Loretta of the Lamp - The Fallout

Do not worry your heart

From a dark and dreamless sleep Loretta woke to the sound of running water.

"Come my dear, I need you to bathe," a warm, low voice implored her.

She pushed herself up off the bed in which she lay with some struggle, all of her energy was long gone.

"Let me get you some food perhaps?" The voice suggested.

"Water, please," Loretta croaked back. She had cried so much that her eyes were glued shut with her tears, and she felt the dampness of the soft pillow beneath her head, evidence that her tears had not stopped once she fell asleep. She turned the pillow over and buried her face in the softness of it, passing back into a state of sleep for a few moments before a hand on her shoulder shook her awake.

"Here," a bowl of water was pressed to her lips, "drink slowly," the voice cautioned.

Loretta rubbed her eyes and opened them as she sipped at the water.

A wall of pillows surrounded her on either side, and over her head a canopy of blue, green and gold swathed fabric billowed in the warm breeze. Propping herself up on an elbow, she peered around her hostess and found the breeze was rolling in off a courtyard containing an exotic garden just beyond the end of the bed.

Her hostess stood from where she had been kneeling beside the bed. She was a tall, slender woman with a long forehead and sharp, beautifully round eyes. Her long wavy black hair she wore out, cascading in well brushed locks over her shoulders and down her narrow back. She was not young, but she was stunning and held herself with a dignity that spoke of how well she knew her worth.

"Thank you," Loretta whispered, looking up at her with awe that she couldn't hide.

She nodded, "My dear, it is not me to thank, but my husband, the Sultan."

Loretta felt a jab of terror in the back of her mind as she remembered the man in the courtroom pointing at her, gesturing for her to be brought forward. The nightmares were all real.

"Why am I here?" she asked meekly.

"I am Enobia, his first wife," the woman continued in her smooth, alto voice, "and I am head of the royal harem. In time if you are lucky, he will marry you, and you will be well taken care of, because you have a gentle beauty hidden behind the dirt and rags you wear."

"I'm only sixteen," Loretta said slowly, in shock.

"I was fourteen when I was married. Do not worry your heart."

Loretta forced herself into a seated position and stared out blankly into the beautiful garden beyond her bed. Her mind was racing and her heart shook but she forced the fear down inside her like it was a pill to swallow.

A death by hanging would have been an easy out. A simple escape from the tragedy she had written for herself. But life was cruel, and clearly not done with her yet.

Enobia bathed her and washed her. She was surprised how dirty and torn her clothing was when it came off. Her beautiful lambskin trousers were beyond redemption and the tunic she had been wearing was so torn and stained it could not have been guessed that it was once a light cream colour with colourful beads embroidered into it. Enobia worked diligently, teasing all the knots out of her hair, un-brushable clusters that had begun to gather ever since she left the hammam in Doua.

Loretta remembered Akil's face when he had seen her emerge from the bath house, and then his apology later when he had given her the moon shaped brooch, the same brooch that had clung to the tatters of her clothing and which she now clutched in her hand for fear of losing, even as Enobia scrubbed her naked body.