Christopher Evans - Aztec Century

‘There must have been some excitement in it for you.’

She looked extremely self-conscious.

‘I suppose it was that someone wanted me so badly he couldn’t resist it, despite the dangers. It didn’t matter who the person was. Do you understand?’

‘The same sort of excitement you got from Huahuantli and the others?’

She gave me a wounded look. ‘Is that so bad, Kate? Does it make me so terrible?’

‘I’m the wrong person to ask.’

‘I was growing up, Kate. I made the most hideous mistakes, and I’ll always regret them. But I’ll always love you, no matter what you think of me.’

‘Don’t talk to me about love.’

There was a waver in my voice, and Victoria sensed an opening. She made to rise, to approach me.

‘Sit down!’ I said, mustering as much calm as I could. ‘I don’t want you near me!’

She sat. There was a long silence.

‘They must have put us together to torment us,’ Victoria said at length. ‘Do you think someone’s listening?’

‘Probably.’

‘I don’t care any more. I couldn’t have gone on much longer.’

‘Alex told me he loved you.’

Again she looked awkward. ‘He was always telling me things like that. It didn’t stop him from having his share of servant girls on the side.’

‘Did you love him? At any stage?’

With apparent reluctance, she shook her head. ‘I suppose that makes it worse. I suppose it makes me more terrible, doesn’t it? I went to him because it was better than being alone.’

‘I understand that. You would never have survived without anyone.’

‘We didn’t have much of a life. They wouldn’t let us travel far, and we were always under escort wherever we went. It was as if we were living in a glasshouse, with everyone watching. They never trusted us.’

‘Did Alex ever talk to you about why he betrayed us?’

‘He always said he knew we had no hope of surviving in Wales. He thought we’d all be killed in the end. So he secretly got in touch with the Aztecs on the radio, and they came to an arrangement.’

‘He told them where we were?’

She nodded. ‘In exchange for our lives, he said. And the disk he had – that was what they wanted. The Aztecs saw they could use it for their own ends, plant disinformation, I think they called it, for their enemies.’

‘Using me?’

Another nod. ‘Until they could launch an attack on Russia. It was horrible, Kate. He had to keep feeding you lies.’

Which confirmed Alex’s own story. He had carefully ensured he was separated from us in the confusion so that he could be whisked away, perhaps at a later date, by the Aztecs. No doubt he had also helped them prepare a body which matched his own as closely as possible so that I would be certain he had been killed. I could see he would have preferred this arrangement, even down to the elaborate lengths of pretending that he had died in battle in Scotland: better a dead hero than a secret traitor still living with a wife he had betrayed.

‘Do you know something?’ Victoria said. ‘I always wondered, when I knew what he had done, why they kept him alive afterwards. When they no longer had any use for him, I mean. It would have been safer to kill him, wouldn’t it? After all, everyone else assumed he was already dead. But he claimed the Mexica – he always called them that – were honourable people. He knew he was a traitor to his country and couldn’t expect complete freedom. But he had served them well, and they honoured their obligations in turn.’

This sounded credible: the Aztecs set great store by such things. Equally, they reacted with extreme severity against those who failed them.

Tentatively, Victoria asked, ‘How did you find out about us?’

I told her my side of the story, beginning with Bevan’s infiltration of the networks. I spared no thought for whether our conversation was being recorded; I also spared Victoria no details. She showed little reaction when I recounted how I had seduced Alex, though I found it strange to view myself as a femme fatale when I had been his wife and Victoria his mistress.

‘Did you know that our marriage was annulled?’ I asked.

‘Alex told me when I joined him in Quauhnahuac,’ she replied. ‘That was another of the conditions he asked for. He wanted to be sure there was no constitutional bar to you remarrying.’

I laughed at this. ‘More likely he wanted it annulled so that he could marry you.’

She shook her head. ‘You mustn’t think him totally selfish, Kate. He did try to think of you, in his way. He wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to build a new life.’

‘You’ll forgive me if my heart doesn’t swell in gratitude at the thought. Alex was self-centred to the core.’

She didn’t bother to dispute this.

‘Where is he now?’ she asked.

‘They took him away. I don’t know where.’

‘What’s going to become of us, Kate?’

I remembered her asking the same question when we were first captured. Then she was fearful and dependent; now she sounded merely fatalistic.

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Maxixca’s always hated me, and I doubt that either Alex or I can expect any mercy if he becomes tlatoani . You might be luckier. You’re just an innocent in all this – relatively speaking.’

‘It would be easier for them if they got rid of us all, at a stroke, wouldn’t it?’

I was tempted to fob her off with reassurances, as I had done so many times in the past. But it was ominous that she had been arrested, since, from the Aztec point of view, she had done nothing to compromise them.

‘Expect the worst,’ I said. ‘Then you won’t be disappointed.’

‘You must hate me.’

‘I thought I did,’ I replied. ‘But it’s too strong a word. I’m disappointed, disillusioned. Part of me will never be able to forgive you. But I think you were more a fool than a real schemer. And you’re still my sister.’

Very slowly, she rose and came tentatively forward. She squatted in front of me, head bowed, a sinner expecting absolution. When I did nothing, she laid her hands gently on my knees.

‘I think I’m prepared for anything now,’ she said. ‘I’m just glad I’m with you at last. Honest, Kate, I’ve always loved you best, despite what I did.’

I reached out and almost absently began stroking her hair. I did it to avoid speaking, as a gesture to the past which carried little of the sisterly affection of old. Declarations of love and affection are always devalued when tendered in the coinage of remorse. Yet her need for me was sincere, I was certain; she had no one else.

‘It’s late,’ I said. ‘We should try to sleep.’

‘Can we be together tonight, Kate? I need someone close.’

‘There’s hardly room.’

‘Please.’

The bunk bed was narrow, but I moved across to give her room. She snuggled up close, head on my breast, an arm draped across my waist. I continued stroking her hair, determined that I wouldn’t allow myself to return to our relationship of old. Yet to all outward appearances, it was just like before.

After a time I remarked, ‘I’ve forgotten to turn off the light.’

Silence; she was already asleep.

Over the next few days, we talked a great deal, largely because there was nothing else to do. Guards brought us food and drink three times a day, plain fare, but sufficient to keep our stomachs satisfied. We saw no one else. We spoke mostly about that part of the past which was safe from recriminations – our childhood and adolescence, the uncomplicated days before the invasion, before our whole world changed. We spoke of Father, and of Richard, speculating on his future now that we were both in disgrace. I thought it likely he would continue to prosper with Xochinenen at his side: he was popular with everyone, and a Mexican stake in the succession would be guaranteed when his child was born. I had a feeling he would scarcely miss us.