Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [268]
‘It’s shaky,’ said Tobie. ‘Cardinal Bessarion has a lot of say in it now, I believe. Friend of Julius and Godscalc.’ He watched Margot thinking.
She said, ‘And of course, there isn’t a Medici branch now in Venice, since Martelli died. Tobie? Are we wrong? Nicholas is in business again?’
It was what had mystified them both about Nicholas. He conducted business all right, but all the initiative came from outside. He had begun nothing new, only enhanced what was already there, or what Julius had begun to restore.
In fact, it was all that was necessary. Built on its new, secure base, the Bank could hardly avoid increasing its wealth on its loans business alone; and with the bought-back Adorno, they had three ships in the water making profits. Julius handled the day-to-day routine trade. And the rest of the time, Nicholas could spend as he chose. He spent it in his room. They didn’t know how he spent it.
Tobie said, ‘He didn’t rise to it. I think Marietta was disappointed as well. That is, he was calm and practical and agreeable and sketched her some rather nice drawings of table fountains with the suggestion that she get someone to make them. Nicholas! Who used to throw off schemes like a Catherine wheel!’
‘Julius appreciates the change,’ Margot said. ‘Smitten with awe, his staff are working twice as hard as before, while Julius is still free to go to all the best suppers. Privately, Julius thinks Nicholas has come back beaten in spirit, like Godscalc. Or he’s sick.’
‘He’s recovered now,’ Tobie said.
Margot looked at him. ‘He talks to you.’
‘About medical books. I’ve never heard how he got over the Sahara. All I know about the Ethiopia attempt is what you’ve told me of Godscalc’s account. When I met him in Oran, Nicholas looked the way he looked after Famagusta. I told him.’
‘And?’ Margot said.
‘He said Famagusta was only a rehearsal,’ Tobie said. ‘But that’s all he said.’
The most frequent callers, after the merchants, were the geographers, the sailing-masters and the makers of maps. The first to come was Alvise da Ca’ da Mosto with two friends, one of whom was the Ancona cartographer Gratioso Benincasa, who was making a map of Timbuktu. After they had gone, Tobie said, ‘You weren’t very helpful.’
‘Wasn’t I?’ Nicholas said. He had filled out a little, but not much, and was still wearing the loose, quilted garments Margot had had made for him against the season’s seeping cold.
‘I gather Ca’ da Mosto was generous enough with his advice,’ Tobie said.
‘He’s a Venetian. Benincasa makes maps for anybody.’
Julius, this time, had joined them. ‘The Genoese?’ he said. ‘You think he’s making maps for the Vatachino?’
‘He’s making this map for the former Milanese envoy Prosper Schiaffino de Camulio de’ Medici,’ Nicholas said. ‘Remember him?’
Julius stopped drumming his fingers. ‘He represented the Genoese in your alum deal. Nicholas. They threw him out of Genoa in February, and the Medici wouldn’t have him in Florence. He plots.’
‘So why does he want a map of Guinea?’ Nicholas said. ‘You work it out.’
‘The Vatachino likes plotters,’ said Tobie. ‘I see the dangers. All the same. You aren’t going to let all this information go for nothing? Godscalc has sent all he knows to Bessarion.’
‘Then no doubt they’ll commission a rutter in Rome,’ Nicholas said.
‘But not in Venice? You went to San Michele,’ said Julius. ‘Was that not about maps?’
‘I had a book for the abbot,’ said Nicholas. ‘And I wanted to commission copies of others. As for maps, I’m not particularly interested in helping the Genoese.’
‘Or anyone else?’ Tobie had said. ‘You don’t really want anyone to go where you’ve been. Why is that?’
‘They have troubles enough,’ Nicholas said. ‘We have all the money we need. We’d only be helping our rivals.’
‘And the Church’s mission?’ Tobie said. ‘Or don’t you mind their rivals?’
‘As much as you do,’ Nicholas said.
It began to exasperate Julius. Now Tobie had come, Julius had expected Nicholas to march off to Bruges and set in motion a