Every evening the general entertained notables, but I was no longer invited. I discovered narrow corridors between the rooms, once used by servants and now convenient for eavesdropping. But at every gathering Gaius Sanogo or another warden was stationed in such a way that even wreathed in shadow I could not squeeze by undetected. I had to rely on Bee’s reports.
The general was visibly displeased when broadsheets trumpeted the unexpected news that a young woman of Phoenician lineage and Europan upbringing had at the general’s behest and the cacica’s request been betrothed to a Taino prince. Everyone knew the Taino considered the Europans to be uncouth barbarians, nor had any Taino nobles deigned to ally themselves even with the most distinguished of Expedition’s noble lineages, so the news was a nine days’ wonder.
On the first day of October, I held a printed copy of my monograph in my hands. I showed it to Bee in the privacy of the garden, in the shade of a star-apple tree.
Bee leafed through the pamphlet. “I like this typeface. It’s very even.”
“All the dialogue is rewritten. I object to having Celtic villagers talk like Expedition locals, with their yees and shalls.”
She ignored me. “It is tremendously exciting and lurid. ‘His kiss was lightning, a storm that engulfed her.’ So romantical! I am quite overwhelmed, or I would be if a disturbing image of that terrible dream of you kissing Andevai did not rise into my mind like a dreadful moist and tentacled beast out of the briny deeps. Here. ‘He was beautiful and she was young and not immune to the power of beauty.’ It would be better as ‘He was a beauty and she was a—’”
“Give me that, you beast!” I snatched at the pamphlet.
She skipped out from beneath the tree into the morning sun that was baking into the patio brick, and paused there with her gaze lifted to the east. Her black curls fell—as the poets said—in a riot down her back, which I had always assumed meant they had some experience in untangling a mop of hair that was both thick and excessively curly. I waited. The face Bee showed to the world was only a part of her; despite her dramatic demeanor, she was far more reticent than I would ever be.
She walked back. “Oh, Cat. I’m feeling hopeful. It’s very painful.” She handed me the pamphlet. “By the way, Professora Alhamrai was a guest again last night. She asked about you. I made sure to let her know the general suspects you of nefarious treachery.”
“You used the word nefarious? You don’t think that was a bit overdone?”
“Now that you mention it, she laughed. As if I were joking!”