“All ships look the same.”
“I am leaving. If the ship is suitable, I might book a passage uponit.”
He was silent again for a while. I decided I preferred him talking. I wanted to hear his lies. I wanted a great deal more than that. I wanted to pull him from his horse and beat him until he cried for my mercy, which I might or might not give him. “Did you enjoy yourself last night?”
He cast me a quick glance. “I suppose so. What are you going to do when you return to England?”
I had hoped my question would annoy him, force him to talk about what had happened behind closed doors—without me. I thought of something else that might annoy him more. “I hadn’t thought about it. Why? I may travel for a while. I may go home.”
He frowned. “Home?”
“Hmm. To the Americas. My people.”
I could almost hear his thoughts, hear him making the connections. Very satisfactorily, as I wanted him to, he asked in a roundabout way, “That’s… that is the place you spoke of? Where… unchristian practices are common?”
I nodded gravely, then twisted the knife. “Men there love openly with other men as easily as we love women in our world. It is quite something to behold. I think, freed as they are from any form of religion, other than the worship of their perfect bodies, they do not find men joining with other men at all strange.”
Most of this was a complete fabrication, of course. The Powponi had a very well-formed spiritual life, and they certainly did not encourage their young warriors to waste their seed inside the bodies of their brothers. Rather, it was valued and celebrated as a means of increasing the numbers and strength of the tribe. Nevertheless, if two men wished to be intimate, they could, and nothing was said or done to stop them. It suited my purposes that morning, however, to annoy and upset His Royal Highness Prince Christian Aleksey, and that is what I was doing. I wondered what his next question would be. I could sense one coming. I put my money on the perfect bodies comment. I was right.
“They are very dark skinned, these people? Like Margaret?”
“Not at all. They are light brown. The same color I was when I first arrived. Here….” I held out my arm, still browner than it would be when winter came upon us. “About this shade.” I trailed my fingers lightly up and down, rather in the same way the young woman had run hers on my leg. Aleksey swallowed, his eyes watching the display. “Their hair is your shade but very straight and worn long with braids and decorations, small skulls and feathers. They are the most beautiful people on earth, I believe. Especially their young men, who live on a diet that encourages muscle growth. They are tall, and as they live naked, their muscles are always on display.”
“They live naked! What! All the time?”
Of course they did not, stupid boy. This was more fun than I had anticipated when I began. “It is a very favorable climate: warm most of the year, so there’s no requirement for covering. They sometimes use paint to enhance certain… obvious features. When erect, for example—but other than that, they are naked.”
I turned my face away toward the ocean to hide my expression. I wondered how he was picturing the decoration—and the erections, come to that. “And you? Surely you, as a white man and a Christian, did not follow this custom?”
“I am not a Christian. I was not then, and I am not now.”
He put a hand on my reins to stop our progress. “What do you mean?”
“I was taken captive when I was very young. I grew up without knowledge of your Bible or your God.”
He frowned deeply. “But God is everywhere. It is not possible to be without knowledge of him.”
I shrugged and let him work a bit harder for himself.
Eventually he asked, “Why did you leave? And how? I mean, this place is a long way away, is it not?”
“Yes, from here certainly.” I did not particularly want to go into the reasons for my departure from the colonies or details of my journey to England. I pursed my lips, toying with Xavier’s mane, twisting up little strands. “I met someone who persuaded me to return to England with a departing ship. I was… restless and wanted the adventure.”
“And that was the first time you wore clothes?”
I laughed out loud at the innocent wonder and childlike naivety of his question. He had fixated on the nakedness, as I thought he might, and could not now see beyond it. I was glad. He had not pursued the subject of that terrible sea voyage and my unrequited passion. We had arrived at the docks. I stopped spinning my small web of revenge and looked about for a likely ship. Aleksey wandered off to buy some food from the stalls that always surrounded ports, and I made my way to the harbor office to inquire about passage to London.
I heard the first cries of alarm a few moments after entering the office but thought I was hearing gulls, the cries of which had been a background accompaniment to our whole conversation. But the harbormaster, clearly more used to the true sound of these scavengers than I, looked up, surprised. He glanced out the open door and mumbled something in the awful local dialect that I did not catch. We both went outside onto the quay when the shouting got louder. I immediately looked around for the prince. I was not so angry with him that I wanted something harmful to have occurred. On the contrary, it was not that kind of anger at all.
A number of men were congregating around another. He was shouting, and they were taking up the cry. Aleksey suddenly appeared at my side. His pale face was alight with what I could only describe as glee. “We have been invaded!” These were not the words I expected to accompany that look. I told him so. He punched my arm and reiterated, as if this explained all his great joy, “We’re atwar, Niko!War!” He ran to his horse and snatched Xavier’s bridle at the same time, then led them both over. He swung up into his saddle, his thighs rippling, his whole body taut and vibrant. “Come on! Or we’ll miss it!”
I climbed into my saddle beside him. “We will miss the war?”
Color rose even more on his cheekbones. “Well, all right, not the war, but I don’t want to miss the fun of telling everyone. Come on!”
We cantered through the dockside, adding to the excitement of the crowd. They began to cheer the prince, and me also, I suppose. It was ludicrous. Aleksey loved it, though, and returned their cries with a clipped wave of his hand, the general bestowing his blessing. I sighed, spurred Xavier to a gallop, and outpaced him upon the open road. With any luck, I could use this new corn raid to my advantage and slip away unnoticed later that day. I wanted no good-byes. By the look of Aleksey’s distraction, I wouldn’t get them anyway. Some old doctor was leaving? How could that compare with going to war? He’d probably wear his scarlet and green jacket, polish his medals, and ride proudly in front of his army. Hesse-Davia had gone to war. How exciting.
CHAPTER 14
