Lady Of Fire Read Free

the cover of her robe, she clenched her hands. “I have family in England. Take my daughter with you when you return.”
    “That is all you ask of me?”
    She gave a sharp laugh. “’Twill be no easy thing. Not only will my husband not allow Alessandra to leave, but she will not go willingly.”
    “For what would you send her away if she wishes to remain?”
    Pained by what she must reveal, Sabine took some moments to compose her words. “Soon, my daughter is to wed one of the Islamic faith, and when I am gone—and it will not be long now—there will be none to protect her.”
    “Then her safety concerns you.”
    “Aye, but neither do I wish her to have the life I have lived. Were she suited to it, it would not bother me so, but she is not.”
    “The life of a—”
    “Life in a harem,” she interrupted before he could call her that filthy name again.
    A corner of Lucien’s mouth lifted. “How do you propose I return her to England if she will not come willingly?”
    “You will enter the harem,” she said as if it were the simplest thing in the world. It was not. “There you will gain her trust, and if I still cannot convince her to leave, you will force her. All will be arranged to see you safely from this land.”
    Lucien’s gaze moved past Sabine to Khalid. “Even I know,” he said dryly, “unless a man is no longer a man, he is not allowed in that place of women.”
    She glanced at her old friend, acutely aware of the battle waged in the silence between the two men. Obviously, Lucien de Gautier would not soon forget his humiliation at Khalid’s hands. Nor would Khalid overlook the insult just paid him.
    “’Tis so,” she said. “Only members of the household and eunuchs are allowed inside the harem. Thus, you must become a eunuch to enter.”
    Lucien bared his teeth. “If you are suggesting I become like him”—he indicated Khalid with a thrust of his chin—“I decline your generous offer. When I return home, it will be as a man.”
    “In pretense only must you become a eunuch. None but Khalid and I will know.”
    After a long moment, he said, “I am to trust him?”
    “He is loyal to me. No word of our secret will pass his lips.”
    “And if I refuse?”
    “Then you are of no use to me. And a true eunuch you will become.”
    He surprised her with laughter. “You think I do not know castration is forbidden here?”
    What he said was true. The emasculating procedure was only allowed outside the Muslim nations in spite of the demand for eunuchs within it. “Laws can be broken,” Sabine said. “As I do not accept my husband’s faith, it would not weigh heavily upon my conscience to break that particular law.”
    Khalid stepped forward. “I will do it myself,” he said in English. When Lucien turned his wrathful stare upon the eunuch, Khalid raised his palms heavenward. “Surely Allah will forgive so minor a transgression against a heathen.”
    A muscle in Lucien’s jaw spasmed, but he did not unfurl his anger.
    “Do not allow your pride to cloud your judgment,” Sabine said. “I have given you hope where you had none.”
    “Then it seems I must accept your proposal.”
    So relieved was she that she sank back into the pillows. “You shall remain in the city with Khalid for a sennight. He will instruct you in the ways of a eunuch, and you will answer to him in all things. Afterward, he will bring you to the home of my husband, Abd al-Jabbar, and you will enter the harem.”
    She turned to Khalid. “No doubt he has been long without a woman,” she spoke in her adopted language. “Make certain that when you bring him into the women’s quarters, his desires are sufficiently quenched that he will not be tempted to touch what he must not.”
    “It will be done, mistress.”
    She returned her attention to Lucien. “I have instructed Khalid —”
    “I heard.”
    Then he had learned their language. Though it would make it less difficult for him in her husband’s home, it