"Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - Olivia 1 - A Flame in Byzantium" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yarbro Chelsea Quinn)

ways," said Niklos, once again looking toward the shadowed room that joined the vestibule.
"Romans, luckily, are expected to be impulsive and capricious. Didn't that dreadful Andros Trachi tell
me so at length?" She was moving restlessly once more. "Everyone knows that we can accept no city but
Roma as home, and that for us she is the center of the earth."
Niklos followed her as she rushed into the larger of the two reception rooms that opened onto the
vestibule. "Nevertheless," he persisted, "don't be too condemning. We are here on sufferance, and from
what I can tell, we are not going to be accorded too much of that."
"Yes; yes. But from what I have seen, a mere widow, with or without a fortune, is hardly worth any
attention, and one from Roma is little more than an amusement. It's our manner, you know, and our lack
of propriety." There was not much annoyance in the tone of her voice, but the expression on her face was
enough to make Niklos change the subject.
"Will you accept the invitation of Antonina? She is determined to fulfill her obligations to you for
Belisarius' sake, if not your own. She has said she will introduce you to the best society of the city."
"And who can guess why," said Olivia as she made a swift inspection of the changes that were being
wrought in the room. "I suppose we have to have those dreary Saints everywhere, don't we? I already
asked for an ikonostasis in my private roomsтАФso it will be understood that I am piousтАФis it really
necessary to have another, do you think?"
 "The Emperor is a religious man, and his court follows his example," Niklos pointed out. "And you are
a sensible woman."
"At my age, I had better be," she said, and laughed again, this time with genuine mirth. "Very well; see
that we have another screen to load up with bad art, and a few more of those horrid hanging braziers for
incense. And while you are being so protective, send a messenger to Antonina. I will call upon her later
this afternoon if she is receiving anyone."
"And if she is not?" inquired her majordomo.
"Then discover when she is prepared to have my company for an hour or so, and we will then arrange
things to that purpose." She shrugged. "I suppose I must do this eventually: why not now?"
Niklos did not answer, but his relief was apparent in the speed with which he carried out his orders.
By the time the slave had been sent as a messenger to the enormous house of Belisarius, Olivia had
completed her rounds of the house she had purchased and was ready to dress for the forthcoming visit.
Since her last banquet in Roma, she had continued to choose subdued clothing and modest-but-costly
ornaments to wear, sensing that this would offset some of the adverse attitudes the Byzantines had
toward Romans.
Still, she balked at the enclosed palanquin that Niklos had arranged for her transportation to
Belisarius' house. "I don't like being enclosed," she said as Niklos assisted the slaves in drawing the
draperies around her.
"You are in Constantinople, and women of good reputation do not show themselves on the street
except in going to the hippodrome and the market squares. The penitential processions also require that
all women show themselves, but cover their faces for the Sin of Eve and the Fall of Man." He was stern
with her, needing her to use her wits more than she had been willing to do.
"I might as well immure myself and be done with itтАФand I have done that already and found it
appalling." She pulled the silken hanging closed with her own hands. "If I do not speak to you when I
return, it is your own fault, Greek."
Since Olivia only called Niklos Greek when she was displeased with him, he did not respond, but
stepped back and permitted the bearers to start off with their Roman burden.
Belisarius' house was one hill overтАФalthough Olivia refused to think of such bumps as hillsтАФand in a
street that was made narrow with the extensive reconstruction and rebuilding that was the passion of
Justinian. By the time the bearers set the palanquin down, they were sweating and blowing hard as dray
beasts for the added effort of lifting the vehicle around the heaps of masonry and over piles of rubble that
littered the streets increasingly as they neared the palace of the Emperor and his most ambitious
projectтАФthe expansion of the Basilica of the Most Sacred Wisdom.