In the Palace of the Khans Read Online Free PDF Page B

the conversation.”
    â€œI tell him he choose you for your name because it is difficult to say,” she said, still pouting theatrically.
    â€œI hate my name, if you want to know,” Nigel said, speaking a little slower than usual. “I look like a Nigel, I sound like a Nigel, I am a Nigel. And Ridgwell only makes it worse. I wish I’d been called Terry or Wayne or Darren or something. I’m Nick at school, but I can’t be at home because that’s what everyone calls my dad. Actually he’s even more of a Nigel than I am.”
    She’d stopped pouting, and was just looking at him now, almost in the same way her father had done, but without the purr of power. She had a green headscarf framing a face that wasn’t exactly pretty, but interesting, slightly pudgy and browner than her father’s, with heavy jet-black eyebrows and long eyelashes. Her eyes were dark and lively. She was wearing a loose, patterned green dress with a skirt that reached to her ankles.
    â€œTerry is nice name,” she said thoughtfully.
    â€œOK. Terry it is. Terry and Taeela. We sound like a circus act. It’s all right, sir. I shan’t ask her to wear spangled tights.”
    The President actually chuckled.
    â€œThe eunuch would certainly disapprove,” he said.
    There seemed to be a sort of relief in his tone, as if he’d been waiting to see what his daughter would make of this new toy he’d given her. It took Nigel a moment to realize what he’d actually said.
    â€œEunuch, sir? I thought …”
    â€œThere are still a few eunuchs in isolated parts of the Middle East and Islamic Africa. Here the last khan was not deposed by the Russians until nineteen thirty-seven. Fohdrahko was born in nineteen twenty-six, he believes. He will be with you all the time you are with my daughter. Do not pity or patronize him, Nigel. It is the custom. It gives him purpose. He is also, by the way, highly intelligent. Now I must go. Someone will come to fetch you to my office at twelve fifteen.”
    He turned and left.
    Nigel half expected Taeela instantly to turn the TV back on. He must have glanced towards it, because she shook her head and pointed up over his right shoulder. He turned and saw a closed circuit camera mounted up in a shadowy corner of the ceiling.
    â€œMy father see me all the time,” she said with an exaggerated sigh. “You make him laugh. What do you say to him? A circus, yes? I know circus. Elephants and tigers, yes?”
    â€œAnd acrobats and clowns and trapeze artists.”
    â€œTrapeze? I do not know this.”
    â€œUm. Trapezes. They are just bars of wood, swinging from ropes, high up in the air. Taeela holds onto one …”
    He raised his arms and gripped an imaginary bar, then mimed the actions with his hands, as if he’d been wearing glove-puppets
    â€œâ€¦ and Terry holds on to the other with his knees, so he’s upside down. They’re wearing glittery tights, close to their bodies. They get the swings going. Together, apart. Together, apart …
    â€œNow Taeela lets go of her swing and flies through the air. Terry catches her. And now they are both swinging from Terry’s trapeze. I told your father I wouldn’t make you wear glittery tights. He said—I don’t know his name—Foh-something …” he nodded towards the eunuch sitting on his stool by the door, “… Your father said he would not approve of tights.”
    â€œFofo!” she said, laughing delightedly. “No, he does not approve!”
    She called to the eunuch and he rose from his stool and came over.
    â€œThis is my friend Fofo,” she said. “He lives in the palace very long time. He knows many, many secrets.”
    Nigel held out his hand and the old man took it, but instead of shaking it he raised it to his lips and kissed it gently. It was a very expressive gesture, formal but at the same time warmly