Page 153 of Dark Tides
There was silence in the little room.
“Where’s Livia today?” Alinor changed the subject. “Does she still go to the house, though she has nothing to sell?”
“Not every day,” Alys replied. “There’s nothing for her to do here, until her antiquities arrive.”
“And then she will sell them again? As she did before?”
“Aye, and repay us for the voyage and storage again.”
“And then again, and again?”
“Yes, that’s the plan. And move to a warehouse where she can show her goods to customers and sell them there. You know this, Ma. Why ask me?”
“She puzzles me now, as she’s always done. She leaves her child with us: you have him most mornings, and his nursemaid brings him to me in the afternoon. What’s she doing all day? How come she’s Rob’s widow, and yet lives off us, making you pay for her shipping even when she’s got money at the goldsmith’s? She complains that we’re poor, that Tabs isn’t a proper maid, that the food is badly cooked; but we’ve seen nothing of her sale money? She says she wants us to get another warehouse to ship her goods; but not how much she’ll put into it? She asks you to borrow for it. She’s young and might look for another husband, and so I wonder if that’s what she’s doing when she’s out every day?”
Alys flushed. “She is a perfectly good mother. She loves Matteo.”
“When she’s with him.”
“She brings in more money to this family than she costs! She’srepaid for the first shipping and storage and she’ll repay for the second when it arrives. And she’s going to buy the new warehouse with us?”
“A gift? Her gift to us?”
Alys bit her lip.
“And she will remain here with us, and not remarry?”
Alys turned to her mother. “Ma, she’s such good company for me. It’s such a pleasure for me to have her here, and little Matteo. It’s like we have a beautiful bird in the house. I want her to walk out freely and come back to us, without being questioned. I want her to make her home here with us. I love her as a sister, I don’t want her to think about remarrying and leaving. I don’t want her to think she has to pay rent, or provide for us. I want her to live off us, and live with us. I want her to stay forever. I am happy to provide for her.”
“My dear, d’you really think she won’t remarry?”
“You never did! I didn’t!”
Alinor nodded, her eyes on the flames. “I don’t think Livia is a woman like us,” was all she said.
DECEMBER 1670, VENICE
TheSweet Hopewas to sail on the ebb tide of the evening, lit by a huge cold moon, which sat, bright as a gleaming globe, on the horizon, making the canal into glassy black and turning the brightly colored houses into shades of gray. The canal was busy with workers going home for the night, and with merrymakers starting to go out; all the gondolas carried bobbing lanterns on their prows and lights gleamed on the waters from the open water gates of the great houses.
Captain Shore, on the quayside before the Custom House, blazingwith flambeaux, had a brusque nod for Felipe and a smile for Sarah as they waited to have their papers checked at the gangplank, but he did not speak to either of them until the officials had released them and they were ready to board.
“All well?” he asked shortly. “For we sail as soon as thepedottisays so, we’re taking on fresh stores at Sant’ Erasmo, and we can’t be delayed.”
“All well,” Felipe said. Sarah nodded.
“Stow your things,” the Captain commanded. To Sarah he said: “You can have your old cabin, my dear.” He turned to Felipe: “You’ll have to share with the first mate, unless you want to pay extra for a private cabin?”
Felipe bowed his head. “I’ll pay, Captain,” he said smoothly.
The Custom House official came with a sheaf of papers and seals. Captain Shore checked them meticulously, signed, and exchanged documents, paid his mooring fees and the duty on the goods he was shipping, and then stepped up the gangplank. Behind him followed thepedotti, who unsheathed his knife. He cut off the official seals from the wheel of the ship and nodded to the Captain that they were ready to leave. Captain Shore shouted the order to cast off for’ard, the gangplank was shipped aboard, the fore line was thrown, caught, and taken in. The current swung the ship so that it nosed out into the channel, as Sarah came out of her cabin to see the little barges fix their lines on the ship and draw her forward. Thepedottishouted for the stern line to be released and the barges guided the ship out into the main channel where the ebbing tide drew them smoothly down the Grand Canal, past palaces, the glimpse of St. Mark’s Square, past the Doge’s Palace: every window lighted bright, as justice never sleeps, and then out into the lagoon. They passed the island of Vignole on the port side, and saw ahead the flicker of the torches burning on the end of the pier of Sant’ Erasmo. As thepedottishouted commands, the barges drew the galleon to the pier, and the farmers started carrying their baskets of produce towards the ship.
Felipe joined Sarah on deck as she stared out into the gathering darkness. “You are looking for your uncle’s prison?”
She nodded. “Is that it?” She pointed north over the flat farmland,dark against the dark water, to the rooftop of the great building, which gleamed in the moonlight like a huge granary, one story with a huge barn door, bigger even than the Venice Custom House, pale in the moonlight. “The place that looks like a castle?”
“That’s it,” he said. “But those are chimneys, not castellations. Every cell has its own fire and chimney so those who are quarantined don’t mess together. Your uncle Rob will have lived in the doctor’s house, under guard. The big doors open to a double warehouse for the goods.”
“Lived?” She picked him up on the word. “You believe he is dead?”
