Return to Paradise (Torres Family Saga)

by Shirl Henke

  Rani also loved the contrasts, for set between the beautiful banks of fragrant flowers were spice sellers whose East Indian pepper and turmeric filled the air with a burning tingle. And, of course, the fishermen unloaded their bounty from the sea directly on the worn wharfs where the sun's heat quickly brought an incredible stench of tunny, sardines and mackerel that all the roses on earth could not drown. Rough fishmongers wearing red bandanas about their heads called out in Provencal. The soft whispers of Venetian silk merchants and the rhythmic accents of Arab traders blended together in wonderful cacophony.

  Polishing off a flaky meat pastry purchased from a street vendor, Rani licked her fingers, a habit she knew Benjamin deplored. Such freedom! The sun shone, the cool ocean breezes wafted across the Lacydon—this was a day to rejoice. She felt her Romani blood stir and wanted desperately to set up a stall of her own and tell fortunes. Living with Benjamin had its compensations, but Rani Janos had grown up living by her wits. Life was an adventure to be savored. Sighing, she rubbed her hands on her skirts and felt her palms itch. She could at least keep her skills honed by stealing something.

  “There is no reason for me to grow soft and slow as a gadji even if Benjamin has given me coins enough to purchase that wine,” she murmured to herself. Swishing her hips enticingly, she watched the scrawny little wine merchant's beady eyes narrow on her. Now she knew what such blatant male lust meant. Rani smiled. She would lure him into her snare, then shortchange him when she purchased her wine.

  He would never know what had happened.

  Henri watched the black-haired wench near his stall. At first he thought her a whore with her swaying hips and bold, tantalizing looks, but when she began to jingle a fat purse and inspect his wares, he decided she was probably some rich man's piece, kept well enough to pay a dear price for his best wine.

  “Here, mistress, smell of this. Is it not like the sweetest perfume from Arabia?” He held up a fat wineskin and unfastened the neck.

  Rani sniffed. “Tis sour. Surely you have better.” She let her coins clink meaningfully in the pouch at her waist.

  “Ah, yes. I can see you appreciate the very best. This is from the north where steep hillsides and cool summers bring forth the finest ruby wines.” He gave her a taste and was pleased when she favored him with a radiant smile.

  They haggled over the price and Rani let him exact a sum significantly higher than the wine was worth. Smiling, she gave him a large gold coin and watched as his eyes widened and he licked his thin grayish lips with greed.

  Henri made change for her and handed her the coins. When he turned to cork up the skin container, Rani exchanged his larger denomination coins for coppers in the blinking of an eye and then let out a cry of outrage. “What means this! I pay you with a gold florin and you return coppers?”

  “I gave you no copper but silver!”

  A crowd quickly gathered as the tiny young girl and the skinny old man argued like two fierce gamecocks. Rani stomped her foot and let fall some prettily contrived tears, winning over a number of the men and even several older women who obviously disliked the crafty wine seller.

  “Pay her what you owe her, Henri,” one burly fishmonger cried out menacingly.

  Rani could sense the mood of the crowd turning to support her. “I do not want his miserable wine any longer. Here are the coppers.” She shoved the coins across the scarred table contemptuously. “Give me back my gold florin and I shall be on my way.”

  Henri's face turned as red as the roses in Madame Gizelle's stall. “Never!” Then he looked at Gerard's looming bulk and reconsidered. With a snarled oath he withdrew the coin from his purse and threw it at Rani, who caught it deftly. He could have sworn she winked at him before she flounced off in a whirl of bluegreen skirts and gold jewelry!

  With the silver coins jingling in the pocket hidden in her skirt, Rani strolled farther through the maze of shops and stalls. “Tis a pity I am bound in one place for so long. I cannot again use the coin trick else word will quickly spread.” She sighed, then considered other possibilities. She was an excellent pickpocket and a clever fortune teller.

  Rani turned toward the Torres palace after making several purchases, including a fine flagon of red wine that cost her less than half of Henri's silver. As she cut across one crowded wharf a sleek high-rigged Portuguese nao was being unloaded of its cargo. Everyone knew corsairs raided Spanish treasure galleons. Admiring the pirate's pluck as only a skilled fellow thief could, Rani loitered in the shadows, watching as a jaunty little man with an air of command about his lean, muscular body issued crisp orders. Obviously he was the captain.

