Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [300]
‘He is in Bruges,’ Nicholas said. ‘He will tell you how we tricked the Turks and brought the Doria home. I shall find for you, if I must, some of the merchants we saved.’
‘What would they know? Only what you cared to tell them. The truth everyone knows,’ Simon said, ‘is that you killed Pagano Doria and stole the ship. And stole it again, when it was in service against the Muslims in Ceuta.’
‘And that’s a lie,’ Julius said. He had interrupted a great deal, not always successfully.
‘It is a lie,’ Godscalc said. ‘I can tell you now that what Nicholas says is the truth.’
‘How strange,’ Simon said. ‘One might almost say you had identical reasons for favouring Nicholas. A share in his wealthy Bank, could it be?’
‘There is another fragment of evidence,’ Nicholas said. ‘I should rather not use it. But it’s there. You may like to see it.’
‘Written by another member of your Bank?’ David de Salmeton said. ‘My dear Nicholas, it is all rather incestuous.’
‘You may think this even more so,’ Nicholas said. ‘I think it is rather brave. She wrote it out for me herself, and signed it. An account by Catherine de Charetty of how Pagano Doria died, and what happened afterwards.’
He didn’t look at Godscalc, for Godscalc had brought it to him. The only help Catherine could give him, and the most painful for her. For she had sailed on the Doria to Trebizond, and had thought, to the end, that Pagano Doria loved her, and had made her his wife.
‘Poor child,’ said David de Salmeton. ‘The sister, is she not, of your fiancée, Senhor Diniz? A brave lie indeed. But it is still true, is it not, that you purloined the Doria from Ceuta, and changed her name to the Ghost? It is also true that she attacked the Fortado, and engaged in illicit trade. I feel for you. I should like to be lenient on your wedding day, but I am afraid that I, too, see no evidence that would hold up in court.’
‘One might, perhaps, point out some contradictions,’ Nicholas said. ‘I did take the Doria from Ceuta, but I took what was my own: that is not theft. I did deprive the garrison of her services, but on the other hand I was risking my life to find gold for the Church, and take a mission to Ethiopia. The King of Portugal found no fault with that, nor the Order of Christ, nor the Pope. And what illicit acts did she perform? Crackbene will tell you that she made no attack on the Fortado – he is quite positive, I find, on that score. And trading? She sold horses in Grand Canary and took supplies to the Cape Verde islands, after which she returned wholly empty. You have seen that verified for yourselves.’
‘There is no case,’ said Gilles Lomellini. ‘I have listened. There is no evidence to prove you own the Ghost.’
‘You think not?’ Nicholas said. ‘Then I shall have to concentrate, shall I not, on the case against the Fortado? And that, my dear sirs, is a different matter.’
It was. It depended, he knew, on the professions of Michael Crackbene and the boy. It depended on Melchiorre’s evidence – but the very scars on his body would speak for Melchiorre. The other evidence had to come from themselves. But there were seven of them still alive and accessible who had been caught in Raffaelo Doria’s trap in a hut on the Gambia, and among them was Gelis, and Bel.
He was aware, as he told the story, that Julius was silent at last, and so were all those who had not been there. Gelis, as she had all along, let him unfold the case in his own way. He ended by describing how Raffaelo Doria had died.
‘He was greedy,’ Nicholas said. ‘So were some of my own men. Gold is a cruel master. But he was ready to kill, even women. I cannot let that pass. He is dead, but you, all three of you, stand responsible for what he did. And the selling of arms is a hanging matter.’
Gilles Lomellini said, ‘I do not wish this brought to court.’
Simon flushed. ‘What say do you have? Your cousins preferred secret partners. It is for me to say what we do.’
‘It is for all of us to say,’ said David de Salmeton. ‘Messer Simon, you wish to go to law to justify your possession of the Ghost, and there I agree with