The Unicorn Hunt: The Fifth Book of the House of Niccolo by Dorothy Dunnett
In Florence, she made herself quickly at home. She installed her household in the middle-sized house discreetly found for her by a van Borselen kinsman. The permanent guest-house, so graphically conjured by her husband, proved to be wholly fictitious. The dame de Fleury, veiled and chaperoned, moved about Florence methodically pursuing her business, and showed no surprise when, at the end of the first week of her visit, the madonna Alessandra Macinghi negli Strozzi, merchant in spectacles, sent her chamberlain to call and presently followed in person.
She was sixty-three now, the matriarch of the once-powerful Florentine Strozzis, the black hair greyed, the eyes dimmed by the painful years of campaigning which, three years ago, ended when the Medici lifted the ban on her sons and allowed them to come back from exile: Filippo Strozzi, already a magnate; and Lorenzo, the discontented juvenile of Bruges, now wealthy and settled in Naples. Lorenzo’s mother knew all about Nicholas.
‘And so you plan to surprise your young husband. How charming. Although poor Bertuccio, your husband’s agent, has been sorely alarmed. But then, one must make allowance for the raptures of first love. I am so glad,’ said Monna Alessandra, ‘that the young man has achieved such an unexpected and elevating marriage. I must tell you that the Republic was not impressed when he paid his first visit to Florence. There was a certain wildness of conduct.’
‘He has matured,’ Gelis said. ‘But, of course, you have done business with him since, over the spectacles. And the Arab horses. He sent them to Scotland.’
‘Ah?’ said Monna Alessandra. In a leisurely way, she unhooked the spectacles that hung from one ear and, clipping them over her nose, gazed at Gelis. ‘They tell me Scotland is quite important these days.’
Gelis smiled. ‘They keep their neighbours occupied,’ she said. ‘And prevent them from interfering too much across the Narrow Sea.’
‘Which suits the Duke of Burgundy and, no doubt, the van Borselen,’ the old lady said. ‘So it is power that interests you?’
‘As it interests you,’ Gelis said. She was not ruffled by elderly women. Once, when silly and young, she had thought Lorenzo Strozzi romantic.
The two circles of glass contemplated her. ‘As it interests me?’ repeated Monna Alessandra. ‘I think not. Power for its own sake is dross. I do what I do for the survival of my family. For my sons. Yet you married late and have produced one child, so they tell me, of which you have said nothing at all.’
Gelis lowered her gaze. She said, ‘As you mentioned, Ser Niccolò is … ardent by nature. The child came early. Perhaps, even yet, I am not wholly reconciled to it.’
There was a silence. She lifted her eyes. The old woman spoke thoughtfully. ‘Ser Niccolò, I hear you say, as if a foreign knighthood made him the equal of a van Borselen. Why proceed to marriage, madonna, when the office of lover was so clearly that for which he is best fitted? Chance-got children are no impediment, as a rule.’
The princely chambers of Bruges seldom produced this kind of astringency. It invited real answers, and for a moment, Gelis was tempted to give them. Marriage, Monna Alessandra, has its uses. To punish your lover. To teach him. To destroy him. To hold him for ever. Or even a combination of some of these things.
Gelis said, ‘An orphan has less choice than you might think. My branch of the family is not wealthy and has welcomed the marriage, as you did that of your daughter. Ser Niccolò is a man of uncommon ability.’
‘You compare yourself to my Caterina,’ said the old lady. ‘Yet in a well-arranged marriage the wife does not leave her home without the consent of her husband.’
‘I am waiting for him!’ Gelis said, smiling. She held down her anger.
‘Oh, that is evident,’ said Monna Alessandra. ‘He did not invite you, and you are chagrined and, disregarding him, come. Why, I ask myself? A lovers’ quarrel, now to be mended? I do not think so. A girl in love would besiege me for secrets. What did he do, my high-spirited Nicholas, when he was in Florence? What did they whisper of him when he was a young man – a young, married man – in the East?’
‘You want to tell me,’ said Gelis.
