Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [66]
He didn’t believe it. He said, ‘How? What has happened?’
‘The Vatachino,’ Nicholas said. ‘Among other things. So I’m taking Ludovico da Bologna’s advice, and launching my own private crusade into the African interior. That’s why I need the Doria. She’ll load at Sanlúcar, and meet me off the African coast at Madeira.’
‘How will you get there?’ said Diniz.
‘By caravel, licensed by Portugal. I shall have to pay for it.’
‘With African gold,’ Diniz said.
‘I have to redeem the Bank,’ Nicholas said. It was all he said. He wasn’t like Jordan. He didn’t coerce. He presented the facts, and then waited.
Diniz said, ‘When does my mother decide? About selling the business?’
‘Why?’ said Nicholas.
‘Because surely she should inspect the plantations first? See her managers?’
‘What are you asking?’ Nicholas said.
Diniz said, ‘Take us both to Madeira. I’ll come with you to Lagos and persuade her.’
‘She may have sold,’ Nicholas said. ‘I told you who was there.’
‘Yes,’ Diniz said. ‘Gelis van Borselen.’
Nicholas said, ‘I won’t involve her. Neither should you.’
‘She is involved,’ said Diniz. ‘She drives my mother wild, but she listens to her. I think she won’t let her sell. I think she might persuade my mother to go to Madeira.’
‘On my ship?’ Nicholas said. ‘After the death of your father? Don’t expect it. She may be troubled enough that you turned back from Ceuta.’
The sharpness of the words cut, and a deeper anguish welled up. ‘They weren’t starving,’ said Diniz.
‘It isn’t a sin,’ Nicholas said.
It was not, perhaps, quite as easy as Nicholas had made out to man Jordan’s roundship and sail it out of harbour, and when it was finally done, she had to deceive the fast ships Ceuta sent off to locate her. But she had a good start, and when daylight came they were still casting about. By the time they got as far as Sanlúcar the Doria was drawn up in dock draped with matting and her name had been changed. She had been there for two weeks, said the Spanish authorities. The Venetian consul in Seville was Antonio da Ca’ da Mosto.
Behind in Ceuta, there was an eruption of charge, counter-charge and horror over the purloining of the roundship Doria, but the blame, it was finally concluded, lay with pirates and renegades who, stealing through in the night, had manned and taken her for their own illicit purposes. The officer in charge of the watch was, fortuitously, of such a high degree that no punishment could be inflicted.
A letter of explanation was dictated to be sent to His Sacred Majesty, and another to the lord vicomte de Ribérac, who had leased the ship to Portugal for the highest of motives. Both letters stressed the hardships being suffered in Ceuta, the loss of gallant young lives, and the consequent exhaustion of the rest of the garrison. The governor also mentioned that his pay was eighteen months in arrears, and the amount of supplies just unloaded had been rather less than he asked for.
This was true, since a third of it lay safely locked in Sanlúcar. The rest, however, exactly matched the bill of lading handed over (and written) by the clerk of the Ciaretti. The Ciaretti also, naturally, carried both letters back to Lagos, along with young Senhor Vasquez, who had been recalled to deal with his widowed mother’s affairs.
His release had not been hard to procure. Autumn was here. The Moorish offensive against Ceuta was over. If the Bastard of Burgundy were to fulfil his vow in a greater arena, he should be proceeding immediately to the Pope’s side. Or at the worst, wintering in some port in Europe where he could be reached from his father’s bier or bedside in Brussels.
Throughout it all, the young Senhor Diniz saw nothing of Nicholas in Ceuta, and very little on the voyage to Lagos, on a ship encumbered with returning officials. Nicholas, on the other hand, saw rather more of him than Diniz knew. Landed at Lagos, he let the passengers go ashore, and then had Diniz brought to his cabin. He took his eyeglasses off.