Each evening when the caravan laid up for the night, he had his servants heat water in a copper tub—a most remarkable and luxurious item—which was set into a corner of his traveling tent and concealed by curtains. There, she must strip naked and wash herself by lantern light. That wasn’t so bad, since dust settled everywhere and she liked to be clean.

The third night, hearing soft, grunting noises, she realized someone was watching her through a gap in the curtains. She splashed out of the tub and yanked the curtain aside.

There sat the old man, sitting relaxed on a stool with a look of calm appraisal on his face, and the young one, who was disheveled with trousers down by his knees and his left hand clutched tightly around his hard red member. Which spurted its milk, just then, as he groaned and gasped and grimaced, staring at her with a bold gaze that made her skin creep.

So stunned was she by this bizarre behavior that she stood there and gaped until the fat man, who was fussing with a pot by the entrance, gave a deep sigh and hurried over to push her back into the little alcove.

“Don’t touch me!”

He snorted, a curt laugh. “I am cut. No man parts.” He gestured to his groin. “I not touch you. No love desire. Now, be good girl, be quiet. Be finish. Or the old master hit you.”

THE NEXT NIGHT, she was led again to the curtained tub.

“I won’t do it! It’s demeaning.”

The old man slapped her so hard it staggered her. “You my servant. You do it.”

Shaking, she stripped off her jacket, then halted, because he still stood there. “Go.”

He said, “No. You do what thing I say.” He raised the hand he had hit her with, showed her the reddened palm.

The Orzhekov girl had been right to warn her. In demon land, anything could happen, the laws of the gods turned onto their heads, made mock of, stripped and demeaned. How had she been so stupid as to believe it would be otherwise?

As she took off her clothes, he watched her not with sexual desire but with a different and no less intense desire, one she saw on the faces of small-minded women who saw their rivals wearing more golden jewelry than what they themselves possessed. When she was naked, he studied her as if she were horseflesh. He examined her rump, sidled around to scrutinize her flower, and frowned, and smiled, and rose, all without touching her.

“Now you bathe.” When he parted the curtain to go into the other section of the tent, she saw the younger one waiting there, already untying his trousers, and two other men beside him, their eager faces greasy with lust.

Furious, she stood in the tub and bathed herself, and this time she heard the grunts and their release clearly, as if the men had nothing to hide.