CHAPTER TENThey came for her at midnight. The door of her cell crashed open and Anita came in with two of the other wives.
“The Sultan is wakeful,” Anita said. “He will have you now.”
The other women took hold of Rowena and began to forcibly dress her in a magnificent wedding costume. Then they arranged her hair in an elaborate style. She sat there listlessly, unable to fight them. What did anything matter now?
She was marched through more corridors that grew increasingly luxurious, so she guessed they were getting closer to the Sultan’s apartments. Then she was thrust into a room hung with drapes of crimson satin.
Tiger skins lay on the floor. On the walls were swords which bore dark stains, perhaps the dried blood of enemies. The atmosphere was one of magnificent savagery.
In the ce
