“I’m not quite sure yet. It’s a long story. Let’s say I’m here for research.”
“I’m sure you will find whatever you are seeking. Our city has many richnesses: leather, rubber, cotton, wool, silk, oils, fisheries. Perhaps if you tell me what you are seeking, I can touch you with the local merchants.”
Daldry did his best to keep a straight face.
“Oh, that’s not why I’m here. I don’t know the first thing about running a business. I’m a painter.”
“You are an artist?” asked Can, clearly excited by the idea.
“I don’t know if I’d go that far. Let’s just say I can use a paintbrush.”
“What do you paint?”
“Oh, crossroads, mostly.” Can looked perplexed, so Daldry explained himself further. “Intersections, if you prefer.”
“No, I don’t prefer. But I can show you our amazing crossroads in Istanbul, if it pleases you. I know crossroads for people, carts, trams, automobiles, dolmu . . . Whatever you are seeking.”
“Yes, well, why not? But I’m not really here for that either.”
“Well then?”
“Well then, like I said, it’s a long story. What about you? What do you do for a living?”
“I am a guide and translator. The best in Istanbul. When I turn my back, the bartender will say no, but this is because he makes a little business saying that. He is getting baksheesh from the other guides. With me, no bribe. I have a standard. In Istanbul it is impossible if you are a tourist or in business affairs with no guide. And, like I tell you, I am—”
“The best in Istanbul. I haven’t forgotten.”
“Yes, my repetition precedes me,” said Can, brimming with pride.
“Well, I may be in need of your services.”
“You should choose carefully. Finding a good guide is very important in Istanbul. I don’t want you regretting this. I have only satisfied customers.”
“Why would I choose somebody else?”
“Because later this bartender will be saying very bad things on my back, and maybe you will want to believe in him. But you have not told me what you are researching.”
Daldry saw Alice come out of the lift and walk across the lobby toward the bar.
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” said Daldry as he stood. “You’re right. I need to think carefully about this. Meet me here tomorrow at breakfast. Let’s say eight o’clock. No—eight’s a little early with the time change. Let’s say nine. And if you don’t mind, let’s meet somewhere else. Perhaps in a café.”
Can noticed that Daldry spoke with increasing speed as Alice approached, and he smiled knowingly. “I have had many foreign clients in my past. There is a tearoom, very nice, very pleasurable, Rue Istiklal, number 461. Tell the taxi driver ‘Markiz.’ It is a big classic. Everybody knows it. I will wait for you there.”
“Perfect. I’m sorry but I have to leave now. See you tomorrow.” He hurried over to meet Alice as she came into the bar.
Can stayed planted on the barstool and watched Daldry take Alice into the hotel dining room.
“I thought you might prefer to eat here this evening. You seemed a bit worn out after our trip,” said Daldry as they took their seats.
“Oh, not really,” said Alice. “I slept on the plane, and it’s only two hours later here than in London. I just can’t believe it’s already dark outside.”
“The sudden change in time is one of the exhausting things about traveling in aeroplanes, I’ve been told. I understand if you feel like sleeping in tomorrow morning.”
“That’s kind of you, but the evening hasn’t even begun. I probably won’t need to.”
The headwaiter brought them the menu. It featured woodcock and local seafood from the Bosporus. Alice didn’t like game and decided upon a fish called a lüfer, but Daldry insisted that they try the local langoustines, which he had heard were exceptional. The waiter enthusiastically agreed.
“To whom were you speaking just now?”
“The waiter?” asked Daldry, reading the wine menu with unusual concentration.
“No, I meant the man at the bar. When I came down, the two of you seemed to be having a conversation.”
“Him? Some tourist guide who drums up clientele by hanging around here. He told me he was the best in Istanbul, but his English is rather odd.”
“Do we even need a guide?”
“It might be useful for the first few days. It could save us some hassles down the line. A good guide would know where to find the plants or essential oils you’re looking for and might be able to take us to lesser-known areas in the countryside as well.”
“You haven’t hired him already, have you?”
“We hardly spoke to one another . . .”
“Daldry, the lift is made of glass, I could see the two of you before I’d even arrived on the ground floor.”
“He was trying to convince me to hire him and I was listening to his pitch. But if you don’t like him I can always ask the concierge to find us somebody else.”
“I just don’t want to waste your money on something we don’t need. I’m sure that if we go about things systematically we’ll be fine on our own. We should just try to find a Baedeker’s. We may get lost from time to time, but at least we won’t be forced to make conversation with a perfect stranger.”
The langoustines were everything the waiter had promised they would be. Daldry was now toying with the idea of ordering a second dessert.
“Carol would be green with envy if she saw me in this gorgeous dining room,” said Alice as she sipped her first Turkish coffee. “To a certain extent, it’s thanks to her that I’ve come all this way. She was the one who insisted that I talk to that fortune-teller.”
“To Carol, then,” said Daldry, improvising a toast.
“To Carol.”
They clinked glasses.
“And to your mystery man,” said Daldry, lifting his glass a second time.
“To the perfume that will make you a rich man,” countered Alice, taking a second sip of her wine.
Daldry glanced at the couple seated at the table next to theirs. The woman wore a stunning black evening gown. Daldry thought she looked a bit like Alice.
“Who knows, maybe you have some distant relatives in the region.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“Weren’t we talking about the fortune-teller? She told you that your family was from Turkey, didn’t she?”
“Would you drop that? That part of her story made no sense. My parents were both English and my grandparents were as well.”
“Sometimes there are a few forgotten branches on the old family tree. Most of my family is from Kent, but I have a Greek uncle and a distant cousin from Venice.”
“Well, there’s nothing more plain and British than my family. Apart from Aunt Daisy, who lives on the exotic Isle of Wight.”
“To be fair, you did say that Istanbul felt familiar to you when we arrived earlier today.”
“It was my subconscious taking over. Ever since we first started talking about this trip, I’ve been poring over the brochure and imagining what Istanbul would be like.”
“I looked at the brochure a fair amount myself and I can’t say that the photographs of the Hagia Sophia and the Bosporus reminded me much of the neighborhoods we were driving through on our way from the airport.”
“Oh, please. Do you really think I look like a Turk?” asked Alice, trying not to laugh.
“Well, you are rather dark for an Englishwoman.”
“You just say that because you’re as pale as they come. You’re positively anemic.”
“That’s a nice way to talk to a hypochondriac. Keep it up and I’ll pass out right here in the restaurant.”
“Come on. Let’s go for a walk. A constitutional would do us some good. You ate like a pig.”
“What are you talking about? I ordered the lightest dessert on the menu.”
They walked for several minutes down the broad avenue that ran past their hotel. It was completely dark, apart from the streetlamps casting their feeble glow on the paving stones and the solitary cyclopean beams of the streetcars raking through the blackness.
“Tomorrow I’ll go to the British Consulate to see about getting us an appointment.”
“What on earth for?”