Page 58 of Inconvenient Honor
Russian. Thessaloniki.
Chapter Twenty-One
Soon after Richard reached Malta, Ahmet ushered Lily, awkward and clearly with child, into a small audience chamber, and all her preparation flew out of her head.
The door whispered shut behind her, leaving her with only one other occupant in the room, a small woman with regal bearing who turned and unwound veils from her face.
“Mrs. Thornton, is it?” the woman asked in good but heavily accented English.
Lily froze. “Mrs.” The first lie.
“Come, come. My nephew tells me of your troubles. Let us be frank here in this room at least,” the Valide Sultan said. She examined Lily with unblinking eyes and beckoned her forward.
“Not ‘Mrs.’, Highness. I am not married.” Truth felt right, but Lily trembled. “And, yes, I have troubles.”
The woman smiled suddenly, a warm, sad smile that soothed. “I can see that,” she said ruefully. “When is this little person to make his appearance?”
“More than four more months, Highness, almost five.”
“Trouble, indeed,” the older woman mused. “And dangers to your father also press in. My nephew told me something of it. Your loyalty speaks well for you.”
“Thank you, Highness. I have not heard from my father in months.”
The Valide Sultan nodded and took one of Lily’s handssympathetically. “My nephew also tells me you were of service to our country and that he may have caused your troubles.”
Lily’s face grew hot. “Not that! Sahin Pasha treated me with respect always.” This woman can’t think I’m carrying Sahin Pasha’s child! “My problems are of my own making.” That certainly rang true. “What Sahin Pasha meant, I think, is that he may have put me in an awkward position and I?—”
“You let your heart rule your mind. Foolish.”
Lily dipped her head. A graceful finger slipped under her chin and pushed her face up to look at the sympathetic brown eyes of the Valide Sultan. “Foolishness is why young women must be protected. My nephew knows this, and he failed you.”
The woman switched abruptly from English to excellent, unaccented French. “So, tell me, how do you plan to repay my household if I offer you refuge?”
“I can teach,” Lily answered in the same language.
The Valide Sultan smiled. “What can you teach?”
“Reading, writing, and speaking in five languages,” Lily said in Turkish.
The older woman’s smile broadened. “How is your math?” she asked.
“Mostly tied to bookkeeping but excellent,” Lily answered. “I am well read in the sciences, also—geography, history, and politics.”
“Politics! The Seraglio seethes with it. My ladies must know science and where it leads us. They must understand the geography and history of our empire and of other countries as well.”
“Your women study these things?”
“All members of my household are required to read and write. The ladies of the harem learn more. Those with an aptitude read widely and learn as much as they can.”
“I had no idea—hope, but no idea.”
Valide Sultan gave a dismissive gesture. “Westerners think we are illiterate puppets, locked in prison. They know only what their small-minded diplomats tell them.”
“Pig-headed men,” Lily agreed.
The two women grinned at each other.
“We will do well together, Mrs. Thornton.”
