7-3 New friendships
Four of the hostages want more space than their suite provides, so demand that their maids be provided accommodation in the small outbuildings with us. Bekir approves the requests and leaves Nur to try and find suitable space. The countess, however, is one of those who insists that her maid, Margit, has sleeping quarters within her suite. The countess is quickly getting a reputation for being demanding and awkward, and before long nearly everybody avoids her whenever possible. It's easy to see why the guards who escorted her here were eager to leave.
Fortunately, the Hungarian maids assigned to quarters with us seem willing to try and get along with the house servants. This is despite the frustrations caused by language difficulties. Even the simplest of requests or instructions often requires translation, and Nebi says that he's too busy to bother with exchanges between servants. I'm soon called on to help, which, in return, quickly improves my own understanding of the Hungarian language.
None of the hostages know each other, and at first they distrust each other as much as they distrust their jailers. Hasan says that their wariness of each other won't last forever, and that he and Nur must remain vigilant. Everybody settles down into a routine by the end of the second week. Apart from a regular flow of demands from the countess, the hostages remain passive and reasonably content. Even the two youngest hostages, who are only 12 and 13 years old, seem to be coping well. Fortunately, their maids double as governesses, and they keep the girls fully occupied.
While Hasan watches for suspicious activity that might lead to an escape attempt, Nur gleans information through regularly talking with the hostages and their maids. Nur's periodic attempts to interrogate the countess and Margit are foiled as much by their isolation as by the language barrier. Nebi insists on attending to all the countess's interpretation work alone, and he rarely assigns time to help Nur's efforts. However, Nebi is overworked and he can't be everywhere at once. It's only a matter of time before I'm called on to translate at a meeting between Bekir and the countess.
It's a difficult meeting. Partly because my knowledge of the Hungarian language is still limited, but mainly because the countess uses the meeting in order to make yet more demands on Heyreddin Pasha's hospitality. Some of her demands are ridiculous, but others are not unreasonable. Because he must pay for the upkeep of the hostages out of his own pocket, Heyreddin Pasha is being very frugal when it comes to providing items such as clothing for the hostages and their maids. The countess isn't the only hostage to complain about the lack of new clothing, although most of the others have set about repairing their damaged garments, and making new ones from whatever material they can scrounge.
Bekir has neither the authority nor the means to approve the countess's demands. Rather than report the matter to Heyreddin Pasha, Bekir simply refuses all the demands made by the countess, and the meeting draws to an acrimonious close. The only positive feature of the meeting from my point of view is that I've been able to improve my tentative acquaintance with her maid, Margit. Her temperament is almost the exact opposite of the countess. I find Margit to be charming and graceful, but she doesn't seem to be very skilled in the duties of a lady's maid. I suspect she owes her position more to being able to cope with the volatile countess than anything else. Whatever the reason for selecting Margit as her maid, the countess seems to tolerate Margit's shortcomings far more readily than the real or imagined deficiencies of everybody else.
The limited supply of clothes and material isn't the only way that Heyreddin Pasha tries to economise. He sends word that he won't be hiring any more guards. Instead, he has arranged for the Grand Vizier to keep Kosta and his men here for a while longer. Needless to say, Kosta and his men aren't happy at the news, but they don't seem unduly surprised.
None of us know how long we might be here at the lodge. The pessimists among the house servants suggest that our stay will be for years rather than months. Even Hasan admits that there is little likelihood of the hostages being released soon. Furthermore, there are rumours that Sultan Suleiman is preparing for a war in the east. If that's true, then ordering the early release of his Hungarian hostages is likely to be far from the sultan's thoughts. Not that I would mind an extended stay here. We are comfortable enough, and Hasan and I have each other for company. Our virtual imprisonment here is no worse than I endured while I was in the Imperial Harem. However, not all the house servants are so content, requiring Nur to keep a close watch on the situation.
Despite Hasan's and Nur's concerns, Bekir starts to ease some of the restrictions on the movements of the hostages and their servants. Walks around the grounds are permitted, and the hostages' maids are allowed into areas of the lodge which had initially been off-limits to them. Nefise isn't the only person to realise that allowing the maids into the kitchen presents a risk of our food being drugged. Nur reassigns Huban to the kitchen as a precaution, but she admits that it isn't a foolproof defence.
The overall effect of the less rigid living arrangements means that friendships soon start to form within and across the different groups of people living in the lodge. The exception is Kosta and his men, who still keep apart from the rest of us. Some of those friendships blossom into romantic entanglements, which quickly become the source of gossip and intrigue. Huban's name is associated with more than one such relationship, although finance rather than romance is often the supposed motivation for the relationship. She neither confirms nor denies the gossip, which only adds to the speculation.
Hasan and I are also the subject of much gossip, some of it false and unpleasant. While Hasan and I confine our intimate games to our own room, they haven't gone unnoticed by the other servants. I've experienced worse innuendo while I was in the Imperial Harem, but Hasan is more than a little sensitive about some of the comments. The less flattering rumours about me finally die when I casually mention to Emine, who is one of the more notorious gossip-mongers, that my skills in seduction are as a result of my training in the Imperial Harem and not from some back street brothel.