  “A pity. If he but had hair on that shiny pate, he would be rather handsome,” Rani murmured to herself.

  Another figure called out from across the quay. “Captain Brienne!”

  “At last. I have been waiting for you. The cargo is unloaded and on its way to your warehouse,” the captain said as he strolled briskly toward the other man.

  “Then Española proved profitable once again.” The voice was obscured by the noises of the busy quay.

  Rani strained to see the figure hidden by crates and barrels piled high between them. The word Española piqued her curiosity, for it was Benjamin's birthplace. She slid from behind a large crate and began to pursue the fading voices when suddenly a large meaty hand fastened on her shoulder and tangled in her hair.

  “What is your hurry, pretty little tart? I have need of you more than the captain does.”

  “Let me go, you oaf!” Rani flung away his hand, only to have the big sailor seize her with his other one. He was quite drunk in spite of the early hour. She let loose a volley of remarkable oaths as she twisted and kicked in his clumsy grasp. When the treasured flagon of wine slipped from her grasp and shattered on the cobblestones, blind fury overtook her. She broke free of the drunken sailor and turned with a snarl, kicking with one slipper clad foot at the place where it could inflict maximum damage.

  Her suitor gave a gurgle of agony and clutched at his groin as he sank to his knees. Rani turned to run, but the watch for once was on patrol. Sailors from Le Revenant, Brienne's ship, flocked to comfort their compatriot as one guard seized Rani roughly.

  “Whores who attack our seamen are dealt with severely, wench,” the watchman said.

  “I am no whore! I live in the home of Isaac Torres. I was but shopping for wine in the market when this drunken lout seized me.”

  “Shopping? Alone without escort?” The taller of the two watchmen looked at her with cold pewter eyes. “You have the look of a caraque about you.”

  “I saw her in an altercation with a wine seller earlier, one man from the gathering crowd said. “She tricked a purse full of fine silver from Henri.”

  “Pah! I say let us take her to the goal and toss her in,” the short, stocky guard said as he began to drag Rani by her arm.

  “You are offal a goat would reject! Too vile for a leper to touch! Whoreson bastard! Take your hands off me while you still possess fingers!”

  Returning home after visiting an ill seaman in a waterside inn, Benjamin heard Rani's strident voice and sighed in consternation. “What devilment now?” He turned Avarroes toward the dull roaring of a mob assembling on one wharf. Rani was being dragged off by two men wearing the livery of the city's watch. “God only knows what she has stolen!” He cursed with the fluency acquired during his sojourn with Pescara's army. Riding into the crowd, he used Avarroes to clear a path until he confronted the two watchmen and their thrashing, cursing captive.

  “What has she done?” he asked, blocking their way and causing the taller fellow to stop and look up at him.

  “Sir Physician, your honor, do you know this wench?”

  Benjamin arched one golden eyebrow and fixed the guard with a level stare. “Aye, I know her, much to my regret. She is part of my uncle Isaac Torres' household. What are the charges against her?”

  The guard looked abashed and stepped back, stammering, “She—she looked to be
caraque and she attacked that sailor, doing him grievous injury.” He pointed to a hulking brute sitting huddled on a crate across the quay with several of his compatriots consoling him.

  Benjamin looked scornfully from the big sailor back to the tiny girl. “That scarce seems a fair fight, even if she was caraque. Is there no other charge?” .

  “She did create a disturbance in the market earlier with a wine seller,” the tall guard replied uncertainly. He wanted no trouble with a powerful merchant family or this richly dressed and well armed magister. “But we have no one here who has charged her with stealing his silver...exactly.”

  “I suggest you release her to me and I will see she troubles you no further.” Benjamin extended his hand toward Rani.

  Squirming free of her captor, she said, “I told you I was of the House of Torres!” The stocky guard with the pock marked face released her.

