Race of Scorpions - Dorothy Dunnett [125]
‘The scoundrel!’ said John of Kinloch.
‘It is a point,’ said the Chancellor, ‘if a small one. So you intended to join the serene and excellent lady?’
‘As her lady-in-waiting will confirm,’ Nicholas said. Primaflora was not there.
‘As you certainly persuaded her lady-in-waiting,’ the Chancellor corrected. ‘But you did not sail to Kyrenia, or to Famagusta? You sailed to Episkopi, the Venetian bay?’
‘I landed at Cape Gata. So did the Queen’s lady,’ Nicholas said. ‘The ship had cargo. We hoped for the Knights’ hospitality. We believed it possible to travel north with the Knights’ protection. It was only later that we learned that Queen Carlotta was in Rhodes.’
The Chancellor looked at him. ‘You are saying that you did not know the Queen was not in Cyprus when you left the lady in the south and made your way towards Nicosia?’
Nicholas said, ‘I didn’t know, either way. I thought it best to present myself to her Marshal at Kyrenia and ask for orders.’
‘You did not know that your company was waiting at Rhodes?’ said the Chancellor.
‘We had lost touch. They knew, as I did not, that the Queen was coming to Rhodes.’
‘So you say. You had lost touch? How?’
So they knew that. But of course they did. Nicholas said, ‘My company is a professional one. They had undertaken a contract in Italy, and there was some confusion after the battle. We became separated.’
‘You were fighting,’ said the Chancellor, ‘as I understand it, for Ferrante of Aragon. As you did in an earlier battle, and again some years ago, in the Abruzzi. This self-styled King of Naples has found your Captain Astorre loyal, I see, and effective. I wonder, therefore, what attracted you to the Queen of Cyprus and the Order of St John, to whom King Ferrante has shown himself no friend?’
Astorre had begun breathing heavily. Nicholas maintained his serious voice. ‘I had met the most serene Queen. I had met the Knights at Kolossi. I had had time to reflect. I had also, as you may know, had an opportunity to measure King Zacco’s fore-bearance. The Knights of Kolossi will tell you.’
‘I am told,’ said the chancellor, ‘that the Bastard Zacco sent the emir of his Mamelukes to waylay and capture you, and that you only escaped after severe mishandling. I note however, as has been pointed out in a similar context, that you were not murdered.’
‘If I had met the Bastard, and refused to serve him, I hardly think I should be alive,’ Nicholas said. ‘As it was, before I escaped, more than my knees and elbows had suffered. I intend to take payment for that.’
‘I see,’ said the Chancellor. ‘And for that, you would abandon your feud with the lord Simon?’
Nicholas spread his hands. ‘It is on his part, rather than mine. He is in business in Portugal. If there is to be any rivalry between us, I can pursue it as well if not better when supplied with information from the same side. Trade is my business,’ Nicholas said. ‘If my lord Simon causes trouble, I can find a way of retaliating without dragging nations into the quarrel.’
‘Trade,’ said the Grand Master. It was the first word he had spoken since his opening speech. One wrinkled finger beat, like a ponderous hammer, on the arm of his chair. ‘You profess to favour the Queen and the Order. Your actions in the matter of trading signally fail to support this hypothesis.’
And now it came. Beside Nicholas, he could feel the gloom weighing like soot on the other four. Of all the things he had done, they had regarded this as most irresponsible when he had told them. Only John le Grant, who also lived by devices, had eyed him in silence. Nicholas, beginning with the easiest part, said, ‘My lord: I saved Queen Carlotta’s sugar two years ago. There was a fight south of Bologna. She will confirm it.’
The Chancellor looked round, but the finger was still tapping. ‘She has,’ said the Grand Master. ‘But I understand that, while professing to save it, you allowed the entire cargo to land in the river.