Aztec Century (15 page)

Maxixca pulled the disk from the slot. The image died.

‘He’s still there,’ I goaded him. ‘You’ve simply switched him off.’

With a smile of triumph, Maxixca dropped the disk to the carpeted floor and crushed it under his boot heel.

I was riding Adamant alone in Parliament Park a week later when I became aware that another rider was shadowing me behind a line of trees. It was none of the security guards, who habitually followed me on horseback, but someone else – on Archimedes.

I pulled Adamant up and waited. The sun was bright overhead, but the other rider was in the shadow of a stand of sycamores.

‘You seem to be getting the better of him these days,’ he remarked as he trotted forward.

It was Extepan.

He brought Archimedes right up to me so that both colts were close enough to nuzzle one another.

‘Hello, Catherine.’

He was dressed in blue jeans and a brown leather windcheater – the first time I had seen him in civilian clothes. He looked somehow brand new to my eyes.

‘You’re back.’

‘I returned early this morning. They told me you were here.’

It was hard to know what to say. ‘Where have you been?’

‘Home. And away.’ He steadied Archimedes, patting his neck. ‘I must admit it’s good to be here again. Who could wish for a more perfect English summer’s day?’

Despite a confusion of feelings, I smiled; I couldn’t help myself.

‘Are you back in your former capacity?’ I asked.

‘You mean as governor? Of course. I’ll have to get into uniform soon enough.’

Part of me was vastly relieved to hear this. After destroying
the disk, Maxixca had had me confined to my suite for three days, but there were no reprisals. A large escort now kept track of all my movements, but otherwise I had been left in peace.

‘Shall we walk the horses?’ he said.

We rode together in silence along the bridleway near the river. Crack willows had been planted on the Embankment, their silvery leaves fluttering like paper in the morning breeze. Beyond the park, some derelicts had lit a fire among the rubble in New Palace Yard to roast a few of the pigeons that roosted in the tumbledown Parliament building.

Presently Extepan said, ‘Do you want to talk about Victoria?’

I eyed him. ‘Was it your doing?’

‘It was necessary for me to sign the deportation papers,’ he admitted.

‘She’s innocent. I know it.’

‘I’m very sorry it happened. For what it’s worth, you have my word that she will be looked after. No harm will come to her.’

‘I don’t suppose there’s any point in my appealing to you to reinvestigate the charges against her?’

He was looking across at me, sympathetic but unyielding. ‘The evidence appears as conclusive as it can be. There is nothing I can do.’

‘Can you tell me where they’ve taken her?’

‘I’m sorry, Catherine.’

I didn’t want to argue with him over the issue, especially since I was certain all my protests would be futile.

‘What’s going to happen to me? Aren’t I going to be arrested and interrogated? Don’t you want to know who my accomplices were, what I was doing and what I found out?’

Though my tone was challenging, the questions were sincere. It was hard to believe that my nocturnal activities with ALEX would go unpunished.

‘I think there has been enough blood-letting of late,’ he responded. ‘I would prefer to consider the matter closed.’

I was suspicious. ‘But you don’t know what I might know.’

‘I will admit that I regret Maxixca destroyed the disk. It was a hasty and short-sighted action. But nothing can be done about it now.’

It seemed to me he was accepting matters far too easily.

‘So I’m free to do as I please?’

‘I won’t make you a prisoner, Catherine. All I can do is ensure you are well guarded, for your own safety as much as anyone else’s. Perhaps you’ll understand me when I have had the opportunity to speak to you at greater length. Come to dinner this evening at my suite.’

I eyed him. ‘I thought I was in the doghouse.’

He looked puzzled at this but ignored it. ‘It’s very important I speak with you in private. Please come.’

He spurred Archimedes. ‘By the way, Richard is home, too. I shall expect you at eight o’clock.’

Then he galloped away.

Richard was taking a bath when I arrived at his suite. Huixtochtli, the most officious of his staff, was insistent that he shouldn’t be disturbed. I strode past him and walked in on my brother.

He sat up to his shoulders in foam, manoeuvring a small plastic killer whale through his knees. The toy was battery-powered, its tail weaving from side to side.

He greeted me with a broad smile and told me that he had missed me. Yet I knew that in the old days he would have sought me out immediately on his return. The ties between us were no longer as strong.

