And as for Nicholas, who used to be Claes, who would have thought it? Held his own against two armed men and killed them, and then fought that bandit de Fleury to the death, no matter if another man had finally finished him. And so careful of his new wife, you wouldn’t believe, as well as showering her with all the money he’d made in Italy. You only had to hear the stories of the money credits he’d sent her through the summer, so that all her debts were paid, and the two girls could look forward to fine dowries. A good boy, Nicholas had turned out to be.
The only person who didn’t seem to want to rhapsodise about all this was Nicholas, who spent a dazed morning being slapped on his bandaged back and congratulated, and then took desperate refuge in work. Julius and Gregorio shared his long hours and the succession of hard-bargaining meetings without objection. Decisions made by Jaak de Fleury were corrected or reversed and new ones made in their place. The courier service was inspected, renewed and reorganised. Everything Gregorio had done since April was assimilated and discussed, including the purchasing programme for the Flanders galleys. And the vital meetings began with Bembo and the Venetian merchants.
Within a week, sanction should come from Venice for the acquisition by the Charetty and the Genoese merchants of the prescribed amount of the Flanders galleys’ cargo of alum. Being only ballast, it was not great. But the principle would be established, and the next round ship carrying bulk supplies from Constantinople would put in here, and the demoiselle’s new stockrooms would begin to fill up. Even if the authorities found the new mine tomorrow …
The only people in Bruges who didn’t seem happy about Nicholas were all the girls he used to go about with, who must have been hoping that he would get tired of the Widow and begin to chase them again. Once, Julius had passed the time of day with a high-ranking party from Veere with whom he thought he had no particular quarrel, until he saw the venom on the face of a fat little party he remembered as the younger Borselen girl. Nicholas, at whom she was staring, looked back at her with no expression at all, which was one of his commonest gambits these days. No longer were you able to track down Nicholas by the sound of other folks’ laughter. But, of course, it wouldn’t be right anyway, when you remembered poor Felix.
In the middle of all of this, the bald-headed doctor Tobias arrived from the Abruzzi, having presumably patched up Count Federigo and all those of his army susceptible to cure. Like Julius himself, Tobie was red-brown from the Italian sun and impressed, you could see, by the Spangnaerts Street house which, like Julius, he hadn’t seen before; and also by Gregorio, who was new to him. Gregorio and Tobie weighing each other up was a study which Julius rather enjoyed. He thought they might be a match for each other.
Nicholas wasn’t there, so Tobie had a session alone with the demoiselle about Astorre and his winter quarters, and the winding up of the contract and, presumably, Tobie’s recruitment to Nicholas’ alum venture and his share in it. Of them all, the doctor had shown least interest in the demoiselle’s marriage, but that was presumably because he hardly knew her anyway. After all, their only previous encounter was ten months before when he had applied to join Astorre instead of Lionetto.
He emerged from the meeting apparently unscathed, and from the way he walked into the office, evidently had reason to think he belonged to it. The clerks were away at the time, but the room looked businesslike enough, with its tables and cupboards and orderly litter. Tobie glanced round, nodded to Julius and Gregorio, and said, “And where is the young master?”
Julius frowned. Gregorio remarked in a voice of truly organ-like pitch, “You will find that, in this house, the young master is dead. Nicholas will be back soon. He is presiding, with some reluctance, over the burial of a great-uncle.”
Tobie lifted a hand and passed it over his bald head, removing his sober black bonnet. He said, “I nearly had to be buried myself. That’s why I didn’t exactly hurry here. My late captain overtook me on the road and tried to make out I’d deliberately ruined him. I left him looking for Jaak de Fleury instead.”
“He found him,” said Gregorio dryly. “If your late employer was Lionetto.”
Julius noticed that Tobie and Gregorio were staring at each other. Tobie said, “It’s Jaak de Fleury who’s being buried?”
Gregorio nodded gently. “Killed by Lionetto. Who departed the same day at speed. He must regret he changed sides. If he’d stayed with Piccinino, none of this would have happened.”
Julius said, “Never mind Lionetto. Have we got a new condotta?”
