Fools' Gold Read online

  ‘He resisted arrest,’ the clerk said to the gentlemen at the table. ‘He’s nothing more than bruised. He has been held in the inquiry room since his arrest. He hasn’t been harmed.’

  ‘Did you send him, this servant of yours, to warn the forger? So that they could get away before our men arrested them?’ the head of the Council asked Luca directly, and at once all the clerks paused, their pens poised, ready to write the incriminating confession.

  ‘No! Of course not!’ Luca said quickly. He tried to smile reassuringly at Freize but found his mouth was too strained.

  ‘What did you send him for then? Why did he go?’

  ‘I went,’ Freize said suddenly. ‘I went of my own accord, to see the pretty lass.’

  All three heads of the magistrates turned to Freize. ‘You went to warn her?’ one of them asked him.

  Luca could see the trap that Freize was walking towards. ‘No!’ he said anxiously. ‘No he didn’t!’

  ‘I went to see her,’ Freize said. ‘My lord didn’t send me. I went of my own accord. I didn’t know they were going to be arrested, I didn’t know they had done anything wrong. I didn’t know anything about them at all really, all I knew was that I had taken a fancy to her. I thought I’d make a visit.’ Freize scrunched his battered face into an ingratiating grin.

  One of the clerks raised his head and remarked quietly to the leader of the magistrates, ‘He got out of the house after the guards had gone in. He must have known they would be arrested. He took a rowing boat and went straight to the alchemist.’

  ‘They got away in the boat that you rowed to them,’ the second Council man said. ‘You helped them escape, even if you did not go to warn them.’

  ‘Oh for heaven’s sake! I asked him to go,’ Brother Peter said suddenly, very clearly and as if he were wearied beyond bearing. ‘He went at my request to collect some potion for me. I wanted the medicine before they were arrested. Nobody knew about it but me and the alchemist and then this . . . this dolt. If he had any sense, when he had seen your guards at the door he would have come away, but he pressed on, to get me my . . . er . . . potion. And so got himself arrested, injured, and exposed us to this difficulty and me to this terrible embarrassment.’

  Everyone looked from Brother Peter’s scarlet face to Freize, who kept his eyes on the floor and said nothing.

  ‘And now he’s lying to try to protect me from my embarrassment,’ Brother Peter said, torn between fury and shame. ‘Of course, it only makes it worse. Fool that he is. The alchemist had promised me a – er – a potion. For my – er – affliction.’

  ‘I didn’t know you were ill?’ Luca exclaimed.

  ‘I didn’t want anybody to know anything!’ Brother Peter exclaimed, a man at the end of his patience. ‘I must have been mad to trust Freize with such a delicate mission. It was a matter of urgency for me . . . I should have gone myself . . . and now . . . Now I wish I had never consulted the alchemist at all.’

  ‘What potion?’ one of the magistrates asked.

  ‘I would rather not say,’ Brother Peter replied, his gaze on the floor, his ears burning red.

  ‘This is an inquiry into a counterfeiting forge which has had more impact on the safety of the Republic than anything else in a decade!’ The magistrate at the end of the table slammed his hand down and swore. ‘I think you had better say at once!’

  The colour drained from Brother Peter’s face. ‘I am ashamed to say,’ he said in little more than a whisper. ‘It reflects so badly on me, on my vows, and on my Order.’

  His misery was completely convincing. The leader of the three leaned forward and said to the clerks: ‘You will not record this.’ To Brother Peter he said: ‘You may speak in confidence. If I decide, nothing will go beyond these walls. But you must tell us everything. What potion did you order from the alchemist?’

  Brother Peter turned his face from Freize and Luca.

  ‘Shall I order them from the room?’

  ‘They can stay. I am shamed. This is my punishment. They will think me a fool, an old fool.’

  ‘Tell us what you ordered, then.’

  ‘A love potion,’ Brother Peter said, his voice very low.

  ‘A love potion?’ the man repeated, astounded.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘A man in your position? In holy orders? On a papal mission? Advising an inquirer of the Holy Father?’

  ‘Yes. I had fallen into sin and folly. This is why I am so ashamed. This is why this fool is trying to hide his mission. To save me from this shame.’

  ‘Why did you want a love potion?’

  Brother Peter’s head was bowed so low that his chin was almost on his chest. The bald spot of his tonsure shone in the candlelight. He was completely wretched. ‘I was very attracted by Lady Carintha,’ he said quietly. ‘But I have no . . .’ he broke off and struggled to find the words. ‘I have no . . . manly abilities. I have no . . . vigour.’

  The three magistrates were leaning forward, the clerks frozen, their pens held above the paper.

  ‘I thought Drago Nacari could make me a potion so that she would be drawn to me, despite herself. And if she were disposed to be kind to me – she is such a high-spirited lady – I would want to be man enough for her.’ He glanced briefly at the table of gentlemen. ‘You can ask her if I was not attracted by her, dazzled by her. She knew it. She knows well enough what she can do to a man. My fear was that I would be unable to respond.’

  Two of the magistrates nodded as if they had experienced Lady Carintha’s high spirits for themselves, and sympathised with Brother Peter’s fears.

  ‘I have little experience with women,’ Brother Peter said, his voice a thread, his eyes on the floor. ‘Almost none. But I imagined she would want a man who could . . . who would . . . I feared that if she were to look kindly on me I would not be man enough for her.’

  One of the magistrates cleared his throat. ‘Understandable,’ he said shortly.

  ‘I was a fool,’ Brother Peter admitted. ‘And a sinful fool. But God spared me the worst of it, for the foolish servant I sent to get the love potion was caught while he was carrying out my sinful errand. And besides, Lady Carintha has turned against all of us. She’ll never look at me again.’

  ‘But you knew they were coiners?’ one man persisted.

  Brother Peter dropped to one knee and rested his forehead against the table. ‘That’s the worst of it. That’s why I sent Freize then. I knew they were the coiners of the false coins, and that once you had found the money changer Israel you would find them. I wanted my love potion before they were arrested. That’s why I ordered Freize to go at once, although I knew it was dangerous for him to be found with them. I put him at risk for my own selfish . . . lust.’

  The gentleman rounded on Freize. ‘Is that what you were doing there?’

  Freize gulped. ‘Yes, just as my lord says.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell us at once?’

  ‘Discreet,’ Freize said. ‘Lamentably discreet. Against my own interests sometimes.’

  The three magistrates put their heads together in a swift exchange of words. ‘Release him,’ the leader of the Council said. ‘No charge.’

  He rose to his feet. ‘If we catch Drago Nacari and his accomplice the young woman then they will be charged as coiners and counterfeiters and you will have to give evidence against them,’ he ruled.

  ‘We will,’ Brother Peter promised.

  ‘In the meantime, we have serious work to do. We are going to have to release reserves of gold to the banks. Everyone is selling gold nobles and everyone wants pure gold instead. The price of nobles is falling to that of piccoli. Our citizens and our traders will lose fortunes in the first hour that they open for business. And now the Ottoman Empire is refusing to take any English coins at all – good as well as bad. We are having to make good what those wicked coiners have done. It will cost us a fortune.’

  ‘I am very sorry that we did not catch them earlier,’ Luca said. ‘It was our intention, it