‘I don’t really make decisions,’ he confessed. ‘Not in that way. I do things step by step, depending on what seems right at the time. I left my birthplace near Bath to go to Oxford to study, and then on to London. And then I travelled to Toledo, where every scholar in Christendom wants to be for its translation schools. Then, when under your sponsorship I unearthed the story of your family’s past, I felt I had to travel to Cordoba to meet you in person. And so on.’

She waved a hand. ‘This is how the young plot their lives. You think you will live for ever; you think the future is full of endless possibility. So you follow impulses. You aren’t old enough yet to understand that each choice you make in life in fact shuts as many doors for you as it opens.’

He felt put down by that; he had expected more gratitude, perhaps, for his loyalty. ‘Well, lady, I have come across a trail of unanswered questions that I feel it’s my duty to follow, regardless of where it may lead. That is not impulse, it’s scholarship. And it is my instinct too,’ he said boldly, ‘to be at your side in the coming adventure.’

She looked him over. ‘So sweet,’ she murmured. And she cupped his cheek.

His flesh burned where she had touched it. But she had patted him like a child, not a lover. He turned to his mule, which seemed to look at him with sympathy, though it still resisted Peter’s every attempt to climb on its back.

The caravan set off. There wasn’t a single wheeled vehicle; everything and everybody was loaded on the back of a mule or a horse or a camel - even the magnificent Subh, who rode a delicate palfrey as if she had been born in the saddle.

They bumped their way out of Cordoba, met up with more mules and their drivers, and the caravan formed up for its passage along the banks of the Guadalquivir south-west to Seville - Ishbiliya - for the great river passed through both cities. The muleteers took over now, weather-beaten men with ragged clothes and faces like leather. They walked beside their lead mules, and the chiming of the bells around the animals’ necks rose up into the dense, still air.

Peter looked back at the city as it receded, wondering if he would come this way again. Its walls were battered after the long months of siege, and the flags of Christ fluttered over its gates. But still the Roman bridge arched handsomely over the glimmering river, and when the muezzin calls sounded all the party paused to turn to the east and pray, all save Peter himself, who contented himself with the devotions of his childhood.

VIII

VIII