‘I am not sure that I know. There is someone in Florence who does, if you are interested. But you are not, are you?’ said Monna Alessandra languidly. ‘It is power you seek. Your husband is little – was he ever much? – but the architect of this power. And when he has built to your satisfaction, you will decide, I have no doubt, what to do. Meanwhile, his death would be very unfortunate.’
The glazed circles conveyed a dry admonition, unencumbered by outrage, condemnation or threat. Gelis found herself speaking harshly. ‘Rest assured. Chagrin will not induce me to hasten it. I should never kill where I love. And only simpletons kill where they hate.’
‘I see,’ said Monna Alessandra. Then, more briskly, ‘I am glad to have the air cleared. Business does not thrive in an atmosphere of unstable relationships. It is why the proper choice of a wife is imperative. I hear Tommaso is coming here soon? Tommaso Portinari?’
‘To renew his contract,’ said Gelis. She took a good deal of care, now, with what she said.
‘And to have the Medici select him a wife. Lorenzo is in the same situation. Both, I should hope, have lived a full life and are experienced men. Neither will choose his wife blinded with passion. In marriage as in business they may even prove more successful than you,’ said Monna Alessandra. ‘With your ardent but inconsiderate husband and your premature child. So I advise you again. Choose a course. If in doubt, end your marriage. If you think yourself his intellectual equal – as you may be; he is only an artisan – then bind him into a partnership, and use your sex to keep him there. You have done it already.’
They looked at one another. Gelis said, ‘You surprise me.’
Monna Alessandra rose. ‘You expect all elderly women to be captivated by his charm. No. He does not use those dimples with me. In return, I take him for what he is, as I take you. One has to live with one’s kind, whether one likes them or not.’
‘So I have found,’ Gelis said.
‘Yes. So I must go. You are unlikely to need me. Call on me if you do. The Bank brings me good business,’ said Monna Alessandra.
In Florence that year, the month of August proved unpleasantly hot. The wealthy had long since closed their houses and retired to their delicious villas in the campagna. Those who remained tied to town collected their households each evening and rode out to their farms, away from the heat, the smells and the gnats of the river Arno.
Gelis van Borselen, awaiting her husband, found it expedient to emerge a little from her lengthening retirement, and accepted invitations to the homes of distant relatives, and to households such as that of the Acciajuoli, where her husband was known.
Because of the fragile health of Messer Piero, she was entertained in the Via Largo by the lesser members of the Medici family, who several times mentioned how exhausted they had all been by dear Lorenzo’s little wedding. Three hundred barrels of vernaccia tapped, would one believe, and five thousand pounds of the wickedest sweetmeats – how could one lace up one’s gown? And the gifts! Although nothing, to be sure, compared to the nuptials of Duke Charles. What had the King of Naples sent to Duke Charles?
She was quite good at that particular game, and held her own. Because of it, perhaps, she found herself included, with other young matrons, in the parties which began to mark the opening of the cooler autumn season – a pretty water-festival, or a mock battle in the Piazza Santa Croce, or a dinner party, or a dance in the Piazza Santa Trinità.
As her circle widened, other small, idle pleasures became open to her. She could have become part of the carefree bands of young men and girls of her own age who strolled through the warm streets in the evening, the men with their lutes, the girls with ribbons and posies, escorted by their liveried torchbearers, taking laughter and music and mischief from one wrought-iron gateway to another.
Once, from her window, she saw a pair she did not know linger behind: the man well made and tall, wi
But that, of course, was exceptional. The mind was the weapon, the scourge; the senses obeyed it. The mind surveyed the sweet, the seductive dish in which the sharp business sense of Florence was embedded, and compared it with the Burgundian court which, although richer, had nothing of this kind to offer. Entertainment for the wellborn in Brussels was encased in Portuguese etiquette; set about with mechanical figures. Only the common people could be freely exuberant like this – at a skating-party; round a fire; under the coloured lanterns at carnival-time. And only in childhood had she been permitted to join them.
These were the only times, and they were few, when thought strayed and pain would seat itself, mocking, in the familiar place, and her resolution for a moment would falter. For the rest, she set to completing the small, private calls she still had to make. There were not so many. Time was passing, after all. After all, it was September.
