Devil's Daughter (Devil 2)

Lena shook her head, her eyes darting toward the door. “You must have a care, my lady, about what you say.”

Arabella ignored her and looked wistfully toward the clear water.

“Not yet, my lady. You are too filthy. I will bathe you first in a tub.”

Arabella felt herself relaxing in the warm water. She drank a glass of sweet wine Lena handed her and lay back as the girl scrubbed her body and her hair. She did not realize she had fallen asleep until Lena shook her arm. “You can come to the pool now, my lady.”

Arabella rose and stepped out of the porcelain tub.

“Ah,” Lena said, “that is much better.”

Arabella smiled despite herself, for the girl sounded like a mother duck whose duckling wasn’t hideous after all.

She walked to the edge of the tiled pool, but Lena held her back. “Not yet, my lady.” She scrubbed Arabella’s hair again, her agile fingers separating each strand. A fragrance of lavender rose to Arabella’s nose. Lena handed Arabella a bar of scented soap. “Wash your face again. Almost all of the stain is removed.”

Arabella did as she was bid, scrubbing until her face and neck felt raw. She stood still while Lena washed her off with clean warm water.

Raj watched the English girl through the glass, thinking her more beautiful than even he had suspected. Her hair, cleansed of the stain and filth, hung in a thick golden mass down her back. She was almost too slender, he thought as she turned to say something to Lena, her white belly flat and her ribs too prominent after her week of privation. But her breasts were high and full, buttocks rounded and shapely. Allah, she was lovely. He laughed softly to himself, imagining his master’s unbelieving eyes when he saw his captive again.

He saw the Alexandrian, Elena, standing in the doorway, her beautiful brown eyes narrowed in disbelief, and then in ill-disguised jealousy. “You are all pink and white, like a sow,” Elena spat. “The master won’t like that.”

Arabella looked up and eyed the girl. “Elena,” she said quietly, sitting down and dangling her legs into the cool water. “I do not want your master. Your taunts are wasted on me, I assure you. I am here against my will, and your precious master will die if he tries to touch me. Do I make myself clear?”

“You are naught but a slave. My master can do with you as he pleases.”

“No, he cannot, Elena. I am not a slave. Forget your jealousy.”

“You give me orders, skinny cow?”

Arabella sighed. “You are boring me, Elena.” With that, Arabella slipped into the pool and let the water close over her head.

Raj wanted to laugh at the myriad expressions that flitted over Elena’s face. Finally she seemed to regain her control, gave an elaborate shrug, and stalked from the chamber.

Arabella forget her embarrassment at being naked in front of another woman. She lay on her stomach and let Lena massage warm oil into her back and legs. Lena helped her turn onto her back, pulled her long hair free of the end of the table, and combed it with long, slow strokes.

“How long have you been here, Lena?” Arabella asked.

“Me, my lady?”

Arabella frowned at the surprise in the girl’s voice. “Of course, Lena.”

“I was captured from my village in Ethiopia when I was a little girl. My mother was beautiful and I suppose the slave trader thought I would look like her when I grew up. But I don’t. I have been here for nine years now, serving the master.”

Arabella frowned at her calm matter-of-factness. She felt the girl’s hands lightly caressing the oil into her belly and flushed.

“You are beautiful, my lady. The master will be pleased with you. But you must eat.”

“Lena, I am not a slave. That animal is not my master.”

Lena looked distressed. “Please, my lady, you must guard your tongue. A woman does not say such things.”

“Ah, I am to go to my slaughter like a docile lamb.”

A shadow fell over Arabella’s face and she opened her eyes to see Raj looking down at her. She grabbed the linen table cover, and pulled it about her.

Raj nodded to Lena and she quickly left the room.

“My lady, forgive me for embarrassing you, but our ways are different. You need feel no shame in front of me.”