The owner of the house came down the stairs to meet them, an olive-skinned man of medium height, dark browed, black bearded, and with dark, almond-shaped eyes. He was dressed entirely in western clothes.

He said in heavily accented English, "Peace be with you, old friend. Welcome to my house, and welcome, too, to your lady." He shook Dominic's hand and inclined his head toward Grace.

"Miss Merridew, this is my friend Tariq bin Khalif."

Grace curtsied. "Thank you for offering us your hospitality."

"Dominic's friends are my friends. I have had rooms prepared for your visit and all is ready for your comfort." He hesitated, uncertain of how she felt about other cultures. "Would you be willing to meet my wives?"

Dominic laughed. 'Try and stop her."

"If you, and they, would be so gracious," Grace said in careful Arabic.

The black brows flew up. He responded in the same language. 'The lady speaks our tongue?"

"A little only and not well," she replied.

"She also reads it," Dominic said quietly, and Grace thrilled at the note of quiet pride in his voice. "She has a fondness for the poetry of Ibn Safr al-Marini."

"The celebrated poet of Andalusia? I am impressed and my wives will be well pleased. They were, you understand, a little nervous of meeting an English lady." He clapped his hands and a large, fat, soft-looking man in Arab clothing appeared soundlessly in the doorway. "Conduct this lady to the women's quarters," Tariq ordered. "She speaks our language."

The large man bowed and indicated that Grace was to precede him.

"A eunuch," Dominic murmured inconspicuously in Grace's ear.

Grace's eyes widened. So this was what Abdul might have become? She followed the man. He led her past the main stairs to a staircase at the back of the house.

The women's quarters were on the second floor at the rear, separated from the rest of the house by an exquisite carved screen that blocked the passageway. The large man opened the door and bowed, indicating to Grace that she should enter. She entered, her heart beating rapidly. She was eager to meet the ladies of the harem, but a little nervous, too.

He opened a door and it was like stepping into another world, an exotic world of scent and color and rich textures and intricate patterns. The air was scented: sandalwood, perhaps, Grace thought. Some sort of incense anyway, musky and exotic and exciting. Thick Persian carpets covered every inch of the floor, sometimes several layers thick and laid higgledy-piggledy, without regard to color or design, quite different from the careful balance sought in English style.

The windows were covered by delicate carved wooden screens and framed by lavish drapes of brilliant gold silk, but silver lamps swung from the ceiling, bathing the room in golden light, and casting shadows in the corners. Light also reflected from mirrors; gilt-framed mirrors in all sorts of shapes and sizes almost covered the walls-a surprise to Grace, who'd grown up in a house without mirrors and thought one mirror plenty. She'd never seen so many mirrors in one room. Patterned hangings and embroideries filled the few spaces left.

Five ladies stood staring at her, their hands clasped nervously. Grace, recalling what Tariq had told her, smiled and curtsied. "Peace be with you," she said in Arabic. "I thank you for inviting me to your home."

There was a flutter, a murmur, and the ladies gathered around her, chattering excitedly in Arabic.

Laughing, Grace held up her hands and explained that she was not yet very good with their language, that she could read it better than she could speak and understand.

One by one the ladies introduced themselves. The oldest wife came first, Fatima, an elegant woman who Grace thought would be in her late twenties, then came Kadije, round-faced and jolly, and Mouna, an exquisite dusky beauty who looked about seventeen. These were Tariq's wives.

The other women, it was subtly made clear, were servants. A fourth wife had remained in Alexandria, to give birth. Mouna demonstrated with a graphic demonstration and a giggle.

They invited her to sit. There was little furniture- several low divans, mounds of sumptuously covered cushions and a few low tables and chests made of cedar, patterned heavily with inlaid mother-of-pearl. Grace sat on a divan and found herself sinking into lush softness.

Fatima clapped her hands and the servant girls appeared, one bearing a tall silver jug, which proved to contain a fruit drink, oddly perfumed, but delicious. The other carried a huge tray and the low table was soon covered with dozens of silver dishes containing foods Grace had never before seen. The ladies urged her to eat, and waited with interest for her reaction to each dish and pelted her with questions. Grace even managed a few of her own.

It was the ladies' first time in England and they found it very different, they told her: quite cold and damp, even though it was summer.

