The little girl gurgled when she saw the old lady. Madam Anastasia gently stroked her face.
Lokman took the baby from her old, purple hands. ‘Come on, little Zoe,’ he said. ‘Time to leave Grandmama to rest.’
‘She . . . so . . .’
The old woman’s eyes moistened. ‘She has Yiannis Bey’s mouth,’ Lokman said. ‘And his eyes.’
‘Yes, but his m-m-m . . .’
‘Sssh! Sssh!’ Lokman rocked the baby on his knee. ‘Madam, Dr Ariadne didn’t suffer, honestly! Dad said that when she’d had the baby she got up too quickly. She fell down and hit her head on the edge of the birthing platform. It was an accident. It was stupid not just to get the police then but—’
‘Centuries of . . . secrets . . .’
‘Yes.’
The baby gurgled.
‘And another one here,’ Lokman said. ‘Daughter of a Negroponte, born to the Purple.’
‘With royal blood . . .’ The old woman smiled.
‘Through her mother. Yes,’ Lokman said. ‘The first Byzantine princess born to the Purple for over five hundred years.’
‘And she will . . . she will rule again,’ Madam Anastasia Negroponte said with pride.
But Lokman just smiled. Then he took Yiannis Negroponte and Ariadne Savva’s baby back to his wife.
Land of the Blind Page 37
