Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [104]
In Cologne, heart of the quarrel, lay the tenantless business of Julius. In Flanders, working the last of their official contract, lay the mercenary army of the Banco di Niccolò, as yet without new direction. They talked all day, and in the end, were reduced to silence by the unanswerable arguments of Gelis.
‘I have practised with Julius in Cologne. I have worked with Diniz in Bruges, and seen how the army is managed. I have heard my husband’s schemes and hopes for the company. Let me go to the Flemish Bank, and help them devise what to do for the soldiers and Julius. We may be separate concerns, but we all need to support each other now.’
They agreed, in the end. The orders were given that would transfer her household, her staff and her child north-west to Flanders, and turn her face from her husband, not towards him. When the meeting was over, she asked Tobie to come to her room.
‘Will you come to Bruges? Or will you stay?’
She knew what she was asking. This time, he had not been idle in Venice: his uncle’s printing-presses were almost ready, and so were the experiments, so long delayed, that he intended to publish. He thought that, on the whole, he would not mind leaving them for a while, to see Moriz again, and Diniz and John. He had another reason as well, which he thought he shared with the lady of Beltrees, although he approached the subject with caution.
‘The letter from Katelijne.’
‘Yes?’ He was the only one, apart from herself, who had read it through. Her tone indicated that he was not to presume on it.
Tobie said, ‘Are you going to the Bosco del Montello before you leave Venice? She said the vicomte de Fleury was there. Adorne’s son had seen him, and told Julius.’
‘I haven’t forgotten,’ she said. ‘But he is Nicholas’s grandfather, not mine.’
He persevered, as carefully as he knew how. ‘Jodi has no one else.’
‘I hardly think,’ Gelis said, ‘that a speechless, paralysed old man could do anything other than terrify Jodi, or be terrified himself, for that matter, if someone saw fit to badger him about his dead daughter, poor man. It has occurred to you that the truth about Nicholas’s birth may be very nasty indeed?’ She looked at him, with an exasperation that was not wholly unkind. ‘Unless you’ve decided, with Kathi and Anna, that we should all forgive him, and take steps to fabricate his birthright? Have you found it possible to overlook what Nicholas did?’
‘No one could,’ Tobie said. ‘The theory is that a good woman might redeem him.’
‘I am afraid,’ Gelis said, ‘that I don’t know any such.’ She waited. ‘But Clémence thinks otherwise?’
‘I haven’t discussed it with her,’ said Tobie. ‘I speak as a doctor. I dislike the idea of an old man dying neglected because his grandson has gone. According to Kathi, Nicholas supported him.’
‘So why should he have stopped? Arrangements are easy to make, and Nicholas is hardly in want.’
‘I hear otherwise,’ Tobie said. ‘I think someone should make sure the money is there.’
‘You hear otherwise? From whom?’ Gelis said. When he didn’t reply, her tone softened. ‘Tobie, he may have lost his income, but somewhere, Nicholas must have salted away all his past profits. By now it will be ten times as much as I’ve given the Bank. Wherever he is, Nicholas is rich.’
‘You may be right,’ Tobie said. ‘It doesn’t matter. But you wouldn’t mind if I went to see the old man and made sure? I would pay his dues myself. You have done more than enough.’
‘I should mind very much,’ Gelis said. ‘If anyone goes, then I do. If anyone pays, then it is someone of Jodi’s blood. If anyone hears the truth, then —’
She broke off, perhaps before the look on his face. Tobie said, ‘I know the truth about his other son, and I don’t remember anyone doubting my discretion. But if you don’t want me to go, then I shan’t.’ He hadn’t meant to insult her. He felt as she did about Nicholas: thinking about him revived all the nausea. Neither he nor Gelis, as yet, had attained even the limited tolerance of Kathi and Anna. Tobie felt responsible for the old man, that