Nyssa walked to the front of Claire then moved beside Trevelyan and began to talk to him.
“What is she saying now?” Claire asked.
“Let me see if I can translate it properly. She says that you have hips as wide as a cow’s, skin the color of the underbelly of a frog—or she might have said a lizard, Peshan is sometimes difficult for me—and that you have a bosom like a mountain. Although she says that your bosom is probably as real as the protrusion on your behind is. She says that your eyes are too round and too trusting and that—”
“Tell her that every bit of my bosom is mine and that she has a bosom like a boy.”
“Oh?” Trevelyan said with interest. “No padding at all?”
She looked at him. “Could we get out of here and take…her with us?”
“Then do what with her?” Trevelyan asked, obviously highly amused by all of this. “Toss her from the carriage as we go around a curve?”
Claire smiled at him. “I was thinking of tying her to a wheel. Someone as shapeless as she is would hardly make a lump.”
Trevelyan laughed, then Nyssa said something to him. “She wants you to pack for her. She says that Powell has allowed her no maids so you may become her maid.”
“Does she? Tell her her offer is too generous for me to accept; that I, a mere mortal, am not worthy to touch the luggage of the Pearl of the Moon.”
Trevelyan laughed then spoke softly to Nyssa. She answered him in Peshan, and Claire saw Trevelyan frown and shake his head. He began to talk to her, then Nyssa answered. Trevelyan talked more; Nyssa stamped her foot.
“What’s going on?”
Trevelyan kept talking to Nyssa and for a moment he didn’t answer Claire. “She wants her cup,” he said at last. “And I bloody well don’t want to get it for her.”
“What cup?”
Trevelyan started to speak, but Nyssa put her hand on his arm and looked up at him with pleading eyes. Claire was disgusted to see Trevelyan’s face soften. She’d never seen that look on his face before. He looked back at Claire. “It’s a gold cup. Jeweled. She brought it with her from Pesha and she says she won’t go with me unless she has it.”
“Where is it?”
Trevelyan shrugged. “Downstairs in a cabinet.”
It was on the tip of Claire’s tongue to say, “That’s that.” If this woman who called herself the Pearl of the Moon wouldn’t go without her cup and Trevelyan didn’t want to get her cup, then they’d just have to leave her where she was. Too bad. Claire had already started to look forward to the long carriage ride with this woman—that is, if one could look forward to insults and abuse.
Trevelyan read the look on Claire’s face. “Jack has been holding Nyssa prisoner in this room. He won’t allow her to leave it, even to walk in the park. She hasn’t seen sunlight in weeks. I think Jack plans to exhibit her like an animal.”
Claire looked at Nyssa. They were about the same height and probably about the same age, but they were very different in appearance. Claire had robust, healthy American good looks, with her pink skin and hourglass figure, while Nyssa was exotic looking, with her dark skin and small, delicate body. Nyssa was standing close to Trevelyan, leaning toward him, as though he could protect her.
“All right,” Claire said. “We’ll take her.”
Trevelyan turned and smiled down at Nyssa and said something to her. Nyssa’s dark eyes turned angry and she sat down on the cushion in front of the altar, her arms crossed over her chest. Trevelyan said something to her, then bent and picked her up. Nyssa started screaming. Trevelyan put his hand over her mouth but she bit his palm so that he half dropped her back onto the cushion.
“I will get her cup,” Claire said and started for the door.
Trevelyan caught her arm. “I know where it is,” he said heavily. “You stay with her. Pack some things for her. When I get back we’ll go.”
Trevelyan left Claire alone with Nyssa in the silk-draped room. Claire looked down at Nyssa, still sitting on her cushion, and Nyssa smiled at her. Perfect teeth. Of course, Claire thought, it was too much to hope that her teeth were black and rotten. Claire didn’t return the smile. “If you want to take anything with you, you’d better pack it. I’m sure that whatever I have won’t fit you. You’d never be able to fill out the top,” she said, looking pointedly at Nyssa’s small bosom.
Nyssa smiled again, and as though she understood, she got up and went to a carved and gilded chest against one wall of the room and began to remove garments. She put them in a large bag that was beautifully embroidered. When that was done, she took a little statue from her altar, dropped it into the bag, and went to sit on the cushion. She motioned to Claire to take a seat on another cushion but Claire walked away. It was difficult to feel comfortable with someone who had said your skin was the color of a frog’s belly.
Claire walked about the room and looked at the silks. She pushed them aside and looked out the window, trying to see the street. But there were bars on the window and all she could see was the side of the house next door.
It seemed a long time before Trevelyan returned and from under his coat withdrew a gold cup set all over with r
ubies. It wasn’t a very pretty cup, probably more valuable for its historic significance than for its artistic merit. Claire took the cup and held it up to the candlelight. Some of the rubies were of modern cut, some were mere lumps. All the edgings holding the stones to the cup were crude and misshapen. “Not exactly beautiful, is it?” she said.
Nyssa came to her feet and snatched the cup from Claire’s hand and gave the American an angry look.