The Spring of the Ram - Dorothy Dunnett [290]
There was the smallest pause; perhaps because he had used more than three words. He remembered saying very little to Simon. Then Simon said, “I see you learn from your betters before you sell them for what you can get. I wanted a private talk with you both.”
He was taller than Simon. He got to his feet, and then chose discretion and sat on a bench beside Catherine. His hands were still tied and it was painful to move. He said, “A private talk would have been easily come by without this. About what?”
“I’ve just told you. Selling,” said Simon. He sank into the chair by the desk, and the lamp gleamed on his hair.
Nicholas said, “I’ve been selling things for a year, of one sort or another. I’m accountable to my owner, not to you. What is the complaint? Before I make my own, that’s to say?”
“He means Trebizond,” Catherine said.
The tone was enough. Simon looked at her, and back to Nicholas. He said, “She has reason to know, hasn’t she? That’s one reason why she is here. You carried messages to the Turks. You sold them my arms. You killed my agent. You diverted the Genoese orders from Trebizond to Turkish Bursa, where they were probably lost in the fighting. You stole Doria’s silver—my silver—and you seized my round ship and are sailing the seas with it, freighting your cargo. You didn’t think I knew that? I’ve spoken to men who have heard from the Bailie at Modon. There were Genoese off your own ship who weren’t slow to tell me all you’d done to them. Doria’s steward is enslaved, and his wife and son killed. Did you know that?”
“Paraskeuas!” said Catherine.
“He cheated both sides,” Nicholas said. “And you have the story wrong. I didn’t betray Trebizond to the Turks. I didn’t sell the Turks arms. I didn’t kill Pagano Doria.”
“Then who did?” said Simon. “Catherine believes what you told her. But who on the Turkish side would kill him if he were the traitor and not you?”
“If you ask my doctor, he’ll tell you,” said Nicholas.
“No doubt,” Simon said. “But you did withdraw all your soldiers just before the Turks entered the city? Or am I wrong about that, too?”
“With the Emperor’s leave. He had surrendered. The arms, by the way, went to the garrison at Kerasous,” Nicholas said. “I admit the trick to bypass Trebizond with the Genoese goods. Doria and I were rivals in trade. Your doing, not mine. It was legitimate.”
“And the silver?” said Simon.
He hesitated this time. Then he said, “He spilled it, fighting, and some of it did come to me. I used it, in place of reporting him. He lost it trying to have me assassinated.”
“That’s a lie,” Catherine said. The bright blue eyes stared at him.
He said, “It doesn’t matter. He was like that. But Julius will tell you. It’s true.”
She said, “It’s a lie! He was wounded.”
“By another party of Kurds. He set fire to my ship in Modon, Catherine, and caused the deaths of two men.”
“He made you jump,” Catherine said. She was crying.
“Yes, he did,” Nicholas said. He turned to Simon. “I don’t know what else you want? You’ve asked the questions and I’ve told you the answers. There’s nothing I can do if you don’t believe me, except send you to question the others. You should know by now they have minds of their own. They wouldn’t support me for the sake of it. They wouldn’t still be following me if I’d done all those things.”
“You don’t know what I want? I want compensation,” Simon said. “And by the way, since we speak of assassins, your tame lawyer Gregorio was a sorry failure. I had to teach him a lesson.”
Nicholas rose. He only realised when he had done it how painful it had been. He said, “I’ve heard from Gregorio. He came to complain of the behaviour of your agent Doria, and you attacked him. Your own father took Gregorio’s part.”
“Fat father Jordan,” Simon said. “You heard he has all his French possessions again? It’s really time he stopped interfering.