'Mr Tennant, this is Woizero Tessay.'
'I was expecting your call.' Geoffrey's voice lightened as he realized
that he was talking to a pretty girl. 'How are you, my dear?'
Tessay passed Nicholas's message to him.
'Tell Nicky it's as good as done,' Geoffrey acknowledged, and hung up.
'Now,' Tessay addressed the postmaster, want to place another call to
Addis - to the Egyptian Embassy.' There was a buzz of delight from her
audience when they realized that the entertainment was not yet over for
the day. Everybody repaired to the veranda for more tej and
conversation.
The second call took even longer to connect, and it was after five
'clock when Tessay was at last put in contact with the Egyptian cultural
attach. Had she not once met him at one of those ubiquitous cocktail
parties on the diplomatic circuit in Addis, and made a profound
impression on him then, he would probably not have accepted her call
now.
'You are very lucky to have reached me so late,' he told her. 'We
usually close at four-thirty, but there is a meeting of the Organization
of African Unity on at the moment and I am working late. Anyway, how may
I help you, Woizero Tessay?'
As soon as she told him the name and rank of the person in Cairo to whom
Royan's message was addressed, his superior and condescending attitude
altered dramatically and he became effusive and eager to please. He
wrote down everything she said in detail, asking her to repeat and spell
the names of people and places. Finally he read his notes back to her
for confirmation.
At the end of the long conversation, he dropped his voice to an intimate
level and told her. 'I was greatly saddened to hear of your recent
bereavement, Lady Sun.
Colonel Brusilov was a man I held in high regard. Perhaps when you
return to Addis you would do me the honour of dining with me one
evening.'
'How kind and thoughtful of you.' Tessay's tones were honeyed. 'I would
so much enjoy meeting your charming wife again.' She hung up while he
was still making confused noises of assent and denial.
By this time the sun was already setting behind the sky castles of
cumulonimbus, and there was the smell of rain in the air. It was too
late to start the journey back down the escarpment that evening, so
Tessay was relieved when the headman of Debra Maryam village sent one of
his teenage daughters to invite her to spend the night as a guest in his
home.
The headman's house was the finest in the village, not one of the
circular tukuls, but a square brick building with an iron roof. His wife
and daughters had prepared a banquet in Tessay's honour, and all the
village notables, including the priests from the church, had been
invited. It was therefore after midnight before Tessay was able to
escape to the principal bedroom, which the headman and his wife had
vacated for her.
Just before Tessay fell asleep she heard the heavy raindrops rattling on
