Fools' Gold Read online

  ‘I am an honest man of business,’ the money changer said a little nervously. ‘Your servant will confirm that I gave him a fair exchange for his coins when he came the day before yesterday. And actually, the value has risen already. I would buy the English nobles back from him and give him a profit.’

  Freize nodded, and smiled his open-faced beam. ‘I have no complaint,’ he said cheerfully. ‘I’m hanging on to them and hoping they will rise in value again.’

  ‘I have a share in a ship coming in from the East, carrying Russian goods,’ Luca said, leaning towards the money changer so that no-one else could hear. ‘I want to prepare for the sale of the cargo, as soon as it comes into port.’

  ‘You have borrowed against it?’ the money changer asked acutely.

  ‘No!’ Brother Peter exclaimed.

  ‘Yes,’ Luca said speaking simultaneously.

  They exchanged an embarrassed look. ‘My brother denies it, for he hates debt,’ Luca explained quickly. ‘But yes, I have borrowed against it and that is why I want to sell it quickly, as soon as it enters port, and for gold nobles.’

  ‘Of course,’ the man said. ‘I would be interested in buying a share but I don’t carry that many nobles to hand. I keep my fortune in different values. You would accept a payment in silver? In rubies?’

  ‘No, I only want gold,’ Luca said. ‘My preference would be gold coins. These English nobles, for instance?’

  ‘Oh, everyone wants English nobles, they are driving up the price! It’s ridiculous.’

  ‘Perhaps. But that makes them better for me. I want to get them while they are rising in price. The value of my cargo would be perhaps a thousand English nobles?’

  The merchant lowered his eyes to the table before him. ‘A very great sum, Milord!’

  ‘It is easily worth that.’ Luca lowered his voice. ‘Almost all furs.’

  ‘Indeed.’

  ‘Squirrel, fox, and beaver. I told my agent to only buy the very best. And some silks, and amber, and ivory.’ Luca spread the cargo manifest on the trader’s table, letting him see the goods that had been ordered.

  The trader nodded. ‘So. If your cargo is as good as you describe . . . ’

  ‘But I will only sell for the English nobles.’

  ‘It would take me a few days to get that sum together,’ the money changer said.

  ‘You could get the full amount?’

  ‘I could. When would your ship come in?’

  ‘It’s due next week,’ Luca said. ‘But of course, it could be delayed.’

  ‘If it is very late you will find the gold nobles have risen in value and I will only be able to pay for the cargo at the current value of the nobles. But I will offer you a fair price for the furs, and I am very interested in the amber. I will pay you a deposit now if you would let me have first look at the goods, and first offer?’

  ‘You perhaps want a pound of flesh as well?’ Brother Peter demanded irritably.

  The merchant bent his head, ignoring the insult. ‘I will offer in English nobles.’

  ‘But where will you get so many coins?’ Brother Peter asked. ‘From these other money changers?’

  The trader looked along the row of little tables. ‘They don’t like to work with me except for an extreme profit,’ he said. ‘And it is not always good for a man of my religion to do business with Christians.’

  ‘Why not?’ Brother Peter asked, bristling.

  The Jewish money changer gave him a rueful smile. ‘Because, alas, if they decide to deny a debt I cannot get justice.’

  ‘Even in Venice?’ Luca asked, shocked. He knew that all of Christendom was against the Jews, who only survived the regular riots against them because they lived in their own areas under the protection of the local lord; but he had thought that in Venice the only god was profit, and the laws protecting trade were rigidly enforced by the ruler of Venice, the Doge.

  ‘It is better for people of my faith in Venice than elsewhere,’ the merchant conceded. ‘We are protected by the laws and by the Doge himself. But here, like everywhere, we prefer to work only with men that we can trust. And anyway, I can get all the gold nobles I need without going to the Christian money changers.’

  ‘You will go to the Arab bankers?’ Brother Peter was suspicious. ‘You will go to gold merchants? We don’t want the whole of Venice knowing our business.’

  ‘I will say nothing. And it does not matter to you where I get the nobles as long as they are good. I go to my own merchant. Only one. And he is discreet.’

  ‘And the English nobles are the best currency, aren’t they?’ Luca confirmed. ‘Though it is surprising that there are so many of them on the market at once.’

  The man shrugged. ‘The English are losing the war against France,’ he said. ‘They have been pouring gold into France to pay for their army in Bordeaux. When they lost Bordeaux last summer, the city was sacked and the campaign funds disappeared. As it happens, the money chests all came here. These things happen in wartime. That’s their sorrow and our gain, for the coins are good. I have tested them myself, and I can get them at a good price.’

  ‘And who is your supplier?’ Brother Peter asked bluntly.

  The merchant smiled. ‘He would prefer Venice not to know his business,’ he said. ‘You will find me discreet, just as you asked me to be.’

  ‘When will you get them?’ Luca asked.

  No one but Luca would have noticed the swift, almost invisible glance that went from the money changer towards the street-gambling girl’s father, who was helping her pack up her game, quite unaware of the money changers. But Luca was watching the Jew as closely as he had watched Jacinta playing the cups and ball game.

  ‘By tomorrow,’ the man said. ‘Or the next day.’

  ‘Very good,’ Luca said pleasantly. ‘I’ll come again tomorrow. Perhaps I’ll have news of my ship then.’

  ‘I hope so.’ The merchant rose from his stool and bowed to the three men. ‘And please, do not speak of your ship with others till we have concluded our business.’

  They crossed the square together and got into the gondola, Freize throwing a casual smile and salute to Jacinta as they went by. The gondolier steered out into the middle of the canal, as Freize said quietly: ‘Put me down on the far side. I’ll stick to the merchant like glue and come home to report later.’

  ‘Take care you’re not seen,’ Luca cautioned him.

  ‘Carnival!’ Freize said. ‘I’ll buy a mask and a cape.’

  ‘Just follow him,’ Luca said. ‘Don’t try to be a hero. Just follow and watch and then come home. I don’t expect us to solve the mystery in one step. Things might not be as they appear.’

  ‘This is Venice,’ Brother Peter said miserably. ‘Nothing is as it appears.’

  As the two men set off for home in the gondola, Freize strolled back to the Rialto Bridge, pausing only to buy a handsome dark red cloak, a matching elaborate mask and a gloriously big red hat in one of the many stalls that lined the bridge. He put them on at once and went down the steep steps of the bridge into the Campo San Giacomo. Jacinta and her father had already finished for the day, and gone away. As Freize looked around he saw the money changer picking up his papers, locking them in his box and gesturing to his young guard to carry box and table away. He himself carried the two little stools.

  With the enormous red hat bobbing gently on his head, and the mask completely obscuring his face, Freize was confident that he would not be recognised, but realised that he was rather noticeable even among the flamboyant carnival costumes, as he watched the money changer weave quietly through the crowds around the Rialto Bridge and make his way inland.

  ‘Now then,’ Freize admonished himself, pulling the hat off his head and crushing the bobbing peak down into the brim and snapping off three overarching plumes, to make an altogether smaller and more modest confection. ‘I think I made the mistaking of buying a hat out of vanity and not from discretion. But if I fold it like so . . .’ He paused to admire the red