Page 66 of Dark Tides
“Are you paying me extra for extra care?” he asked her.
“No!” Livia said at once. “Only what she agreed! And she’s paying, not me!”
His chapped lips parted in a grim smile. “As I thought,” he said. He turned his head and shouted an order. To Alys he gave the bill of lading, the export license from Venice, and his bill. “They were just over six tons,” he said. “But I’ll charge you for the six: fifteen pounds you owe me.”
Alys gritted her teeth. “I’ve got it, I’ll pay you tomorrow morning.”
“And I shall send you a message if I need another load,” Livia said blithely.
“You’ve got more furniture?” he asked, surprised.
“It is a very large collection,” Livia said.
“Well, you know where to find me,” the Captain said to Alys. “I’ll be at Paton’s every morning till I sail, probably next month. I’d be glad to see you there, Mrs. Stoney. I’ll bid you good day.”
“I’ll settle up with you then,” Alys promised him. Unconsciously, she fingered the shillings from the apothecary in her pocket as she walked with the Captain to Horsleydown Stairs where his dinghy was waiting to take him back to the ship.
“See how long you’ve got to wait at the legal quay with your load,” she advised him. “I heard this morning, it was weeks. They’re queuing all down the river to get in. You can bring the ship back here and we can unload you.”
“I’m obliged, but I’m carrying coffee, I have to unload under the king’s lock. Otherwise I’d come to you, Mrs. Stoney. I know your rates are fair and your warehouse secure.” He bowed his head. “Always a pleasure to do business with you, ma’am.”
“Next time,” Alys said pleasantly, and watched him go down the steps into his boat. He raised a hand in farewell and Alys walked back to the warehouse. She paused for a moment and looked up at her mother’s little tower. Alinor had come out onto the balcony to lean on the rail and look towards the ship. Her hand shaded her eyes, her gown billowed a little in the breeze from the river; she stood very still, strangely attentive as if she were waiting for someone.
“Ma?” Alys called up from the quay. “Are you all right?”
Alinor looked down at her daughter. “Yes,” she said. “There were no passengers?”
“None that’d want to disembark here,” Alys stated the obvious.
“No,” Alinor said quietly, and went back through the glazed door to her room.
“Alys, come!” came Livia’s impatient cry from inside the warehouse, and Alys went inside and bolted the double doors behind her.
Livia was still standing before her crated goods, one hand on the crate as if she could feel a heartbeat. “I can hardly believe they’re here,” she said breathlessly.
“When will you take them to his house?” Alys asked.
“As soon as you can lend me the wagon.”
Alys nodded, knowing that the wagon would earn no money but would be gone all day.
“As soon as I have them there, I will confirm the date of the showing. I want them to be at their very best.” She turned to Alys. “You will help me, won’t you? You will lend me your wagon and two men, and let me take it to and from the house? You know I’m only doing this for Matteo, for Roberto’s son? So that he can have his inheritance ingold at the goldsmith’s, rather than in lumps of marble left behind in Venice? You know I want to help here? Bring some money in, so that you can move to a cleaner part of the town?”
“And then will you leave us?” Alys remarked, her voice carefully neutral.
There was a pause while Livia took in what her sister-in-law was saying. “Leave you?”
“After your sale?”
“I did not think it,” she said quietly. “Do you want me to leave? I know it is crowded. I know that Matteo means extra work for everyone…”
“No,” Alys stumbled. “Not at all… but I thought… I would want you to stay! I would want you…” She could not say what she wanted; she did not know what she wanted.
But Livia was quick. She clasped her sister-in-law’s hands. “No! My darling! My dearest! Don’t think of me leaving! Have you been thinking that? Don’t dream of it. This is for all of us, for all of us that Roberto loved, even your children will benefit! If I can make a fortune, then we will all buy a new house together and all live together. You will ship my goods, we will have a house and a gallery of antiquities. We will never part. You are my sister, are you not?Mia Suocerais my mother-in-law! We are family, I want no one else! We will live together always. We shall never be parted!”
Alys, her hands tightly clutched, felt her eyes fill with unexpected tears. “Oh! I’m so glad. I thought you would… I didn’t want…”
Livia drew her sister-in-law into her arms, so that her little lacy cap was against Alys’s smooth golden braids. “We will never be parted,” Livia breathed. “You are all the family that is left to me, and I and the baby are all that is left of your brother. Of course, we will always be together, and our fortunes will be as one. You will help me, and I will help you.”
