She realised that women who had nothing to think about could allow to fester within themselves a poisonous hatred for those who were more favoured. Now she wondered whether someone had spitefully informed the Sultan that she was not what she appeared to be and her eyes were on Mihri questioningly as the Circassian said,

“I may be wrong, perhaps I am, but I have a feeling that His Highness Kizlar Aga is interested in you!”

“The Black Eunuch?” Yamina exclaimed. “But what do you mean? Why is he interested in me? Is he suspicious?”

“Worse than that!” Mihri replied.

She drew even closer and her lips almost touched Yamina’s as she said,

“He may ask for you for his own harem!”

“I don’t – understand!”

“It is conceit with the Eunuchs,” Mihri explained. “They are not men, but they behave as if they were. It gives them a sense of power and prestige to have women of their own, even as their Master has. The Kizlar Aga has a large harem. It is whispered that he is very cruel, that his hippopotamus-hide whip is used continually and that his slaves are punished for the most trivial offences or for no offence at all!”

“I cannot believe it!” Yamina cried.

“It is true!” Mihri said, “and I think he wishes to own you not because you are beautiful but because he thinks you are my sister!”

“I do – not – understand,” Yamina faltered again.

“He thinks I am gaining too much power over his Master,” Mihri answered. “The Black Eunuchs are always afraid that the women will have more power than they have themselves. So to have a hold over me he is contriving to take you into his harem!”

The whole idea was so horrifying that Yamina wanted to cry out, to scream. Yet she knew she must hold tightly onto her self-control, that she must not show her fear to Mihri or to anyone else.

“I will think what to do,” Mihri said. “He will delay and prevaricate for a long time before he asks for you, but it is always wise in this place to be prepared. To be taken by surprise can be fatal!”

“I can see that!” Yamina exclaimed.

Despite every resolution she glanced nervously over her shoulder almost as if she expected to see the Black Eunuch standing behind her.

What she had now heard made her feel, as she had before she entered the Palace, that the Black Eunuchs were everything that was horrible and unclean.

She had learnt since she had been at the Dolmabahçe Palace that some of the odalisques in their frustration, convinced that they would never catch the eye of the Sultan, contrived to establish a sort of relationship with the Eunuchs. But the women for the most part were too frightened especially of the Kizlar Aga himself.