The sword dropped with a large clang to the floor. Shocked, Roksolana quickly got up and faced the owner of the voice. She saw Jamal looking at her like he could run a sword through her without any remorse. She knew that nothing she said would make him change his mind. She wouldn't either if she had met him in such a situation. But, she still had to try to convince him.
"I know what it looks like, but I didn't do it," Roksolana told him.
"Okay. So, who did it? Why were you spared, but they weren't?" Jamal asked her in a cynical tone.
He looked too formidable to Roksolana at that moment. She didn't know how to explain without letting him know that she had run away first. She also didn't want him to find out she had just gone to Lady Miriam's house without his permission. But
Roksolana looked up to see Lady Miriam looking at her with a smug look on her face. Roksolana stared at her, gauging her reactions. Had Lady Miriam found out that she told the Sultan about her and her lover? The Sultan must have told her about it. Was that why she had been so happy to see Roksolana tied to some board and getting roasted by the sun like a sacrificial lamb?"This is what happens when you make the Sultan's favorite mistress angry at you. Next time I ask you to fetch me a meal, you will do it right," Miriam told her.Roksolana heaved a sigh of relief. Lady Miriam didn't know anything about what she and the Sultan talked about. The woman was merely angry with Roksolana over her late meal. She watched as Lady Miriam climbed up to the board, standing in front of her. Miriam lowered her head to Roksolana's ear, then whispere
Jamal shouted at the men replacing the furniture to hurry up. He was angry and their sluggishness wasn't making him better. Sodeeq had had some of the men replace the damaged floorboards already and the maids had cleaned up the room.Sodeeq had asked him severally what had happened to him, but Jamal had refused to tell the man that a woman had damaged his home to such an extent. He knew his friend would laugh at him and his predicament. When Sodeeq wouldn't let go of the matter, he had told the man to go and that he would take over the furniture changing.Jamal had also warned all the guards on duty the previous night including the two guards he had punished not to mention anything about the incident to anyone. He had even gone as far as threatening to kill anyone who said anything. Jamal was still barking orders at the m
Roksolana watched as the black man knocked the other guard out too, before carrying him back to the fire ground. As the black man bent over to drop the man on his shoulder, Roksolana gasped. It couldn't be. Her mind was playing a cruel game on her. Because a dead man couldn't be alive. She watched as the man turned to her and walked towards her dark side, stopping when he got to her. She couldn't see his face in the dark anymore, but she was no longer afraid of who it was. Perhaps, the pain had made her numbed. She felt a hand gently touching her cheek and shivered at the sudden warmth of it."Sorry I'm late, my lady." The man spoke and Roksolana gasped again."Asleem." She said, her voice barely a whisper just before she fainted.Asleem looked at the woman in front of him a
Jamal stood by the entrance of the room, watching as the royal physician fed Roksolana some herbal medicine with a spoon. She had remained unconscious for three days and he was beginning to get really worried about her, but the doctor had assured him that it was due to the medicine doing its work.The only thing that had made him stay calm was the fact that she was no longer coughing and her temperature had returned to normal. Her wounds were healing nicely too and she seemed to be breathing well. She had also stopped muttering in her sleep.When Jamal had first heard her mutter a man's name, he had been furious. But then, she had mentioned two other names and he had realized she must have been calling for her family. He felt guilty about that knowing that he could have alleviated her worries about her family but he had chosen
Roksolana woke up feeling disoriented. The light in the room felt like it could blind her and she closed it back, opening them slowly to adjust her eyes.When she was finally able to focus, she looked around at her surroundings. The room she was in seemed strange to her but she also felt like she had been in here before. How had she gotten to a room anyway? The last thing she remembered was her still tied to the board and a man standing close to her, looking at her with pity and shame in his eyes. Roksolana felt the man was familiar, she shook her head trying to remember what the man looked like. She gasped loudly and sat up straight in bed. The sudden movement made her head throb and she fell back to the bed."Asleem." She said, a single tear sliding down her face.Ja
Roksolana regretted not eating first before she opened her mouth to decline the Sultan's offer. She felt so hungry and even her stomach protested by grumbling.When they arrived at the kitchen, the guards dumped her in the hands of the kitchen head and disappeared without a word. She figured that they must have done that a lot of times that no explanation was needed between them anymore.Roksolana stood still as the woman examined her from head to toe and prayed that she wouldn't deem her unfit for the job. True, she doesn't know how to cook or do anything in the kitchen but she was willing to learn rather than going back to Lady Miriam or the Sultan. She sighed out loud when the woman smiled at her."It's late already. Go and clean up, then get something to eat.
Jamal picked up the bottle of alcohol he had ordered one of his men to get for him and stared at it. He opened it up and drank a large quantity of the drink, wishing his trouble would disappear as the alcohol burned his throat and lungs. He couldn't stop thinking about Roksolana and her rejection of him. Jamal wondered what exactly she hated about him. He took another gulp and sighed.Even if he had killed her family, it was a normal occurrence during the war. Besides, the number of injuries he had gotten from her was enough to kill a man. Especially the wound she gave him in his left stomach. The injury had nearly gotten infected if it wasn't for his royal physician. So why was that not enough as payback for her? Deciding that he had had enough from her, Jamal emptied the rest of the content in the bottle into his mouth and walked out.
Roksolana woke up and felt someone beside her, she became afraid. As she opened her mouth to shout, she felt a hand clasp her mouth shut. The figure moved over her, holding her in place with his body. She hit the person in the face and heard him grunt as he moved away from her immediately.Roksolana moved up quickly and gave the person three rapid punches in the face. One on the cheek, the other on the forehead, and the last one on the nose. The man let out a soft yelp. Roksolana was about to hit the man again when he spoke."It's me, my lady."The man spoke so softly Roksolana almost didn't hear him. She was sure either her ears had heard the wrong voice or her mind was playing another dirty trick on her. There was no way the voice could belong to who she was thinking