Aygül Sultan

5.

   "Where were you Katerina?", Cecilias demanding voice echoed. I tried to ignore it but failed to do so when I felt everyone's eyes on me.

   "Where would I be?", I asked her back and made my way towards my place already exhausted from being sleepless.

   "Where you with Prince Cihangir?", she asked again and gossips rose around the harem.

   "Uh oh- what are you saying?", I tried to hide the fact.

   "Girl look it's obvious from your clothes you were in halvet. Whose? I don't know but I'm sure it wasn't Prince Selim or Prince Bayezit guessing you're just an imbecile girl", she stated.

   "What do you mean huh?", her words annoyed me. No. Not just her words, her entire existence was annoying. She stood and made her way towards me but changed her route when Fahriye Kalfa entered the harem.

   "Katerina hatun come with me", she said and nodded at me.

   "Where are we going?", I asked the kalfa who had a bad habit of not replying to me.

   "To get you ready", she said after walking in silence for some minutes.

   "Again?", I asked her stopping at my tracks as I was already dressed from last night.

   "Hatun who told you to stop? Keep walking come on", she grabbed my hand and pulled me ignoring my question.

   Another bad habit.

   We reached the same room I was taken to last night except there was a beautiful dress in front of me.

   "Oh my God", I said my voice barely above a whisper from the shock.

   "You have to get ready. Be fast. Don't make me wait", she ordered and nodded at the women who got to their work as they were told to.

   In about some good minutes I was ready to go wherever my destiny had written me to be taken to.

   "Maşallah if you use that brain with that beauty you could be the first concubine of our prince", Fahriye said making me wonder if she complemented me for being pretty or insulted me for being a fool.

   Honestly I did look beautiful but I didn't feel the beauty just yet.

   How can i be his concubine when all I want is to go back home? I wanted my mother my father my sister back. I want to know if Dimitri survived. I want to know what happened to Maria. Did anyone find out about her and Dimitri? Her father was a priest, if he gets to know, he would surely kill his daughter. How messed up people can be-

   I was shooketh out of my thoughts with a nudge on my arm. I pointed to my left to see Fahriye kalfa titling her head towards a man crouching in front of roses.

   "What?", I asked straight forwarded.

   "Hatun- go to him", she said clearly not used to my dumb questions.

   "Oh", I lifted up my dress and started making my way towards the mystery guy.

   "BOO", I yelled finally standing behind the man with a hump who jumped from the sudden scare.

   "Kat- Katerina?", he asked standing up.

   "The one and only", I replied hoping from the sheer joy i had from successfully scaring the beloved prince of the largest empire of the world.

   "You look beautiful", he commented looking at me from head to toe.

   "You don't look too bad yourself", I replied trying not to be rude but he didn't spend a long time trying to get ready for me.