Niccolo Rising - Dorothy Dunnett [301]
He was skilled at rising, despite the faint sway of the vessel. Nicholas sprang to his feet also, and held the curtain aside as he left. Then he dropped the heavy cloth, and stood looking down at her. He said, “It means nothing, to see Alighieri. We can decide here and now to accept the Milanese condotta instead.”
She said, “He has planned for this.”
Nicholas said, “Then he will have planned for our refusal. It is for you to say, when the time comes.”
He looked as he always did. As he always used to do. Affectionate and a little anxious, with the glow of excitement behind it. Excitement at the prospect of a great escapade. The greatest ever.
She said, “Nicholas, don’t be foolish. It’s the finest opportunity the company has ever had. You aren’t afraid of it?”
A merchant has to disguise what he feels. So she had said, over and over, to Felix. She withstood the enveloping, generous gaze trying to sift through her mind; trying to discern her real motives. He knew that trouble lay ahead for her if he stayed at Bruges and invited Simon’s attentions. He didn’t know, or guess, the real trouble that lay before her. He said, “I don’t want to leave.”
She said, “And are we all to depend on what you do or don’t want?”
His brow had puckered. He said, “We have until winter.”
And she replied, “No, my dear. We decide now. You go to Trebizond. And, one day, come back to me with your profits.”
It was a fair offer, with its own sort of justice. She had said as much to Felix, after he had suffered at the Poorterslogie. She had said that he and Nicholas might want to leave her.
Her eyes were not as clear as she would have wished, and she was shaken to find Nicholas dropped to her feet, and her hand snatched as if he would break it. Then he kissed the palm formally and rose, holding it tightly. She studied the strong, workman’s fingertips, remembering when they were blue. The footsteps they had both heard came nearer. She kept her eyes fixed on their interlaced fingers, and heard the distant voice of the Greek, ushering several people to join them. Prosper de Camulio, they had said. And Caterino Zeno and Violante his wife. Violante, princess of Trebizond.
Their twined hands fell apart, and became memory. Nicholas moved to her side and they waited. Someone lifted the curtain. She didn’t know what to expect. Then she smelled the perfume: harsh, expensive, disturbing; and knew what she had given up; and to whom; and why.
And then she walked forward and smiled; for she was a merchant.
THE HOUSE OF NICCOLÒ SERIES
BY DOROTHY DUNNETT
NICCOLÒ RISING
Bruges, 1460. Street smart, brilliant at figures, adept at the subtleties of diplomacy and the well-timed untruth, Dunnett’s hero Nicholas rises from wastrel to prodigy in a breathless adventure that wins him the hand of the most powerful woman in Bruges—and the hatred of two powerful enemies.
Fiction/0-375-70477-9
THE SPRING OF THE RAM
Backed by none other than Cosimo de’ Medici, Nicholas sails the Black Sea to Trebizond, last outpost of Byzantium, and the last jewel missing from the crown of the Ottoman Empire. But trouble lies ahead. Nicholas’s stepdaughter has eloped with his rival in trade: a Machiavellian Genoese who races ahead of Nicholas, sowing disaster at every port.
Fiction/0-375-70478-7
RACE OF SCORPIONS
At the age of 21, Nicholas finds himself in limbo. His beloved wife is dead, his stepchildren have locked him out of the family business, and his private army is the target of multiple conspiracies. And both contenders for the throne of Cyprus—the brilliant Queen Carlotta and her sexually ambivalent brother James—are demanding his support.
Fiction/0-375-70479-5
SCALES OF GOLD
As unknown enemies conspire against him in Venice, Nicholas embarks for the fabled, gold-rich land of Africa, where the risks are unnumbered and the rewards beyond measure.