Snippet #1419927

“I am afraid not” said Aliyyah, her tone light and musical, as she returned the curtsey, “My husband is currently very busy in the palace. The rebels have him very concerned, their growing numbers and the unrest they create. Your own troops have been very valiant and diligent in collecting them, so much so, that my lord husband is requesting more of our soldiers to free up more of yours to hunt these traitors.”

Haifa smiled behind her gold bushiyya, at the offer of wine. She was perhaps the youngest of the three women married to the wealthy Sheikh and the most out going but she was still a little nervous around men (but not the eunuch, as they were not men), having been sheltered from them for most of her life. Her feet shifted but the movement was hidden under the wide hem of the glittering green khalat.

“Yes” she finally said, a slight blush appearing on her olive skin, ‘I would enjoy tasting the local vineyards.”

Ghaniyah was the only one of the Sarifen women to look a little taken aback by the guest that approached her. It wasn’t so much his words, although those could be taken as too bold or unrespectful, but it appeared that he was drunk. Her large bodyguard dropped his hands to his weapons and took a half step forwards, as the second man appeared.

“He has been perfectly charming” she said, recovering with the reassuring presence of the eunuch, “Whom might I have the pleasure of addressing my lords?”