Race of Scorpions - Dorothy Dunnett [297]
‘In Nicosia,’ John le Grant said. ‘Collecting dues and keeping pots boiling. He said to make sure you came back. What did that mean?’
‘That he’s well informed,’ said Nicholas, sitting again. After a moment the boy did, as well. Nicholas said, ‘I’ve been asked to stay in Famagusta and help govern it.’
‘And will you?’ said John. The boy’s eyes on his were deep and extremely bright.
‘I haven’t said,’ Nicholas said. ‘It seemed best to see if we were going to keep Famagusta first.’
‘If you do,’ Diniz said, ‘I could help you.’
Everyone looked at him but Loppe. Nicholas said, ‘I’m not interested in that kind of authority, Diniz. For a while, until they find somebody else. But probably not even then. Cyprus has nothing for you. Your mother needs you.’
‘She has Simon,’ said Diniz. ‘And we are –’
‘We are friends,’ Nicholas said. ‘And you have to be my ambassador. I would like you to go to Nicosia. Not to the dyeworks: the King, as it happens, intends taking them from us. But to the villa. Then to Portugal by the first ship you have news of.’
‘The dyeworks? Why?’ said John le Grant.
‘He has obligations. We are to lose the villa as well. He plans vast, if remote compensations.’ Loppe’s eyes were on him, and he refrained from looking at Loppe. He said to Diniz, ‘Go home. It would be best.’
‘I could sail from here,’ Diniz said. ‘If I sail. I saw Famagusta surrender to Lusignan. I don’t want to see it given over to Mamelukes.’
John le Grant cleared his throat. He said, ‘Just in case you were thinking of it, Nicholas, I don’t think any of us has plans to leave Famagusta at the moment, no matter who is on his way to Nicosia from Salines.’
‘You read my very thoughts,’ Nicholas said. ‘No one knows who was on the Adorno?’
‘No,’ said Tobie. ‘Not yet. But whoever they are, they’ll all be in Nicosia by now, and no doubt we’ll hear soon enough. The boy’s better here. He’d foment trouble.’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Nicholas, and gave a half-smile, gazing at Diniz. He said, ‘I expect that, like me, he hasn’t the energy. I must go back. Tobie, I have something to give you.’
They all looked at him with suspicion. Anxiety and suspicion, when he came to think of it, had been the keynote of the whole conversation. Then Tobie got up and followed him from the room.
The paper addressed to himself was locked away in his box. It was the only one left, since Diniz now held the other two. Nicholas retrieved it rather slowly, and turned to where Tobie was watching him. Tobie said, ‘Why are you ill? Zacco sent wagons of food.’
‘It needed to be the right kind,’ Nicholas said. ‘And everything in the city was tainted. Also, I have been practising your trade. Dame Trotula of Salerno. You’ve been duping us for years. Medicine’s easy.’
‘He was a good doctor,’ said Tobie. ‘Abul Ismail, when he wasn’t burning the guts out of people. We thought we might get somewhere. On the sugar sickness, I mean.’
‘I don’t think we should have survived without him,’ Nicholas said. Then, since it seemed the subject ought to be mentioned by somebody, he said, ‘He nursed Katelina. She died thinking the relief ship had come. Chance. But God-given chance.’
Tobie’s voice was tentative, his face moist. He said, ‘You made friends with Diniz. And the lady too?’
‘Since the summer,’ Nicholas said. ‘Tobie? You and Godscalc know her son isn’t Simon’s. You gave your word to keep quiet so long as Katelina was alive. I have to know what you think now.’
Tobie’s face turned a deeper red. He said, ‘You want the child back?’
Nicholas sighed and sat down. He said, ‘No. We spoke of it. She wished me to have him, but it would have been wrong. I want Simon to continue to think the boy his. If I do, will you and Godscalc be content to keep silence?’
‘You don’t want him?’ said Tobie.
Nicholas could feel himself flush. He wound his hands hard together and said, ‘What do you think?’
When concentrating, Tobie’s eyes became pinpoints of pupil in two sea-blue pebbles. He said,