Pawn in Frankincense - Dorothy Dunnett [132]
The Bektashi Baba smoothed his beard but his eyes, Philippa was furious to see, were indulgent. ‘I see. And the child you seek: did this boy have a nurse? Or was he in the care of his mother?’
Careful. Philippa said, ‘His mother’s dead now, but I don’t think she took much to do with him after he was born. He was looked after by a negress called Kedi.’
‘I see,’ said the Bektashi Baba again. He rose, and walking barefooted over the thick carpets, paced to the tall window and gazed out. Then, his frail fingers on the lattice, he turned and looked thoughtfully at Philippa. ‘Daughter, forgive me, but I must tell you that this is not the same child. The boy sent us by the merchant Donati was born in Zakynthos, and spent only some months in the household of Dragut Rais in Algiers before being sent back to the House of the Palm Tree. He bears the brand of Dragut, it is true, and his age could be as much or as little as you say. But he had no nurse with him when he arrived; and his present guardian calls him by the child-name he has always borne: Kuzucuyum. Also, all these arrangements I have spoken of, and all the instructions concerning his placing in the harem at the Sublime Porte, have come to the merchant Donati from Malta. Of a Comte de Sevigny there has been no mention till now.’
Philippa went scarlet. ‘Of course there hasn’t!’ she said; and scrambling up, to an unregarded rending of cotton, marched to where the Baba stood at the window. ‘Because Graham Reid Malett doesn’t want his father to have him! Don’t you see?’ said Miss Somerville, shoving the second veil back from her perspiring forehead, and glaring at the amused, bearded face. ‘They hate each other, Sir Graham and the child’s father. Sir Graham is only trying to hide the boy so that Mr Crawford won’t get him; and Signor Donati is helping.… It remains to be seen,’ said Philippa with sudden and awful dignity, ‘whether the Grand Seigneur considers the friendship of a Knight of St John or that of the kingdom of France better worth having.’
‘It is a grave dilemma,’ the Bektashi Baba agreed. ‘Too grave indeed to be quickly dismissed.… You say the putative father is to be in Stamboul directly. The merchant Donati should not find it impossible to convey the problem also to the putative godfather. Thus it may be legally settled at the end of our journey, and not hastily out of hand and insufficiently informed as at present.… You know where M. le Comte de Sevigny, for example, is at present?’
‘I think I can find him,’ she said. Like mice whipping cheese from a trap, thoughts flashed through her head.
‘With Míkál’s help, and perhaps the services of a Janissary, you will then be able to place the difficulty before the French Envoy too. An excellent solution, is it not?’ said the Baba. ‘And meanwhile we shall carry the child to Stamboul, where all will be settled.’
They were going to let her go. No, they probably wanted her to go, under guard, in case she tried to make off with the child. In any case, they were prepared to let her free into the Christian world with the information that a Knight of St John was in friendly communication with the Turks.
Which meant … which meant, thought Philippa quickly, that they either knew Graham Malett’s reign in Malta was reaching an end, or wished it to reach an end soon. They had found out perhaps that Gabriel’s spying had been discovered by Archie and Sheemy? Or perhaps he was simply outgrowing his uses in Malta, and they wished to have his interest in Constantinople? In any case, she wasn’t getting the child. They would take it to