  “Silence,” Benjamin thundered as he seized her around the waist and yanked her across his saddle. “She will behave after I deal with her,” he said to the guards as he turned Avarroes toward the steep hill leading to the Torres palace.

  “Ouch! You are hurting me! Let me sit up.” Rani felt the hard leather pommel of the saddle grinding into her tender little belly.

  Benjamin slid her unceremoniously across his legs and placed her in an upright position in front of him. “Now, perhaps you will cease your dangerous excursions to the waterfront. That sailor could have raped and killed you.”

  She snorted derisively. “He was drunk. Twas simple to disable his raping equipment.”

  “And not so easy to dispose of those two guards. Have you ever seen the cold stone walls of a prison?”

  “Yes. My room in your uncle's house,” she replied mutinously. “You would make it a prison for me. You go out each morning, leaving me alone, confined to my quarters just as if I were a criminal.”

  “You are a criminal. You steal. Do not deny it. Rani, if you were a man I swear I would sell you to the galleys and be rid of you.”

  She stiffened in his arms. “If I were a man you would never have taken me to your bed. I would be free now, on the road with my people...and you would be dead,” she added in spiteful afterthought.

  Benjamin could not deny that fact. They rode in angry silence past the Basilica of St. Victor and farther up the steep hill until the gleaming white walls of the Torres residence rose before them. Handing Avarroes' reins to a stableboy, Benjamin dismounted and whisked Rani from the horse.

  “Tis time for me to dress for dinner. My uncle is having an old friend join us, along with another business associate of his.”

  “And of course I am again banished to the kitchen with the servants,” she said sullenly.

  “As long as you insist on eating with your fingers and acting like a starving swine at table, consider yourself fortunate even cook tolerates you. My uncle's hospitality has been sorely tried, Rani, and well you know it.”

  “Just because I will not pick at food with silly tines is no reason to deny me.”

  “What of taking Vero to table? The first night he loped into the dining hall, my aunt fair had a heart seizure, especially when you tossed him a whole leg of lamb.”

  “He was hungry.” She shrugged, then asked with unquenchable curiosity, “Who comes to dine this night that is so important?”

  Benjamin felt his face heat. In truth he would as soon himself forego the meal, but he could not hurt his aunt and uncle by refusing to join them. “Judah Toulon and Richard DuBay.”

  “Toulon. The father of your lady Miriam?” Her golden eyes narrowed.

  “Do not even think it. You will remain in the rear of the house, well out of harm's way, while my uncle entertains his friends.”

  “Entertains that woman's scorned suitor is what you truly mean to say.” The moment she spoke the words, Rani regretted them.

  “Yes. DuBay and I both are scorned suitors.” His voice was ice cold.

  “I am truly sorry. I say foolish things when I am angry. Please do not hate me.” Her eyes grew luminous with tears that overflowed and dropped from her thick black lashes. No longer dirty, her cheeks glistened with the silver droplets as she stood beseeching him.

  Benjamin cursed, then took her in his arms. “My feelings for you are always at war. What am I to do with you, Rani? You hate our way of life here. I know you feel confined as your wolf, yet I must practice my profession and cannot be a wanderer along the roads with you.”

  “I will try very hard to learn gadje ways. Even eat with those stupid tines and spoons if it pleases you.”

  He tilted her chin up and kissed her eyes free of tears. “You please me in many ways, Rani.”

  A tremulous, sad little smile curved her lips. “I please you in bed. I will never be a lady like your Miriam.”

  “Hush. Do not worry about the future. I will think of some way out of this coil.”

  * * * *

  That evening as the richly garbed, imposing figure of Judah Toulon strolled across the courtyard with his emaciated younger companion, Rani crouched behind a yew observing them. “So, that is the wondrous Lady Miriam's father. I hope she resembles her mother, not her sire,” she whispered to Vero, whose keen gold eyes studied both men intently. “Of course if she attracted that skinny DuBay, tis likely she is as ill favored as Judah Toulon!” But she also bewitched Benjamin and the brother who is his mirror image, a taunting voice whispered to her.

