lord has simply outmaneuvered me in this chess game we are constantly playing. I must take it with good grace, though I would sooner take a ship and go after him.”
A month passed, two months, and Alexander was due home. Then, one afternoon, there came word that the prince’s galley had been sighted a few miles off the coast. Adora ordered her barge readied. Gowned in pale-blue silk, her dark hair braided with gold ribbons and looped about her ears, she set out to meet her husband.
Seeing the little barge coming toward them over the deep-blue waves, Alexander’s men cheered their queen. When the two vessels met, Mesembria’s ruler swung himself down from the deck of his great ship to the highly- polished deck of the smaller boat. In one fluid movement he swept his beautiful wife into his arms. Their mouths met fiercely. Adora was faint with happiness. Finally he let her go. “It was not the minutes, but the seconds away from you that were like days. The minutes were like months.”
“For me also,” she answered softly, “but you were right.”
“Right? About what?”
“About the possibility of my conceiving a child.” His marvelous eyes widened, and she laughed at his look of delight. “Had a great storm taken you, my lord Alexander, Mesembria would still have had a Heracles to reign over it!”
“You are with child?”
“I am with child!” she answered proudly.
The barge lurched on the waves and Alexander quickly drew her down to the cushions. “Sit, beauty! I want neither you nor our son harmed.”
“You are very sure it is a son?”
“I have never had a daughter,” he said thoughtfully, “but if she were your daughter I could easily love her.” He put an arm about her. “A daughter with your violet eyes, beauty.”
“And your golden hair,” she answered.
”She will be like an ancient sea nymph,” he said, “and we will call her Ariadne.”
“Or,” replied Adora, “we will call him Alexander.” They laughed happily. Suddenly she exclaimed, “I have been so full of my own news that I forgot to ask of yours. Was your trip to Trebizond successful? Will the Comenii send their trading vessels to us?”
“Yes, beauty, they will! My uncle Xenos is happy to have the opportunity to work with Mesembria. He is, as you will remember, in complete charge of Trebizond’s trading concessions. His brother, the emperor, accepts his word on everything. I have brought back with me a signed agreement between Trebizond and Mesembria that will guarantee our superiority over Constantinople within the next two years. Our city will soon become a power to be reckoned with, beauty. Our children will not inherit only an empty eggshell.”
“Children, is it?” she teased him. “Am I to understand that one son is not enough for you, oh great and greedy despot of Mesembria?”
He chuckled. “Children seem to be a natural result of lovemaking, beauty. And since I will always want to love you, I assume our family will be a large one.”
Adora sighed. She was completely happy. So unbelievably happy. She loved and was loved in return. And now she was to have another child. She had been hesitant, but now that this new life nested within her, she realized how much she really wanted it. Smiling to herself, she wondered why the tangible proof of love, a child, was so important to a woman.
The autumn came. And as the fruits in the orchards ripened so did the queen of Mesembria ripen with her child. The people of the small city-state were overjoyed.
But in Constantinople the empress fretted angrily. Why had that frightened fool, Zeno, not destroyed Alexander? Now Thea was pregnant, and if Murad lost his passion for her then Helena’s revenge would be lost. She sent a spy to inquire and to further terrorize the prince’s servant. Her spy reported that Zeno felt the time was not right. Let the prince and princess feel totally secure in their lives lest the plot be discovered and Helena’s name revealed. The empress was forced to bide her time. She sent secret word to Ali Yahya, promising that soon her sister would be delivered into the sultan’s power.
In Bursa, Ali Yahya received the message and was very skeptical. His own spies told him that Theadora was happy, and soon to bear her husband a child. Still, he hoped for her return to Bursa for Murad longed desperately for her, so desperately that he would take no other women. This left the Ottoman Empire without heirs until Prince Halil and his wife were grown and had consummated their marriage.
In January of the new year-two months early- Theadora went into labor. She was quickly delivered of twins, a son and a daughter. The little boy Alexander Constantine died within the week.
The little girl survived. Both had been the image of their father, but as the little Ariadne grew her eyes became the wonderful amethyst color of her mother’s. Adored by both her parents, she was nursed only by her jealous mother who could hardly bear to have the child out of her sight. As the months passed, however, and Ariadne thrived, Theadora became less fiercely protective.
One early autumn afternoon when the baby princess was eight months old, the family sat upon the soft green lawn of the palace gardens and watched their daughter crawling about the grass. She sat on a pink silk square, clapping her hands and crowing delightedly at the darting butterflies. Finally she fell asleep, thumb in mouth, one finger hooked over her button nose, her dark gold lashes fanlike on her rosy cheeks.
“If only the boy had lived too,” said Adora sadly. She always called him the “boy”, unable to think of him as Alexander.
“It was God’s will, beauty. I do not understand it, but I must accept it.”
Why? she wanted to shout at him. But she only said, “Your faith is greater than mine.”
“You grieve for him yet, beauty?”
“I grieve for what he might have been. But I never knew him. Perhaps that is the reason for my sadness. Ariadne is already a complete person, but our poor little son will forever remain in my memory as an infant who had barely the strength to cry.”
“We will have other sons, beauty.”
Catching his hand, she held it to her heart. “I am selfish, my darling, for he was your son too. Yes! We will have other sons! Strong sons! And we are blessed in having an outrageously beautiful daughter.”
“If we are to have sons,” he said seriously, “you must stop nursing our daughter, beauty.”
Adora looked rueful. “She is too young to be weaned, Alexander.”
“Then get her a wetnurse. If you look carefully you can find a healthy young woman whose milk is fresh and wholesome. You spoil Ariadne. And,” he added plaintively, “I should like to be spoiled too.”
Adora laughed. But realizing his sincerity, she promised, “When you return from Trebizond Ariadne will have a wetnurse, my lord, and you will have your wife back again.” Then she asked, “Why must you go
“Because, beauty,” he explained patiently, “my uncle’s last message says that the last of the caravans from the East have arrived and are being transferred to the waiting ships. I must go to Trebizond as a matter of courtesy, and personally escort these ships back to Mesembria. Think of it, Adora! Those rich cargos are ours! Silks! Spices! Jewels! Slaves! Rare and exotic animals! Constaninople will pay dearly for these things. But this one time I must go or else those merchants may think I do not value them.”
“Go then,” she sighed, resigned. “But hurry back.”
“It will not be as long as the last time, beauty. Just long enough to sail to Trebizond, fete the merchants, and return to Mesembria. A month at the most, with favorable winds.”
“Take Zeno with you, Alexander. Ever since that poor servant girl was found at the back gate of the palace so hideously murdered he has been very nervous. Perhaps the sea voyage will soothe him.”
Alexander nodded. “I cannot understand why anyone would do something so horrible to a person of such little importance. Murder is one thing, but the terrible way in which the girl was mutilated and blinded-I was sickened by it. I think what frightened Zeno so badly was the fact that the girl was called Anna, like his wife. Yes. I will take him with me. Perhaps by the time we return his nerves will be sound again.”
That night they made love tenderly and slowly. When morning came Adora went with her husband to their daughter’s nursery and watched fondly as he bid the baby goodbye. He playfully nibbled at the little girl’s toes, eliciting delighted giggles. Picking her up, he inquired, “And what shall the mighty despot of Mesembria bring to the fairest of creatures, his princess Ariadne? Perhaps a porcelain bowl from Cathay filled with rare Persian tulips the color of your eyes? Or a carved golden goblet brimming over with Indian pearls that match your skin?”
