Niccolo Rising - Dorothy Dunnett [275]
Julius grinned. He said, “Have you seen Nicholas putting up with a beating? It’s genuine.”
“Oh, he puts up with it, at the time,” Tobie said. “But what if he doesn’t immediately forget it, as you seem to think? What if every slight, every punishment is being quietly registered, because he is really a different sort of person altogether?”
“I’ve wondered,” said Gregorio.
“Yes. So have I,” said Tobie. “Is he what he seems? And then, from wondering, I started to notice things. The chief being this: whom friend Nicholas dislikes, it seems to me, friend Nicholas kills.”
Julius stopped eating. Gregorio said, “Yes. I think we should talk about it.”
The warm weather had brought in all the flies. Julius batted them away, and untied and flung off his jacket and unhooked the top of his doublet and turned to Tobie and said, “Now what are you talking about?”
The doctor laid down the bone he had finished and, splashing his fingers in the water bowl, scrubbed his hands clean on his napkin. Then he pushed his plate away and collected his wine cup in both hands. He said, “Jaak de Charetty and Lionetto.”
Julius gazed at him. He felt angry and breathless at the same time. He said, “That’s ridiculous. What are you blaming Nicholas for? He killed two servants who were trying to kill him. He didn’t kill Lionetto, and he didn’t kill de Fleury although, by God, he had every reason to. What he did do is free Bruges – and the company – of the lot of them.”
Tobie said, “I’m not saying for a moment that the people he hurts don’t deserve to be hurt. Or most of them. I’m talking about building puzzles and creating ciphers and laying trails and then sitting back while other people explode them.”
Tobie picked up his wine, took a hard swallow, and put it down smartly. He sent his eyes round both Julius and Goro.
Tobie said, “Let’s take Lionetto. I don’t like Lionetto. Lionetto, incidentally, abused Nicholas too, during the flood in the tavern. And then, later, he forced a fight with Astorre, and Nicholas found himself one of the contestants, and all but died. So we may suppose Nicholas doesn’t like Lionetto very much either. So you would think Nicholas would be glad to hear that Lionetto was fighting on the other side in the Naples war, under Piccinino.”
“He wasn’t,” said Gregorio, “I remember when the news came that Piccinino had changed to the other side. Nicholas didn’t like it. But he wouldn’t tell me why.”
“Because he didn’t care what Piccinino did,” Tobie said. “But he wanted Lionetto on our side. So much that when the Pope sent bribery money to Milan, Nicholas asked me to try to persuade the Duke to use some of it to tempt Lionetto away from Piccinino. I did, and he came back to the Milanese side.”
“Why should Nicholas want Lionetto on our side?” said Julius.
“That’s what I wondered,” said Tobie. “Then I began to wonder where Lionetto was putting all this gold he was getting for bribes. And guess what?”
“He used to bank with the Medici,” said Julius. “I remember in Geneva that Nicholas joked with the Medici about Lionetto’s glass jewels.”
“And encouraged Jaak de Fleury to yearn for Lionetto’s future deposits,” said Tobie. “Of course, Jaak de Fleury knew how lucrative a soldier’s business could be. He’d been handling captain Astorre’s money for a long time. Until, that is, Nicholas came along.”
Julius said, “Nicholas?” But he was already remembering. He said, “In Milan. Astorre transferred his business to the Medici because they offered him amazingly low rates.” He paused. “But how could Nicholas influence the Medici?”
Tobie said, “Nicholas had the Medici in the palm of his hand. He makes and breaks ciphers. He’s an informer. There’s a limit to what the Medici would do for him, but offering low rates to a mercenary captain to capture his trade is well within them. So Astorre’s money was safe, and Lionetto, despising his enemy and courted by de Fleury, transferred his money in turn to Maffino. M. Jaak