The Winter Thief

3

“Can’t you paint us one at a time?” Huseyin asked irritably, catching his eight-year-old daughter Alev’s arm as she tried to rise from the sofa. “Stay here, my girl.”

“I’m bored,” Alev sighed, pulling at her lace collar.

“Me too,” her twin sister, Yasemin, chimed in, squirming against her mother, Feride. The girls wore matching dresses, their red hair gathered in satin bows. Feride was elegant in a white gown, a square of silk draped across her hair and pinned in place by a jeweled comb. Her face was long and pale with the cool repose of marble, her features finely chiseled, and her eyes the color of dark jade. When she looked at her husband and daughters, her eyes betrayed a fragility, as if she didn’t quite believe they were real. She embraced Yasemin and leaned across to lay a steadying hand on Alev’s knee, causing her to sigh crossly. Feride gave the artist a pleading look. “Can’t we take a break, Elif?”

“One more moment.” Elif bent closer to the easel, her blond hair falling forward and brushing her cheek. Her features were suspended in concentration, like a sculpture in bronze, revealing an unexpected immobility, possibly a hardness beneath her delicate beauty. Elif had sought refuge with her cousin Huseyin the previous year. An artist whose career had been cut short by marriage and the war in Macedonia, she had begun to paint again, but only landscapes, evocations of light and color, sea and sky. This was the first time she was attempting to capture people since her flight, since she had sketched her five-year-old son’s death mask by the side of the road with charcoal and the boy’s blood.

She stepped back from her easel and her expression eased. “There. You can all go now. I’ve done a sketch, so I won’t need you together as a group anymore. From now on, I’ll do individual portraits.”

“Better paint the girls while they’re sleeping,” Huseyin suggested, drawing both of his daughters onto his lap, where they leaned contentedly against his chest. Yasemin idly fingered the gold and diamond medallion that hung from a ribbon around his neck.

Alev broke free of her father’s embrace and sped across the room. “Uncle Kamil.”

“Wouldn’t it be simpler to have a photograph taken, brother-in-law?” Kamil asked with a laugh, bending down to embrace his niece.

“That advice would put all of us artists out of work,” Elif retorted. She didn’t look at him, but Kamil could have sworn the color rose in her face. She wore a cherry-colored tunic over wide pants, the eclectic, half masculine-half feminine style she had developed since arriving in Istanbul dressed as a man to aid her flight. Her golden hair was cut short as a boy’s and unadorned.

“A photographer would give me a portrait of the family I actually have instead of the glorious creation Elif is painting. Every one of us will be gorgeous. Especially my wife.” Huseyin reached over and tried to draw Feride onto his now-empty lap. Embarrassed, she struggled to get away. Huseyin planted a kiss on her cheek and let her go with a pat on her behind.

“Huseyin,” she scolded, her face red. Kamil thought she looked secretly pleased and wondered at the unfathomable mysteries of married lives.

Feride took a closer look at her brother and frowned. “You look as though you were in a brawl at the opera.”

He laughed. “Close enough. I was called from a formal reception last night to look into a case.”

“And I’ll bet you haven’t slept or eaten, my dear. Dinner will be ready in just a few moments.” Feride signaled the girls’ governess to take them to change their clothes.

Elif smiled at Kamil, then busied herself with her paintbrushes and easel.

“Can I help you carry these things?” Kamil and Elif had become close after her arrival. She had trusted him enough to confide the story of the deaths of her husband and son. He had tried to let her know how much he cared for her, but she had disappeared from his life into one of her own. This was the first time he had seen her in months.

“It’s good to see you,” Elif said, her voice low in her throat.

“And you. You’re looking well.” What he really wanted to say was that he missed her company. Instead he asked, “How are your classes?”

“The students are wonderful. I’m honored to be teaching them.” She snapped shut her paint box. “I have to go.” She gave no explanation but raised her hand for him to shake. He took her hand and kissed it, holding it against his lips a moment too long.

She averted her eyes and, when he released her, fled the room.

Feride swept up Kamil’s arm and led him into the dining room. Like the sitting room, it was dominated by enormous mirrors in gilded frames and still life oil paintings. Kamil wondered what Elif thought of the orchestrated scenes of fruits and flowers. They were masterly in execution, but very different from her own lively, impressionistic use of color. He found the pictures in his sister’s home fascinating in an awful way, so true to life, yet simultaneously barren. He was sure they expressed Huseyin’s taste, not Feride’s.

Huseyin was already seated at the head of the table. He wasted no time. “So, brother-in-law, I’m surprised you kept your trousers on in there. I thought you were going to explode with desire.”

“Huseyin, you’re impossible,” Feride scolded. “It’s hard to believe sometimes that I married you.”

