Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [111]
Nicholas caught the edge of a glance from her, but chose to do nothing about it. She said, ‘Bel is your mother’s representative, Diniz, not mine. She makes up her own mind what she will do, and why.’ And turning back to Nicholas, she said, ‘She is your responsibility. All three of us are.’
He said, ‘I should put it even wider than that. The two ships are my responsibility, and everyone in them. If I lead, and I suppose that I do, then private skirmishing could harm the whole expedition. Look, I don’t expect you to change, or be generous. I do ask you to hold back your grievances meantime. After the spring, I don’t care. It’s open season.’
He ended a little more colourfully than he had meant. He had made her a speech once before. Because she wouldn’t engage in discussion he had been driven to deliver a second one. Diniz said, ‘She’ll behave. I shall answer for her.’
There followed the kind of silence Nicholas had been punishing himself to avoid. The girl was watching him. Then she said, ‘Shall I slap him for you?’ And leaning over, she gave Diniz a tap on the cheek. ‘My self-esteem is being usefully fostered. You are not supposed to undermine it.’
‘You are not supposed to undermine his, either,’ said Nicholas rather quickly. ‘And I won’t be tripped into discriminating between you. You both listen to what I have to say, and you both keep your prejudices out of it. Diniz, hand me the map.’ It was time to tell them where they were going. They waited with the same air of intelligent attention he had seen worn by scholars at Louvain after a bout of professorial abuse. He had learned a lot at Louvain, including how people thought.
They were sailing, of course, to the Gambia, seven days to the south, and on the way they would make a call at the mouth of the Senagana. Diniz, brought up on the Algarve, had expected that. Both rivers traded in gold. At the Senagana, they could offload the horses. From the Gambia, they could strike upriver until the water ran out, and then continue on land. From there they might reach the Nile, Ethiopia. ‘You still pretend that’s where you’re going?’ said Gelis van Borselen, and looked shocked when he almost opened his mouth to the bait.
She, too, Nicholas thought, had made enquiries, but had expected a voyage much longer. From Arguim to the Senagana river was not above four hundred miles. ‘So,’ she said, ‘I have only three or four days in which to inflame the crew of the Ghost, and watch you agonise over it. Then, I assume, we transfer to the Niccolò? Or before?’
‘As soon as we catch up with them,’ Nicholas said. ‘And I don’t think I have to tell you how to behave with the crew until then.’
‘But you trust the master?’ said Gelis van Borselen. ‘As far as the Gambia?’ She had Baltic blue eyes shaped like almonds, and outlined in brown lashes, not blonde. From her earliest years, she had been clever.
‘Ochoa?’ said Diniz. ‘Did you see what he did to the Fortado? Of course we trust him.’ ‘With horses,’ said the girl.
‘I hired him. I trust him,’ said Nicholas. ‘At the moment, I’m more concerned with what the Fortado may do.’
‘Certainly, I hope your lookout is sharp-eyed,’ Gelis said. ‘Could she possibly overtake us at night? And if she did, could she also overtake the San Niccolò before the Senagana? I suppose she could, if the San Niccolò lingers to put off her slaves. And if she arrives ahead of both ships, you say there is a man on the Fortado who knows the Ghost is stolen, and may have seen you aboard her. But if he gets in first, whom would he warn? Diniz, who knows everything, says there is no official factor on the Senagana so far.’
‘There is now,’ Nicholas said. ‘That is what the patrol vessel was doing. She’s just returned from setting up a God-damned Portuguese strong house.’
‘Which would refuse to take the Ghost’s unlicensed horses,’ said Gelis thoughtfully. Diniz, champion of the horses, looked up.
‘I think there might be a way around that,’ Nicholas said. ‘Meanwhile, I don’t see how the Fortado