By the time she'd tasted a little of everything she was full to bursting. She was in the middle of thanking the ladies when she exclaimed in English, "Oh, heavens I almost forgot!" Recollecting herself, she said in Arabic, "I brought you some small gifts."

As soon as Dominic had told her where they would be staying the night, she'd ransacked her luggage for anything she thought might please harem ladies: a couple of ladies' magazines, lavishly illustrated, a box of homemade toffees, and some cosmetic creams and lotions-though she was fairly sure they would have their own. She had no idea of their tastes, of course, but she imagined that harem ladies would be interested in the same things she and her sisters had longed for when they'd lived with Grandpapa, cut off from the rest of the world.

She also gave them a few things she'd bought for her sisters' children; a box of spillikins, a dissected map puzzle, a French doll, and a kaleidoscope. She presumed the ladies had children.

The ladies exclaimed excitedly over the gifts, turning the pages of the magazine back to front and poring over the illustrations, particularly the fashions. To Grace's amazement they fell on the children's toys with equal delight. They loved the French doll, with clothes that could be taken off and put on. They took turns peering into the kaleidoscope and exclaimed over the beautiful patterns.

They peered dubiously into the box of spillikins and looked at Grace with puzzled faces, as if to say, you brought us a box of sticks ?

She cleared the low table and demonstrated how to play the children's game. Soon all four of them were seated around the table, laughing and competing fiercely at spillikins.

At the end of the third game, they were fast friends.

"I wish you could meet my sisters," she told them.

The younger two looked to Fatima for an answer. She smiled, "We would like that very much."

Grace was surprised. "But I thought you were always locked in," she blurted. "All those locks and bars."

They laughed. "No, any locks and bars are for our protection," Fatima explained. "We can go out, as long as we are escorted." It was much the same as English girls of good family, Grace realized.

Mouna was examining the French doll. "Do you wear all this under your clothes?" she asked Grace.

"Not exactly the same, but yes."

"Show me." Mouna bounded up and waited in clear expectation.

Grace blinked. "You want to see my underwear?"

All three ladies nodded eagerly.

Grace felt herself blushing. She'd never undressed in front of strangers before. Well, except for mantua makers. And Dominic Wolfe. It was harmless, she told herself. These ladies were just curious, and she was just as curious about their clothes. She swallowed and stood up. "Very well, this looks like a dress, but in fact it is a skirt and a bodice, and the join is hidden by this belt." She spoke in English, emphasizing the words "skirt" and "bodice" and "belt" and they supplied words in Arabic, which she tried to remember.

"And underneath the skirt is a petticoat." She lifted her skirt to allow the ladies to see the petticoat, but in seconds they had unfastened the skirt, the better to see how it was made. It was passed around the servant girls as well.

It was a source of amusement and interest to them that the petticoat belled out around her without touching her legs. They examined the hem minutely and she showed how rope was inserted into it to make it stand out better. They thought that very ingenious. The petticoat, too, was removed and passed around.

Then they turned to look at her pantalettes. "These are my pantalettes." Grace placed her hands over the drawstrings to indicate she was not taking them off!

Mouna had removed the pantalettes of the French doll and poked her fingers through the slit in the crotch, a question in her eyes. Grace nodded, blushing. Trust the French to be totally accurate. But she was not going to show the slit.

There was some discussion as to the purpose of this slit, and some embarrassing gestures made. Grace was instantly transported back to the moment in the lake when Dominic had caressed her through that very slit. Blushing, she shook her head. People might do such things, but it was not the main purpose of the design. Eventually Kadije squatted in imitation of relieving herself and Grace nodded in embarrassed relief.

The ladies thought that very strange and rather unpleasant. They wore loose, gathered pantaloons which were held up with a drawstring and easily dropped-as Kadije demonstrated. They were all quite blunt and matter-of-fact about nakedness, Grace saw. And why not? They were all female.

"This is a corset." She unbuttoned the bodice to show them, but Mouna drew it off her, indicating they wanted to examine the darts and design. They were all fascinated by the corset and nothing would do but that they unlace it, too, and examine it, so Grace was left in just pantalettes and a chemise, which, when she thought about it, was much the same as they were wearing.

