Chapter 11 The Fortified Harbor #4
"Brother Paolo," Canon Pietro called from the doorway. "Go with them. Observe. Do not become adventurous."
Brother Paolo looked at Lucetta's company.
"I shall attempt obedience," he said.
They moved east.
The city was changing around them. Shops remained open, but conversations spilled into doorways.
Men stopped to listen whenever the wall bell sounded.
A mule convoy coming from the western quarter clogged one intersection.
Two town watchmen shouted at people to keep the lane clear.
Near the grain scales Lucetta saw three armed riders she did not recognize speaking with a customs officer.
Bertran shifted to place himself between her and them without making the movement obvious.
"Are they ours?" she asked quietly.
"No one is ours."
"You know what I mean."
"I have not seen them before."
At the rope yard, Naldo was waiting.
Lucetta stared at him. "You were told to remain on the ship."
"I remained until I learned something. Then I was told to be useful."
Bertran looked at Ziani's deckhand standing beside him. "Who permitted this?"
The deckhand pointed at Naldo as if presenting evidence against himself.
Naldo said, "I did not walk. They brought me in a handcart from the quay because everyone aboard became tired of listening to me."
"That I believe," Bertran said.
Naldo pointed toward the lane beyond the rope yard. "There are old water doors behind three warehouses. One is blocked. One is used by fishmongers. One belongs to a house that has changed merchants four times but kept the same stone mark over the side entrance. P. V."
Lucetta forgot to be angry.
"You saw it?"
"I saw a carved P and V separated by a little cross. Could be Pietro Varesi. Could be Paolo Vescovo. Could mean poor vinegar. But the porters call the place the Belluno house, though no Belluno owns it now."
Adelasia closed her eyes briefly. "Matteo Belluno."
Naldo nodded. "And it stands at the end of Shipmasters' Steps."
Bertran crouched to look at Naldo's bandaged foot. "You rode in a handcart."
"With dignity."
"You will ride back in one."
"After we see the house."
Bertran looked ready to argue, but Lucetta said, "After we see the house."
He looked at her.
She added, "He has already disobeyed. We may as well profit from it."
"That is an immoral principle."
"Ask Adelasia."
Adelasia said, "It is commerce."
The lane narrowed toward the water. On one side stood warehouses with high shuttered openings and crane beams projecting above the upper floors.
On the other, smaller countinghouses pressed against the wall.
At the end, worn stone steps descended to a narrow landing where two boats could load beneath the shelter of the buildings.
The Belluno house stood there.
It was larger than Lucetta expected, three stories of stone and timber with a warehouse door wide enough for a cart and a smaller side entrance beneath a carved lintel darkened by weather.
Above the side door were indeed the letters P and V divided by a small cross.
The carving was old enough that its edges had softened.
Orsino stared upward.
"Could be later," he said.
"Everything could be later," Lucetta answered.
"That is why you bring a craftsman instead of enthusiasm."
The warehouse door was shut. The smaller door was open.
Inside, a young clerk looked up from a desk.
Adelasia stepped forward before anyone else could speak.
"Good day. We seek the master or factor responsible for this property.
We carry documents concerning an old deposit associated with Pietro Varesi and Matteo Belluno, and we have a witness from the hospital house.
We do not ask you to surrender anything merely because we have arrived.
We ask you to tell us who can lawfully answer questions before half the city decides the gates are more interesting than business. "
The clerk's expression moved from annoyance to alarm at the names.
That was enough.
Lucetta saw it.
Adelasia saw it.
Bertran saw that they had seen it.
"Master Giuliano is in the upper warehouse," the clerk said too quickly. "I can fetch him."
"Please do," Adelasia said.
The clerk vanished through an inner door.
Orsino murmured, "He knows the name."
Lucetta replied, "Or fears the name."
Brother Paolo stood with both hands on his staff. "I was instructed not to become adventurous."
Naldo, on his handcart, said, "Then you have chosen unfortunate company."
A shout came from the quay outside.
Another wall bell answered.
Then, farther away, a horn sounded three long notes.
Ysoria's face changed.
"That is not customs," she said.
Bertran went to the door and looked toward the harbor. Men were running along the quay. A mounted watchman shouted orders Lucetta could not make out. Somewhere beyond the warehouses came the heavy wooden crash of a gate bar being moved.
Master Giuliano had not yet appeared.
Lucetta looked at the inner door through which the clerk had vanished.
The old Varesi mark waited above them.
And outside, the city had begun to close.