Читать книгу The Discovery of Chocolate: A Novel онлайн | страница 21

This intrigued Montezuma, and he told me that he would be glad to provide a brooch, bracelet, necklace or staff that no other man had seen; holy objects, perhaps, from his religion: sacrificial bowls, daggers, statues, or even the smallest and most delicate of objects, a salamander encrusted with lapis.

His generosity and kindness seemed to have no end, and I found it hard to believe that this was the man whose reputation for cruelty and sacrifice stretched out across all these lands and into the approaching seas. I was forced to explain that, although grateful for his kindness, there would surely be many soldiers here who would hope to bring such objects back to Spain.

He then suggested that he should provide me with a small dwelling and a canoe, and that I could return to Spain to bring Isabella to live with me here. We could build a new life in Mexico.

I thought of the way we might live, and could not imagine a world in which Isabella and Ignacia could exist together.

‘You are thinking,’ he observed, ‘that nothing I can give will make you happy.’

I began to speak.

‘My great Lord. It is because I am distracted. There is a woman who makes what they call chocolatl in your service. If I could see her, the lady who turns your money into drink, then perhaps I could take such things home with me to show my lady.’

At this he laughed.

‘This is all that you require? Why not take the lady as your wife? I will give her to you.’

I explained that I did not believe that human beings could be bartered, and that people should only come together freely, not as animals to be exchanged for profit.

‘How then will the world survive?’ he argued. ‘Everything must be ordered. If we all did as we pleased there would be chaos. Even you must have a leader. We must be both leaders and the led.’

‘Even in matters of love?’

‘I think so,’ he insisted. ‘It is the best way in which to prevent dispute.’

‘Then love is a form of slavery?’

‘A slavery in which we willingly enter. What would you have me do?’