The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [339]
‘I thought you called the lord Andrea your father?’ Nicholas said.
‘I forget which is which,’ Zacco said. He unhitched from the balustrade and sat. ‘There is wine on this table.’
‘So long,’ Nicholas said, ‘as you don’t ask me to taste Fiorenza’s sweetmeats. I don’t want this property.’
Zacco said, ‘Be careful.’ It was a warning. He had whitened.
‘I don’t need to be careful,’ Nicholas said. He had not touched the wine, or approached.
‘You think I need you?’ Zacco said. ‘You?’
‘You need the Venetians.’
‘And you are afraid of them? You think they would get rid of you?’ He paused. ‘Sweetmeats?’
‘A figure of speech,’ Nicholas said. ‘Monseigneur, I must go. I have to report, and to speak to my people.’
‘I threw them out,’ said Zacco carelessly. ‘When I thought you had gone, I found I needed the villa. The girl is at the Clares’.’ His eye fell, in turn, on the document under the lamp, and his lip suddenly twitched.
All the wayward charm was still there. It was hard not to smile back, until one remembered how dangerous he could be. Nicholas said, ‘The Venetians will no doubt take in Dr Tobias, and me too.’
‘You have a talisman against poison?’ said Zacco. ‘I could find a use for you.’ He stood. ‘You will stay. Refuse me, and I will never forget it.’ He picked up and held out the sheet. When it was not taken, very slowly he opened his fingers and let it drop to the floor.
‘My lord,’ Nicholas said. The box cut into his palm. ‘My lord, that is why I am refusing.’
He had thought, after he left the room, that they would try something else: that the King’s mother would have him sent for, but she did not. He did not even go back to his bedchamber, but recovered his horse from a stable where no one spoke to him. Then he went and found Tobie at the house of Andrea Corner.
Corner embraced him on either cheek, gripping his shoulders and finding out several bruises. Tobie heard him out when they were alone in the guest-chamber. He told him all the salient facts, except for Famagusta. At the end, as was to be expected, Tobie was having trouble keeping his temper. He dragged his hat off and aimed it into a corner. ‘Right. You know where the gold is, and you’re giving it up in return for certain rights. You have committed the company?’
‘On my own personal whim? Yes,’ said Nicholas. ‘To my services. Until the turn of the year.’
‘When the plans and figures come to be discussed in detail in Venice. Do you mean to do all that on your own as well?’
‘Julius and Moriz will be there,’ Nicholas said. ‘Cristoffels. You, if you want.’
‘Yes, I want. Poor Diniz. He ought to know what has happened to his half of the gold. And John. Don’t you think John might want to have a say in the way the company is going? Even where you are going?’
‘I have no objection,’ Nicholas said.
‘You would leave me to arrange it? You don’t want me in Rhodes.’
‘No. But what about the girl?’ Nicholas said. He was aware of a certain vagueness.
‘You’re thinking like a sponge. The girl doesn’t need me: she has to wait for her uncle. Adorne. Remember the good Baron Cortachy? Forestalling you wherever he can, along with the rest of the Vatachino. Do you think they’re going to let you become the accredited middleman for all this without some very nasty opposition indeed?’
After a while, Tobie added, ‘Nicholas?’ and stopped marching about and sat down opposite.
Nicholas realised he hadn’t answered.
Tobie said, ‘Listen to me. You thought you could track down the child, but now you say that you couldn’t: Gelis knows how to outwit the pendulum. Or I think that’s what you said. So how do you know you won’t commit yourself to all this, only for her to mislead you in Venice as well?’
‘Because Ludovico da Bologna made her promise,’ Nicholas said. He perceived