To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [126]
‘All princesses are beautiful,’ murmured Michael Alighieri, joining them. ‘All paintings proclaim it. All envoys call them so, for fear some turn of the political wheel may make it necessary to believe it. All speak of Catherine Corner as an angel of pulchritude: you have probably seen her. And before you call it hypocrisy, Patriarch, recall how you fumed long ago over that stinking Greek turncoat, Zoe’s father. But now she is a valuable pawn, is she not, in your game?’
‘Poor Ivan. Poor Zacco,’ said Julius. He began to laugh again, very quietly.
‘Holy Church,’ said Father Ludovico, ‘does not have recourse to pawns. Here is the Cardinal. He will tell you. The lady is the Pope’s beloved daughter in Christ. On the day she marries Duke Ivan of Muscovy, she will draw the worth of her dowry and more from the returns of the Tolfa alum mines. So the papal alum will pay for the downfall of the infidel. And should the Golden –’
‘Enough,’ said Cardinal Bessarion. ‘This lady lives under my roof, and will be respected. Master Julius, you have leave.’
Julius flushed. He said, ‘Monsignore. I have to apologise for Adorne. He is young.’
‘He is not helped,’ the Cardinal said, ‘by his friends. I should like you to retire. This reception in any case is nearly over except for my private guests. I shall send for you presently, when I have a communication about banking matters. Patriarch, a word.’
The two men paced off. Julius, still scarlet, smoothed his doublet and began to move to the door. Nerio walked with him. ‘But it was worth it!’ said Nerio. ‘Poor boy, it was worth it! I suppose there is nothing for him but the Bishop of St Andrews? He looked very glum.’
‘There never was anything for him but the Bishop of St Andrews,’ Julius said. ‘He’ll have to make the best of it, like everyone else. That’s my cloak. It’s still raining.’
‘So it is. Which way do you go?’ Nerio said.
‘Not in your direction,’ said Julius.
There were fifteen taverns in the centre of Rome. Jan began with the Sun, which was just off the Campo de’ Fiori, and worked his way through the rest until he began to distrust his legs. Then he returned to the hospice and, taking a razor, bloodily hacked off his beard.
Julius walked in the rain until he was sure Nerio was quite out of sight; then he held his sword down and ran to the Casa Niccolò. He took the shortest way, which meant the most crowded, looking all the time from side to side without seeing anyone he knew. He passed within sight of the Palazzo San Marco and a number of taverns, but Jan Adorne had long since gone from his mind. His cloak was soaked and his boots and fine hose were stinking with mud. As he came near the Canale, the rain stopped, and a watery sun touched the overlapping red roofs and the white loggias of the international money market of Rome: the foreign banks with their strange food and odd tongues and busy, busy counting-houses.
Outside the pale portico with its vines, he saw a magpie flash of the Niccolò colours: Lazzarino had set someone to look for him. Julius increased his pace. By the time he arrived, Lazzarino himself had come out. He looked composed, but called across with a little more emphasis than was customary. ‘Our client has arrived. She did not wish to trouble the Cardinal, and preferred to wait for you. I have placed her in the garden chamber to rest.’
Julius nodded. Shedding his cloak, he saw a manservant he knew in the room with his porter, and smiled at him as he passed. There was no sign of anyone else. Julius walked through the house.
The garden chamber was small, and during winter was closed off from the loggia, although the garden could still be admired through glass. The light from the sun, weak and low, touched the windows to gold, and rimmed the hair of the woman who rose at once as he entered. Her face was lost in the dimness, but he smelled her scent, and heard, in the stillness, the sound of her faint, exact breathing.
Then he whispered, ‘Anna!’ and crossed; and threw himself at her feet.
Chapter 17
NEWS FROM ROME travelled