  Vero gave a low growl and she patted his head in reassurance. “I do not like them either, but be silent. We are in sufficient trouble with Benjamin already. I would not have them look on us. I know that old man has the Evil Eye.” She shivered in revulsion as the two men passed by her hiding place. She touched the shell amulet she had recently purchased in the market, hoping it would protect her.

  Just as Isaac entered the courtyard with his arms extended in welcome for his guests, a large orange furball darted across the opposite corner of the garden. Vero's keen eyes immediately lighted on the cat. Before Rani could restrain him, he darted from the bushes in swift pursuit of his quarry. Rani lunged after him, crying out for him to stop. In his headlong rush, Vero knocked the spindle-legged DuBay backward into a holly bush and rushed past him toward Ruth's cat, which by this time had climbed a cherry tree and was observing the chaos below with preening feline satisfaction.

  In her attempt to catch the wolf, Rani tried slipping between the two men, but DuBay's flying feet tripped her, catapulting her sharply into Judah. Struggling to regain her balance, Rani seized hold of his heavy chammare. Horrified at the caraque wench's hands on his person, Judah shoved at her. They both lost their footing and fell in a tangle of arms and legs on the path.

  Rani landed on top of the old man, who was shrieking hoarsely for rescue as Isaac ran to their aid. Rani's amulet lay across Judah's face, having broken in the struggle.

  “What is this?” he spat, sitting up and untangling the string of shells from his long, thick, gray beard.

  He threw the necklace at Rani, who was busy scooting free of him. “Tis an amulet of shrimp shells to ward off the Evil Eye,” she said, refusing to look at him as she clutched it to her.

  “Shrimp! Shellfish are unclean! You have defiled me, you caraque witch!”

  “Please, Judah, your heart. You know how often Benjamin has warned you about getting overwrought,” Isaac said as he helped his friend to his feet. He turned and glared at Rani, who was scrambling as far from the two old men as she could get.

  DuBay howled in misery as sharp holly leaves pricked his tunic and hose. His elegant silk doublet was in ruins and he was bleeding from countless small cuts and abrasions by the time he had extricated himself from the clutches of the bush.

  Rani leaped to her feet and fled after Vero, who was circling the cherry tree. He gave her a singularly impenitent look before returning his attention to the cat. “Come with me now else you will wish to trade places with yon feline. Do you not feel their Evil Eye on you, stupid wolf?”

&n
bsp; Vero gave one disdainful snort at the cat, then trotted obediently after her as if saying, “Scant chance that will ever happen,” to his mistress.

  Benjamin witnessed the commotion from the gallery above the courtyard and quickly fetched his medical bags before descending to the garden. By the time he arrived, Rani and her wolf were gone and Ruth had joined them, distraught over her guests and her cat.

  “That wild creature could have torn us all to shreds. Look at me! I bleed!” DuBay's voice rose shrilly as he extended his arms for Isaac's inspection.

  “Isaac, we must do something about the wolf. He has terrorized the household since the day he arrived.”

  “Vero is quite harmless, Aunt Ruth—except to cats,” Benjamin amended. “But he and Rani can cause...disturbances, I agree. I will speak to her after dinner. Now, Richard, let me see to your hurts.”

  “I have been smeared with that savage's filthy jewelry. I must purify myself in temple. Shellfish! She wore shellfish about her neck!” Judah combed his fingers through his beard, examining it for any traces of the amulet.

  “I heartily apologize, my old friend. To you, as well, Richard.” Isaac turned his fierce blue eyes on Benjamin. “The wolf must go. As to the girl, you must take appropriate measures to control her. Something you seem woefully unable to do.”

  “I will see to Rani and Vero after I treat my patients, Uncle Isaac,” Benjamin replied calmly. Inwardly he seethed, picturing his hands tightening about a slim golden neck until he had choked the life from her!

  Both guests departed without eating. Judah insisted he must visit his rabbi and Richard cried off, saying he was in such grievous pain that he must seek his bed. After treating Richard's superficial scratches with ointment, Benjamin was inclined to disdain his patient's tolerance for even minor discomfort. Indeed, if it were not for the embarrassment and upset to his aunt and uncle, Benjamin could have seen humor in the situation.