The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [233]
‘I meant,’ elucidated Tobie, ‘no, you are not going to race them.’ He gazed warningly at Nicholas. ‘I found her practising.’
‘Then you shouldn’t have told her the story. So what have you been doing all these weeks?’ He sat down.
John said, ‘Nicholas. I’ve got Achille below.’
Below was the counting-house. Achille was the under-agent who had been managing their affairs. Nicholas said, ‘Achille can sulk in his tent for an hour: I want some wine and some gossip. We are allowed wine?’
‘At an exorbitant tax rate,’ John said. ‘You don’t drink it.’
Nicholas looked taken aback. Tobie studied him with some interest. Nicholas said, ‘How good of you to remind me. I do want to know one thing right away, while you’re fetching it. Will you find out where the Vatachino are lodging?’
‘I can tell you,’ said Kathi. ‘David de Salmeton’s in Cairo. But before he left he took rooms in the Catalan fondaco next door. There are two sub-agents still there.’
‘Next door?’ Nicholas said. ‘Which way?’ John, his hand on the door, had turned back.
‘That way. You can see it from the other side of the room. Past the garden wall and over the lane. The second-floor loggia.’
Nicholas got up and looked. He said, ‘How do you know?’
Kathi shot across the room and returned with a bag which she presented, open, before him. It was full of bright fabrics and papers of needles and thread. ‘I went to the silk-sheds with the Catalonian Consul’s wife,’ she said, closing it and sitting down. ‘Damask and samite. Fairly good but not uniform. And then she came over here, because our baths are better than hers and she has a complaint. Dr Tobias told her what powders to use, and I went with her to the drugs market – Dr Tobias is teaching me how to mix drugs – and in return she took me to St Nicholas – that’s the Florentine church – instead of St Marie’s – that’s the Genoese – and I met the mistress of the Consul for Pisa who likes botanical drawings – have you seen the plants they have in the gardens? – and wanted to talk about David de Salmeton. In fact, she showed me a curl of his hair.’
‘Lovelocks!’ said John le Grant. John le Grant had cast an Aberdonian eye on the handsome David in Cyprus.
‘Well …’ said Kathi, looking at Nicholas. Her eyes were glinting in a way Tobie knew all too well.
Nicholas said, ‘I’m speechless. I think I’d feel safer with Achille. You have shocked Dr Tobias.’
‘I just wanted you to know,’ she said, ‘that I have independent sources of information and don’t mind sharing them. Otherwise you’d suspect an Adorne conspiracy. That is, I’m going to watch you and my uncle competing, and that’s comical enough without taking sides. When are you going to the Emir?’
‘Tomorrow,’ Nicholas said. A servant pushed open the door, bearing a tray, and, passing through the room, went to place it on the shaded verandah. John le Grant was behind him.
‘I haven’t met him,’ said Kathi. She waited until the servant had gone. ‘Are you going to give him the falcon?’
‘The falcon,’ Nicholas repeated. He had been on his way to the balcony. He turned, his hand on the door. Tobie sat, leaning back, watching them both until he saw John watching him with astonishment. He wiped the smile off his face.
Kathi said, ‘Yes. Or was that for the Sultan, and the essence of violet for the Emir? Anyway, they’ll be pleased about the copper bars and the Rheims linen – I thought you weren’t supposed to bring copper? – although I don’t know if you’ll get fifty florins a bale for that amount of wool cloth. But you might.’
She stopped, her round face ineffably smug. Nicholas shut the door and came back into the room. ‘You know my cargo,’ he said.
She smiled. ‘I thought I’d better warn you. Everyone usually does. Achille probably didn’t bother to tell you, because grain is so short. You know we don’t have any bread? It’s the time of year. And there’s a lot of camel-meat, but not much of any other, unless you’ve brought some with you?’
Nicholas sat down very carefully. ‘You mean I have some secrets left?’ Then he added, ‘Grain?’
She waited, smiling. Very