The Pearl of Troy

Chapter Sixteen

When Briseis was a child, she would sit between her nurse Safie's knees while Safie combed her hair. Briseis could still feel the reassuring scrape of Safie's fingernails on her scalp, even though she'd long been old enough to do it herself. But she didn't miss how she'd get hit with the comb whenever she complained that Safie pulled too hard. When Briseis was ten, she finally had enough and had been tending her own hair ever since.
So why had she let Creusa do it for her this time?
Briseis winced when the comb snagged on a tangle. "Ow!" Did her sister-in-law want her to become bald?
"Your face will get stuck that way," Creusa said.
Cressida, who sat on a towel on the floor next to them, giggled at the presumably gorgon-like expression Briseis was making.
Briseis crossed her arms. Lucky Creusa. A comb moved through her silky black tresses, so different from Briseis' wild curls, like butter. And Cressida. Her hair still hadn't grown past her shoulders. She barely needed to do anything to keep it looking neat.

For the first time, Briseis had a group of friends her age at court: Creusa, her sister-in-law, and Cressida, who'd moved into the palace as Troilus' future bride soon after her return. Together, they visited the harem bathhouse and discussed Cressida's upcoming wedding.