“Are you going to continue talking about me as if I am not here?” I demanded.

“Curbing her tongue would surely be a difficult task for anyone,” said the mansa. “Some of that cream, if you will, Catherine. As you put on yours. I want to try it. Andevai, you have not touched your cup.”

“No, Mansa.” He picked up the cup, looked at it, and set it down without drinking.

“You don’t eat enough,” added the mansa, “as I have had cause to observe.”

“I tell him the same thing,” I said promptly. “Would you prefer tea, Husband?”

He shot me an accusing look, and the mansa actually chuckled.

Blessed Tanit protect me! A few more steps down this road and I might start believing it was possible to like him, the cunning architect of our prison! Perhaps it was only coincidence or perhaps Noble Ba’al saw fit to remind me that I stood garbed in false clothes in the palace of my enemy, for a rumble like thunder drifted in the distance.

Vai leaped to his feet.

The mansa rose. “See to your family, Andevai. I want them on the road within the hour.”

As I held away the curtain for him to leave, I puzzled at the blue sky, where I saw not a trace of storm cloud.

“How can it be thundering?” I said to Vai.

“It’s not thunder. It’s cannon.”

Servants hurried in. They stripped the table bare with the speed of locusts. A manservant appeared with a fresh set of clothing, including a brown-and-gold dash jacket I hadn’t seen since we’d had to abandon most of Vai’s garments in Adurnam.

“Gracious Melqart, Vai! How did you get your clothes back?”

Vai stepped behind a screen to dress. “The mansa had them delivered to me one day. I admit, I was surprised. I had riding clothes made for you, love, so we can go out today.”

A woman helped me into a split skirt cut in an exceedingly practical and flattering style with buttons down the front, and a long jacket in an amber-brown challis. Expensive calfskin gloves and a saucy hussar’s shako crowned by a jaunty feather completed the ensemble, although it was Vai’s smiling admiration that made me preen.

We traversed the garden on a path of white gravel through a stand of ornamental fruit trees. Bintou and Wasa sat on a bench by a fountain, playing with an adorable puppy that licked their faces as they giggled. They were wearing new clothes, neatly made and brightly colored.