Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [202]
Julius.
Chapter 28
‘JULIUS.’
Trained to dissemble — caught, indeed, in the act of sustaining one of the most difficult deceptions of his life — Nicholas brought out the name with a flatness he could not prevent, his brain having no surplus capacity. Then the flood of calculation was over, and he was able to register the bonhomie on Julius’s face, and the cheerfulness in his voice, and produce words of his own that sounded normal.
‘Julius, you bastard! I thought you were going to Caffa? Anna isn’t here: she decided to wait for you. Come in and sit. Are you better?’
And as Julius, entering fully, eased himself grinning down to the cushions, Nicholas added, ‘I don’t seem to have made a very good job of getting rid of you. You look well enough for another ten years, if you give up competition archery’ And Julius, agreeing amiably, hit him a reasonably painful blow in return. After which, Nicholas opened the wine, and kept pouring.
Julius did in fact look little different. Perhaps the high cheek-bones were sharper, the handsome body less mobile, but the oblique stare was the same, if a little more lingering. He was rested, for he had been here for several days. He’d come to Tabriz the day after Nicholas left, but decided to wait for him. My God, Nicholas was well in with the prince: he should see where Julius was staying, in the stinking canosta. But of course, Nicholas had the benefit of his spiritual friend: how was Father Ludovico?
Father Ludovico, who had after all given Julius’s wife his protection all through Julius’s absence, and helped her establish in Caffa, opined that it was late, he was tired, and they would no doubt encounter one another next day. He then returned to his prie-dieu while Julius, half rising, sat down again beside Nicholas in a temporary fashion, refilled his cup in an absent manner and said, ‘All right, I’m going, but tell me. You’re about to get hold of the gold, and Anna says you’ll invest it with us? I won’t say I’m not pleased — business hasn’t done as well as I’d hoped — but you did owe me something, you murdering brat. I was only hoping it would come in time for Anna to join us. But I suppose she’s better staying in Caffa. I’d rather get the gold home overland than trust it to the Middle Sea and all those bloody bandits.’
‘Such as the Knights of St John,’ Nicholas said. ‘You heard Ochoa died?’ He emptied and filled his own cup, to keep level.
‘He was always going to die. Like Benecke,’ Julius said. ‘You should be glad Anna made you see sense and go east with her. She’s all right? She’s a good business-woman. You’ll have noticed.’
‘I’m surprised she let you come to Tabriz on your own,’ Nicholas said. ‘What are you supposed to be doing? Supervising my deals with Uzum Hasan?’
‘Have you made any? Anna reckons,’ Julius said, ‘that he’s going to need weapons if he’s going to face an attack from this son. And he won’t get them from Venice: not for a family quarrel, and when Venice needs them herself. Whereas I can get them with a much better margin from the Tyrol and Germany, unless Venice stops the delivery.’
‘They won’t,’ Nicholas said. The Patriarch, his eyes glaring, was praying louder.
‘Why not?’ asked Julius. He gave an intent grin, and got up.
‘Because they don’t want Uzum to give way before a Turkish army with his own son helping to lead it. It’s what Caterino Zeno was afraid of. That’s why I was bribed to come and sell non-Venetian arms to Uzum against the wishes of Venetian arms merchants. You don’t need to do any deals with Uzum Hasan: you just leave that to me.’
Julius’s face looked, for a moment, the way Nicholas had felt half an hour before. Julius said, ‘So when are you seeing him?’
‘I’ll tell you,’ said Nicholas.
He accompanied Julius to the door, exchanging scraps of news mixed with banter: of Anna’s conquests in Caffa, and Nicholas’s ridiculous life as a Mameluke. Julius, straying on to the subject of the lunacy of Duke