“I know, my delicate flower. I’m a disappointment to you.”

Kamil tensed at what he feared might be an evening of bickering. He had always wondered why Feride had chosen Huseyin from among her suitors. He was a distant relation of the royal family’s, and very wealthy, but seemed to revel in his overbearing boorishness. Still, the previous year Huseyin had helped Kamil with one of his cases and shown himself to be a shrewd judge of character. When Kamil overlooked his brother-in-law’s ostentation and bad taste and his tendency to needle Feride, he managed to like him.

A servant placed a slice of spinach pie on his plate and a bowl of yoghurt beside it. The scent of the fresh-baked pastry reminded Kamil how hungry he was. Huseyin drank wine, as he did with almost every meal, but Kamil asked for water, which calmed him and cleared his mind.

He noticed a pin in Feride’s hair, a shower of teardrop-shaped rubies that winked in the light when she moved her head. The hairpin was more exuberant than his sister’s usual modest attire, and Kamil complimented her on it. Feride was a beautiful but reserved woman. He knew that she deeply desired the kind of close friendships she imagined other people had but held herself back. She had few real friends, though she kept up a hectic schedule of visits and activities with the women in her social circle. She had once complained to Kamil that they bored her to tears. Since their father’s death, she had become even sadder and more reserved. Only with Elif and on occasion with her husband had Kamil seen his sister open up. He remarked on and treasured any sign of joy in his sister’s life.

“It’s a gift from Huseyin,” she responded shyly.

“Only the very best for the very best,” Huseyin explained between bites. “What are you working on these days?” he asked Kamil.

“Is there something brewing in the city?” Kamil asked. “We’ve intercepted a cargo of weapons.” He refused a servant’s offer of wine but pushed his fork with relish into the next dish, charred eggplant cream topped with morsels of stewed lamb.

“On a British ship,” Huseyin added pointedly. “I know the British are arming terrorists in the provinces, but what are they thinking sending weapons like that to Istanbul? This is a city, not a desert sheikhdom. If you start shooting here, before you know it, you’ll have a pile of bodies so big it would fill the harbor. Don’t tell me Nizam Pasha has assigned this case to you.”

“He has. He wants me to find out who the shipment was for and its purpose.” The imperious and inscrutable minister of justice, Nizam Pasha, had made Kamil special prosecutor in charge of the investigation. Kamil was never sure whether these difficult assignments were a recognition of Kamil’s skill or an invitation to fail.

“More of these British games. They distribute fuel drop by drop, year after year, thinking no one notices, and then they hand out matches.” Huseyin drank from his glass, gave a satisfied grunt, and then turned his attention to his plate.

“Who would the British be arming here in Istanbul?”

“Sultan Abdulhamid suspects the Armenians of colluding with Russia. There are rumors of something going on in the Kachkar Mountains. Foreigners have been seen there, agitating the locals. They’ll be arming the villagers next. The Kurdish irregulars will put an end to it, one way or another.”

“What do you mean?” Feride asked, staring at her husband. “Are you saying they’ll just kill everyone and that will be the end of the problem?”

“Of course not, my delicate rose.” He reached out and laid his hand over hers. “We shouldn’t be discussing business over dinner.”

Feride pulled her hand away. “I find politics interesting, and I don’t like being treated as a child.”

Huseyin looked to Kamil for support. “Do I deserve this?”

“A rose with thorns, as you often put it,” Feride retorted, placing her napkin beside the plate and pushing her chair back as if preparing to leave the table. “Would you like me better if I were all soft petals?” Kamil could hear the hurt in her voice.

Huseyin reached out a restraining hand and said in a cajoling voice, “I like you the way you are, my wife, with both thorns and petals.”

“I agree with Feride,” Kamil interjected, hoping to ease the tension. “We have a well-trained army. Why send irregulars known for their brutality? They’re no better than bandits in the service of the state. If our Armenian subjects do revolt,” he warned, “it’ll be against the sultan’s heavy-handedness.”

“We don’t want the Kurdish tribes civilized,” Huseyin said, glancing at Feride, who sat stiffly but was following his words. “At least one of our knives has to remain sharp. Don’t be naïve, Kamil. The Russians have been trying for centuries to grab a piece of the empire. They took Artvin ten years ago, and now we have the border right up to our ass. These disturbances are taking place on our side of the border, in the Choruh Valley, where Armenians live. Of course the Russians are trying to extend their reach. They think we’re weak now. They think they can get another arm of the empire, and the Armenians will get a finger in return.” Huseyin speared a piece of meat and held it up. “And the British lie in wait under the table for the scraps.”

“That may be so,” Feride broke in, “but killing Armenian villagers isn’t going to make them loyal.”

