rule had driven Ethiopia to its knees. When his sponsor, the Soviet
Empire, had collapsed, Mengistu had been overthrown and fled the
country.
'I am desperate enough to go to bed with the devil,' he told her. 'I
promise I won't come back to you with any complaints.'
'Okay, then, no comebacks-' and she gave him a name and a telephone
number in Addis Ababa.
'I love you, Alison darling Nicholas told her.
'I wish,' she said, and hung up on him.
He didn't expect that it would be easy to telephone Addis, and he wasn't
disappointed in his expectations. But at last he got through. A woman
with a sweet lisping of Ethiopian accent answered and switched to fluent
English when he asked for Boris Brusilov.
'He is out on safari at present,' she told him. 'I am Woizero Tessay,
his wife.' In Ethiopia a wife did not take on her husband's name.
Nicholas remembered enough of the language to know that the name meant
Lady Sun, a pretty name.
'But if it is in connection with safari business I can help you,' said
Lady Sun.
Nicholas picked Royan up outside the hospital entrance.
'How is your mother?'
'Her leg is doing well, but she's still distraught about is Magic -
about her dog.'
You will have to get her a puppy. One of my keepers breeds first-class
springers. I can arrange it.' He paused and then asked delicately, 'Will
you be able to leave your mother? I mean, if we are going out to
Africa?'
'I spoke to her about that. There is a woman from her church group who
will stay with her until she is well enough to fend for herself again.'
Royan turned fully around in her seat to examine his face. 'You have
been up to something since I last saw you,' she accused him. 'I can see
it in your face.'
He made the Arabic sign against the evil eye, 'Allah save me from
witches!'
'Come on!' He could make her laugh so readily, she was not sure if that
was a good thing or not. 'Tell me what you have up your sleeve.'
'Wait until we get back to the museum.' He would not be moved, and she
had to bridle her impatience.
As soon as they entered the building he led her through the Egyptian
room to the hall of African mammals, and then stopped her in front of a
diorama of mounted antelope. These were some of the smaller and
mediumsized varieties - impala, Thompson's and Grant's gazelle, gerenuk
and the like.
'Madoqua harperii.' He pointed to a tiny creature in one corner of the
display. 'Harper's dik-dik, also known as the striped dik-dik.'
It was a nondescript little animal, not much bigger than a large hare.
The brown pelt was striped in chocolate over the shoulders and back, and
the nose was elongated into a prehensile proboscis.
'A bit tatty,' she gave her opinion carefully, unwilling to bend, yet
knowing he was inordinately Proud of this Specimen. 'Is there something