Tobie looked back. “Oh, yes,” he said. “At least, we’ve been offered one. Astorre is everyone’s favourite captain, since he got himself safely out of Naples and rushed straight to the feet of Urbino. This year’s campaign against Piccinino is over. Urbino’s accepted a renewed contract as well, and is taking his army to winter just north of Rome, in Magliano, so that he and Alessandro can see the Pope over Christmas. Astorre will go with him until he hears what we … what the demoiselle wants him to do.”
Julius said, “If you mean Nicholas, why not say so?” He was saying it when Nicholas came in, but he didn’t seem to have heard it, and was looking instead at Tobie, and then greeting him.
Tobie’s eyes, returning the look, were round and pale with a nasty black dot in the middle: the kind you saw if you were a weasel with a goshawk coming for you. Tobie said, “What’s all this about Jaak de Fleury?”
“He’s dead,” said Nicholas. “What’s all this about Astorre and a new contract?”
He got his answer, but didn’t really go on to force Tobie to talk about business, when there were much more interesting things to discuss. Nicholas himself sat listening, as usual these days, instead of saying very much. But, immersed in a bath of news and gossip, Julius sat chatting with the other two straight through the noon break, stopping only for visitors. People called at the house all the time to offer sympathy to Felix’s mother. And after they’d seen Felix’s mother, they walked through all the time to open the office door and speak to Felix’s friends.
They’d already had visits from Sersanders and John Bonkle and Colard Mansion (to ask about Godscalc) and even Tommaso Portinari, who had hardly been in Felix’s circle but who seemed to be experiencing an unwilling compulsion to cultivate Nicholas. He’d asked Nicholas all about the joust and the battle at San Fabiano, and Nicholas had told him.
The friends of Felix, Julius noticed, didn’t seem to blame Nicholas for what had happened, but were privately very keen to hear all about the fighting. Having been told so often, Nicholas’ account had acquired a rather truncated form, but Julius was able to add to it. He had also a lot of very good stories about Sarno. He found it all rather stimulating and was a little ashamed. But after all, the dead shouldn’t be forgotten. One should talk about them.
He did, to Lorenzo Strozzi, who called just after Tobie had arrived. Lorenzo wanted news of his brother in Naples, and to be reassured that King Ferrante would stay on his throne and the Strozzi business would be safe. Julius, as an equally anxious depositor, gave Lorenzo what tidings he could, but few reassurances. Lorenzo then began to talk about the meanness of the Strozzi in Bruges, and how the expanding Charetty company must be looking for bright young factors. When no one followed up this line of conversation, he reverted to talking about Felix. Nicholas told him about the battle. Lorenzo began, at last, to take his leave. At the door he said, looking at Nicholas, “I owe you something for getting that bird back.”
For a moment, Nicholas looked entirely blank. Then he said, “The ostrich? Where is it?”
On Lorenzo’s gloomy face there spread a rare grin. “Tommaso has it,” he said. “They fed it on shellfish in Brittany. It arrived in a very poor state, and he’s trying to get it well enough to cross the Alps before winter. I got paid for it.”
“Good,” said Nicholas.
“Is that all?” said Julius as the door closed. “According to Loppe, Felix told him some story …”
“Yes, I know. Let Tobie finish w
hat he was saying first.”
So Tobie resumed his discourse, but was still in the middle when they all had to get up because the door had opened on Giovanni Arnolfini, the Lucca silk merchant, who had brought some black velvet for the demoiselle. A gift from the most serene and excellent Dauphin to console the sorrowing mother for the loss of her gallant young son.
They talked about Felix, and Nicholas explained about the battle. After Arnolfini had gone, Tobie looked at Nicholas and said, “Why don’t you lock that God-forsaken door?”
Gregorio said, “Because the work bell’s just going to sound, and we rather want all the clerks to get in. I haven’t had any food yet. Shall we take Meester Tobias and see what we can find? If the demoiselle can be persuaded to excuse us all?”
Nicholas said, “You three go. I’ll tell her. I’ll see you all later,” and got up and left. And Tobie and Gregorio, who didn’t know each other, exchanged glances again.
