Chapter 11 The Fortified Harbor #3
"His representative is," Lucetta said. "Others may arrive. We do not know."
"You are followed."
Bertran spoke for the first time in several minutes. "One man still, perhaps two."
Beatrice's mouth tightened. "My road party saw riders near the western gate before we entered. They did not trouble us."
"Description?"
She gave it. Bertran listened, then asked the servant two more questions about horses and tack.
"Could be anyone," he said. "Could be men sent ahead."
Lucetta touched the copied inventory. "Where was the collateral estate?"
Beatrice pointed to a line near the bottom. "Not here. South and inland. The inventory was made there. But the same steward later transferred several maritime goods back to the harbor when the estate was divided. I have another memorandum."
The second document listed goods moved after a death. The coffer was not named individually. Instead it referred to three sealed boxes, one old sea chest, and papers sent to a house near the old shipmaster's quay under the care of a certain Matteo Belluno, factor to the d'Orsenna interests.
Adelasia bent over it. "Old shipmaster's quay."
Lucetta felt the room narrow around the words.
Orsino said, "Still not enough. Every harbor has old shipmasters and older quays."
Beatrice replied, "This one has only one place locally called that, according to my steward's contact. East side, beyond the grain scales, near the wall."
Bertran's eyes moved toward the shuttered window as if he could see through stone. "How close to the gate?"
"Which gate?"
"The land gate."
"I do not know."
Ysoria did. She entered less than a quarter hour later, dust on her hem from the streets and a folded sketch of the harbor in her hand. She had found lodging, identified three gates, spoken with two carters, and learned something else she considered more important.
"The eastern gate is open," she said. "The western gate is open but crowded. The northern postern is for local traffic and closes before sunset. There are more armed men in the streets than a harbor this size needs for ordinary customs work."
Bertran asked, "Town watch?"
"Some. Others wear a lord's badge I do not know.
Two carters say there was fighting inland three days ago over toll rights and a seized convoy.
Another says men from outside the walls have demanded entry for their captain.
I do not trust any of the details, but I trust the fear.
People are buying grain before midday and arguing over stable space. "
Ziani would have called that weather on land.
Beatrice said, "My servants heard the same at the western gate. They said it was a quarrel between the commune and a neighboring lord."
Ysoria shrugged. "Perhaps. The names changed between tellings. What matters is this: if the dispute worsens, gates close. If gates close, traffic moves toward the harbor. If the harbor authority expects attack, boats may be held or ordered out."
Lucetta looked at Bertran. "How much time?"
"That is not a clock."
"You know what I mean."
"I mean that no one does. An hour if someone panics. A day if both sides negotiate. Three days if every rumor is wrong. We act as if we have today."
Beatrice said, "Then we find the old shipmaster's quay."
Niccolò cleared his throat. "Under whose authority?"
Every face turned to him.
He did not retreat. "You may dislike the question, but the first warehouse door that remains closed will ask it for us.
Lady Beatrice has a family document. Mistress Verani has copies from an island house.
Messer Corrado has creditor claims. None of those is a warrant to break locks in this town.
If we identify private property and force entry, we may spend the afternoon explaining ourselves to a judge while the gates close. "
Lucetta said, "Then we do not force entry."
Bertran glanced at her.
"Do not look surprised."
"I was remembering Rovigo."
"I have improved."
"You have become more selective."
Adelasia rose. "We need two things before the old shipmaster's quay: a local witness with standing, and someone who knows the property chain. The hospital canon may give us the first. The municipal records may give us the second. We divide again."
Beatrice said, "I will go to the property clerk."
Lucetta almost objected, then reconsidered. Beatrice's rank might open a door faster than Lucetta's persistence.
"Take Niccolò," she said. "He knows what Corrado's side has already requested."
Beatrice's brows lifted. "You lend me Corrado's clerk?"
Niccolò said dryly, "I had not understood myself to be transferable property."
Adelasia replied, "Today none of us understands what property is. Consider it educational."
They separated.
Lucetta, Odelin, Adelasia, Orsino, and Bertran returned to the charitable house. Brown hood followed them for half the way, then vanished near a wine seller. Bertran did not like the disappearance.
"A bad follower is comforting," he said. "You know where he is."
"And a good one?" Lucetta asked.
"You invent him in every doorway."
The canon had returned early. Canon Pietro was thin, elderly, and more interested in the exact wording of Varesi's island burial entry than in the drama that had brought it across the sea.
Odelin presented the matter carefully, stressing property entrusted under witness and the possibility that a religious institution had once recorded the transfer.
Lucetta showed copies, not originals. The canon read them and then asked a question none of them had considered.
"Why was Varesi buried on that island house's ground if he died coming from here?"
Odelin answered, "Because he died there."
"Yes, Brother, I can read. I mean why did he stop? A merchant with means who fell ill on a coastal voyage might seek a larger house or his own kin. Did the record say whether he arrived by ship or road?"
Lucetta checked. "By ship. The vessel put in because he was failing."
"Then the captain chose the house. Perhaps because Varesi had been there before. Perhaps because the captain knew the brothers. Such habits matter."
Adelasia leaned forward. "You think the same maritime circle used the house repeatedly."
"I think men who travel repeatedly prefer places where they were not robbed the first time."
Orsino murmured, "A sound rule for monasteries and smithies."
Canon Pietro gave permission to inspect two old bundles concerning deposited effects, but warned them that many documents had been removed during an earlier rebuilding.
The search produced no coffer inventory.
It did produce a witness instrument naming Matteo Belluno—the same factor from Beatrice's document—as a guarantor in a dispute involving a warehouse "by the shipmasters' steps.
" The year was seventeen after the d'Orsenna transfer.
Lucetta read the name aloud.
Adelasia exhaled. "There."
"Not there," Lucetta said. "Nearer."
Canon Pietro looked between them. "You have a location?"
"A cluster of references," Lucetta said. "Which is sometimes better than a location until one walks there."
He agreed to send a lay brother familiar with the hospital's property interests as witness if they found a premises connected to the old dispute. It was not a legal warrant. It was enough to make honest owners less likely to shut the door on strangers.
When they returned to the street, a bell began ringing from the wall.
Not the church bell.
A harder, faster sound.
Bertran stopped.
People around them did the same. A cart driver swore and slapped his mule forward. Two women carrying baskets turned toward the lower streets. A boy ran past shouting something about the western road.
Ysoria appeared at the end of the arcade, moving quickly.
"The western gate has been restricted," she said before reaching them. "Not closed. Restricted. Carts outward only unless the watch knows you. Men outside demanded passage for armed followers. Someone struck someone. Every witness has improved the story since."
Bertran said, "And Beatrice?"
"Still at the property office. I sent a runner."
Lucetta looked toward the east. "Old shipmaster's quay?"
Ysoria unfolded her sketch against the wall. "Here. Past the grain scales, then a lane between the salt office and the rope yard. The property clerk's district book calls the lane San Teodoro, but carters call the landing Shipmasters' Steps."
Orsino said, "At last, two names for one place. Civilization advances."
Adelasia ignored him. "How far?"
"Less than half an hour if the streets remain clear. More if people begin moving toward the harbor."
Bertran looked at Lucetta. "We go now."
"Without Beatrice?"
"She knows the location by another route. She can join us. If the gate trouble spreads, waiting makes everyone less safe."
Odelin said, "And the canon's witness?"
A lay brother emerged behind them carrying a staff and looking as if he regretted every worldly responsibility that had led to this moment.