Suddenly her mother, after a brief glance at her husband, stood up and crossed the courtyard to where Goose lay. She put a hand on her shoulder.
‘Don’t grieve, love,’ she said in a loud whisper. ‘We don’t know it was him. We don’t know what happened.’
Goose said nothing, only shaking a little more violently. It was her father who responded, barking harshly at his wife: ‘Leave her be, woman! Of course we know. It was Red Macaw’s body in the canal, and Flower Gatherer ran off somewhere. Now stop making such a fuss, both of you, and get back to your work!’ Clearly the story of what had been pulled out of the water had run ahead of me.
All her father’s words did to Goose was to make her shudder. Her mother, however, looked up and scowled. ‘How can you say that? She’s just lost her sister and now her husband!’
‘No, I told you: he’s run away. He’ll be back. Not that she wouldn’t be better off without him! Besides, you’ve no higher opinion of him than I have. He’s a good-for nothing, useless, improvident dolt.’ As an indignant afterthought he added: ‘And don’t talk back to me like that, in front of others!’
‘I’ll talk however I like!’ She put an arm protectively around her daughter’s shoulders, squeezing them so hard that her own body convulsed in time with Goose’s sobs. ‘Whatever else he may have been he was – is – her husband. And we don’t know whose the body in the canal was. You only want it to be Red Macaw’s so that people will believe either Flower Gatherer or Handy killed him!’
The old man’s red-rimmed eyes glistened as he stared at his wife. ‘After what that beast did to our daughter, you can defend him?’ he gasped.
‘I’m not defending anybody.’
Handy himself said nothing. He barely stirred, even at the mention of his own name. He seemed too wrapped up in his own thoughts to care what anyone said.
His sons, Snake and Spotted Eagle, were another matter, both starting forward and speaking at once. Snake cried: ‘Father didn’t do it!’ while Spotted Eagle shouted: ‘He couldn’t have – look at him!’
Handy looked up through dull eyes, and mumbled: ‘It isn’t true. What you said about me and Star – it isn’t true.’
Jaguar responded with a contemptuous snort.
Spotted Eagle turned on me then. ‘And what about him?’ With the exception of Goose, everyone looked in my direction, fixing me with glances that ranged from hostile to curious.
There was a long silence. I broke it hesitantly. ‘I don’t know whose body it was, in the canal. But I gather you all know Red Macaw is missing too.’
‘He went to join the army,’ said Spotted Eagle coolly.
‘That’s what he told the policeman,’ I replied. ‘You obviously know as much as I do about that. But there’s another thing. Handy, I ran into an old friend of ours.’
I told him some of what had transpired between me and Huitztic. Nobody laughed when I got to the part when he fell in the canal. Handy merely grunted: ‘What do you think he was there for?’
‘I’ve no idea, and I don’t care either. It certainly wasn’t to ask after my health. In fact he seemed surprised to see me. Maybe he was here for you – you run errands for lord Feathered in Black, don’t you?’
‘His steward comes here to give me orders sometimes. I don’t think he’s ever had any other reason to be in Atlixco,’ the commoner admitted. ‘But I’ve not seem him lately.’
Spotted Eagle said: ‘He was probably here to gloat over what’s happened. He’s always been jealous of you, father, ever since lord Feathered in Black started trusting you to carry his messages.’
‘Huitztic’s jealous of everyone,’ I added. ‘Before the chief minister put me up for sale his steward did all he could to make my life a misery. I don’t know why. Maybe it was because I could count to twenty without having to sit down and stare at my toes!’ Then I thought about what Spotted Eagle had said. ‘You could be right, about him wanting to gloat. He said something about your father...’ I hesitated. As I recalled the steward’s words, I hesitated, realising that it would mean broaching a dangerous subject. However, I had said too much already.
Spotted Eagle took a step towards me and leaned forward, bringing his face near to mine. ‘Go on, then. You’d better tell us what he said.’
I looked at Handy. ‘I didn’t understand it. It was something about you and Red Macaw.’
Since his wife had died, there seemed to be only one way guaranteed to provoke a response from the commoner, and that was any mention of the three-captive warrior’s name. Handy was still slumped against the wall of his house, but a tremor ran through his body as though he had been stung. He looked up sharply. ‘What does Huitztic know about that?’
I whirled around at the sound of a harsh, explosive laugh from a few paces away. It was Jaguar, Handy’s father-in-law, who had made the sound; however, his look, the way his lips were spread into a narrow grin, was one of triumph rather than mirth. I stared in shock at the grim smile on Star’s father’s face, recognising then that if Huitztic had indeed come here to gloat he might not have done so alone.
‘That’s a good question, isn’t it, Handy?’ the old man crowed. ‘What does he know about it? What is there to know? Why don’t you tell us?’
The commoner glared at his late wife’s father. ‘You know why. And if you had any shame at all you’d keep your filthy mouth shut.’
‘Shame!’ Jaguar cried. ‘I’ll tell you who ought to
