Niccolo Rising - Dorothy Dunnett [221]
Only neither Felix nor Nicholas had come back by the beginning of June, and Tilde hoped they wouldn’t stay away long. She had a new robe, since the old ones were burnt, and they had to put buckram into it. But of course her mother wasn’t talking of husbands at the moment, for husbands meant dowries, and the company had to be set on its feet first. And although at times she looked pale, and spoke sharply because she was working so hard, her mother had said, just the other day, how well everything was going: just as Nicholas planned. Tilde had thought then she would talk about suitors, but instead she just got up and left the room.
The Adornes also spoke about Nicholas, but not so freely, since Anselm and his wife were not in perfect agreement over the scheme which drew them and the young man together. But when outside his home, Anselm Adorne spent a good deal of time on the subject, especially when among the Doria and Spinola in the Genoese consulate.
In the Medici establishment, Angelo Tani and Tommaso his under-manager received the Widow’s representatives and proved to be actively helpful in the matter of loans, and forbearing in the face of indebtedness, as Nicholas had said they would be. They also, from time to time, requested news from Jacques and Lorenzo Strozzi on the progress of the Milanese ostrich. For news of the ostrich, Lorenzo Strozzi had taken to relying on Katelina van Borselen’s little sister. According to the last letter from Brittany, the ostrich was still alive but impounded, and could not be set on board ship until a legal case had been settled.
Gelis van Borselen, who found it necessary to visit Bruges a great deal at this time, and who was a frequent caller at the Hôtel Jerusalem and at Spangnaerts Street, had summoned Lorenzo Strozzi to her father’s house to hear that bit of Katelina’s letter. She thought Lorenzo Strozzi moody but romantic. He had sworn never to marry, they said, until he had a business of his own. She looked forward to several more talks about ostriches.
About the rest of the letter from Katelina she said nothing, either to her parents or to Lorenzo. It was the first to come from Brittany since Nicholas married the old woman. But when Gelis burst the wax and flattened it, there was nothing about Nicholas and the wedding at all, because her letters hadn’t reached Katelina. Nor had anyone else’s. Some ship must have sunk.
She would have to write it all down again. And this time add the news about the mysterious fire at the Charetty, and how Nicholas had run off south three days later, and how the Charetty boy had disappeared. Not been killed in a joust (which, as Nicholas himself pointed out, he would be blamed for), but simply sent out of Bruges and never seen again. For which, of course, no one could blame Nicholas at all.
That was the person she and Katelina had taken all that trouble to fish out of the canal on Carnival night. Katelina should never have taken him home. It wasn’t as if Katelina was married yet. And if she wasn’t careful, her reputation would get spoilt, and even Guildolf de Gruuthuse would start looking elsewhere. From what she wrote, the court in Brittany was as bad as courts anywhere, with Duke Francis and the King of France sharing the same mistress. Antoinette somebody. Katelina spoke as if she saw her all the time. Mind you, she was probably a relief from the old Duchess, the Scottish king’s sister, who sounded bad-tempered as well as dim-witted, and wouldn’t go home to be married to anyone else now her husband was dead.
Katelina said the court was full of Scotsmen calling to try and get the rest of the old Duchess’s dowry, which had never been paid. Katelina said that Jordan de Ribérac had come to court one day on business of the French king, who owed him money and who relied on him for everything. Katelina said that Jordan de Ribérac often rode through to the coast to check over