In the tavern, they had the room to themselves because they were late. It was an inn Julius had known for a long time, and he got them to spread the board with food in the doctor’s honour, and add as much good Rhenish wine as he could drink. Though in the end, Tobie didn’t drink all that much, but requested instead a complete account of why Jaak de Fleury had come to Bruges, and what had happened to him.
At the finish, he sat for a moment, and then swallowed a lot of wine all at once. He said, “And how has Bruges taken that? Do they blame Nicholas?”
“Blame him!” said Julius. “He’s redeemed himself at last. You won’t remember. He never stood up to anyone. And now that he and the demoiselle …”
Gregorio said, rather quickly, “The merchants have come to accept the marriage as well. Nicholas has a good standing. Enough to do all he wants in the way of business.”
Tobie, without paying attention, was still looking at Julius, who could feel himself flushing. Tobie said, “I see. And what does he want to do? Has he told you yet?”
Julius said, “Well, it’s hardly a matter, yet, of Nicholas running the business. Once the alum sanction is through, I dare say we shall all be asked to help plan for the future. All I can tell you is that we might be raising two squadrons more for Astorre next season, now we have all the extra weapons and money for equipment. I suppose they’ll ask you to go back as his surgeon, if they haven’t already. The dyeshop will stay under the demoiselle, but the credit side, and the property, including things like Felix’s wine tavern, will be looked after by Gregorio and myself and perhaps expanded.”
“And Nicholas himself?” said Tobie.
Julius said, “Well, there’s the courier service. That’s getting well established, with a good team. He’ll run it mainly from Bruges, but do some of the riding himself between Bruges and Milan to keep in touch with the Milan side. I dare say he thinks you can help too, if you’re to be in Italy with Astorre.”
He stopped and looked at Gregorio, but Gregorio didn’t seem to want to add anything. Tobie said, “And that’s all he’s talked about? Nothing about ships, or setting up branches abroad, or going into trading in silk?”
“Ships!” said Julius.
Gregorio said, “No. Nothing about any of that. But of course, there’s been a lot to arrange and overhaul these last days. As Julius was saying, there hasn’t been a meeting yet to plan anything. The demoiselle probably wanted to wait until you were here. And the alum sanction had come through. I’ve certainly had the impression …” He hesitated.
“What?” said Tobie.
“That Nicholas is waiting for something,” said Gregorio.
“And you’re not worried?”
Julius said, “What about?”
“About the future of the business, of course,” the doctor said. He tore bits off his pheasant and put them all in his mouth with one hand, tidily. He said, “Felix was the nominal head. He’s gone. The demoiselle is the legal head. She’s a good, capable woman, but an affair this size is beyond her. Until the two daughters marry, who runs the Charetty company?”
Gregorio said, “I should have thought it was fairly obvious. The same people who together will be running the alum venture. The three of us, together with Nicholas. Except that Nicholas, being the demoiselle’s husband, has the strongest position.”
“He certainly couldn’t do it without us,” said Julius.
“Couldn’t he?” said Tobie. “I’ve been thinking of all I’ve seen of friend Nicholas. I listened to the demoiselle talking about the business today. I don’t think that Nicholas needs us to run anything. He needs us to help him, that’s all. Whether we like it or not, Nicholas is the master of the Charetty company. So how does that strike you? Is he the sort of person you want to work under?”
It was exactly what had been worrying Julius. He said slowly, “I know what you mean. He’s young.”
Tobie said, “He’s just under twenty years old. That’s up to ten years younger than the oldest of us. It means that, gifted as he is, he has no experience.”
“We can supply that,” said Gregorio. He was watching Tobie closely.
“And he’ll accept it,” said Tobie. “He’s good at taking advice. And he’s good at management. He’s won the goodwill of everyone who has ever beaten him, by being cheerful, placid, long-suffering, and, above all, by bearing no grudges. It makes him attractive to work with. For me, it would make him attractive to work for. But I’ve begun to wonder about this submissive role. Is it genuine?”
