Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [22]
Buonaccorsi looked at him thoughtfully, through long-lashed, myopic eyes. ‘I suspect I am receiving a refusal. No, I cannot flatter you with the names of those who would have wished to meet you: they do not know you well enough as yet. Yes, this approach on their behalf is chiefly for national and commercial ends, although not only for those. I have not referred to pleasures other than those of the mind, but they are there to be had. Not that I have anything against the customs of Danzig.’
‘I’m glad,’ Nicholas said. ‘I find they suit me well enough. You may be reassured: I am not interested in the Mission, and it is unlikely to be interested in me. I find my imagination has been fired by the classical pleasures of seafaring. Theseus. Ulysses. Paúel Benecke. I thought I might go to sea with Paúel Benecke.’
‘I am sorry,’ said Buonaccorsi, without haste. He displayed no disapproval, other than sedately returning, in his next words, to the vernacular. ‘I heard your departure was sudden, but I thought we might still find …’
‘Common ground,’ Nicholas said.
The other man laughed. ‘Quite. But if your difficulty was a simple one, then perhaps I might still help. Was it over a woman, for example? According to my little Nerio, your lawyer Julius has an exceptional wife.’
‘Anna? No. That is, she is exceptional, but not my reason for leaving.’
‘So something more novel. You planned to murder the Pope?’ said Filippo Buonaccorsi.
Nicholas smiled. ‘Nothing so ambitious or so bold. I chose to end a family feud, and then leave.’
‘I see. Was it mortal? The family feud?’
‘Am I an assassin? Of course not: how crude. How can the quick satisfaction of murder compare with the effects of a well-designed war?’
‘And this, do I take it, is why you are estranged from the Mission? The Patriarch of Antioch will feel bound to denounce you?’
‘He might, if he knew anything of it. My activities are not public hearsay. I left because I didn’t wish them to become so. And, although I thank you, I am not in any difficulty.’
‘So you do not expect to see Anselm Adorne, or the Patriarch?’
‘I have no plans to meet them. On the other hand, if they enquire, it might be difficult to deny I am in Poland.’
‘Where men know you as Colà?’
‘And also as Nicholas de Fleury of Bruges. I left a note under that name with the Council to say that I am here, at your invitation, in Oliva.’
‘I see,’ said the other. He replaced the spectacles on his nose and looked mildly through them. ‘And I understand, I suppose. You are inviting King, traders and pirate to compete for your services. And also Burgundy and the Emperor?’
‘I have removed myself from both,’ Nicholas said. ‘And I am spying for neither. As for the rest, my preference is, as I mentioned, for Benecke, but I should also like to have freedom of movement. Nicknames outlive their uses.’
‘Naturally,’ Buonaccorsi agreed. His hands, freed, were reflectively tented. ‘A life at sea. A surprising choice. Of course, you have your mathematics. Navigation and the stars: you may explore some new realms of the mind. They say diviners can discover drowned men.’
‘They discover the coins in their purses,’ Nicholas said. ‘And, speaking of salvage … hoped I might be allowed, before I went, to look at the altar-piece.’
‘The altar-piece?’
‘Henne Memling’s “Last Judgement”. It came with the last of Paúel Benecke’s — appropriated — cargo. The Abbot won’t admit that it is here. You might persuade him.’
‘I haven’t been shown it myself,’ Buonaccorsi said. ‘Didn’t you see it being painted in Bruges?’
‘Everyone saw it,’ Nicholas said. ‘Everyone was in it, just about. The Saved and the Damned. Henne got all his drink free on the strength of it. I just wanted to check something for myself.’
‘What?’ said the Italian presently. The painting, on the Abbot’s wall, was gigantic; the gold glowed; the throng of nude figures gleamed.
‘It doesn’t matter. Tommaso Portinari. I’ve found him. I can die happy now. I wonder if these are for me?’
He had turned his head to the window, from beyond which could be heard the minor tumult of