Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [43]
‘By the Vatachino,’ said Gregorio slowly.
‘By people who owe them a favour, at least. Take time to admire them, Goro. They are superb; they are artists. Everything came together tonight, even the news from Bruges and Cyprus, where the disasters were only partly their doing. And last of all, this crushing demand for restitution for fraud.’
From sallow, Julius had become red. He said, ‘But you’re talking of paying it. So you’ve given them some sort of case. What have you done? If we have to close, it’s not going to be the Vatachino’s fault, is it? It wasn’t the Vatachino who got the Muslims slaughtered in Cyprus. You weren’t helping the Bank very much when you flung the superb and artistic Martin down the stairs.’
‘No, but it did me a lot of good,’ said Nicholas mildly. ‘Now do you want to hear the good bits?’
Father Godscalc heard himself sigh. Looking round, he saw that none of them knew what Nicholas meant. That most of them, although loyally backing him, had felt a fraction, at least, of what Julius had just expressed. All except Lopez, in whom he discerned a curious tension.
Nicholas said, ‘It all rests, as Julius says, on the fraud claim, which will have to be paid. The Vatachino are taking us to law for exacting insurance for a ship which was not our property. The sum they ask, which is extortionate, refers to the amount they paid us for the loss of the ship, its apparel and tackle and cargo, as insured omni risicum, periculum et fortunam Dei, maris et gentium. It demands the forfeit of the premium, which was eighteen per cent, and a further forfeit for the loss of interest on the moneys wrongly paid us, and for the fraud to which they were exposed.
‘The ship, as you may have guessed, was the Doria, which was stolen from me in Cyprus and which I had insured with the Vatachino, but under a pseudonym. Its original name was the Ribérac.’
‘Owned by Simon’s father,’ Julius said. Despite himself, Godscalc supposed, his eyes rested on the scar Jordan de Ribérac had once inflicted.
‘Owned by the vicomte de Ribérac, stolen by Simon his son, and given me as a prize by the Emperor David of Trebizond. The Emperor is dead, and Simon will hardly admit to a crime, so the rights of the case will take some time to prove. In the meantime, the Vatachino has obtained a court ruling that the money must be returned. The Signory, to whom we have been generous recently, have been unable to reverse the decision, but have advised that it would be sufficient if the Bank supplies material assets to the value demanded. What Martin gave us tonight was a list of such assets.’
‘Which are?’ Julius said.
Gregorio answered. ‘The house we occupy, which is worth six thousand ducats. The island we have leased for the making of glass, and all the raw materials we have deposited on it. The business we have established for the making of eyeglasses on Murano, and all the stocks connected with it. And lastly, the roundship Adorno, which brought Nicholas from Cyprus, with her cargo, as at present in store at the Basin.’ He stopped. ‘The good news, Nicholas?’
It was Cristoffels who said, ‘But this house isn’t ours. It was a gift from the Serenissima.’
‘Therefore,’ Nicholas said, ‘the Vatachino cannot possess it. Likewise, the making of eyeglasses is based on the premises of the Barovier, heavily financed by the Signory and upon whose reputation the export of Venetian glasses depends. In return for housing the Florentine, I supply the Barovier with extremely cheap sand, barillo and cullet, not to mention some very good alum. The Signory have ruled that the work of the Florentine is unassailably connected with the Bank, and must not be transferred.’
Julius said, ‘But can you keep up those cheap supplies without the Levant? What about the barillo?’
Nicholas smiled at him, using both dimples. ‘From Spain. Courtesy of the Strozzi.’
Godscalc said, ‘So your eyeglasses are safe, and your house. But the island?’
‘Oh, I’ve