“I am told you badly need the baths, my lady. I will escort you now if you are ready,” the eunuch said. “I have already alerted the bath slaves.”
They followed him from Azura’s new quarters to the baths, but when Nadim followed them into the antechamber of the baths, Agata bridled.
“You cannot come in here!” she scolded him, struggling the find the proper words in this new language.
“It is my duty,” he said slowly so she would understand. “I am a eunuch, and have no lust for the female body.”
Azura quickly spoke in their own native Florentine cant. “I know it is very different for us, but he is correct. And the bath women do what needs to be done, Agata. Nadim will just help me to undress and fetch fresh garments. You need have no shame.”
“Well, mistress, if he doesn’t mind, I’ll just wait until he leaves to disrobe,” Agata said nervously.
“My servingwoman is not yet comfortable with eunuchs in the bath,” Azura told Nadim as she allowed him to help her undress.
He nodded, understanding. “It is different for women who come from the West,” he said. “Will you object if I burn these garments? I do not believe they can be washed clean after so many weeks of wear. What else have you?”
“There were two changes of clothing for both of us aboard our ship,” Azura told him. “These garments were the better of the two, I fear.”
“I will see you have fresh clothing when you have bathed. And I will see that you are given a complete new wardrobe as quickly as it can be sewn, my lady. I do not intend to have either of those two complacent females who claim the titles of first and second wives outshine you. They are not worthy of Prince Amir. You, I can see, are.” He looked her naked body over with a surprisingly sharp eye. “Yes, you are truly beautiful.”
Then, with a little bow, he hurried off carrying her old clothing.
“Well!” Agata huffed. “He is very bold for an old slave man.”
“No,” Azura said slowly. “He will prove to be of great value to me in this new world once I can be assured of his loyalty.”
“How can you know if he is your creature or not?” Agata wondered as she stripped her own dirty clothing off.
“I am not certain yet,” Azura told her, “but I will know.”
The head bath attendant hurried over to them now, smiling broadly. “Welcome, welcome, my lady Azura. Gracious, we have a great deal of work to make you presentable for the prince. We have already received word that he will want you in his bed tonight. I can tell you”—and she lowered her voice—“there were certain noses in this household very much out of joint when that news was bandied about.”
“I very much appreciate your help,” Azura said politely, already suspecting that this woman was very important within the harem hierarchy. Amir had informed her that good manners within the harem, even towards the lowliest, were very much valued. She let the woman lead her off while Agata, now as naked as her mistress, followed.
“I am Halah,” the bath mistress said. “First you must be rinsed. Step into this marble shell,” she instructed Azura. Then she clapped her hands and two women began to pour warm water over the new wife. Once rinsed, she was brought to another shell where the two, wielding large soapy sponges, washed her once, rinsed her, and then washed her a second time. But after the second soaping, Halah came with what looked like a long, thin blade, and carefully went over each inch of Azura’s skin. The young woman was astounded to see the soapy water filled with dirt with each pass of the blade. She was rinsed again. A third soaping and rinsing followed. Then they washed her ebony hair.
While Halah personally served Azura, the other two bath women helped Agata, teaching her how to properly bathe. “I do not think I have ever been so clean in all of my lifetime,” Agata said in the new language, and the two bath women smiled and nodded in agreement, leading Agata to a warm pool, where she joined Azura to soak for a time in the perfumed waters. Slave women brushed their hair dry while they rested.
“We will do this daily,” Azura told her servant. “This is something I should like to share with my mother and sisters.”
“The priests would denounce it as a vanity of the flesh,” Agata said.
Azura laughed. “You are probably correct,” she said.
They were taken from the pool before any part of them had time to wrinkle. The nails on their fingers and toes were pared and their mons plucked. Agata was led away and found Nadim awaiting her with fresh garments. She blushed but the eunuch ignored her other than to hand her each piece of clothing as it was needed. In the meanwhile, Azura was led to a marble bench where a down mattress had been laid out for her to lie upon. Lotion was spread over her body in sections as the strong yet gentle hands of a young eunuch massaged her until she was almost asleep. She was content and relaxed.
Nadim was awaiting her with fresh garments. “This is called a kaftan,” he told Azura. “You will find it very comfortable to wear and sleep in. I have sent your Agata to the kitchen to fetch the light meal I ordered for you earlier. She told me that neither of you has eaten this day.” He slipped the kaftan over her head, drawing it down carefully.
“You have beautiful hair,” he observed. “It is like the blackest silk.”
“In my home city dark hair as mine is considered ordinary. It is the maidens with the golden and red hair who are praised,” Azura told Nadim.
“And yet you are extraordinarily beautiful,” the eunuch said.
“The prince tells me that the women of the harem spy on one another, and use the eunuchs to bring them information,” Azura said to him. “Will you spy on me?”
“No,” he told her without hesitation. “The fact that the prince has called for you to come to his bed tonight, ignoring tradition that requires his wives be brought to serve his needs in the order of their importance, tells me that you will eventually hold all the power in this harem. Ali Farid does not realize that yet, else he should not have sent me to you. I served your prince’s mother until her death. Before she died she asked Prince Amir to keep me in his household always. He has, but because my history has been forgotten by the self-important, I have been only tolerated, and given the least important tasks to do.
“When the prince was home last and told us that a new wife would soon join the harem, I went to him secretly and begged to be appointed her eunuch. The prince remembered my long and faithful service to his mother then and brought me to Ali Farid, telling him I would be the eunuch to serve his new wife. Since I am considered unimportant, it was thought the new wife would also be unimportant. But this is not so, my lady Azura, is it? I suspect that you have the prince’s heart. Once they become aware of it, the lady Maysun and the lady Shahdi will accept that you are the first lady of this harem. Until then they will seek to undermine you, for that is the way of the harem, and you should know it.”
