Dark Horse

'Qus, you're my bailiff, not my bloody social conscience. Turf the rabble out, or I'll find myself a bailiff who will.'

There was a pause of perhaps five beats. 'Very good, sir.'

'With the mood she's in now, you might find her a mite stubborn and while I'd rather you didn't use force…'

'Sir?'

'Well, if you have to, I quite understand,' Leo finished in a rush.

'I will not use force on a woman!'

'You will if I bloody tell you to. And once they're out, get the men to demolish the building and plough up the ground, because I'm not having her sneak back only to go through this rigmarole twice. When my bride and her family arrive, there will be no trace of that place. Understood?'

This time the silence seemed to stretch for infinity. 'Whatever you say, sir, but I can't do it today. Every hand is working flat out on repairs to the Medea.'

'What are you blathering on about, man? There's not a scratch on her.' Leo's fist thumped the desk above Claudia's head, making the inkpots rattle. 'Janus, Croesus, Qus, do you think I'm bloody stupid? Everything I do lately you defy me and I won't tolerate insolence-'

'She's listing badly, sir.' Pause. 'Didn't you know?'

'Medea? How the bloody hell did that come about?'

'It would appear that someone holed her below the water line during the night,' Qus said.

'Fuck!' Leo slumped into his chair, and Claudia wriggled tighter into a ball. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck, that's all I bloody need.' He wiped his hands over his face. 'Much damage?'

'The shipwright says three days, maybe four on the stocks. He's hauling her out of the water right now.'

'That bloody Nikias,' Leo muttered. 'He knew I was going after the dolphin this morning.'

He stood up and Claudia's internal organs rearranged themselves more comfortably.

'Well, while he's about it,' Leo said wearily, 'tell the shipwright to change the boat's name back again. Medea doesn't suit her, I don't know how I got talked into altering it, really.'

'It's bad luck to change a boat's name.'

'Croesus, man, don't you ever just obey a bloody order? Anyway, she's been changed once and we're still alive and kicking, so I see no harm in reverting to the original. Medea's too… too…'

'Dark?'

'Precisely.' Leo scooped up some coins and briskly dropped them into a purse. 'Right then, I'll have a word with Llagos,' he said, chinking the purse. 'See if I can't get him to bless her the new name. And tomorrow you sort out that business with Nanai’, but no later, do you hear?'

'Oh, I hear you. Sir.'

Claudia watched the Ethiopian's thonged sandals stride across the hunting-scene mosaic heard his hand lift the latch.

'There's still one other matter, Qus. That… thing in your quarters. It's still there, I notice.'

The latch dropped back into place. 'I've explained about that, sir,' the Ethiopian said quietly, and this time the tone was one hundred per cent deference. 'I have to keep the crystal for nine more months according to the custom.'

'Custom be buggered, man, I've been patient enough. Now either that thing goes, or you do and this time I mean it. Think carefully before you make your decision, boy. Think what job you'd be doing if I sold you on, and it won't be a cushy bailiff's number, I can assure you.'

'Oh, sir, please. I must keep the crystal for a year, it's my duty. Three months have already passed, I'm only asking for another nine.'

'If it wasn't for the rose-grower's daughter, Qus, you could have ninety. But look at it from my point of view. This girl is going to give me the children my wife couldn't and I can't afford to have anything go wrong. No miscarriages because of… things that she's seen.'

'It's in my own private quarters, your bride would never see it, I swear.'

'Nothing is private, Qus, that's the first point. I own every inch of this land, every inch of your skin for that matter, and the same rule applies to my bride. Nothing is forbidden to her, no place is off limits, and if she does stumble into your rooms… Look, there's little point in discussing the consequences, because I'm not prepared to take the risk in the first place. Either the crystal goes, Qus, or it and you leave together. Your call.'

A head appeared upside down under the desk where Claudia was curled. The head had a small cleft in its chin. 'You can come out now,' it said.

Apologies were pointless, dignity impossible, she simply commiserated with him on the Medea.

'If I could prove it was Nik, I'd nail his hide to a pole,' Leo said, 'but he's not even man enough to own up to it. Janus, I despise cowards, I really do.'

'Maybe it wasn't Nikias?'

The rumble deep in the back of Leo's throat suggested he wasn't particularly enamoured with Claudia's theory. 'I won't be beaten, not by him or anyone, dammit. If it means commandeering a fleet of bloody fishing boats, I'll net that dolphin and so help me, I'll skewer it right under his nose.'

'No you won't,' a calm voice announced from the hallway.

Nikias, his face and tunic spattered with paint like a rainbow, walked into the room wiping his hands on a rag. Across the corridor, the door to Leo's new marital chamber stood wide and Claudia could see the scaffolding Nikias had been standing on to finish the portraits of the happy couple.

'I've warned you, Leo, let the animal be,' he said. 'It's not harming you, it lifts the islanders' spirits and it helps the children heal and recuperate.' He turned to Claudia and once again, she was struck by the inscrutability of the Corinthian's expression. 'A lone dolphin won't stay long,' he said. 'Another few days and it will take off on its own accord, no harm done.'

'None at all,' Leo growled, 'because tomorrow it's dolphin for dinner.'

Nikias looked at him long and hard before turning away. 'Don't bank on it, Leo.'

'Janus! I'd fire the surly bastard,' Leo rumbled, 'if he wasn't the best portrait painter in the whole damn Empire.' Leo kicked the leg of his maplewood desk, carved in the shape of an antelope's leg. 'Damn you, Nik!' he shouted. 'Damn you to hell!'

In response, the door across the corridor closed softly on its oiled hinges.

Claudia sat herself down on a high-backed upholstered chair as though she'd been invited. 'The rose-grower's daughter must be quite a catch.'

Leo filled two goblets with ruby red wine. 'She is,' he said. 'For three generations, the women have averaged five children apiece, with boys outnumbering girls three to one.'

'A gambler would call that good odds.'

Leo smiled, perched himself on the edge of the desk. 'You don't approve of my actions, do you?'

'Which actions in particular, Leo? I mean, are we talking about risking the lives of your crew in that ridiculous attempt at heroics? Butchering a harmless dolphin? Forcibly evicting women and children? Dumping your wife? Using her divorce settlement to revamp the house? Scuppering her chances of love with a sculptor?'

'Him!' Leo was quite unabashed at the tirade. 'Magnus wasn't worthy of my wife, Claudia. He's the son of a barrel-maker, for gods' sake.'

Claudia rolled the glass between her hands. 'Which puts the rose-grower's daughter where, exactly, in the social pecking order?'

Leo shot her an amused glance. 'I know how it looks,' he said, 'but things aren't all they seem, trust me. Lydia's angry with me right now and she has every right, but I'm not a fool, Claudia, and I'm not quite the bastard you think. Magnus was out of her class — and I mean that in more ways than one.'

'Isn't that for Lydia to decide?'

'My wife's hurting, which makes her vulnerable to the first man who makes sheep's eyes at her, but she's patrician stock and… and

…' He stared into the bottom of his glass. 'I'll square things with Lydia, you can bet your sweet life on that,' he said, adding solemnly, 'and Magnus, take my word, isn't the man for my wife.'

Claudia wondered who was. She waited a few seconds, then said, 'That's a nasty gash on your cheek.'