Free Torquemada by Howard Fast

cheese. Don’t you want to hear what happened?”
    â€œYou might as well finish,” Maria said.
    â€œWell, Carlotta called his mother a whore and his grandmother a whore and his great-grandmother a whore, and then she picked up that long knife she uses to cut the hard cheese, and she ran after him, all around that big table where they squeeze the curds, and then she saw me; but she didn’t stop running, Mother, she never stopped running and she never paused and she screamed at me, ‘Darling, you’re a grown woman. Otherwise I would never permit a thing like this, or a miserable wretch like this man in the same room with you.’ I mean, Mother, that she said something like that, but the astonishing thing was that she never stopped running and he never stopped running—”
    At this point Maria saw Alvero and went towards him. Catherine was laughing. She was laughing so hard now she was unable to speak. She ran to her father and kissed him, as Maria demanded.
    â€œWhere were you? The dinner will be cold and spoiled.”
    Now Alvero entered the gallery and saw Juan standing a little distance away. Catherine stopped laughing, let go of her father and went over to Juan. The three of them stared at Alvero now. There was a difference in him that could not be accounted for by the way he was dressed. He felt the difference and said to them, almost rudely, that it was time they ate.
    In the refectory, the meal was served and eaten almost in silence. This dining room was smaller than the gallery, austere in the manner of the time, and lit by a chandelier containing thirty candles. Alvero loved the plain white plaster walls and the dark woodwork that framed the walls. In the centre of one wall he had mounted a beautiful, round Moorish shield of brass – one of the finest pieces of brasswork he had ever seen, and which he himself had picked up on a battlefield twenty years before. The table was laid with white linen – as was always the case when they sat to dinner – and the plates were of silver, inlaid with gold. At this time, the knife and fork as twin table instruments had only newly been introduced to Spain. Those at Alvero’s table were of iron, but the spoons were solid gold in the manner of the time. Alvero himself was unable to eat. The very thought of placing food in his mouth was impossible to him, and when Maria commented that he was eating nothing, he said only that he had a different kind of hunger.
    â€œWhat happened today?” Maria demanded. “Where were you?” She would not be satisfied by the evasion of a question. She only repeated the question over and over again.
    â€œI was riding,” Alvero replied. Watching him closely, Catherine said that it was perfectly reasonable. She knew how much her father loved to ride and how he would use a horse to battle with whatever problems weighed upon him. Tuan was silent and uneasy, and now and again Catherine smiled at him and nodded her head to comfort him and reassure him. A family storm was brewing and Catherine pitied Juan for being caught in the centre of it.
    â€œYes, you were riding!” Maria exclaimed. “That answers everything, doesn’t it? You were riding. I don’t have to ask you where you were, what you did, who you saw. Your answer is that you were riding. You leave your food untouched and when I ask why, you answer me in riddles—”
    â€œOur whole existence is a riddle,” Alvero said softly. He was very thirsty. He emptied his wine glass and now Julio appeared and poured wine into the glass until it was full again.
    â€œWhat nonsense!” Maria snorted. “How can you speak such nonsense in front of Juan? We are a family. Juan is practically a part of our family. He came in and told us that your horse was wet and trembling with exhaustion.”
    â€œI ride hard!” Alvero snapped.
    â€œWhen we need you,” Maria said, “a horse takes the place