Order of Darkness Read online

  ‘I know,’ he said. ‘You’re right. But if my parents could return home, or if you could live where you belong, then, in our own ways, in our own places, we could make new lives for ourselves. New lives in the old places. New lives where we truly belong. We could start again, from where we began.’

  She understood at once that their lives would take them in very different directions. ‘Oh Luca, if I were to win Lucretili back, I would live very far from your farm.’

  ‘And I would be such a small farmer, I could never even speak to such a grand person as the Lady of Lucretili. You would ride past my farmhouse and not even look at me. I would be a dirty farmer’s boy behind an ox and a plough and you would be on a great horse, riding by.’

  Without exchanging another word they both thought – yes, whatever is ahead of us, whatever new life we make, it can never be together – and quietly, they released their clasped hands.

  ‘We can’t neglect our mission.’ Brother Peter came into the room and saw them turning away from each other. ‘That’s the main thing. That’s the only thing. I am glad that you have traced your father, Luca. But we must remember that we have work to do. We have a calling. Nothing matters more than tracing the signs of the end of the world.’

  ‘No, I won’t forget what I have come here to do,’ Luca promised. ‘But since Milord commanded us to trade and even gamble, this is a chance for me. I need to earn some gold on my own account. I will need a small fortune to ransom both my parents.’

  ‘You might get it by trading,’ Ishraq remarked, coming into the room. Isolde shot one guilty look at her. ‘If you were to buy English nobles now, everyone says they will be worth twice what you pay for them, by only next month. This is a way to make money which is like magic. You buy now, and you sell in a month’s time and someone gives you twice what you paid.’

  ‘But how?’ Isolde asked nervously, directing the question to Luca. ‘I see that it happens, I see that half of Venice is counting on it happening – every day a little profit is added. But how does it happen?’

  ‘Because everyone wants the English nobles, and they think that there are more buyers than coins to be bought,’ Luca said. ‘It is like a dream. Everyone buys expecting to make a profit and so the value goes up and up. It could be anything that they are running after. It could be nobles or shells, or diamonds or even houses. Anything that can be exchanged for money – so that its value can be seen to increase. If more people want it, they outbid each other, and the price rises.’

  ‘But one day it will burst like an over-blown bladder,’ Ishraq predicted. ‘The trick is to make sure that you have sold before that day arrives.’

  ‘And how do you know when that day comes?’ Luca asked her, and was surprised to see the anxious look that passed between the two young women.

  ‘Why, I was hoping you would know,’ Isolde confessed. ‘We have bought some nobles.’

  ‘You have?’ Luca laughed. ‘You are speculators?’

  The girls nodded, wide-eyed as if they had frightened themselves.

  ‘How much?’ Luca asked, sobering as he saw how serious they were.

  ‘Ten and a half nobles,’ Isolde confessed.

  He made a soundless whistle. ‘How did you afford them?’

  ‘I sold my mother’s rubies,’ Isolde confessed. ‘Now of course I am afraid that I will never be able to buy them back.’

  ‘Will you tell us when you think we should sell?’ Ishraq asked him.

  He nodded. ‘Of course, I’ll do my best. And we’ll be in the market every day, watching the prices. You can see for yourself.’

  ‘And they are gold, solid gold – we tested them,’ Ishraq reminded him. ‘Whatever happens they can’t fall below the value of gold.’

  ‘Perhaps Luca will win his fortune?’ Brother Peter said, turning to them with a letter in his hand, deaf to their conversation. ‘Luca, you have been invited – actually, we have all been invited – to an evening’s gambling, in a neighbouring palace, the day after tomorrow. A letter of invitation came while you were out. Our name seems to have got about already, and the lies we have told to pass as a wealthy family. There was an invitation to a banquet also.’

  The two girls looked up.

  ‘Shall we go?’ Luca asked.

  ‘I think we have to,’ Brother Peter said heavily. ‘We have to mix with people who have these gold nobles to discover where they come from and how much English gold is circulating. Milord himself said that we would have to gamble to maintain the appearance of being a wealthy worldly family. I shall pray before we go out and when we come back. I shall pray that the Lord will keep me from temptation.’

  ‘For any woman is certain to fling herself at him,’ whispered Ishraq to Isolde, prompting a smile.

  ‘And shall we come?’ Isolde asked. ‘Since I am to play the part of your sister?’

  ‘You are invited to visit with the ladies of the house.’ Brother Peter handed over a letter addressed to Signorina Vero.

  ‘They think I have your name!’ Isolde exclaimed to Luca and then suddenly flushed.

  ‘Of course they do,’ Brother Peter said wearily. ‘We are all using Luca’s name. They think I am called Peter Vero, his older brother.’

  ‘It just sounds so odd! As if we were married,’ Isolde said, red to her ears.

  ‘It sounds as if you are his sister,’ Brother Peter said coldly. ‘As we agreed that you should pretend to be. Will you visit the ladies while we go gambling? Ishraq should accompany you as your servant and companion.’

  ‘Yes,’ Isolde said. ‘Though gambling and a banquet sound like much more fun than visiting with ladies.’

  ‘We are not going to have fun,’ Brother Peter said severely. ‘We are going to trace false gold and to do this we will have to enter into the very heart of sin.’

  ‘Yes indeed,’ Isolde agreed but did not dare look at Ishraq whose shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter. ‘And we will do our part. We can listen for any news of gold while we are talking to the ladies, we can ask them what their husbands are paying for the gold nobles on the Rialto and where they think they are coming from.’

  The next morning, Freize, Luca and Brother Peter went again to the Rialto Bridge to see the money changers. ‘How will we know how much gold they keep by them?’ Brother Peter asked anxiously, as the gondola wove its way through the many ships. ‘We need to demand enough to make them go to their suppliers, so that we can see where they go. But how shall we know how much to ask for?’

  ‘I saw only one chest behind the Jewish money changer, when we went before, I don’t think he carries many coins into the square. But I don’t know what he might keep at home,’ Freize said.

  ‘Brother Peter has shown me the manifest for the cargo that Milord has given us,’ Luca volunteered. ‘It’s due to come in from Russia next week. We’ll get a quarter of the cargo of a full-sized ship. We are talking about a fortune.’

  Freize whistled. ‘Milord has this to give away? What’s the ship carrying?’

  ‘Amber, furs, ivory.’

  ‘How is Milord so wealthy?’ Freize asked. ‘Is he not sworn to poverty like the brothers in our abbey?’

  Brother Peter frowned. ‘His business is his own concern, Freize; nothing to do with you. But of course, he has the wealth of the Holy Church behind him.’

  ‘As you say.’ Luca adjusted his view of his mysterious master yet again. ‘I knew he had great power. I didn’t know he could command great wealth too.’

  ‘They are one and the same,’ Brother Peter said dolefully. ‘Both the doorway to sin.’

  ‘Indeed,’ Freize said cheerfully. ‘And clearly, none of my business, dealing as I do with petty power and small change.’

  ‘We’ll say that we want to trade the cargo for gold, as soon as the ship comes in,’ Luca decided. ‘We’ll ask them if they keep enough gold in store. I’ll show them the manifest if I need to. We’ll have to match our words to what seems most likely and make it up as we go along.’