"Can you see yourself through my eyes?" There was an earnestness in her face, as if she badly wanted not to doubt him.
"No, how do you see me?" he asked gently.
"I see a Frankish warrior, fair of hair and face." She turned and looked directly at him, then quickly cast her eyes down. "Good looking enough, for a Frank." She gestured toward his knee, encased in scarlet silk. "You show a handsome leg in your new hose."
Why, she cares for me! He felt a little leap of delight, and reminded himself that he must not let himself be drawn to Sophia.
"You and the Turks call all men from western Europe Franks," he said. "But my parents were not from France, but of English descent."
"You could go back to France or England with your jewels and buy a castle and lands and an army of retainers and live like a little king. And forget all about Islam and the Tartars."
He did not want to argue with her. He wanted to reach out and touch her lips with his fingertips.
"I consider myself blessed by God to have been raised amid the glories of Egypt rather than in ignorance and dirt among those you call Franks."
She nodded. "We Greeks think the people of Arabia and Egypt are the only other civilized people in the world. Almost as civilized as we Greeks." She said the last with a smile, and he noticed that her cheeks dimpled.
He laughed. "What makes you so civilized?"