Page 98 of Inconvenient Honor
If Lily could have slept, it would have been brief. Izza barged in soon after Richard left, dislodging a cloud of dust, disrupting Lily’s sleep, and devastating her peace of mind.
“You not come today, Zambak,” she said. “Grandmother sent me to check on you.” She fluttered around Lily in concern. “Grandmother worries. Is it time?”
Lily pushed herself up on one arm and attempted a smile. “I am well. Tell Grandmother thank you,” she said.
Izza dropped to the floor and sat cross-legged, prepared for a long chat. Any hope Lily had for solitude died.
“Do you wish a boy or a girl child, Zambak? Me when I have children will have only boys.” The girl began to chatter about her nonexistent children, listing the names she planned to give her sons and the exploits they would have.
“They will bring much honor and much coin to their mother,” she assured Lily. Lily shuddered, thinking how Izza’s sons would obtain coin for their mother.
The baby chose that time to push hard against Lily’s diaphragm. She must have her feet up under my ribs. Strong legs. Will she be a horsewoman? Lily smiled at that thought and then winced when the baby kicked again, harder against her ribs.
“Starting now, Zambak? Shall I get Grandmother?” The girl looked disappointed when Lily told her no. Lily realized she had all the curiosity of any young unmarried girl and hoped to learn things from Lily’s experience.
“Do you think it will hurt very bad? My friend Mara said very, very bad. A woman must be strong, no?” When she launched into a tale of her aunt’s cousin who died and her baby with her, Lily began to search her mind for a way to get rid of the girl.
“I think I would like to speak to Grandmother,” she said.
“I can bring,” Izza replied. She jumped to her feet.
“No, I can go.” Lily tried to rise but fell back onto the bed. Izza held out a hand and helped her up. The girl had a kind heart.She’s the enemy, Lily. Accept her kindness and return it if you can, but don’t forget she’s not your friend.
Lily staggered to the door of the hut. Izza skidded to a stop just outside, alerted by shouting in the village. If the previous event had been cause for excitement and celebration, this one engendered panic.
“Men say ship comes, Zambak. Not one of ours!”
Villagers ran in every direction. Women gathered small children close and hustled them into their houses. Men rushed toward the uncle’s house. Some people ran up the hill to the lookout point. More of them gathered above the cove.
Richard had disappeared. Lily glanced toward the cliff, knowing he probably went there. She couldn’t attempt the climb, not with so many others jostling on the path. Izza beckoned her toward the cove, and Lily hesitated only briefly before she made her ungainly way to the crowd above it. Curiosity won out. Richard said it was too early for the rescue, but what if he were wrong?
She stood with the others and squinted into the sun until a spot came into focus below the horizon. The ship sailed in from the north. She could make out very little. Could it be Ottoman? Dutch? The Dutch, she thought, have diplomatic relations with the Barbary States.
A group of men ran from the uncle’s house, passed through the crowd, and hustled down the hill. Two she recognized as men from Hamidou’s crew stayed above.
Around her, people pointed and shouted. Fear marred somefaces, and anger others. Wasila caught sight of Lily and wheeled around, pointing at her and shouting. She barged toward Lily as if to knock her down. Before Lily could step back, one of the pirates stationed his body between Lily and the enraged woman. Wasila continued to rant and point to the ship. The man ranted back.
Why is this man helping me? She remembered him as the kind-faced one who had helped her aboard ship but could see no reason for him to come to her defense.
Lily looked frantically for Izza who could translate Berber into Turkish. The girl had disappeared. Below she could see that the frigate had been brought in close to shore due to high tide. Hamidou’s men were hoisting anchor and preparing to escape the cove. Some people cheered them on, but the crowd thinned as others melted away to seek their houses. To hide? Store their possessions? Gather weapons?
I shouldn’t be here in this crowd.She turned her head frantically from side to side. She couldn’t find Izza any more than she could find Richard.
Should I go back to the hut? Should I hide? Where is Richard? I need Richard.
She began to inch away and turned for one more look at the approaching ship. As she looked, it turned and its flag unfurled in the sun. The Union flag. An English ship!
“Hamidou says you come,” a harsh voice said in heavily accented English. “You come now.” She looked up into the harsh face of the guard she had thought kindly.
The English ship pulled up and turned fully broadside to the frigate in the cove, trapping it. It lay some yards out, but Lily could see its cannon aimed directly at the cove, at the frigate and its crew, and at the village.
A rough hand clamped tightly on her arm.
“You come now,” the man said.
“You promised safety!”The harsh light in Hamidou’s eyes frightened Richard more than the knife in Scarface’s hand that lay cold against his neck. A second Corsair held his arm at a painful angle behind his back.
“So I did,” Richard said, as calmly as he could muster. “They have to see me, alive and well, first. If they don’t, I promise nothing.”
