Page 38 of At the Sheikh's Bidding
“Andmyplans,” she said, entering the harem gardens, “are all about the harem today.”
“So, the sooner you’ve got what you want from the harem, the sooner we can attend to other, more pleasurable things.”
“Exactly. My focus is on the building, the place itself. Because that’s what no one in my field has studied.”
His heart sank. “Surely, it can’t be that important.” He didn’twantit to be that important to her, because she was wrong.
“Oh, it can. It will either make or break my research. I need original material and I’m pinning all my hopes on this.”
He didn’t think his heart could have sunk any further. “Well,” he said, too brightly, “what about the diamond?”
“Sure, we’ll look for that, too. I have a theory.”
He was relieved to be on more solid ground as they arrived at the entrance to the harem.
Janey shivered as the door clanged shut.
“It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to be locked up like this for real,” he said.
“Not for me, it’s not,” she said, before stepping inside the first ante-room.
He didn’t want to hear any more on that subject at the moment. It was too hard to bear. What he wanted was to get this ridiculous diamond chase and harem research out of the way, and then they could resume normal life.
He punched in the security code of the second door before turning to her. “And what is your theory about the diamond?”
The door swung open, and she stepped inside. Slowly, she looked around, taking it all in before she pointed to a place high on the wall. The grille marked a hiding place where the women could observe what took place in the semi-public reception room.
“There. That’s where I think it could be.”
He frowned. “That’s where they’d gather to watch what went on in the reception room.”
“Yes, but its access was hidden.” She turned to him, her blue eyes earnest and serious. “At Gleave College, a hidden ceiling has been uncovered recently. There’s an inscription.”
“An inscription? What does it say?”
“In that elevated place of sensual indulgence you shall find what you seek in the eye of heaven.”
“And you believe it’s referring to the diamond?”
“Yes, definitely. All three of us—Leonora, Rosanna and me—we all believe that. Although our interpretations differ.”
“And what’s yours?”
“First, the description ‘elevated place’. The palace is the top level of society and physically, the harem is at the rear of the palace, where the land rises. And that small room up there,” she pointed again, “must be one of the most elevated places in the palace.”
“Okay, so far, so reasonable. I guess the reference to sensual indulgence is self-evident.”
“Yep. Which leaves us with the ‘eye of heaven’ bit.”
He followed her gaze to the decoration around the grille, focusing on a blue, eye-shaped amulet—thenazar—which was believed to protect against the evil eye. The blue color was thought to be divine and a protection from negative energy.
“The Arabic love poetry of the pre-Islamic period talked about the orgasm as heaven. That eye up there, beside thenazar, in the depiction of the couple having sex, I’ve seen the image replicated in other harems, in other imagery. I believe that could be what Gleave was referring to. That clear white light of the diamond representing the eye of heaven. While the blue nazar is repelling negative energy.”
He looked from the shape of the eye, from which light seemed to glow, back to Janey, whose gaze was fixed firmly on the eye. Eventually, she looked back at him.
“Did any of your grandmother’s story talk about such things?”
He frowned as he tried to cast his mind back to the many hours he’d sat with his grandmother in the long evenings when she’d talked, half to herself, about the myths and legends and old days of the palace.
