the Fourth Brigade, a handful of Americans in the Second.’ His nose wrinkled in horror as he sniffed the contents of one of the pots. ‘You’re probably not fussy about what you eat, are you?’
Stratton was used to people assuming that because he was a soldier he was uncultured. He would have been the first to admit that he was a long way from sophisticated but neither was he a total slob. ‘I’ll have what’s on offer,’ he replied.
‘I have become used to poor cuisine,’ said Victor, sniffing a piece of meat on a muslin-covered plate. ‘It is probably the greatest sacrifice I make by staying here and the one least appreciated by my comrades.’ He took a glass jug off a shelf, shook it upside down to remove any dust and held it out to Stratton. ‘Fill that, please,’ he said, indicating the bottles under the stairs.
Stratton inspected the tops of the huge bottles and found one that had already been opened. It was almost full and too heavy to lift easily so he tipped it onto the side of its wicker base and poured some of the velvet-red contents into the jug. He replaced the cork and brought the jug over to Victor who handed him a clay mug which he filled with the wine along with one for himself. ‘I suppose you don’t care what you drink, either.’
‘I know when a wine is corked,’ Stratton replied. ‘I just don’t mind drinking it.’
‘Ah. An honest Englishman.’ Victor was about to propose a toast but paused thoughtfully and scratched the several days’ growth on his cheeks. ‘I don’t know what to drink to. Today’s unforgettable past or tomorrow’s uncertain future . . . Let’s keep it simple. Santé.’
‘Cheers,’ Stratton said.
They took healthy swigs. Both men grimaced as they lowered their mugs.
‘That’s an interesting grape,’ Stratton offered, clearing his throat.
‘You think it’s made from grapes?’ Victor said, sarcastically. ‘My taste buds are ruined.’ He went back to preparing the food. ‘I was born not far from a vineyard that was overlooked by the Pyrenees. When I was a young boy I would sometimes sneak in and eat the grapes until I could hardly walk. I would lie and stare at the mountains and daydream of being an adventurer. They were Tannat grapes and when I grew up I preferred to drink the wine that was made from them. All my life I could recognise the smell of a Madiran from across a crowded room . . . I don’t think I could tell the difference between it and a glass of acid today.’
Stratton looked out of the window. The fire, left untended, was growing dim. The three Indians were sharing a meal at the big table. ‘What’s the story with them?’ he asked.
‘The old one is Yoinakuwa, and Kebowa and Mohesiwa are his sons,’ Victor said as he chopped vegetables. ‘They’ve been following me around for over three years now. I can’t get rid of them.’
‘That sounds like a complaint.’
‘It is and it isn’t, of course. Today was not the first time they’ve changed someone’s mind about attacking me.’ He put the vegetables into a pot. They sizzled immediately.
‘They just follow you around for no reason?’ Stratton asked, wondering what the rest of the story was.
Victor seemed reluctant to elaborate and drained the mug. Stratton refilled it and Victor continued with the story. ‘I came to this country five years ago as a jungle-canopy research scientist. You ever heard of the Nerugan nature reserve?’
Stratton shook his head.
‘It’s a hundred kilometres north-west of here, near the border. I was the station director. Yoinakuwa led the tribe that lived in the reserve. He was a king of his people. It wasn’t a huge tribe but big enough to have a king. King Yoinakuwa,’ Victor emphasised. ‘I like the way it rolls off the tongue.
‘A year or so before we built the facility, which was a couple of years after we began raising funds for the project, gold was discovered across the border. The subsequent frenzy spilled over into the reserve. We petitioned the government not to award any licences to mine the gold in the reserve and at first it looked as if we’d been successful. But we were naive. We should have guessed that if there was no official mining company it would leave the place wide open to illegal miners. They began coming in and setting up small camps all over the place. It didn’t affect us, not right away.