Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [147]
Her voice was mocking, but the delicate glow was still there. He wondered what she would say if he admitted that, yes, there had been girls. It was part of the Khan’s hospitality. And even had it not been, he could not have refused when the rice wine had gone round, and the men had thrown off their coats and begun dancing the thudding, menacing dances that dated back to the times of the Polovtsy. Then the drums would double their beat, and the Circassian girls would slip into the light of the fire, slender and pliant as vines with their long pigtails swaying and their faces averted. At first, they linked arms as they danced, but not later. Then, as in the Tyrol, you waited, whatever your state, until the Khan had locked his girl to himself. And after that, you were free to prove, in the firelight, that you were a man. A man sometimes in despair, for the sake of a pact he had made with himself.
Anna said, ‘I daren’t ask what you are dreaming about. Nicholas? I am sorry it didn’t go well, but I am glad that you tried. And look, there are letters for you, personal letters come through Sinbaldo: news, perhaps of Gelis and Jodi. He will have his music quite soon.’ She touched his hand. ‘You look well. I missed you. Was it a great wrench to come back?’
‘I needed the rest,’ Nicholas said. ‘Anyway, you couldn’t have kept me away. And that’s true, although you know how I lie. Don’t you know how I lie? I was lying to Squarciafico just now. And you had better polish up your duplicity, because you are going to have to be very mendacious as well.’
Her face had become grave, and even a little frightened. She said, ‘What have you done?’
He looked at her, arrested in the midst of euphoria. Then he put his calming hand over hers. ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘I haven’t hurt, or planned to hurt, anyone.’
‘But?’ she said. The blood pulsed in her skin, intensifying the scent she always wore. He cleared his throat.
‘But I lied when I said it wasn’t successful. If the Khan gets the Tudun he wants, Julius can depend on trading in Caffa at a profit. I think the right Governor will come, provided the Genoese are handled with care, and provided that they don’t think we are involved in a conspiracy. They must believe that you have been promised nothing, and have no stake in Tartar appointments. Hence you, too, must prevaricate: that is all.’
She said, ‘But we do have a stake. You have a promise from the Khan’s candidate. Who is he? Eminek, the old brother?’
‘It’s better you shouldn’t know. We don’t need to help him: he’ll be promoted very efficiently by the Tartar community. And at worst,’ Nicholas added, ‘we shan’t be in a debtors’ prison. The Khan paid for the velvet.’ And he placed the bag of coins in her hands.
It was heavy. She looked up, astonished. ‘It was a gift! And worth less than this.’
‘He decided to buy it. It should clear off all the immediate debts. And there is something else,’ Nicholas said. ‘But really, it should be done in a fur hat and boots. And with clapping.’
‘I can clap,’ Anna said. Her eyes were brilliant.
‘No, you’ve got to stand and hold this,’ Nicholas said, presenting her with the end of his sash. ‘It’s a reversal of genders. I spin and you reap.’
He began, languidly, to revolve. The sash, unravelling, drooped in her unready grasp until, with a snort of laughter, she clawed in the slack with both hands, and settled to draw at the pace of his turning. Evidently finding this slow, she began sedately to accelerate matters by pulling a little. Very soon, she was hauling with joyous ferocity while Nicholas obliged like a Polovtsian dancer, stamping, shouting and snapping his fingers over his head as he whirled. He was at the top of his spin, arms outstretched, when the sash flew to its end and they both crashed to