The ladies each tried on the corset, with much laughter. Only Mouna could fit. They were intrigued by the way the corset pushed her breasts higher, and thought the whalebone inserts a most odd and interesting device.

When they discovered the polished bone busk pushed into its little pocket they drew it out with excited exclamations, but seemed disappointed when they saw it. Fatima explained that from the shape and feel of it, they'd expected it to be a knife.

Grace laughed and tried to explain that she knew one lady who did carry a sharp instrument there for protection, but that most of them didn't. The ladies nodded. What were men for, if not for protection?

"Now," Fatima told her while Mouna was being buttoned and laced into Grace's clothes, "we shall dress you in our costume."

Servant girls brought forward a pile of shimmering fabrics. They surrounded Grace, Fatima said something and before she knew it, her chemise was replaced with a blue silk top-like a tunic, except it was extremely sheer.

Grace, looking down at herself, was a little taken aback at how sheer, but saw they were bringing a bodice and she relaxed. However when they fastened the bodice, an exquisite thing of gold and blue and red embroidery, she found it didn't help. It covered her back very well, but the front consisted of a tight band that went under her breasts-to push them up a bit, like a corset, Fatima explained.

What it did was make the near nakedness of her breasts more apparent, Grace thought.

But then they brought a hip-length shirt with long sleeves to button over it and then a waistcoat sort of thing and she felt a lot less self-conscious. Fatima explained the clothes came from different countries, as did they-she was from Alexandria, but Kadije was from Turkey and Mouna from the green hills of Lebanon. Their husband traveled widely, she explained.

"One must travel far to find such treasures," Grace responded and the compliment delighted them all.

The ladies were intrigued by the faded marks of her freckles. Henna, she told them. They nodded as if it confirmed something and explained that they painted their feet and hands with henna and used it to brighten hair, but never had they made such dots on the face, neck and hands! Was this a popular look in England?

"No," Grace told them. "I'm letting them fade."

Fatima said something and a servant girl ran out, returning in a few minutes with a small phial. "It will hasten the fading," Fatima told her. Grace smiled as she accepted it. Some things, it seemed, were universal.

They let her keep her pantalettes on but slipped on a pair of soft, loose trousers in pattered blue-and-red silk over them, and a loose, sheer skirt in yellow over the top. Kadije drew a line of blue kohl around her eyes and painted her lips with some red paint. Mouna, dressed in Grace's clothes, presented her with a small, embroidered cap and showed her how to drape a sheer veil from it. and then Grace fetched her large-brimmed flowered hat and placed it on Mouna's head, showing her how to use hat pins to hold it firm.

They stood, side by side and gazed at themselves in the mirrors. "I look wonderful!" Grace exclaimed. "Completely exotic. Oh, how I wish I could show my sisters!"

"But of course you can," Fatima said. "These clothes are our gift to you. They are for indoor wear, naturally, but there is a robe for outside."

Grace demurred, but the ladies were insistent. She looked at Mouna, still primping in front of the mirror. "Would you like to keep those, Mouna?" she asked. "And my hat, too? I know they are not new, but-"

Mouna embraced her with a shriek of delight and went spinning around the room, her skirts flaring out in a bell.

Fatima ordered coffee, which was poured into tiny cups and was unlike any coffee Grace had drunk, being strong and very sweet and thick and muddy. It was accompanied by tiny pastries, dripping with syrup and filled with nuts, and loukoumi -Turkish delight.

As the last dishes were cleared away, a servant announced, "The hamam is ready, mistress," and Fatima rose. "Come, Grace," she said. "This will be a very special treat."

"Oh, I couldn't eat another thing!" she exclaimed.

They laughed. "Come. We planned this when we heard you would visit. Your lord requested it. It is the perfect thing after travel. We were not sure if an English lady would like it, but now that we know you, we think you will."

In a dubious frame of mind, Grace allowed herself to be taken downstairs, still on the women's side of the house, and through a doorway, into a small anteroom where she was-slightly to her consternation-divested of her newly acquired clothes- again, she retained her pantalettes-and wrapped in a large muslin sheet. The three wives did the same, much to her relief. Then they put on strange wooden shoes, raised off the ground, and entered a large circular room, attached to the back of the house.