While most of the budding relationships are harmless and of no real concern to anybody, there is one liaison which is worrying both Hasan and Nur. A romance between Nebi and Margit is developing surprisingly quickly. Without telling me why, Hasan admits that he has been suspicious of Nebi since our journey here. Margit, of course, is closely associated with the countess, who has made a previous attempt to escape. With Nebi's help, another escape attempt stands a much better chance of success.
Hasan and Nur try to keep a close watch on the countess, but are often thwarted by the countess's tendency to remain in her suite for most of the day. My budding friendship with Margit gives me an opportunity to keep an indirect check on the countess. Hasan doesn't like me getting involved, but concedes that I'm having more success than he or Nur.
One afternoon I see Margit walking alone in the grounds. I quickly abandon the chores I've been doing and go outside. She's still some distance ahead of me when I notice her stop and turn towards an approaching man. It's Nebi. From their behaviour, this meeting has obviously been arranged. I creep closer, taking care to remain hidden. I can't see them from my hiding place, but I can hear them talking. Unfortunately I'm not close enough to make out what they are saying. I wait until they part company and Margit resumes her walk.
I catch up to Margit a couple of minutes later and act as though I haven't witnessed her earlier behaviour. Even so, something about her reaction strikes me as odd, and she's very wary of my approach. Fortunately she relaxes after a few minutes of conversation and unintentionally provides some of the information Nur has been seeking. I quietly congratulate myself on successfully applying some of Nur's interrogation tricks, and my rapidly improving language skills. Nur and Nebi would undoubtedly find deficiencies in both skills, but I am pleased that I've learned as much as I have in so short a time.
The next morning my mind is once again filled with thoughts about my conversation with Margit. I feel as though I learned something from the conversation which I haven't properly understood. Nur notices my inattention to my chores, and subjects me to one of her innocent-appearing interrogations. Unfortunately for both of us, her questioning reveals nothing useful.
"Perhaps it wasn't what she said," suggests Nur. "Perhaps it's something you observed about her that is the cause of your unease. It might not be one big thing, but lots of smaller things which combine to make you have doubts."
"Or perhaps it's my pregnancy which is giving me weird feelings," I reply. "They say that a pregnant woman is sometimes prone to such things."
Nur gives a snort of derision at such a suggestion, and I don't pursue that line of argument. Instead I think hard about what Nur said. She could be right, but I still can't work out what is making me suspicious of Margit. In some respects Margit and I have faced similar experiences. We have both been removed from our homeland against our will. My life in the Imperial Harem wasn't greatly different from Margit's life here at the lodge. Margit may not be a slave as I was, but the difference is negligible.
Nur reminds me that my chores need doing and my attention returns to my work. Both Hasan and Nur do their best to keep me away from their secret work for Ibrahim, but they don't always succeed.
Later on I go in search of Nebi, who is due to give me another lesson in Hungarian. He's a reluctant teacher, although he's quick enough to use my skills when it suits him. As my fluency in the Hungarian language improves, Nebi expects me to act as interpreter on my own more often. Now that the living arrangements are organised, most of the hostages' requests are for material and supplies to keep themselves occupied during their captivity. I forward their requests to Bekir, but unfortunately most of those requests go unfulfilled by Heyreddin Pasha.
Hasan and Nur remain alert but it's obvious to everyone that Kosta's men are growing less vigilant. Kemel and Nebi are lazy and often neglect their patrols, while Bekir still hasn't resumed full duty. It's the ideal time for an escape or rescue attempt. My wariness about the countess and Margit has never fully subsided, but I'm no nearer to understanding its cause.
"What do you know about the countess?" I ask Hasan one evening in our room.
"Her husband is a member of the Hungarian king's inner council," begins Hasan. "He ..."
I cut Hasan's words off at that point. "No. You are describing what you know about the count. What do you know about the countess?"
It turns out that Hasan knows very little about the countess, other than what what he has seen with his own eyes here at the lodge. She and her maid were handed over to the Ottoman forces by the count as a condition of the peace treaty which ended the recent war. Taking hostages is a common practise among the nobles at the end of a war to discourage those on the defeated side from renewing hostilities. Assuming the count keeps his side of the treaty terms, then at some time in the future, the countess will be returned to her husband. But when that may be is up to the sultan. She could be held a prisoner here for years, so I can understand her desire to escape.
"How do you know we have the real countess in our custody?" I ask.
"Her identity will have been verified before she left Hungary," laughs Hasan. "It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to switch the intended hostage with some poor hapless woman. War impoverishes many people. For someone with wealth and power, finding a suitable woman to take a hostage's place isn't too difficult. Threatening or bribing the victim or her family usually secures a substitute. The sultan's men aren't fools. They would have made sure they had the right person. Anyway, why would anybody try to rescue a fake countess?"