Pawn in Frankincense - Dorothy Dunnett [217]
‘Now,’ she said to the Pearl of Fortune, having settled at last on her divan, a cup of syrup in her fingers, an interpreter at her elbow. ‘I understand you see much of this child in the harem; it is good that you have a care for him, and that he will obey you. It is not seemly that you become for him what his nurse or mother should be. In a year or two, his life will be very different. The rule of the white eunuchs is not tender, and he will suffer all the more if he has been coddled in childhood. You call him Kuzucuyum, but you also know perhaps that his real name is different. You have just seen him, all unwittingly, encounter his father. The child is the son of the new Vizier, Jubrael Pasha.’
No food in all Turkey was more costly than that served at the ceremonial dinner to which a Grand Vizier entertained a new Ambassador; and none was eaten more quickly. The meal was timed to take just half an hour; and was spread in the second room of the Divan, with the two principals side by side on low thrones, gold-fringed napkin on knee, while a stream of servers and pages brought the dishes of which they partook, one after the other; served on wide silver platters edged with fresh bread, and laid on stools of red Bulgar leather.
There at last, away from that eavesdropping grille, distant from his associates and his interpreters, Graham Reid Malett spoke English, plainly and pleasurably, as roasted pigeons followed the grilled swordfish in vine-leaves, to be followed in turn by kids’ flesh with dressed rice and sauces. ‘Satan, they say, on arriving from Paradise, commanded garlic to spring from his left footmark, and onions from his right. Conceive,’ said Gabriel, ‘if he had never fallen. To taste either, we had to foregather in hell.… These are wild geese from Chekmeje. You must try them. You have twice laid hands on me personally. As Ambassador, your body is sacred until you are outwith these precincts. After that, however much our sovereign lord and yours may try to protect you, none can guard you for ever from the unknown assassin, however much we may deplore it. You will suffer the death I have chosen for you, here in Constantinople.’
‘Then I have nothing to lose,’ said Lymond gently, ‘by killing you now.’ Chatting quietly, their eyes on their plates, they presented a picture, thought d’Aramon, of civilized amity: two well-bred courtiers of uncommon looks and audacity; one in Western clothes and the other in the dress of the East. Yet at least, renegade and Christian, they must fear and dislike one another; and at the worst, as he now had good reason to believe, they might well be implacable enemies.…
‘Why make empty threats?’ said Gabriel, smiling. ‘You would have tried it already, but for the consequences to others. We have the boy, as you see. Whether he is mine or yours I do not know, nor does it interest me. I have no stomach for snivelling infants, but in a few years from now, I will find him of use.’
‘And the other child?’ said Lymond. ‘One for each pillow? Both the camel and the camel-driver and the coffin being Ali?’
‘The other child is in Constantinople.… Pastry is fattening, but I imagine that does not concern you? Or the roseleaf jam with white cracknels? The sweetmeats are admirable, but I cannot say I am looking forward to a lifetime of sheep’s feet and yoghourt. You know the truth of the tag. The toasting of cheese in Wales and the seething of rice grains in Turkey will enable a man freely to profess to cook like a master.… I shall permit you to find the other child. You may even think he resembles you more than