Sheen on the Silk - Anne Perry [128]
“If you can do it without your mind wandering off to other things,” Anna replied perfectly seriously. “I don’t think I could.”
Eirene looked at her, a beginning of interest in her eyes. “Is that a rather abstruse way of saying that it is sin at the heart of this after all? I do not need to be sheltered from the truth. I am just as strong as Zoe Chrysaphes.” A flash of light, almost like a moment’s laughter, glanced in her eyes. “Or did you wrap up the truth for her, too, like a child’s medicine, hidden in honey?”
“I would not dare,” Anna replied. “Unless, of course, I was sure I could do it well enough that she would never know.”
This time Eirene laughed outright, a rich sound with layers of meaning, at least some of them malicious. How had Zoe hurt her?
“I have an herbal extract for you …” Anna began.
“What is it? A sedative? Something to stop me feeling the pain?” There was contempt in Eirene’s face. “Is that your solution to life’s griefs, physician? Cover them up? Don’t look at what will hurt you?”
Anna should have been insulted, but she was not. “A sedative will relax your muscles so your body does not fight itself and send you into spasm. Relax so you can eat without gulping in air and giving yourself indigestion to cramp your stomach. Relax so your neck does not ache from bearing your head up, and your head pound from the blood trying to pass through flesh that is knotted as if ease were your enemy.”
“I suppose you know what you are talking about,” Eirene said with a shrug. “You can tell Zoe that my household knows you came on her recommendation. I shall hold her responsible for anything that happens to me. Come back tomorrow.”
When she returned, Anna found Eirene much the same. If the pain was less, it could be attributed to the night’s rest, partially induced by the sedative. She was still tired and in considerably short temper.
Afterward, Anna found Eirene’s son, Demetrios, waiting for her. He asked with some concern over his mother’s condition. She could easily understand why Helena was attracted to him.
“How is my mother?” he repeated urgently.
“I believe anxiety and fear are eating inside her,” Anna answered, not meeting his eyes as she would have were her conscience at ease.
“What has she to be afraid of?” Demetrios was watching her closely, but disguising it in a show of disdain.
“We can fear all manner of things, real and unreal,” she replied. “The sack of the city again, if there is another crusade.” In the corner of her vision, she saw the impatient gesture of his hand brushing away the idea. “The forced union of the Church with Rome,” she went on, and this time he stood perfectly still. “Violence in the city if that should happen,” she added, measuring her words as precisely as she could. “Possible attempts to usurp Michael’s power over the Church.” Her voice was shaking a little now. “By those who are passionately against union.”
The silence was so intense, she could hear a servant drop a fork on the tiled floor two rooms away.
“Usurp Michael’s power over the Church?” he asked at length. “What on earth do you mean?” He was very pale. “Michael is emperor. Or do you mean usurp the throne?”
Her heart pounding, she met his eyes. “Do I?”
“That’s ridiculous! Stay with your medicine,” Demetrios snapped. “You know nothing about the world, and still less about the relations of power.”
“There is something that disturbs your mother,” she lied, her mind racing. “Something keeps her from sleeping and takes the pleasure from her food so she eats it badly and too fast.”
“I suppose that’s better than saying her illness is caused by sin,” he conceded dryly. A sudden, very real sadness crossed his face. “But if you think my mother’s a coward, then you are a fool. I never saw her afraid of anything.”
Of course you didn’t, Anna thought. Eirene’s fears were of the heart, not of the mind or the flesh. Like most women, she feared loneliness and rejection, losing the man she loved to someone like Zoe.
Forty-three