She spent an evening with a man called Prosper Schiaffino de Camulio de’ Medici, who was Genoese and discontented. Leaving, she was reminded of what Monna Alessandra had said about having to live with one’s kind, whether one liked them or not.
She returned the old lady’s call, but talked of nothing of consequence except perhaps the grape harvest.
She rode to Porto Pisano to make the acquaintance of the Provveditore, and view the galleys – the Santa Reparata, the San Antonio, the big Ferrandina, the two Burgundian ships – preparing for the autumn departure. If there was to be an autumn departure. The ships for Flanders were safe. But the Levant? With the Turks the way they were? One could only prepare, and then hope. Thus the Provveditore.
She listened thoughtfully and rode back, beset by mosquitoes. The Burgundian galleys (leased to Tommaso Portinari of Bruges) would sail for Sluys in October, carrying alum. The schedule for the Ferrandina had not yet been announced. But space on the Santa Reparata was still reserved for the Banco di Niccolò, which had made handsome accommodation for its patron, his servants and their goods, about to travel to Egypt.
He was still coming. Confidence renewed, she was able to identify the messenger from Porto Pisano who reported every few days to Messer Bertuccio; just as she knew that Messer Bertuccio would receive reports from the roads to the north the moment that Nicholas came south of Milan.
Nicholas failed to come south of Milan.
September waned. The Arno brimmed because of the rain, and the sea consuls reduced river shipping and had palisades erected as usual. Piero de’ Medici returned from the country, and seeing him, men talked in whispers. Messer Bertuccio called and enquired if in any way he could be of service. She saw, to her annoyance, that he was actually hoping for news. She began to realise that she had depended too much on his competence.
October arrived, and brought to Florence two visitors. One was Tommaso Portinari, come to renegotiate his company contract and be allotted a wife. The first was a stranger, whose name, announced by her house-steward, was vaguely familiar.
Nicholai Giorgio de’ Acciajuoli was a tall man, grey-bearded and lean and past middle years, with all the hallmarks of his family: the grace, the cultured Florentine accent flavoured with Greek, the large, dark, cynical eye. It was only when he disposed himself, sitting, that she saw that his stick had a purpose: one of his limbs was man-made.
Smiling, he noticed her glance. ‘My young friend Nicholas has not regaled you with the tale of our earliest meeting? He shattered my timber leg and was beaten for it. I am glad to see he has found himself a charming wife to curb his excesses. But I forget. Now he is a great man, and full of discretion. And has fathered a fine son, if I am not mistaken?’
‘I am sure you are very seldom mistaken,’ Gelis said. It was a response, not to the words, but to some challenge she had not yet quite fathomed. She added, softening it, ‘But yes, we have a son. A satisfaction which I hope, with your name, that you share.’
‘What a kind heart,’ he said. ‘But alas. Pierfrancesco, my cousin’s husband, will tell you. A worthless brother or two – Bartolomeo Zorzi, what have I not done for him? – is all that I may legitimately claim, although, like your husband, I have not wasted my youth. Since you are a van Borselen and accustomed to affairs of the world, I may say without offence, I hope, that few brides can have taken a young man so exquisitely trained.’
A curious remark. He smiled. She said, ‘I trust you are going to call us well matched. Or I should suspect that you think me inhospitable. May I offer some wine?’
‘My dear madonna!’ he said. ‘In the domestic arena, the ladies of Flanders are peerless. No, I thank you. I have not come to partake of wine, and it is another form of hospitality to which I was referring. I wished to talk of the sensual arts … not in general, merely with reference to your husband’s experience.’
‘Florence,’ said Gelis, ‘never ceases to amaze and delight me. It is not a topic I have heard proposed in public before. It is not, I am afraid, one which I intend to debate now. I am sorry. If I cannot press you to wine, it seems that your visit has been wasted.’ She rose.
He did not. He said, ‘You must forgive me. This poor leg … Allow me the space of five minutes to gather my strength, and I shall relieve you of my presence forthwith. Meanwhile, I must reassure you. Debate was not what I had in mind. Merely some thoughts – some random thoughts on the subject of lovers and wives. You knew his first wife? Marian de Charetty? Please sit down. I am really not feeling well.’
