To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [354]
Tobie said, ‘I was there. He was tortured. He would have drowned, but for a miracle. David started it, and did nothing to stop it.’
‘He said you knew about it,’ Nicholas said. ‘He had your ring.’ He looked curiously at her face, and the horror on it, which she couldn’t have manufactured. She hadn’t known. He said, none the less, ‘And in Cyprus.’
She said, ‘He was to kidnap and ransom you.’
‘Perhaps he meant to,’ Nicholas said. ‘But when Zacco fell ill, I was left to starve. And then of course, there was Martin, who almost managed to pitch me over the battlements of Edinburgh Castle, and sink me in Iceland. Even Sersanders, even Katelijne would have been killed, when my ship was sent to the bottom – I wonder if Adorne ever realised that?’
Martin was standing. The fat man’s lazy regard dwelled on each speaker in turn. Then he returned it to Nicholas, as if encouraging him to continue.
Nicholas didn’t mind. Nicholas said, ‘And there was the pact between Martin and Simon. Did you know about that, Gelis? Of course, the Vatachino and the vicomte are rivals, but Martin did persuade Simon to join him in attacking their mutual enemy, the Banco di Niccolò. It was after that pact that the wagon rolled downhill towards Jodi. It was after that pact that the ice gave way in the Nor’ Loch and the horse-shoes were spiked in an attempt against all of us, but chiefly, Gelis, against you.’
Martin said, ‘I had nothing to do with it. Simon did these things himself.’
‘Did he? Who is to say?’ Nicholas said. ‘But at least I can absolve Gelis from both, whatever earlier murders she was willing to help with. In these cases the Vatachino operated against her, as they did against me.’ He turned his eyes to the fat man, brows raised. ‘So you see, I do have reason for ceding the fight. The sooner she leaves the Vatachino, the better.’
‘These are lies,’ Gelis said. ‘I attempted no murders.’ But her voice was flat, and she was staring at Martin. The boy Henry laughed.
‘Be quiet,’ said the fat man softly. ‘Madame, you may have attempted no murders, but you have been singularly blind, it seems to me, as to the characters of your associates. Do you still regard yourself as worthy of your husband’s steel?’
Nicholas answered for her. ‘I have told you. I have asked her to leave the Vatachino for the sake of myself and the Bank, which she was disrupting.’
‘Which she was disrupting? Or which you let her disrupt?’ de Ribérac said.
The shutters were closed, sealing off the lower part of the one handsome window. From behind them, and from the glazed upper half came the constant confused sound of wheels, and trampling feet, and raised voices. The vicomte said, ‘If you shout, Nicholas, my men have orders whom to kill first. Concentrate instead on the discrepancy here. This lady says she has won. You agree. You have even named her a murderess to support it. But do we really believe that, all this time, she has deceived you? You!’
‘You heard Master Martin,’ said Nicholas.
‘I heard you,’ said the vicomte. ‘It was most instructive, for it was not, of course, true. I refer to my friend Wodman, who has some interesting tales to tell of your two Scottish households, and how the one spied on the other. There were some ledgers which were left out to be seen, and others which were not. The same at Antwerp, he learned (it was expensive: your servants are loyal), and, later, at Bruges.’
‘I am glad it was expensive,’ said Nicholas, amused. ‘You are describing what every merchant does, to confuse competitors and even the tax collector.’
‘To confuse the Vatachino: my point,’ the fat man said. ‘And specifically to mislead the lady your wife. Certainly, there were some transactions which could not be hidden, where you had to limit the damage; and others, I am sure, which you allowed her as a sop. But it was your wife you were keeping your business from, not only Martin and Simon. Nothing ever leaked out, for example, about your real plans for Iceland. You must have given orders to someone not to tell her. Dr Tobias, for example?’
Tobie said, ‘I learned about this