No Englishman had built it, that was clear; made of stone, it had a domed roof and was lined throughout with tiles decorated in the oriental manner. Inside it was hot and steamy and there was a deep pool in the middle and a fountain bubbling on the side.

'Turkish bath," explained Kadije. "Built for me," she added proudly.

A bath? Dominic had requested they bathe her?

Chapter Nineteen.

Thyself cast all, yea, this white linen hence, There is no penance due to innocence To teach thee 1 am naked first, why then What needst thou have more covering than a man?

JOHN DONNE.

Female servants surrounded them and without warning Grace's sheet was twitched off her, her pantalettes whisked off, and she was doused in warm water and soaped from head to toe-even her hair was undone and washed.

'This, you want it dyed dark again?" they asked her. She flushed, realizing they'd noted the contrast with her pubic hair. "No," she said.

"You want the same color?" They pointed, unembarrassed, at her pubic hair.

"Yes."

A girl ran off and came back with something that they rubbed into Grace's hair, a noxious-smelling ointment that they left in and wrapped in a towel.

Grace thought she was clean, but then the scrubbing started-from her ears to her toes, she was scrubbed with a rough-surfaced mitten until her skin felt raw and tingling. They indicated she could do her private parts herself, and she washed them thankfully. She'd wanted an exotic experience, she told herself! Beside her Mouna, Fatima, and Kadije were all getting the same treatment.

They rinsed her down, soaped her again, and rinsed her a second time. "Now, get in," the servants told her and pushed her toward the pool. It had steps leading down to it and the water was deliciously warm. Grace felt like she would melt, it was so relaxing, but after fifteen minutes or so, they wanted her out again to rinse and scrub her hair again. They plastered it with some other lotion and put her back in the pool. More time passed blissfully in the warm pool then she was hauled out for her hair to be rinsed and scrubbed a final time. They sluiced with cooler water, then a large elderly woman beckoned to her.

"Oh no!" she exclaimed. "Not more scrubbing. I'm as clean as anyone can be!"

"Turkish massage," Kadije told her. "Make you feel very relax, very nice."

The old woman dried Grace down as if she was a baby and laid her, front down, on a tiled bench covered with a thick cloth. Warm liquid spilled between her shoulder blades and the scent of roses filled the air. The old woman started massaging her, pulling and pushing and kneading her muscles. Her hands were strong, as strong as a man's. It took a few moments to get used to, but once she did, Grace felt like a cat, stretching and purring under the experience. Now she really was dissolving.

The massage went on and vaguely she noticed Fatima, Kadije, and Mouna climbing out of the pool, drying off, and going into the next chamber. Silence fell, the only sound the tinkling of water in the fountain. Grace didn't care; the powerful hands of the old woman were working magic.

In the distance she heard a door close, but the kneading and smoothing went on uninterrupted and Grace floated.

Hands worked along the tense muscles of her shoulder and neck, circling, squeezing, unraveling her, sending her into a state of bonelessness.

The rose scent of the oil was intoxicating. Now that all the kinks had been smoothed out the strokes of the mas-sager changed subtly, stirring her senses, and making her want to arch against the movements of the big, powerful hands. Truly like a cat, she thought vaguely. Pleasure, rather than relaxation. Awareness prickled at her senses, but she was too relaxed to move.

But the massage was becoming too pleasurable, she started to think after a moment. She was becoming aroused, just the same as she had with Dominic. She started to stiffen and the soothing hands urged her to relax, but it didn't feel right, to feel this way from an old woman touching her. She started to sit up, but the big hands pressed her down, stroking down her back and over her buttocks.

Then something warm and moist pressed briefly against the nape of her neck and at the same time a hand glided between her legs in an intimate caress.

She twisted, kicking in outrage.

"Relax, Greystoke. It's only me," a deep, amused voice said. Dominic.

Only me, indeed! Now she understood why she'd become aroused. Her body had known him, even if her mind hadn't yet worked it out. The sneaky rat-he'd substituted himself for the old woman without so much as a whisper of noise or a break in the rhythm of the massaging hands. "How did you get in without me seeing you?"

"There's a separate door for men." The whole time he kept massaging, caressing, stroking. She was naked under his big warm hands. If she moved she would be more naked still.