Read Online Dido by Adèle Geras - Free Book Online

hill to the palace – the heat was terrible now – she considered what needed to be done. Servants summoned. The bathhouse cleared and fresh water drawn from the wells and brought to the palace and then heated. Clothes prepared – the palace guards would have to donate spare uniforms if there were thirty men to be clothed. For Aeneas himself, a chieftain would have to be asked to contribute some suitable garment, or perhaps she might ask some of the architects, counsellors and hangers-on who always thronged the corridors of the palace. And there was a child. It was important to find the right person to look after this boy, who was probably confused and frightened and missing his mother. That pleasant-looking lad Maron would have done his best, but young children needed women to take care of them. Who had his mother been? Anna wondered – but this wasn’t the moment to become curious about this visitor’s life. There would be time enough to find out such details later.
    Dido turned to Anna as they reached the courtyard. ‘A banquet tomorrow, Anna. It’s much too late today, but we’ll have a splendid banquet tomorrow. Show these Trojans how we live in Carthage. Can that be arranged?’
    â€˜Certainly,’ Anna said, thinking: It’ll be hard. I’ll have to send at least a dozen people down to the market at first light. Warn them in the kitchens. Make sure the gold platters are polished, and the goblets too. ‘I’ll discuss food with the cooks. Boar? Lamb?’
    â€˜Both of those, but also, I think, peacock, if you can find it. It’s so pretty when the cooks dress the birds with their own feathers. Anna . . . do you see that man? Over there. He’s been following us up from the harbour. How can he wear such a long enveloping cloak in this heat?’
    Anna turned and looked around. The description was exact. Hades was here . . . Where was he? She tried to sound unworried but she could feel dread gripping her, freezing her as it had on the day Sychaeus was murdered.
    â€˜Where? I don’t see anyone. What colour cloak? You’re imagining things.’
    â€˜Don’t be silly.’ Dido had stopped in the middle of the path and stood quite still. She spoke slowly, as if she were in a dream-state. ‘Grey. A grey cloak. I’m not in the habit of imagining strange men. He’s so tall, Anna. You must see him. There, just in the shadow of the wall.’
    â€˜No, I’m sorry. Perhaps it’s a mirage.’
    What did it mean – that Dido could see Hades and she could not? Could it be that her sister was in danger? She offered up a prayer to Hera, the sister of Zeus.
    â€˜Never mind,’ Dido sighed. ‘He’s gone. I don’t knowhow or why but it’s too hot to worry about him, whoever he was. What were we talking about?’
    â€˜The banquet. I said I’d try to find peacock,’ Anna said, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘I can’t promise anything. Not with so little time.’
    â€˜Well, if anyone can do it, you can. And do come and consult about my robes for the banquet when you’ve finished dealing with everything else.’
    Not a word of thanks, Anna reflected. Does she realize what she sounds like? She shook her head. I’m used to it. She’s simply like that. She doesn’t mean anything bad by such behaviour. She thinks of me as a sort of extension of herself, and who in the whole universe ever thanked themselves? No one, that’s who.
    Anna went to find Elissa, who, she thought, might be a perfect nursemaid for the little boy. She wasn’t much more than a child herself, but kind and loving, and also sensible and a favourite with Dido. At least Aeneas’ son would have the very best of care.
    Mid afternoon; a small bedchamber
    Anna allowed herself to drift back to the present and leave behind her memories of Aeneas’ arrival. She could see, through the small