I have impossible ambitions. But it did happen once .. some time ago.

There was a girl like myself. Her name was Aimee Dubucq de Rivery. She came from Martinique, as I did, and was on her way home from her school in France. She was shipwrecked and sold into a Sultan’s harem.

I read of her long ago and it has often seemed to me that I am reliving her story. I knew how she felt . how desperate at first until she became reconciled, how she sublimated everything to her son’s future. She succeeded and he became Sultan. You see, her fate is so like mine. She succeeded and so will I. “

“You will, Nicole,” I said.

“I know you will.”

The day had come.

Ever since her injury, Nicole had had a small room to herself, apart from the dormitory. The clothes I was to wear had been smuggled into this room on those occasions when the Chief Eunuch had come to see how she was progressing.

I dressed in them and then I looked like any other woman who might be encountered in the streets. I was a little tall, it was true, but I suppose some could be found who were my height.

The Chief Eunuch arrived. He saw that I was ready. He said: “We must be careful. Follow me.” I went with him out of the room, taking one last farewell of Nicole. No one was about. He had given orders that everyone must stay in the dormitory and there must be no prying. No one was to see the departure of the disgraced member of the community.

It was simpler than I had dared hope. We went towards

the gates together. I lowered my head, as though in humiliated sorrow.

A guard unlocked the gates and we passed through, the Chief Eunuch ahead, I a pace or two behind. The carriage was waiting. The Chief Eunuch pushed me in and hurriedly got in beside me. The driver immediately whipped up the horse and we drove away.

We came to the road and drove on for some minutes. Then the carriage pulled up.

I wondered what was happening. Surely I was not going to be put out here, so close to the Pasha’s domain? I was too bewildered at this stage to think clearly, but I was filled with apprehension at the notion.

The Chief Eunuch got out of the carriage and at the same time the driver leaped down from his seat. The Chief Eunuch immediately took his place and the driver got into the carriage beside me.

I thought I was dreaming.

“Simon!” I whispered.

He just put his arms round me and we clung together.

In those moments I felt I had awakened from a long nightmare. Not only was I free of all the fears which had beset me since my capture, but Simon was here.

I heard myself say: “You … too!”

“Oh, Rosetta,” he whispered.

“There is so much to be thankful for.”

“When … ? How …?” I began.