FORBIDDEN PLACE 18

Last summer her parents had visited Turkey and brought her back a present. There had never seemed an appropriate moment to wear it, until now. The jellaba was long, dyed in the vibrant hues of the desert at sunrise. Made of hand-spun wild silk, it was bordered with gold embroidery and seed pearls. The wide, loose sleeves were ornamented, and the deep slash between her breasts fastened with loops over buttons covered in gilt thread.

She twisted a rope of variegated semi-precious stones about her neck, and hooked a pair of dangling beaded earrings into her lobes. Beautifully crafted jewelled sandals had come with the outfit, a copy of those found in a pharaoh’s tomb, flat soled, supported by a thong between the big toe and its neighbour, the kind of footwear in which she was most at ease.

Beneath this exotic creation Karen wore absolutely nothing, the silk caressing her skin like a lover’s lips. Such attire called for equally colourful make-up and she didn’t hesitate, eyes accentuated