“They are a resentful lot!” the Persian, who had more intelligence than most of the other women, said to Yamina. “Full of malice and envy, they lash out with their hippopotamus-hide whips!”

Some of the women took a delight in tormenting them and they were known ironically amongst themselves as ‘Keeper of the Rose’ or ‘Guardian of Delights’.

If a Eunuch heard them speak in such a manner, their revenge was often swift and painful.

The women were never marked on their faces in case it should be noticed by the Sultan. But on other parts of the body there were scars and weals and after such treatment the odalisque was usually disciplined into a timidity that prevented her from being anything but subservient in future.

“What makes you think that he has such an idea where I am concerned?” Yamina asked.

“Already he is beginning to tell the Sultan that it is a mistake to have my sister in the harem, that an Ikbal’s affection should be concentrated solely on her Master.”

Mihri gave an exasperated little sound.

“I know his methods only too well! I have seen him, since I have been here, deliberately break up an affection between two women just for the joy of making them unhappy! I am told that he can be very cruel to those who have been allowed to keep their children, sometimes separating a mother from her child just so that he can show his power!”

“What can we do?” Yamina asked, and her voice was hardly above a whisper.

“I shall think of something,” Mihri said.

But her tone was not very convincing and Yamina thought despairingly,

‘If the worst comes to the worst there is – always the – Bosporus!’

Chapter Four

Lord Castleford walked into the study where the Ambassador was sitting with his desk piled high with papers.

He looked up and, when he saw who was there, he gave Lord Castleford a smile that was thought in diplomatic circles to charm a bird off a tree.

“It has come!” Lord Castleford said and there was a note of excitement in his voice.

“From Lord Palmerston?”

“Yes, his letter asks me to proceed to Athens, but he says quite clearly it is only a temporary appointment.”

“He has promised he will give you Paris,” Lord Stratford said, “but you may have to wait a year or two. Even then you will be the youngest Ambassador in Europe.”

The British Embassy in Paris was the Mecca of all aspiring diplomats and that Lord Castleford should be considered for such a position was almost unique in the annals of diplomatic history.

But he had proved himself so outstandingly successful in all the posts he had so far been appointed to and also in the role of a roving diplomat, that Lord Stratford had been sure that he would not have gone unnoticed by the Foreign Office.