Page 151 of Dark Tides
He shook his head. “She stays in the house till we all go north.”
“He listens to her? She advises him?”
He hesitated.
“Servants know everything,” Livia said to him sharply. “Don’t dream of lying to me now.”
“He listens to her,” he agreed. “And Lord! She’s a tyrant! We all jump to her bidding.”
“Tell them that they will have an easier mistress with me,” Livia said rapidly, pressing a silver sixpence into his palm. “Tell them that it would be better for us all if she went to her Dower House now—and left him alone in London. Promise them that I will be a new mistress, generous with leftovers for those in the kitchen, and with my old clothes to the maids. Everyone will be bettered when I come to Northside Manor and Avery House. You, especially.”
“I’ll try,” he said, unconvinced. “But she’s well liked in Yorkshire.”
“Pffft!” Livia waved away the objection. “She is nobody. I am the new mistress of Northside Manor. Tell them they had better think about me and pleasing me!”
“And when’s the wedding?” Glib asked as they parted at the warehouse door.
She looked sharply at him as if she suspected him of insolence, as if she feared that the servants knew all about this too. “Before Lent,” she swore. “And you remember that!”
DECEMBER 1670, VENICE
Dear Uncle Robert,
I am your niece, Sarah Stoney, come toVenice on the ship Sweet Hope with a message from your mother. She sends her blessing—she says you always found your own way widdershins on the ebb at the full.
This is a letter to say farewell, but your ma, my grandma, knows best and she is certain we will meet on a celestial shore.
Sarah
She handed the letter to Felipe.
“These English words!” he said. “How can you even write them?”
“My grandma is a countrywoman,” Sarah said carelessly. “I thought Rob would like to hear her, as she speaks. Can you get it to him?”
“They have food and drink delivered every day,” he said. “I’ll take this to the Fondamente Nuove, and get one of the boats to take it.”
“And send this,” Sarah said. From her placket she drew out an old worn purse, which had once been red, but was now rusty brown.
“The porters will steal any money,” he warned. He hefted it in his hand. “Light,” he said at once, though he heard the coins chink.
“It’s not money. It’s valueless to anyone but my grandma,” Sarah said. “She used to collect little tokens and clippings of old coins. As soon as he sees them, he’ll know I am who I say. It’ll give him comfort.”
Felipe tossed the purse in the air and caught it. “You are the strangest of families,” he told her. “Are all English people quite mad?”
She laughed. “That’s nothing,” she said. “You should see my grandma with a sick baby, you would think she was breathing life into it.”
He crossed himself. “I’ll send this now,” he said. “And we have to pack the last of the Nobildonna’s treasures.”
“You’re going to send her all that she asked for?” Sarah asked curiously. “You’re still doing her bidding?”
“Of course. Business is business, she can sell them, and give me my share,” he said. “And besides, they are on the cargo manifest. You forget how we Venetians are about reports. Captain Shore would rather sink to the bottom of the lagoon than go into the Custom House and change his cargo declaration.”
Sarah laughed and folded up the map. “May I keep this?”
“If you wish.”
“I’d just like to know the island as we go past it,” she said. “To say good-bye.”