“So what would make them loyal?” Huseyin growled. “Do you think there’s enough gold left in our treasury to buy them?”

“Most of them are loyal now,” Kamil pointed out.

“And if they feel respected and safe and that their children have a future,” Feride added, “then they’ll stay loyal.”

Huseyin stared at them incredulously, wineglass paused in midair. “I’m married into a family of fools.”

“Look more closely and you’ll find not foolishness, but wisdom,” Kamil, offended, told him.

Huseyin laid his hand across his heart. “I apologize.” He nodded at his glass. “Blame it on the grape or on a bad upbringing, but I have no control over my tongue. I would rather cut it out than say a bad word about my honored wife, whom I respect more than myself.” He looked into Feride’s eyes. “Am I forgiven?”

Feride lowered her eyes, then nodded briefly.

Huseyin turned again to Kamil. “Do you think the British are behind the weapons shipment?”

“It makes no sense,” Kamil observed. “If the British wanted to arm the Armenians on the Russian border, it would be much easier to send the weapons through Syria. Anyway, the British would never help the Armenians if that meant helping the Russians.”

“True enough. The British are devious, but not suicidal. The socialists, on the other hand, they’re an unpredictable lot.” Huseyin took another sip of wine.

“Socialists?” Kamil exclaimed. “Isn’t that rather far-fetched?”

“They have alliances all over Europe, so you’re not dealing with just Armenians or Greeks or Russians. You’re dealing with all of them, plus the Irish, the Americans, and Allah knows who else has swallowed their ridiculous ideas.” He held out his glass. “You should try this. It’s good. From my favorite vineyard in Ayvalik. If you like it, I’ll send you a case.”

It was a gesture of peace. Kamil allowed the servant to fill his glass and took a sip, then nodded his approval. He noticed Feride drinking deeply from her own glass and thought he saw the glint of tears in her eyes, but he didn’t know what to say. She would have to find her way in this marriage. He gave her a sympathetic smile, then turned back to Huseyin. “What’s the reaction in the palace to the weapons?”

“What do you think? Our great padishah has been convinced by his advisers that other nations have riddled us with spies like mold in a loaf of bread and that he needs a secret service to counter their influence. For now, the sultan has set up a new security force called Akrep as a branch of the secret police, but mark my words, Akrep is the first step in establishing a Teshkilati Mahsusa, a vast secret service like the one the British have.” Huseyin took another sip from his glass, letting the wine roll on his tongue before swallowing. So out of character, Kamil noted, for a man who devoured his food with wolfish abandon. “Akrep is going to ferret out these revolutionary cells, unlike the secret police who just spy on everybody and write reports. Akrep is going to go after these people, the Armenians, the Greeks, the socialists, and all their foreign collaborators.”

Any expansion of the secret police alarmed Kamil, much less the formation of a new security network reporting directly to the sultan.

“Akrep means scorpion. The scorpion that hides in your shoe,” Feride mused. “Or is it an acronym? Does it stand for something?”

“I have no idea.” Huseyin threw down his napkin and got up. He gave Feride a kiss on the cheek. “I’ve got to go. A meeting.”

“At this time of night?” Feride asked. Kamil saw the light go out in her eyes.

“Business is best conducted over a meal with raki, my dear wife. That way, your opponent’s brain is in his stomach and you can take advantage of him.” He patted his ample stomach. “I’ve already eaten, but that’s never been an impediment. I eat in the line of duty.”

“Take Vali, Huseyin,” Feride urged, referring to their driver. “I don’t like it when you go out drinking and use a hired carriage.”

“Wine is king and raki is queen, and a good marriage they make. Like ours.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Don’t worry, my rose.”

“When will you be home?”

“I’m not sure.” He kissed her again. “See you, brother-in-law.” Huseyin winked at Kamil and strode out of the room.

Kamil and Feride said nothing for a while, busying themselves with their coffee cups. Then Feride gave a self-conscious laugh and said, “You’ve resisted all my attempts to marry you off, dear brother. But maybe it’s better that way, to marry only when you’re tired of chasing about.”

“I don’t ‘chase about,’ Ferosh,” Kamil responded with mock indignation.

Feride wagged her head and intoned, “Everything reaches my ears.”

Kamil was glad to see a spark in her eyes. She laughed, revealing a row of pearllike teeth.

Then she surprised him by saying, “Elif needs time, brother. She looks happy enough with her art and she loves teaching. But she’s still mourning.” Feride twisted her napkin. “Her example makes me impatient with my own foolish fears.”

Kamil went to her side. He pulled his thumb across her forehead as he had done as a child to soothe her and was rewarded by a sad smile. “I’m always here, Ferosh.”