“The mare is fine and awaits us just up ahead. You will, of course, want to ride her back to the city.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Do you feel better now?’ ” he asked.
“The shock is over,” she answered thoughtfully, “but I shall never stop wanting to return to England.”
“What is there for you now, my Rose?” he asked again.
“I have my memories,” she said quietly. “Would you take them from me?”
“Look at me,” he commanded fiercely, and, startled, she obeyed him, her emerald eyes gazing up into his face. “I will make you new memories, my Rose,” he said. “I cannot take your old memories from you, nor would I want to, but I can make you new memories, and I intend to, my beautiful English Rose.”
Velvet felt her pulse leap. He could not have made his intentions any clearer. “I cannot be your concubine,” she said. “I simply cannot.”
“I have not suggested such a thing,” he returned. “Though I know that is why the Portuguese governor sent you to me. For some reason he wished to debase you, and, given your background, gifting me with you as a concubine would do just that, I understood that once I learned your history. In my un-Christian and evil barbarian lust I was supposed to fall on you not even suspecting his motives. I have learned a great deal about the Portuguese. They, fortunately, have not learned a great deal about me, possibly because they have not even bothered to try. They have two interests here in India: to convert as many of my people to their religion as they can, and to remove my country’s riches to their land. For both I am expected to be grateful.” He chuckled. “I only wish I might be a fly on the wall when Don Cesar Affonso Marinha-Grande receives my message informing that I was so delighted with his gift that I immediately did him honor by marrying her. He is quite apt to have an apoplectic fit.”
“You have not married me,” Velvet said.
“But I have,” came Akbar’s startling answer.
“What?”her voice squeaked. “How could you have married me when I knew nothing about it?”
“I was born to the faith of Islam, my Rose, and although I long ago realized that no one faith is the only true faith, I do marry my wives, and you are the fortieth, in either Islam’s faith or that of the Hindus. I felt that since Islam is closest to Christianity you would prefer it. In the Muslim faith it is neither necessary to have the bride’s consent nor to have the bride at the wedding. Only the consent of a woman’s guardian is needed, and in this case it is me. We were wed this morning.”
She was stunned, and, remembering the comedy of her four weddings to Alex, she almost laughed. She had refused to acknowledge that they were married until they had been wed in a church; and now here she was once again being told that she was a married woman. But this time she knew there would be no Catholic ceremony. “If you have wed other women in their own faith, why can you not wed me, if you must wed me, inmyown faith, my lord? There are Jesuits here, I have been told.” God’s bones, I am so calm, she thought.
“This is India, my Rose, and I am considered a Moslem ruler.
I have already outraged half my subjects by marrying my Rajput wives in their Hindu faith. If I wed a woman in a Christian ceremony I could easily start a civil war. I have fought hard to unite this land, and not even you are worth its dissolution. Besides, such a Christian union would be considered my only legal marriage by your Christian Jesuits, and I would have trouble from that quarter as well.”
Why did I even suggest it, she thought. His answer was the only one he could give in such a situation. Was she losing her wits in all this heat?
They had reached the place where her own mount waited, and with strong arms he lifted her from his mount back into her own saddle. Taking up her reins, she rode by his side again. “I will need time,” she said, “to adjust myself to this situation. It is all a great deal to face.” What an understatement! She almost laughed at herself again. What was the matter with her? Why was she so calm? Then it came to her that her intelligence had already accepted what her emotions had not.
“You may have time,” he said. “I am not some animal who will ravish you. I have a zenana filled with willing women. I have no need to resort to force. I want you, but I will wait.”
“It is all so strange to me,” she said. “I never imagined a life like this existed. And I was not wed to my husband very long.”
“How long?” he asked.
“Two and a half months,” she said softly. “There was so little time. He was my parents’ choice, and until we met I knew no man.”
“We have much time,” Akbar said. “It is foretold that I shall live a long life, even as it was foretold that I should have only three living sons. I believe you are here to bring me happiness in my last years, as Jodh Bai brought me happiness in my youth. In turn I shall endeavor to make you happy, my Rose. No woman will be as cherished or as loved as you shall be, O youngest and fairest of my wives.”
“My lord, you barely know me,” she ventured.
“What man ever really knows a woman, my Rose? I know that you are intelligent, beautiful, and brave. Each is a fine attribute, but for one woman to possess all three is a miracle, and you are truly a miracle coming into my life when I thought there was nothing left for me but the long road into infinity.”
They were once again passing through the city gates and back into Fatehpur-Sikri. Velvet was touched and amazed by the words that the Grand Mughal had spoken to her. A tiny flame of hope was kindled deep within her heart, and she realized that perhaps life was not so unbearable after all. After all, she was her mother’s daughter, and the desire for survival burned strongly within her. She had come through the several weeks’ trek from Bombay to the interior, and without knowledge of the language she had successfully bargained for Pansy’s life. Her fate had been to attract the loving attention of a great ruler. If she must remain in this fierce and hot land, then there were worse fates than the one she was living.
I am young, Velvet thought, and it is true, I am beautiful. I want to live! This man offers me life. He offers me love. Has my mother not always told me that when one door closes another opens?
“You are so kind, my lord, but I do not know you. I will learn about you, though, and I will learn how to please you.” She turned her head and smiled tentatively at him.
“You please me now, my Rose. Do not change, for it is your very uniqueness from other women that intrigues and fascinates me. Be yourself, nothing more. Once the wheel of love has been set in motion, there is no absolute rule.” He reached out and took one of her hands, turning it over to place a kiss upon the palm.
“Iwillmake you happy,” he promised, and in that moment Velvet knew that he would.
