CHAPTER TWENTY
299 Words
CHAPTER TWENTY
Haseki huddled, shaking, in her carriage as it was pulled down the Grand Boulevard by a prancing white stallion. The three carriages directly before her carried three of the Sultan’s sisters: Khadija, Hafisa and Baykhan; and at the front of the procession, in a carriage that had taken Haseki’s breath away, travelled Hafsa the Birinci Kadin, who had been elevated to the position of Valide Sultana.
Hafsa had called Haseki to her apartments again that morning before they boarded the carriages in the Old Palace. She went over the procedures, just as Khadija had the night before, and inspected her dressage, to ensure it was perfect.
Now, inside her carriage of gold and pearl, Haseki wrung her hands apprehensively; the crowds outside yelled and chanted. She had become used to the confined space of the maidens’ court and quarters and the company of the two score of young maids. She peered through the silk gauze at the, possibly, hundreds of thousands of faces that jumped and frolicked by the roadside. Her heart thumped as she sank back into the plush silk velvet of the carriage, closing her eyes, and biting her lip.
The caravan of carriages came to a stop between a high stone wall and the imposing mosque of Aya Sofya that she had first spied from the deck of the fishing boat, so many, many months ago. She leaned forward to see the crowd through the carriages’ fine gossamer. Faces stared in her direction—both from street level and from atop the surroundings buildings. She strained to distinguish the people who crowded and clambered along the top of buildings. A scruff of brown hair caught her attention....
The carriage lurched forward and Haseki was thrown back into the cushions.
It was moving once again toward the Imperial Gate.
And her destiny.
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