Only now, alone and imprisoned, did I begin to regret my decision to compromise myself as well as Alex. While I had expected retribution, I had not seriously imagined we might be executed, or worse; but this now seemed all too probable. Motecuhzoma’s death had completely unbalanced the equation. With Maxixca returned to Tenochtitlan, it was obvious he was Tetzahuitl’s candidate for the Turquoise Throne. And Cocomicihuatl, whose influence could not be underrated, would naturally favour the succession of her own son. With Extepan so conveniently marooned in Potomac – a circumstance which Tetzahuitl and Maxixca seemed to welcome – there was no other serious rival. All they had to do was wait until Extepan’s forces were destroyed in the siege, whereupon Maxixca could be proclaimed Motecuhzoma’s successor. No doubt he would then use the beam weapon to win the war in the north dramatically, inaugurating his reign by establishing total Aztec hegemony from the Aleutians to Patagonia.
Though I knew Extepan had betrayed me as much as anyone else, I disliked the idea that he had been outmanoeuvred by his half-brother. I had wanted to wound him personally because he had used me, but I hadn’t intended to weaken him politically. Now Tetzahuitl and Maxixca would be able to use my indiscretions to undermine him further in his absence. Indirectly, I might well have helped usher in the reign of a man I considered to be vain, impulsive and xenophobic to a dangerous degree.
I was still wearing my wristwatch and so was able to keep track of the time. At noon a silent guard brought me a dish of bean stew with tlaxcallis; at six I was provided with a plate of rice and peppers and bottled Acuecuexatl water. Adjoining the cell was a small washroom, with full toilet facilities. For the moment, my conditions of imprisonment were relatively luxurious, given the gravity of my crime.
I remained calm, even though the hopelessness of my situation was never more obvious. But there were further surprises in store. Late that evening, Maxixca returned.
He brought Victoria with him.
She was ushered into the cell, looking frightened and ashamed. Maxixca, once again relishing the situation, said, ‘Sisters should be together, should they not?’
I stared him out, my face expressionless.
‘You two deserve one another,’ he said fiercely. Then he went out, slamming the door behind him.
I heard the key turn in the lock, the bolts being rammed home. His footsteps, and those of his escort, receded down the stone corridor into silence.
Victoria stood motionless, staring at the floor. She was dressed in a rose-print huipil and cream culottes, stylish clothes already crumpled and dust-stained.
I was sitting cross-legged on my bed, and I did not get up. There was a long silence, until at last I said, ‘When did they arrest you?’
She kept her head bowed. ‘This afternoon. When I came back from the masseur. They told me you were in prison, and Alex. They said what had happened.’
‘I expect you were surprised.’
She nodded. She couldn’t bring herself to look at me.
‘An eye for an eye. That’s what I thought.’
Tears began to trickle down her cheeks.
‘Why did you do it?’ I asked. ‘You’re my sister. I thought the world of you.’
Silence except for her crying.
‘Alex says you didn’t even love him.’
Even more tears. ‘They were going to send me away in any case.’
‘Why? Were you really involved in the bomb plot?’
An ardent shake of the head. ‘I knew nothing about it until it was over. They said it was either that, or public disgrace.’
She didn’t elaborate.
‘You might as well sit down,’ I said quietly.
Slowly she squatted on one of the floor mats, sitting sideways to me.
‘Tell me,’ I insisted.
She gave a long doleful sigh. ‘Going to Alex, at least I’d be with someone I knew. They were determined to get rid of me one way or another.’
‘Why?’
Now there were more tears, and she buried her face in her hands. It was so theatrical, I thought, and yet it had always worked in currying my sympathy in the past. I was ready to let her cry until she was drained of tears.
‘They had photographs,’ she sobbed. ‘Photographs and films.’
‘Photographs? Of what?’
‘Of me. With Huahuantli.’ She mentioned other Aztecs, all young members of the court in London.
I was slow to grasp what she was driving at.
‘You were sleeping with them?’
‘All I wanted was some company. Some fun and life. I didn’t intend a scandal, Kate. They took advantage of me. I didn’t know they were filming and photographing everything. It was horrible!’
I remembered Tlacahuepan at Windsor Castle, and how I had automatically taken Victoria’s side. She had probably seen me approaching and pretended he was forcing himself on her to spare her embarrassment. I had needed no persuading.
‘Where were these films and photographs taken?’
She was reluctant to tell me. ‘At parties. Sometimes in their rooms. Or mine.’
‘You took them back to your own suite?’
‘It sounds so sordid, I know! But I never planned it that way, I swear. I enjoyed their company, and we’d have a few drinks, and I knew they wanted me. You don’t know what it’s like, Kate, feeling so useless, so scared—’
‘I know what’s it’s like,’ I said harshly. ‘I had to fight to keep it under control.’
More tears, back heaving, hands clawing her knees.
‘So what did they do? With the evidence?’
‘They showed it to me. They said I was a disgrace. A scandal. A royal whore. They couldn’t allow me to – what was it? – undermine the moral fibre of their administration. I was given a choice. Either I went to Alex, or they’d make everything public and send me into real exile in disgrace.’
‘You knew Alex was alive?’
Only now did she look up at me with bleary eyes. ‘I swear I didn’t until then! I thought he was dead, like you did. But they told me he’d co-operated with them, and that he’d been given a place to live in Mexico. He was asking for me to be sent there. What choice did I have, Kate? There was nothing I could do.’
‘You could have come to me and told me the truth.’
She shook her head vehemently. ‘They made sure there was no chance of that. They were determined to keep me away from you. They came for me in the night. That was the first I knew about it. They kept me away from everyone.’
I had no doubt she was telling me the truth. It all fitted, even down to the fact that a sister I had always considered a perfect innocent had proved to be a perfect libertine. How blind I had been!
‘Who arrested you?’
‘Maxixca came with his men. I was taken before the cihuacoatl. He scared me, Kate. I was terrified. I knew I had to do what they said.’
‘And Extepan?’
‘I didn’t see him.’
This gave me pause. Was it possible that Extepan was totally innocent of all this chicanery? I doubted it, but it occurred to me that there was nothing to link him directly with Alex’s faked death or Victoria’s ‘exile’. Had it all been engineered by Maxixca, under Tetzahuitl’s instructions? But if so, why?
‘You were set up,’ I said. ‘They let Huahuantli and the others seduce you so that they’d have a hold over you.’
She nodded dejectedly. ‘I realize that now.’
I felt no temptation to chide her for her foolishness; I had been naïve enough myself.
‘I missed you dreadfully, Kate,’ she said softly. ‘I know I let you down—’
‘Let me down? I think you did rather more than that. You were sleeping with Alex even before we were captured.’