I passed him his bathrobe, and he clambered out of the water. For some reason, I was startled by the glimpse of dark hair at his groin; to me he had always been a child, yet physically he was now a man.

Huixtochtli brought him a lemonade, and we sat out on the balcony in the afternoon sunlight. Up to now, our conversation had consisted entirely of pleasantries.

‘Did you hear what happened to Victoria?’ I asked.

He looked uncomfortable, as if he had hoped we wouldn’t have to broach the subject.

‘It was terrible,’ he replied. ‘They told me when I was in Quauhtemalan. I cried. Isn’t it awful, Kate?’

‘You don’t believe she had any part in the conspiracy, do you?’

‘There was evidence. Photographs.’

‘Do you think they were genuine?’

‘Why shouldn’t they be?’

‘That sort of evidence is easily fabricated.’

‘The others they arrested said she was involved, Kate.’

This was true. I had seen extracts from their ‘confessions’ during the show trials on news bulletins. Four men from the New Court, among them Huahuantli, had declared on oath that Victoria had been an active participant in the plot. There was no such admission from Jeremy Quaintrell, who remained scornfully insistent of his innocence to the last. All the conspirators had subsequently been deported to the huge maximum-security prison complex in Las Vegas.

‘Can you really imagine Victoria being involved in something like that, Richard?’

He played with the straw in his drink. ‘I was shocked when they told me. I think she was misguided, Kate, but I’ve tried to understand her reasons.’

This sounded as if it was parroted from someone else – no doubt his Aztec ‘advisers’, seeking to soften the blow and persuade him of the truth of their lies. It never occurred to me to consider that perhaps I had always underestimated Richard’s intelligence and that he was capable of his own reasoning. I was blind to many things about him and also Victoria, a great failing on my part.

‘Do you think she’d risk killing you and me?’ I said. ‘And herself? It’s madness.’

‘She wasn’t going to be there when the bomb exploded, Kate. She only turned up because she learned they’d found out about the plot.’

‘Yes, so they claimed. And it was you who told them about it.’

For an instant he looked sheepish, but then he said, ‘I’m sorry. I believe it was my duty. I won’t let you make me feel guilty, Kate.’

‘People have been sent to prison and Victoria is in exile because of what you did.’

‘I’m not the one who was going to kill innocent people.’

He looked defiant; I knew I couldn’t browbeat him as of old. And, of course, I couldn’t admit to myself that my own reactions were confused. Had I really wanted the bomb to go off? If not, then why blame Richard for warning the Aztecs about it? This
was the kind of moral quandary I couldn’t bring myself to confront.

‘Victoria wasn’t involved,’ I insisted. ‘They told you lies.’

‘She confessed herself, Kate.’

‘Don’t you believe it.’

‘There’s a tape.’

‘What?’

‘A tape of her. They showed me it.’

I demanded to see it. Richard summoned Huixtochtli, who went away and shortly returned to inform us that the tape was ready for viewing.

We went inside. Huixtochtli pressed the PLAY button on the recorder and withdrew.

The screen came to life, showing Victoria’s head and shoulders with a blank white background behind her. Staring straight at the camera, her face strained, she said, ‘I confess my part in the conspiracy to kill the
cihuacoatl
Tetzahuitl, Governor Extepan and others at the Lords cricket ground by means of an explosive device. I have no regrets, except for the grief I know I shall have caused to the remaining members of my family. To you, Richard and Catherine, my sincerest apologies. I love you both.’ She looked off camera, her face rigid with tension. ‘Do I have to say any more?’

The picture went blank.

A table had been laid on the balcony with white linen, English silverware and a vase of honeysuckle. Extepan and I ate a meal of clear vegetable soup followed by Dover sole with asparagus and new potatoes. There was summer pudding for dessert. I felt that Extepan was trying to make some statement with the simplicity and Englishness of the menu, though I was not sure what.

Mia served us with her perfect poise, pouring a crisp Californian Riesling to accompany the meal before leaving us alone.

‘She’s very beautiful,’ I remarked to Extepan as she departed.

‘Indeed,’ he replied, managing to make the word sound both emphatic and non-committal.

‘Have you known her long?’

‘We grew up together. Her mother was a wet-nurse to my elder brothers.’

