Scandal's Daughter Read Free Page B

relatives in England to provide you with funds to the value of half your goods. I will give you a letter of credit, and also notify them by other means so that losing the letter would not be a great disaster to you. Otherwise, I advise you to entrust the funds to the English Ambassador here in Istanbul, to be sent to England with the next returning diplomat on a vessel of the English navy.”
    Cordelia clasped her hands beneath her chin, closed her eyes, and thought hard. No doubt a Royal Navy ship was safer than most means of travel. No doubt the British Ambassador was an honest man. But he had been extremely rude when Lady Courtenay went to report their arrival in Istanbul. He might agree to take charge of her money yet not trouble to keep her departure secret. She didn’t want to ask him, to have to explain Mehmed Pasha’s plans for her future.
    Aaron had not required an explanation. She had already decided to entrust the jewelry to him, and she would have to trust him to give her fair value, so she might as well trust him for the rest.
    “Please,” she said, “I leave it all in your hands.”
    “You honour me, Meess.” Rising, he bowed to her before fetching his writing materials from the shelf. “The first thing is to make two lists, one for me and one for you.”
    “I can’t read Arabic writing,” Cordelia confessed.
    “In this country, few females can read at all. I do not know the English words, so I shall write the Turkish words in English characters as best I can.”
    He beckoned Ibrahim over to the chest in the corner, and turned a heavy key in the iron lock. One by one, as he listed them, the pieces were transferred from the basket to the chest: Count Szambrowczyk’s topazes, the Margrave’s diamonds, the Conte’s pearls and opals, the Pasha’s amethysts, one lover’s rubies and another’s emeralds. Each disappearance into the depths of the plain wooden box seemed to Cordelia to loosen the chains of her mother’s past from about her heart.
    At last the basket was empty. Ibrahim stolidly folded the cloths and stowed them away.
    Giving Cordelia one list, Aaron said, “How soon must you leave, Meess? It will take me several days, perhaps a week or more, to find the diamonds you need. Then you must sew, and it’s no use to seek a ship before you are ready.”
    “Forty days,” Cordelia whispered. “Forty days from yesterday.”
    It had sounded like plenty of time when Mehmed Pasha announced his intentions. Now it seemed all too short.
    * * * *
    One more day. At dawn the day after tomorrow, the Greek ship Aaron had found would leave its berth in the Golden Horn and set sail across the Sea of Marmara towards freedom.
    From the street below came the night-watchman’s raucous cry. Cordelia lay tossing and turning in the dark. Tomorrow night she and Ibrahim would sneak out of the house and down to the quay where Captain Vasiliadis expected them.
    Everything was ready. Aisha, wide-eyed, had helped her sew the diamonds into a long strip of linen. Amina, at last let into the secret, had already packed the clothes Cordelia was taking into a bundle Ibrahim could carry. The rest she would leave for the two maids, along with enough money for dowries—Aaron had promised to take them into his house until he could find them either husbands or positions in comfortable households.
    One more day. She’d never be able to sleep tonight, she was sure. Yet as the watchman’s cry faded into the distance, she began to drowse off...
    Then suddenly she was wide awake again. Someone was in her room. By the pale moonlight which now filtered through the carved screen, she saw a dark figure crossing the carpet towards her with slow, stealthy steps.
    Starting to sit up, she took a breath to shout for help. The figure pounced. A hard hand clapped across her mouth.
    “Hush, don’t scream,” hissed an English voice.
     

Chapter 3
     
    Flat on her back, petrified, Cordelia stared up into a veiled face. The eyes above the