If she had him ejected, heaven knew what he would say. She sat. She said, ‘I remember the widow Charetty.’
‘But of course you were young. A worthy lady, but with little to offer, save her business. But his next wife! The most dazzling courtesan in the Levant! And between – before – after the services of the princesses of Naxos! What finer grooming could a young man aspire to? A partner – two – in whom the exoticism of Byzantium, the refinements of Italy mingle in each flawless, finely judged movement!’
She moved abruptly. He said, ‘No! I should not dream of embarrassing you. But I wonder what Nicholas feels when he sees the daughter of Fiorenza about to take his place, as did his wife, in that desirable clasp. Except that the son of Violante would have been worse.’
The large, heavy eyes sustained their sweet smile, challenging her to dismiss him. The thought struck her that he was drugged. Yet there was nothing vague in his speech: she felt compelled to hear all he said. He had judged her better than had Monna Alessandra. Belatedly she realised that it was Monna Alessandra who had sent him. She said, ‘You seem to know my husband better than I do.’
‘Forgive me, that would not be difficult,’ said the man. ‘Ah, your expression is meant to remind me of Africa. But carnal knowledge is half an alphabet only.’
‘And you have the other half?’ Gelis said. She waited, with calm, his words bleeding into her mind. Primaflora, whose arts, subtly transmitted, had become part of the vocabulary he spoke of. And also, it seemed, the princesses of Naxos. Which? And what did Nicholas – did she – owe to them in their lexicon?
Her mysterious visitor had not mentioned her sister. Since he had found out so much about Nicholas, he might even know that. Not all of it, but as much as she had known, at first.
‘I have certain advantages,’ the man said, ‘when it comes to understanding what men are afraid of. You might find my insight can be useful.’
‘How would you like me to use it?’ she said.
‘I knew,’ he said, ‘I should find your conversation agreeable. You should read more. You should read that old work by Alfonso the Wise of Castile which speaks of the shoulder of Sagittarius the Archer, the Hunter …
‘But that is by the way. What should you do? I should like you to see that your husband does not marr
‘For the sake,’ said Gelis warmly, ‘of the next generation? Or your view extends even further?’
‘Many find the idea amusing,’ he said. ‘It is a responsibility, to be sure, to have a child and to choose its marital partner. I may not speak of myself. But take the ladies of Trebizond. Fiorenza of Naxos has a daughter who will alter the course of your life. Violante of Naxos has a son whose line will make sure that yours will survive. Her husband does not mind, I should say; he has his own consolation. You should know that. But you need not tell Nicholas. It will only encourage him.’
She sat, her chin in her hand, without answering. He said, ‘You don’t believe me.’
She stirred. ‘Did you expect me to? I do wonder, however, why the length of my marriage concerns you. Why should Nicholas de Fleury and I stay together?’
‘Did I say that?’ the man said. ‘I merely suggested that it would be better for everyone if Nicholas did not marry again. Posterity is already served.’
Gelis cast herself back in her chair. She said, ‘Well, I understand now. Posterity is the problem. But why should that limit his pleasures? Men should be able to marry, if so inclined, and if the law deems them free. Why not think about gelding?’
There was a contemplative silence. Then the Greek said, ‘Tell me. How did he fail? Or how have others offended?’
‘It is really hard to say,’ Gelis said. ‘In any fashion, that is, that would be helpful. Sometimes all a man has to do is to die.’
He said, ‘Or a woman, I suppose. You have been helpful, as it happens. And I would do something for you in return. This was purchased by my cousin after the funeral of the artist. I have redeemed it. I thought it should be where it belongs.’
It was a drawing on vellum. It had never been sprayed: a haze of chalk fell from the scroll as she opened it. Inside, the tones of the study were blurred, but the deftness of line had survived: the work of a maestro, though an old one. It showed a youth dropped to one knee, one hand raised, his face turned, with its open, innocent eyes smiling up at the artist. The young man was explicitly, charmingly nude.