Dwarf palms and flowering creepers surrounded us on three sides. The garden here was more luxuriant than my own, more exotic and tropical.

‘You didn’t tell me Victoria had taped a confession,’ I remarked.

‘I had no involvement in that,’ he replied.

What did this mean? ‘Why hasn’t it been shown on television like all the others?’

Extepan looked a little squeamish. ‘I did not feel it necessary for her indignity to be made public.’

‘Especially when it was so obviously a scripted confession. A lie.’

He topped up our wine glasses. ‘I know there is no persuading you of your sister’s guilt, and I do not propose to try. Can we set the matter aside, just for this evening?’

All my instincts told me he had played no part in contriving Victoria’s arrest and found the whole affair rather distasteful. Quite possibly, he shared my beliefs but couldn’t admit as much.

‘All right,’ I said. ‘A truce. Just for this evening.’

He had been watching me closely since my arrival, but now he looked away, as if trying to compose his thoughts.

‘Catherine,’ he said, ‘I realize that the upheavals of the past few weeks have been very difficult for you. In some senses, I’ve chosen the worst possible time for this conversation, but I cannot delay it any longer.’

I eyed him over my glass. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’m talking about my immediate future. And possibly yours’

I waited. Extepan stood up. ‘Shall we walk?’

‘I’d prefer to stay here.’

‘As you wish.’ He sat down again, looking ill at ease.

‘What is it?’ I asked him.

‘Catherine,’ he said earnestly. ‘I am now at an age when my father considers I should marry. This was one of the reasons why he summoned me to Tenochtitlan.’

‘Ah,’ I said. ‘You seemed to leave very abruptly.’

‘Delay is not advisable when the
tlatoani
summons you, even if you are one of his sons.’

I sat back and waited for him to continue.

‘My father is right, of course. Family matters are just as important as wider political issues, and I have always wanted children.’

Still I was silent, wondering where he was leading.

‘However,’ he continued, ‘it’s always been important to me that I should find a wife whom I respect and admire. And perhaps love, if that is possible. My father’s marriage to my mother was one of love.’

‘Even if it united Greater Mexico with the kingdom of Spain?’

Extepan did not take this amiss. ‘He risked his position by divorcing an Alcohua princess to take a European as his wife, and no matter that she was also from the nobility. There was no precedent, and he met with great resistance.’

‘No doubt your people eventually found it easier to swallow because it gave them a foothold in Europe.’

‘That is true,’ he admitted, choosing to ignore my waspishness, ‘but there was real love between them. That is quite rare for people in our situation.’

‘I married for love,’ I told him.

‘Yes. I understand you did. I envy you that. I would very much like to do the same.’

‘Is there someone you had in mind?’

‘My father would like me to marry a princess of the Sioux nation called Precious Cloud. I was introduced to her while I was away. Such a marriage would be likely to strengthen our ties with the Sioux people and stabilize our north-eastern borders with Canada and New England.’

This struck me as a shrewd move, and typical of Motecuhzoma’s policy. The Sioux and their allied nations in the Dakotas had managed to maintain their independence by playing off the Aztecs and the Confederacy of Canada and New England. The latter, especially the New English east of the Appalachians, had proved tenacious and resilient in the face of Aztec encroachments over the past century; but their commonwealth might crumble should the peoples of the Dakotas switch their allegiance to Motecuhzoma through marriage.

‘If necessary,’ Extepan was saying, ‘I would be prepared to
defer to his wishes, but he has given me permission to approach someone I feel is a more suitable candidate.’

‘Oh?’ I said, taking a sip of wine.

‘Catherine, I would consider it the greatest of honours if you would accept my proposal of marriage.’

I almost choked on my wine. Dabbing my lips with a napkin, I stared at him in amazement.

‘You aren’t serious.’

‘I am perfectly serious. Do you think I would joke about such a matter?’

Despite my shock, I realized that a part of me had almost anticipated the proposal.

‘This is absurd,’ I said. ‘You want to marry
me?’

‘This is not a hasty decision, Catherine – I have been considering it for some time. That was one of the reasons why the
cihuacoatl
visited London – so that he could meet you and report back to my father. He agreed with me that you are a woman of great integrity and courage. My father would be happy to sanction the union if you agreed to it.’