The Spring of the Ram - Dorothy Dunnett [112]
Tobie said, “That’s already more than any human being can guarantee. If he thinks like you do, he’s going to catch us out in something. Collapse of the Charetty leadership; and Pagano Doria takes over the goods, the credit, the contacts, the staff, the goodwill of the Emperor and the Medici. I don’t think you want to get that girl away. So long as she’s there, she might help protect us.”
He was watching Nicholas once again. Nicholas stirred. He said, “She has no idea what he’s up to. And of course he’s not going to ruin us. We’re going to ruin him. Father…”
He was frowning. Godscalc said, “Yes?”
Nicholas said, “Catherine doesn’t know, you said, that he’s a charlatan. And might be better not knowing.”
Godscalc said, “Well, you saw that for yourself. And he can’t afford, remember, to disillusion her. All his claims derive from his marriage. What were you planning to do? Put Circassian slaves into his bed? Beat his seamen until they confess that he committed murder and arson at Modon? Ask the lady Violante to boast of her conquest? Persuade the girl herself that your life depends on her giving up her husband and lover?”
He was looking at Nicholas as if, Tobie thought, there was no one else in the cabin. John le Grant, present throughout, had not spoken. Nicholas said, “You mean he is the sort who can stay true to his wife, and will honestly manage the demoiselle’s business, or indeed any other? Report says he has never shown such integrity before in his life. He has always run through the money, and left. Do we have to wait until then to part them?”
Godscalc said, “You know what I am saying. Give him a chance. And the child. If, despite all he hopes to gain, he deceives her, then give her your help. But to encourage him to be false to her would be ignoble.”
“No Circassians in his bed,” Nicholas said. He spoke a little blankly.
“Nor those other ruses which can remove a man from his pedestal. I’m sure you follow me.”
Nicholas said, “You’re tying my hands.”
The priest gazed at him calmly. “His also are tied. He cannot, remember, spoil your goods or your credit. He wishes to inherit a flourishing company. On the other hand, you are free to interfere with his trade. The girl will not suffer from that.”
Nicholas was staring into space. He said, “I need a friend in the Genoese castle. But we can’t get in.”
“We don’t need to,” said Godscalc. “They’ll all come out. Merchants, servants and everybody, for the Easter processions. Captain Astorre might see a soldier he knows, or John a Genoese who might be bribed. You’ll like the Easter music. It’s all done in acrostics.”
That there was a duel of some sort going on was quite clear to Tobie, but he could not make out what the grounds for it were. After a moment, Nicholas removed his eyes from the chaplain and said, “Well. It shouldn’t be beyond us to solve them. Our tongues aren’t tied, except in the presence of godliness.”
“That wasn’t godliness. That was just common sense,” said the priest in a friendly way. You remembered that he was used to armies, and had been the first to make the acquaintance of Pagano Doria. Recognising as much perhaps, Nicholas made no response, other than a wry tilt of the head and the production, highly suspect, of one dimple.
A percipient fellow, for a clergyman, and able to manage Nicholas to some small extent. On the other hand, the chaplain had been in the Italian wars virtually through all his association with the Charetty. He barely knew the demoiselle his employer, to