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The concubine shrugged ‘Who can say what the fate of a ht be? However, since I have a daughter, I am hopeful she will be permitted to stay Perhaps she will attend you, rown’
Alba stared This child was her cousin and sheOn the other hand, life was precarious and if so untoward happened to Prince Ghalib—what then? Yamina could be forced into servitude, she could be ill treated Alba had never seen a servant beaten, but such things were commonplace, her father the Sultan was a hard taskmaster As for his temper, it was as black as sin Alba had witnessed his temper first-hand
When she and the other Princesses had been riding from their old home in Salobreña Castle to their newly built tower in the Alhambra Palace, their father had almost killed three prisoners they had co held for ransonorant of local custom, so they hadn’t understood they weren’t permitted to look at the Princesses
Sultan Tariq had been so enraged by what he saw as the knights’ insolence, that he’d been prepared to execute theed for clemency, those Spanish noblemen would surely be dead
There was no question but that the Sultan was inflexible and capricious However, surely even he wouldn’t allow his niece to be beaten? Whatever happened to Prince Ghalib, she prayed her father wouldn’t force Yamina into servitude
‘Will your daughter have a say in how she lives her life?’
‘No,may he prosper, will decide’
Alba held the concubine’s gaze ‘Then her life is little different to mine I, too, must obey my father’
When her uncle’s concubine looked at her, face suddenly blank, Alba knew a moment of sha to their father’s dictates, but theirhere were simply Prince Ghalib’s concubines The life of such a woman, even one who had borne a child, was infinitely more precarious than that of a princess
‘Men can be callous’ Alba shook her head ‘All they care about is their own pleasure And war and conquest, of course’
The concubine threw a nervous glance over her shoulder ‘My lady, you ers crept to a silver bangle ‘Prince Ghalib, ifts He allows hter in the finest linens’
Alba didn’t reply The Sultan showered the Princesses with gifts too, although Alba had long suspected that the gifts were a e of influence Frankincense and myrrh from the east, silk froiven to his daughters Not for a iven out of love, Sultan Tariq didn’t know theto suspect that the Sultan used gifts as a hters’ obedience He wanted to keep them sweet He wanted them to knoerful he was The question hy?