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The nature of a Muslim harem is often misunderstood by Westerners. In most Muslim houses, it is simply the women's quarters. An odalisque is a female harem slave, as a eunuch is a (neutered) male harem slave. The sexual nature of the job isn't always present. But we can assume in the case of Gabrielle Francesca East, it would be there.

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Odalisque

Chapter 1

Wishful Thinking

"Hey, Man," came the greeting. Drummond looked up from his notes and smiled to see Sappho Tarkasian approaching him down the Medical Suite corridor.

"Hey, Lady," he replied. He rose to his feet and greeted her with a warm hug and a kiss.

"How's things?" Sappho asked, indicating the Dean's room with a sideways jerk of her dark, curly head, hands in her jeans pockets, shoulders hunched.

"Doing some woman thing. They kicked me out, but you could probably go in. Dolly's in there."

"Nah," said the Center's poet laureate and collapsed into one of the chairs across the table from where Drummond was spread out on the couch and the low coffee table. "Mad at me?" she asked diffidently, "About ..."

"Last night?" Drummond raised an eyebrow and started to answer in the negative, but changed his mind. "Yeah. A little. And Dolly. And myself."

Sappho stiffened and got a wild look in her eyes.

"It's OK," he reassured her. "It's my problem, not yours. I know I can't tie her down and I'd be worse than stupid to try. But that doesn't mean it doesn't cut me just the same when she ... when ..."

"I'm sorry!" Sappho exclaimed. The words were torn out of her.

"No. No. Don't be. If you can make her happy for a night--or a year--I'm glad. I don't ever want her to ever know anything but kind and gentle love and caring and ... if I have my own demons from long ago, well ... then ... I just have to deal with them. Y'know? Even so ... I don't even think I need to tell you that if you ever hurt her..."

"There won't be a place on this earth that's safe for me. I know. I won't."

Drummond looked up into her eyes and blinked back tears. "Thanks."

"So--not to change the subject, but--whatcha workin' on."

"Oh." Drummond heaved a heavy sigh. "Yeah. This. I'm trying to pull together a zillion different sources to put together a coherent picture of a period of Gee Eff One's life. Apparently, sometime during the Crimean War, she went to Constantinople on business for Olympic Holdings. While there, she did a little war profiteering on the side, and had an encounter with Richard Burton, the explorer. He was a captain of mercenaries at the time, and made quite an impression on Gee Eff, who was in her mid-twenties then. Felicity wasn't with her on that trip, and her diary of the period speaks of the incident in dark, hushed tones--very oblique references."

"Wow! It would have to have been quite an experience for her."

"I think so. And it must have influenced her in a lot of ways. But there's no mention of the meeting in either her papers or his. It's only from third parties, like Felicity, or Burton's subaltern, that we get a picture, and a murky one at that, of a secret assignation that was not entirely sexual, and yet not entirely businesslike. Very fascinating."

Just then, Dolly stuck her head out the door. "OK, Cary, she's decent. (Oh, hi, Sappho!) You can come back in."

"OK." Drummond gathered up his papers and tucked them in his briefcase. "You coming?" He asked Sappho, who gave no sign of moving.

"Nah. I think I'll sit out here for a moment."

Drummond nodded. "Suit yourself." He went in.

As he brushed past Dolly, he heard Sappho say, "Dolly, can we talk?"

Uh-huh. He thought, most carefully neutral, and moved on into the Dean's hospital room.

{Here is the true beginning of Criminy Crimea}

Next: Criminy Crimea or, Meet me in Sevestapol, Louis | Previous: Odalisque