Neslihan Sultan was born as daughter of Sultan Mahmud and Hibetullah Sultan. She enjoyed her easy life with her parents and siblings in Topkapi palace, all until her 18th birthday when her father suddenly died. It was a surprise to everyone especial...
"Sultanim, these are the quarters that you will share with Khan Mehmed. He also has his own working quarters, and you will be accommodated here. Our rules are different," one of the maids sent by Ayse Hanim explained to Neslihan after a long times arrived in Crimea.
Neslihan just nodded her head and ordered her to leave, unhappy that she had to share her quarters with Mehmed, who she didn't like at all. She hoped that, like in Topkapi, she would have her own quarters where she could be alone, without Mehmed's constant presence.
The time they spent together for three days in Istanbul was not good for her. She and Mehmed exchanged a few words. They did not find a common language, or rather they did not even try to find it. Mehmed coldly refused any conversation with her, and she didn't make too much of an effort to spend time with him either.
Before leaving, her brother Kasim informed her that he had sent Ahmed Bey, one of their spies who normally resides in the Crimean Palace, to watch over her and be always by her side. Neslihan didn't pay too much attention to it, because she knew that every presence of another man could only complicate already complicated and bad relationships even more.
"You aren't quite impressed with Crimea?" Rabia Hanim approached Neslihan Sultan who just went to the terrace of her new chambers in Crimea. It wasn't like her terrace in Istanbul, she missed the Bosphorus, the city, her family, she missed everything.
"If I can be true with you then I will already tell you I'm not, and I know I'm not going to be happy here," Neslihan said to Rabia Hanim, the only sister of her husband she thought that actually was good in heart. She has spent some time with Rabia in carriage during their trip, and she was the only one that actually wished to talk to her.
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"Perhaps time will take its course and you and Mehmed will find a common language," Rabia said optimistically, but for Neslihan this conversation was anything but optimistic. After the death of her father and after learning about this decision to marry, her world view became pessimistic and she did not even want to change it. She resigned herself to her fate because she knew that she could no longer change the things that had happened.
"He won't. He has a woman he loves and fulfills him, I'm only here formally," Neslihan said. Although one would think that as the Khan's wife she would be disappointed, it did not affect her at all because she did not care for Mehmed at all.
"He can't be with her because he's been forbidden to have a harem since you've been here. You have to come to terms with the fact that you'll have to have a relationship if only for the sake of the heir, because the eyes of both countries are on you two," Rabia said trying to convince Neslihan that at least try hard for Mehmed, but she didn't even consider it an option.
"Let him be with her, I don't mind," Neslihan said. Rabia sighed when she saw how stubborn Neslihan was and how impossible it was to convince her of anything.
