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“Call me Bahir,” he said, and led her to the table, where he indicated she should sit on a fat cushion next to his equally fat mother. Instead she moved to a cushion on the other side of the table.
He slid down beside her.
Subtly, pretending to adjust her cushion beneath her, she placed a small cushion between the two of them.
“Bahir,” she started again, “you must understand that I cannot marry you.”
“Why not?”
“For one thing, we don’t know each other.”
He flashed her a lecherous smile and said, “We can get to know each other after the wedding. This I promise you, my dear. Despite commitments to my other wives and concubines, I will devote three full weeks to you alone.” He smiled then as if he’d gifted her a great boon.
Some gift! “In my country, a woman’s consent must be given.” That wasn’t entirely true, but he did not need to know that.
“This is your country now, Princess Drifa.” By his tone, she could tell that her protests were annoying him.
Good!
“I know this is all strange to you now, but you will become accustomed to our ways. Women here yield to the greater wisdom of their men.”
“Are you serious?”
“Watch yourself, Princess Drifa. You may be my betrothed, but that does not give you leave to cross the line of what is proper.”
“Is it proper to force me into marriage?”
“Enough on that subject!” he proclaimed in an icy voice. “The wedding will take place in three days’ time, with or without your consent. In the meantime, you will be taken to my harem to prepare yourself.”
Prepare myself? How? Do not ask, Drifa. You do not want to know. “You have a harem here in the desert?”
“Of course.”
What? He cannot suppress his base urges for even a short time, she thought snidely. “So, does your whole entourage move with you wherever you go?”
“Entourage?”
“Harem. I understand you have five wives, but—”
“How do you know I have five wives?” he asked sharply.
She wasn’t about to get Hakeem in any more trouble. “Someone mentioned it at the palace. The eparch Mylonas, I think, when he insinuated that I might have Arab kin.” And that you had been watching me.
“Mylonas! What a pig!”
More like a rat, but pig works as well. “In any case, aside from your wives, how many concubines do you have? I believe that is what you call the harem occupants. Or is it houris? No matter.”
“I have six concubines here. Twelve in my Baghdad harem. Four in my mountain harem. We could go to Baghdad for the wedding, where my father would be able to attend ... he is not well, but, no, that would take too long and I am anxious to taste your charms.” Once again the oily smile.
“My father will arrive with an army to rescue me. Do you want to risk a battle with two hundred Norsemen?”
“By the time your father arrives, you will be big with my child.”
“You are so sure of yourself?”
“Indeed! I have thirty-one children already, twenty of them sons. Sixteen of them legitimate children! You have nothing to fear when it comes to my virility.” He winked at her as if he’d imparted some deliciously lascivious comment.
“My father will not force me to stay, even if I am breeding or already have borne a child.”
