‘I’m going to give him a name too,’ she said. ‘A secret name, for myself and him alone.’
She was peering rapturously at the baby now, and it seemed as if she wanted to exclude everyone else from their closeness.
Yeipanitl came to my side and said, ‘I think perhaps we should leave them both to sleep.’
I nodded.
‘I have to go,’ I said to Precious Cloud.
She was intent on the baby and did not reply.
I withdrew, and found Chicomeztli waiting for me outside the door.
‘Word has come from Extepan,’ he announced.
‘Oh?’ I said. ‘How is he?’
‘There was no personal news of him. The message was relayed through military channels. He has asked that we evacuate the complex and leave London. In case of enemy attack.’
Four
Each morning the frost-rimed grass looked like peppermint icing as I rode Archimedes or Adamant around the grounds of the estate. Sometimes I was accompanied by Richard and Xochinenen, who stayed with us for a few days before they left to spend Christmas at Balmoral, where Xochinenen was hoping for a festive fall of snow.
The horses were unsettled by the move from London, and Archimedes was still recovering from a swollen tendon, so I rode him gently. We were staying at Ambarrow Cottages on the edge of the Wellington College estate in Berkshire. The ‘cottages’ were actually nothing of the sort, but rather a large rambling modern building, equipped with its own generator and indoor swimming pool. Its design showed obvious Aztec influences in its square-pillared entrance and balconies. It had been built immediately after the invasion as a summer residence for Nauhyotl, the New Lake at its rear created so that the governor could indulge his fondness for tropical fish. Until his assassination, the waters had been constantly heated to a blood-warm temperature; now it was host only to hardy goldfish, dormant under its frozen surface.
I had only agreed to occupy the house because it was urgent we leave London – not only for our own safety but also to give Precious Cloud the chance to recuperate. I wanted to be reasonably close to London in case of emergency but far enough away so that Precious Cloud could benefit from a little rural tranquillity. I visited her every day in her room which looked out over the college, now an Aztec barracks, as was Sandhurst to the south. She was still confined to bed, and the peacefulness of our new surroundings did not seem to help her condition. She continued to be distracted, and there was a haunted look in her eyes. Our conversations grew increasingly strained and strange.
A week after the birth I arrived to find her sitting cross-legged at the centre of her bed with the sheets and pillows arranged in a nest at her side. Cuauhtemoc was asleep in his cot, and Precious Cloud was arranging his soother and fluffy rattlesnake inside her pillows. She did not look up as I entered.
I approached the bed. She continued with her arrangement, swapping objects, then swapping them back again, adjusting and readjusting their positions constantly.
After a while I said softly, ‘What are you doing?’
Only now did she look up. Her eyes were as black as pools of tar.
‘They were wrong,’ she informed me. And then she resumed her ordering of the toys, head bowed, shoulders hunched, as if it were the most important and vital task in the world.
‘Wrong about what?’ I asked.
‘They thought they’d emptied me out. They thought I was hollow.’
Cautiously I drew closer.
‘What do you mean?’
‘The baby, of course!’ she responded sharply. ‘The baby!’
I glanced across at Cuauhtemoc, who was still sleeping soundly. She had not looked at him once since my arrival.
‘What about the baby?’
‘I’m making a cot for her, can’t you see?’
I hesitated before saying, ‘But hasn’t he already got one?’
‘Not him!’ she said, waving an arm in Cuauhtemoc’s direction. ‘This is for the other one.’
‘Other one?’
‘My daughter, of course! The one they didn’t know about. The one that’s still inside me. She’s going to be born soon.’
I swallowed. Casually I asked, ‘Has Yeipanitl seen you?’
‘I sent him away! I sent them all away. This time I’m going to do it myself, on my own.’
The room was a mess, splatters of food on the bedlinen and carpets, clothes spilling out of her wardrobe, the curtains tied in knots at their ends. Precious Cloud looked like a castaway, shipwrecked in a sea of sheets.
‘I haven’t been eating,’ she announced. ‘Mia’s trying to poison my food.’
‘Mia isn’t here,’ I said, as calmly as I was able. ‘She’s gone home to visit her family.’
This had been at my suggestion, Mia departing for Tenochtitlan on the same day we left the complex. But Precious Cloud took no notice of my words.
‘Catherine, do you sleep?’
Now she was picking at her fingernails. Before I could reply, she went on, ‘It would be good to sleep, just for a little while. But the baby has to come first, doesn’t it? We always have to look after the baby.’
I retreated hurriedly to the adjoining room, where a nurse was stationed at a monitor screen. She was middle-aged, English. She rose, bobbed.
‘Where’s Yeipanitl?’ I demanded. ‘Why isn’t someone attending Precious Cloud?’
‘She doesn’t want us in there,’ the nurse replied. ‘But we’re watching her all the time.’
She indicated the screen. Precious Cloud was framed at its centre, looking more a prisoner than the object of everyone’s concern.
‘Can’t you see what a state she’s in?’ I said.
‘We’re aware of her condition, Your Highness. We need to give her a powerful tranquillizer as part of her treatment, to help her sleep. There’ve been problems with supplies, because of the war in Russia. Yeipanitl went to London yesterday evening to fetch them himself.’
‘When will he be back?’
‘He’s due any time now.’
She was obviously embarrassed by my angry tone, and there was no point in badgering her. Returning to Precious Cloud’s room, I sat with her. My presence seemed to do her little good because she remained obsessed with the phantom child in her womb and the evil intentions of Mia towards her; but at least she tolerated me. I tried to get her to relax and sleep, but this was impossible. When Cuauhtemoc woke and began crying for his feed, she continued to ignore him, and this was a final confirmation to me that her condition was critical. The wet-nurse was summoned, and, under my instructions, she took Cuauhtemoc into another room. Precious Cloud did not appear to notice.
I remained as calm as I could, though I felt both desperately anxious and helpless. Then, to my great relief, Yeipanitl arrived. He had succeeded in obtaining sufficient supplies of the tranquillizer to proceed with a course of treatment. Unfortunately, the drug had to be administered intravenously, and when Yeipanitl produced the hypodermic, Precious Cloud began shrieking in terror and refused to let him near her. Nothing I could do would calm her, and eventually I was ushered from the room on the arrival of several nurses whom I knew would have forcibly to hold her down. Her screams followed me along the corridor as I fled in shame.
For two days, no one but the doctor and his staff was allowed to see her. Early on the morning of the third day, Chicomeztli arrived and said that Precious Cloud had asked for me.
I arrived to find her not only out of bed but dressed in black jeans and a suede waistcoat over a denim shirt. She looked much brighter, her hair washed and plaited, her face made up. The wet-nurse sat in one corner, Cuauhtemoc asleep in her arms. Yeipanitl was also in attendance.