Julius grinned. He said, “Have you seen Nicholas putting up with a beating? It’s genuine.”
“Oh, he puts up with it, at the time,” Tobie said. “But what if he doesn’t immediately forget it, as you seem to think? What if every slight, every punishment is being quietly registered, because he is really a different sort of person altogether?”
“I’ve wondered,” said Gregorio.
“Yes. So have I,” said Tobie. “Is he what he seems? And then, from wondering, I started to notice things. The chief being this: whom friend Nicholas dislikes, it seems to me, friend Nicholas kills.”
Julius stopped eating. Gregorio said, “Yes. I think we should talk about it.”
The warm weather had brought in all the flies. Julius batted them away, and untied and flung off his jacket and unhooked the top of his doublet and turned to Tobie and said, “Now what are you talking about?”
The doctor laid down the bone he had finished and, splashing his fingers in the water bowl, scrubbed his hands clean on his napkin. Then he pushed his plate away and collected his wine cup in both hands. He said, “Jaak de Charetty and Lionetto.”
Julius gazed at him. He felt angry and breathless at the same time. He said, “That’s ridiculous. What are you blaming Nicholas for? He killed two servants who were trying to kill him. He didn’t kill Lionetto, and he didn’t kill de Fleury although, by God, he had every reason to. What he did do is free Bruges – and the company – of the lot of them.”
Tobie said, “I’m not saying for a moment that the people he hurts don’t deserve to be hurt. Or most of them. I’m talking about building puzzles and creating ciphers and laying trails and then sitting back while other people explode them.”
Tobie picked up his wine, took a hard swallow, and put it down smartly. He sent his eyes round both Julius and Goro.
Tobie said, “Let’s take Lionetto. I don’t like Lionetto. Lionetto, incidentally, abused Nicholas too, during the flood in the tavern. And then, later, he forced a fight with Astorre, and Nicholas found himself one of the contestants, and all but died. So we may suppose Nicholas doesn’t like Lionetto very much either. So you would think Nicholas would be glad to hear that Lionetto was fighting on the other side in the Naples war, under Piccinino.”
“He wasn’t,” said Gregorio, “I remember when the news came that Piccinino had changed to the other side. Nicholas didn’t like it. But he wouldn’t tell me why.”
“Because he didn’t care what Piccinino did,” Tobie said. “But he wanted Lionetto on our side. So much tha
t when the Pope sent bribery money to Milan, Nicholas asked me to try to persuade the Duke to use some of it to tempt Lionetto away from Piccinino. I did, and he came back to the Milanese side.”
“Why should Nicholas want Lionetto on our side?” said Julius.
“That’s what I wondered,” said Tobie. “Then I began to wonder where Lionetto was putting all this gold he was getting for bribes. And guess what?”
“He used to bank with the Medici,” said Julius. “I remember in Geneva that Nicholas joked with the Medici about Lionetto’s glass jewels.”
“And encouraged Jaak de Fleury to yearn for Lionetto’s future deposits,” said Tobie. “Of course, Jaak de Fleury knew how lucrative a soldier’s business could be. He’d been handling captain Astorre’s money for a long time. Until, that is, Nicholas came along.”
Julius said, “Nicholas?” But he was already remembering. He said, “In Milan. Astorre transferred his business to the Medici because they offered him amazingly low rates.” He paused. “But how could Nicholas influence the Medici?”
Tobie said, “Nicholas had the Medici in the palm of his hand. He makes and breaks ciphers. He’s an informer. There’s a limit to what the Medici would do for him, but offering low rates to a mercenary captain to capture his trade is well within them. So Astorre’s money was safe, and Lionetto, despising his enemy and courted by de Fleury, transferred his money in turn to Maffino. M. Jaak’s agent in Milan. Nicholas was quite relieved when it happened. He checked specially on his way through Milan. He told me.”
Gregorio spoke. He said, “So that Lionetto would be ruined when Jaak de Fleury went bankrupt?”
“So that Jaak de Fleury would become bankrupt,” said Tobie. “Jaak de Fleury was the target. Lionetto was only the buffer that set the missile off at the right angle.”