“Are you as eager for a bath as I am?” asked Jodh Bai. “Those birdbaths we were permitted along the way were only frustrating. I wonder if I shall ever get the dust out of my hair and off my skin. I am certain it has bored right into my face!”
“Must I be the last to the baths as well?” asked Velvet with a mournful face.
“Not if we hurry while the others are busy greeting their friends and relations,” said Rugaiya Begum with a mischievous twinkle in her dark eyes. “Each wants to be the first to spread the news of Akbar’s bride and new favorite. Look! Already you are being cast envious looks.” She took the others’ hands and hurried them into the palace. “Come! We will be steaming and soaking before they can decide which one of them is clever enough to take Akbar from you.”
“Oh, Rugaiya! I should die if my lord deserted me now,” wailed Velvet nervously. This was something she had not thought of, and suddenly she realized it could happen. She cast a backward glance at the clustering women behind her. “I have not half the beauty those women have,” she said, worried.
“Little silly!” said the practical Rugaiya Begum. “He loves you! Do you not believe it? I do, and I have been with him longer than any of the others. There will be times he will turn to the others to assuage his manly lusts and desire for variety, but that is only natural in a man. Not yet though. You occupy his thoughts constantly, Candra. Remember you were the only woman he called to him each night along our line of march, except for the nights you were unclean.”
“There are few he really cares for although he is kind to them all,” put in Jodh Bai, understanding Velvet’s need to be reassured. European women, Velvet had told them, did not share their men. The Christians permitted their men only one wife, something Jodh Bai personally thought appalling. How could one woman be all things to a man? It was barbaric and impossible, not to mention very unfair to the poor wife who must be at her lord’s beck and call at all times. Once sweet Candra saw the advantages in being one of many wives she would appreciate it greatly. Jodh Bai smiled to herself, her smile broadening as they reached the baths. “Ah, at last,” she said as a cloud of perfumed steam hit her.
The three women were divested of their dusty clothing by clucking, fussing bath attendants and were halfway through their ablutions by the time the other travelers arrived. The latecomers eyed the three sourly.
“Hah!” teased Rugaiya Begum. “How did you manage to pull yourselves away from the other gossips?”
“Someone had to explain who the ugly foreigner was,” replied Almira. “After all, a woman with skin like sour milk and hair the color of cattle dung is unusual.”
Velvet flushed, understanding enough of Almira’s words to comprehend the insult, but before either of her two friends could defend her, she said slowly in Persian, “In my country … we know how to … make … strangers welcome … even if they do not look … like us. You are very … rude, Almira.” Then she turned her back upon the woman and continued her bathing.
Almira gaped in surprise at this rebuke, her face growing mottled as the women with her tittered behind their hands, and both Jodh Bai and Rugaiya Begum grinned openly, pleased with the success of their new friend and protégée. Then they, too, returned to their washing.
“Well done, Candra,” whispered Jodh Bai. “She is over-proud despite the fact that Akbar grew tired of her long ago!”
“Aye, his passion cooled quickly with her.” Rugaiya Begum chuckled. “She was fortunate that she was with child and bore Akbar his second son, else he would have never looked at her again.”
“His passion could cool just as quickly with me,” Velvet remarked.
“His passion for Almira cooled because she was greedy and carping, Candra. You are not at all like her. Akbar will never grow tired of you,” said Rugaiya Begum.
Clean and refreshed, the three women left the baths and returned to the zenana where both Rugaiya Begum and Jodh Bai had spacious apartments, but before they could reach them Adali hurried up and bowed.
“My princess,” he said to Velvet, “You are to come with me. Our gracious lord had caused your own palace to be prepared as he promised you. If you will but follow me.”
“Come with me!” Velvet begged her friends, and they nodded their agreement, looking meaningfully at each other, frankly very curious to see the home Akbar had ordered readied for Candra.
“Your own palace,” said Rugaiya Begum. “You are most honored. In Fatehpur-Sikri we had our own palaces, but no one has had their own home here in Lahore. Large apartments in the zenana have been the best we could hope for here.”
“You will be very envied,” murmured Jodh Bai.
“I don’t care as long as you two remain my friends,” said Velvet. “The others are nothing to me.”
“Even in paradise one must have friends,” counseled Rugaiya Begum wisely.
“Perhaps this is not paradise,” teased Velvet, and the two other women laughed.
“Candra, you are really unpredictable,” said Jodh Bai. “One moment you are all sweetness, the next you are spice!”
“The better to keep my lord fascinated, dear friend,” came Velvet’s saucy reply, and once more the two older women were forced to laugh at their young companion.
The three women followed the eunuch through the women’s quarters, down a narrow flight of stairs to a short corridor, and out into the vast palace gardens. Hurrying behind Adali, they moved deep into the gardens along paths of chipped white marble lined with tall, graceful orchid trees. The warm air was filled with the richly fragrant scent of the light purple flowers, which had deeper purple centers streaked with cream and carmine. In the flower beds bordering the orchid trees were tall stands of white and rosy-red Crown Imperials, their large pendant flowers arranged in rings at the top of each plant’s stem and topped by tufts of green leaves. The path led past a beautiful turquoise blue tiled fountain that had pale green marble basins set in tiers, with crystal water dripping from the top basin down into the second and finally into the pool itself where bright orange goldfish swam, darting between the shafts of sunlight that dappled the waters of the pool.
Following Adali a little farther, they came upon a small palace of creamy marble, a perfect little dome centered on the roof, set like a perfect jewel amid the greenery of the garden.
“What a beautiful building!” exclaimed Jodh Bai. “I did not know such a building existed here in the palace grounds.”
“It was originally built for a favorite of Babur,” replied Rugaiya Begum. “Akbar and I played here as children. It has not been used for many, many years.”
“I was not aware Akbar lived here as a child,” replied Jodh Bai.
