Niccolo Rising - Dorothy Dunnett [287]
“Who?” said Katelina.
He got irritated when she was obtuse. “Claes, of course,” said Simon. “The Charetty servants have some great tale of what he’d been up to in Milan. Did you hear about Jaak de Fleury, the great-uncle that tried to take over the business?”
She had heard. It was surprising sometimes what she heard about the Charetty business while she remained regrettably ignorant about his.
“Well,” said Simon, “the story runs that it was Claes who bankrupted M. Jaak. He not only bankrupted him, but he ruined that captain, Lionetto, and got Lionetto to blame Jaak de Fleury. So Jaak de Fleury not only lost all his business, but Lionetto came to Bruges and killed him. I don’t believe it,” said Simon. “But they do. They think Claes – they call him Nicholas, now – was behind the cannon that killed the King and my uncle. They talk about his being a Yorkist agent and carrying messages for the Dauphin and inventing a magic that means that the Medici can talk to each other without words any more. Infantile rubbish. I tried to shame him today and you saw him.”
“I saw he wouldn’t fight,” said Katelina. “But maybe …” She broke off.
Simon frowned. He said, “It did strike me. He got Lionetto to kill his great-uncle. He didn’t do it himself. I don’t much like the idea of someone saying nothing to my face and then creeping about planning disasters.”
Katelina said, in a rather odd voice, “Your father. His whole life came to an end in the same way.”
“Fat father Jordan?” He wondered what had put that into her head. He said, “Well, Claes can hardly have ruined Jordan de Ribérac, can he? Unless he’s really trading services with the Dauphin.”
“Perhaps he is,” said Katelina.
“Well, if he is, he’s done me a favour,” said Simon. “And if he was behind the gun that killed Uncle Alan, then he did me an even bigger one. You know, there’s something strange about that. But of course, it can’t be.”
“What can’t be?” she said. She looked green, the way she did when she was overtired.
Simon said, “You’ve done too much. Never mind this nonsense. I’ll get your woman.”
She actually caught him by the wrist to stop him. “No,” she said. “I want to know. What do you think is strange about Claes?”
He was surprised, but he dropped into the other chair and poured himself some more wine and then, as an afterthought, some for her. She didn’t take it. He said, “Well, just that if he really did all those things, you would think he was getting rid, one by one, of all his family.”
She said, “All his family?” and he wished he had gone when he said he was going.
He said, “Well, Jaak de Fleury. He was his great-uncle. And the woman he married was related, and he got rid of her son.”
She said, “Did he? I didn’t hear that.” She looked even more distracted. She said, “And who else? I didn’t think Nicholas – Claes – had any family.”
With no food and a pleasant amount of wine inside him, he thought that was funny. He said, “Well, that’s Jaak gone. And his wife Esota. And old Thibault the brother ruined, and his daughter, whatever she’s called. And old Jordan, my revered father done for. And Alan my uncle. I’m the only person he hasn’t succeeded in harming, if you don’t count Lucia, and she’s in Portugal. It’s amazing. He hasn’t been able to touch me. All he’s done is get me my title.”
You would think she was drunk, the way she persisted. He hoped she wasn’t drunk, because it would harm the baby. He realised, hazily, that she hadn’t drunk anything. She repeated, “But I didn’t know Nicholas had any family. I thought his mother died.”
He wondered how she knew that. He said, “Yes, of course the stupid bitch died, and good riddance. The whore produced him and dandled him for a few years and told him a few lies, and died. Don’t you see how he looks like her? Don’t you see?”
Katelina was whispering. He wondered why. She said, “You knew her then? Nicholas’s mother?”
They were all bitches, and all stupid. He stared at Katelina.
“Knew her?” said Simon. “She was my wife. That’s why that stupid bastard won’t fight me. Claes. Nicholas. He thinks he’s my son.”
He got