The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [227]
Instead of proceeding to take the slow-moving great ship from Genoa, half of the Baron Cortachy’s party had elected to travel instead by one of the faster pilgrim galleys from Venice. They had arrived in Venice. They had even called at the Bank. They wanted spectator seats on a boat for the Ascension Day ceremony.
‘Gelis?’ had said John le Grant at that point.
‘Wait. No,’ Nicholas had said. ‘The monk, the Duke of Burgundy’s chaplain and Daniel Colebrant. Only three went to Venice. The rest stayed with Adorne.’
‘Taking the leisurely trip via Tunis,’ le Grant said. ‘So you’ll be in Egypt before your lady, right enough. But she’ll be expecting you. Are you going to let on that you knew she was coming?’
‘Oh, she knows that,’ Nicholas said. ‘She knows I’d be tracking Adorne. I was bound to be told she was with him.’
John said, ‘So what has she done with the boy? Left him with Margot in Bruges?’
‘The Patriarch didn’t say so,’ Nicholas said. If Margot was in Bruges, then certainly she came there alone. He added, ‘It’ll be all right. There are nurses.’ As always, John left the subject as soon as its interest had faded. He never had to check John.
They made only one call of note before finally leaving the Italian mainland. Lorenzo Strozzi, thirty-seven years old and a little plump and a little naked of hair, was waiting in person at Naples to embrace Claes his young playmate from Bruges, and sweep them to his sumptuous mansion.
Plied with comfits and Candian wine, they congratulated Lorenzo on the beauty of Antonia his betrothed and conveyed the salutations of his lady mother Alessandra, and found themselves launched with remarkable speed on an agenda of solid business exchanges to do with spectacles, the Catalan market, and several agencies which they shared.
As befitted the company advisor to King Ferrante of Naples, Lorenzo knew all the gossip of Naples and a good deal of the gossip of Rome as it referred to the affairs of Bruges and the Tyrol, and Venice, and Scotland. About the gossip of Cyprus he was even more forthcoming.
‘It’s true. Zacco doesn’t feel committed to his little Venetian Queen: they’re only married by proxy. Rome has had overtures from him. So have we. We had a message from Zacco last week. If he repudiated Catherine and married our King’s lady daughter, what would Naples do for him in return?’
‘A lot, I imagine,’ Nicholas said. ‘It might come cheaper for Zacco than Venice. Why don’t you put together a nice dowry with a lot of ships and soldiers and trading concessions wrapped in it, and see what he says?’
‘Is that your considered opinion?’ The Charetty army had once fought for King Ferrante of Naples. Naples respected the Banco di Niccolò, not least because of its political acumen.
‘Unless the girl has two heads. You’d get a good bargain. And a jumping-off place in the Levant, with some luck. We spoke of alum.’
‘Yes.’ When they talked about money, Lorenzo’s eyes always shone. He said, ‘You’re going to send an offer to Persia? To Uzum Hasan?’
‘And put a proposition to the Sultan in Cairo. The possibilities,’ Nicholas said, ‘are infinite.’
‘And I take it you think that it’s safe?’ Lorenzo said. ‘Your going to Egypt?’
‘Since I helped kill the Mameluke commander in Cyprus? I think it’s quite safe,’ Nicholas said. ‘It’s a new Sultan now. They didn’t close down our agency even when Khushcadam still ruled, and John has been accepted for years. They need our trade.’
‘Everyone does,’ said Lorenzo Strozzi, a touch smugly.
‘What was all that about?’ said John le Grant later, in his new, neutral tone of enquiry.
‘Just to see if he would rise to something,’ Nicholas said. ‘Isn’t he rich?’
The rest of the voyage was less tiresome than Nicholas had expected. On board ship, there was always something to do, especially when, as now, she was heavily armed, with bowmen and gunners to exercise. The Ciaretti was his ship, intimately known to him from several glorious voyages: he could do anything that he wanted, day or night.
Between Naples