A Dead Man in Athens by Michael Pearce

eunuch said I’d done it, though I hadn’t. And he hit me. And the Lady Irina said, “Do that again and I’ll hit you!” The way she spoke! You wouldn’t speak to a man like that up in our village, I can tell you! I was frightened they might hurt her. Amina told me afterwards that the eunuchs had complained to Abd-es-Salaam but that Abd-es-Salaam had said, “Count yourselves fortunate that she didn’t have you for breakfast!” And she patted my hand and told me not to cry and that if they were ever nasty to me again I was to come to her.’
    ‘Well, that was very kind of her. Although I don’t know how you could go to her, because you can’t go in the harem, can you?’
    ‘I don’t usually go in. But sometimes they invite me in and the eunuchs don’t mind, they let me slip past. And they show me their dresses. They have such lovely dresses. And sometimes the Lady Samira lets me put on her shoes. But I prefer the Lady Irina. She gives me chocolates.’
    Another cat, thought Seymour, for them to play with.
    When Chloe went to collect the dirty dishes from the harem, Seymour went with her. The eunuch on duty at the door raised his eyebrows.
    ‘I am afraid, sir, that you cannot –’
    ‘I am not seeking entrance,’ said Seymour swiftly. ‘It is you I have come to see.’
    ‘Me?’
    This was clearly troubling and the eunuch looked anxiously over his shoulder.
    ‘I have some small questions I want to put.’
    ‘I am afraid, sir, that I could not – not without permission, that is.’
    ‘And of course I could get it. But I do not wish to bother Abd-es-Salaam just now when he has so much on his mind. And they are just small questions, hardly worth making a fuss over.’
    ‘Well . . .’
    ‘Of course, I could if necessary. And will.’
    There was something to be said, he had decided, for Lady Samira’s high-handed approach, especially when dealing with Ottoman bureaucracy.
    ‘If you insist.’
    ‘Well . . .’ said the eunuch, looking over his shoulder again desperately. But reinforcement did not appear. Reinforcement, probably, was keeping sensibly out of sight.
    ‘Good. Then I will put my questions. They are, as I said, just small ones.’
    Small or large, they were not, the eunuch clearly felt, for him to answer. Best to fall back at once on traditional defence: the blank wall. No one and nothing was allowed to pass into or out of the harem. Food? Well, of course. But nothing else. Medicine? Well, possibly. But only with Abd-es-Salaam’s permission, of course, the eunuch added hastily. So whoever was on duty would always seek permission before admitting any medicine? Naturally. And when had this last occurred? Well . . . The eunuch didn’t think it had occurred. Not recently.
    Seymour said that that was funny because he had gathered that several of the royal ladies had recently taken advantage of the doctors’ visits to the Sultan to consult them on their own behalf.
    The eunuch did not think so.
    That, too, was strange, Seymour said, because he had spoken to the doctors and that was what they had said.
    Well, perhaps there had been an isolated case or two.
    Could the eunuch supply the names and the occasions?
    Alas, the eunuch couldn’t. There was so much coming and going.
    But he had just said that there wasn’t. That no one or nothing could get in?
    The Effendi must have misunderstood him.
    And the medicine? Medicine had been prescribed. Had it been let in? With or without permission? If with, Seymour would be able to confirm that by recourse to Abd-es-Salaam’s office. If without . . .
    The eunuch blank-walled desperately. But the blank wall did not come down. Seymour was tempted to unleash the Lady Irina on him.
    But then the Lady Irina was precisely the person he didn’t want to involve over this.
    In the corridor, as he was coming back from the harem, he ran into Dr Metaxas.
    ‘You have seen the Sultan? How is he?’
    ‘As well as can be expected.’
    ‘What does that mean?’
    ‘It