Venice

by Lynne Connolly

  He lifted my hand to his lips. “No. We’ll work something out, Freddy and I, but we’ll try not to kill anybody unless we have to.” He was smiling and I took comfort from that, trying to smile back.

  He leant forward and kissed my forehead. “I’m thankful you’re not hurt and Gervase is still alive. Someone will pay, but how we still have to work out. Don’t worry, try to sleep. Close your eyes, remember that I love you.” I drifted into sleep then, my hand still tucked into his.

  Chapter Eighteen

  WHEN I AWOKE, IT WAS dark outside. He was there as he’d promised, sitting by the fire in his shirtsleeves reading by the light of a single branch of candles. I opened my eyes and watched him, bringing to mind all that had happened, remembering how foolish I’d been when I had promised myself I would be strong.

  I must have made a move, because he looked up from his book and smiled at me. I sat up in bed and he put down his book and came across to me, sitting on the bed and taking my hand. “How are you feeling?”

  “Much better. It was only shock. How’s Gervase?”

  “Awake. And complaining that his jaw hurts worse than his shoulder and chest do.”

  “The wound?”

  “So far so good. Carier will change the dressing every few hours. He told me what happened, as far as he can remember.”

  I nodded. “Do you want to hear my account?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want to bring it back to you any more than I have to.”

  “Did you know?” Richard had a link with Gervase and they could often tell when something had happened to the other.

  He nodded. “I knew something was wrong. It’s a sensation I only associated with Gervase in the past, but this time I wasn’t sure which one of you it was.”

  I squeezed his hand, where it lay over mine. “I only felt so upset when I realised it could have been you and it might have killed you. I couldn’t bear that, but it wasn’t until the immediate danger to Gervase was over I let myself think it.”

  He caught my gaze and we looked at each other. “Love makes you very vulnerable, doesn’t it? It seemed so straightforward at first. I loved you and that was that, but it’s not. I was only truly afraid when I realised I could have lost you.”

  He met my look frankly. “It’s one of the reasons I fought against it for so long.” He paused. “If I hadn’t fell in love with you so suddenly I would never have allowed it.”

  “Then I’m glad it happened that way. I wouldn’t have missed this last week for anything, not even a lifetime of spinsterhood.”

  “Too high a price. We’ll have to make sure it doesn’t happen, won’t we?”

  Now my shock had subsided, my stomach was reminding me I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. “Have you decided what to do?”

  “Yes. With the permission of you and Gervase, Freddy and I devised a plan. Would you like to eat? If you feel up to it, I’ve ordered some supper served in his bedchamber. Gervase wants to eat, too and I can tell both of you over the meal. Freddy has gone home, but we’ll see him soon.”

  “Back to his warm mistress?”

  “Back to his warm mistress,” he agreed solemnly.

  I threw back the covers and got up. I found I was quite well now, if still a little bit shaky, but that was easy to hide. I went into the dressing room where I washed, then Nichols helped me into a light gown that needed no underpinning and fastened at the front. I sat at the dressing table and while she was brushing my hair and pinning it up, I was able to gather my thoughts and talk to her.

  I asked her if she had told Richard what she had seen. “I have indeed, my lady,” she replied. “And you saw the same thing, I think?”

  “Did you recognise him?”

  “I did indeed.” She lifted a strand of hair to brush it along its length. “It was that man you met at the palazzo, the one whose attentions you didn’t quite like, my lady.”

  I was surprised. “How on earth did you know that, Nichols?”

  She thought back. “Just your attitude, my lady, you seemed to be cautious with him.”

  My maid must be very observant, to notice slight differences like that. “He called himself Squires, but his real name is Abel Jeffries. I wouldn’t have believed such a large man could move so quickly without actually running unless I had seen it for myself.”

  “Yes, my lady.” She pinned up the knot she had made at the back of my head and smoothed the curls that would lie over my shoulders. “It helps very much indeed, to know what he looks like.”

  When I entered Gervase’s room, I went immediately to my brother-in-law. He was dressed in a nightshirt and a voluminous robe, sitting up in bed with his arm immobilized in a sling against his body. A substantial tray lay on his lap, and Gervase was instructing a footman what to put on his plate. “How are you?”

  “As well as can be expected.” He took my hand with his right hand. “I hope you won’t let the unfortunate circumstances of the later part of the visit mar your enjoyment of the earlier part.” It surprised me that Gervase could think of the earlier part of the day after the shock of the later part. He smiled. “At one point of my life, when I was at my lowest ebb, Italy saved me. Not the Italy of the tourists, but the beauty that was poured out by so many people a few hundred years ago. It gave me something else to think about, something else to look at and every time I see someone’s eyes opened to what I saw, as yours were today, it gives me great joy.”

  Richard, sitting on one of the two chairs drawn up to a table by the empty fire, was watching me, but he said nothing. What could I do but assure Gervase that our visit to the Pala d’Oro was an abiding memory, that I had enjoyed the day completely up to that final point?

  Gervase seemed satisfied. I filled my plate and sat before I said anything further. There were two footmen in the room and so I asked if we could speak freely. Richard looked up, as though being reminded of their presence. “Yes, we can say what we need to.”

  While Gervase and I ate, he told us the plan. “Our original plan, as you recall, was to introduce Freddy and Signor Verdi as fresh conies to be skinned, to let them lose badly and then to return and strip the house clean.” He took up a coffee cup and sipped before he continued, even that simple action displaying his essential elegance, his fingers displayed just so, his free hand lying beautifully at rest on the table. “We thought we would omit the early part of the game. We will introduce Freddy and the Signor, then they will win and win and strip the tables. Then we’ll have Ravens where we want him.” He put down his cup. “Squires is a customer, we’re sure of that now. He would have insinuated himself into the house to get to us. When he discovered Ravens was a fraudulent Lord Strang, he must have been chagrined, but when we turned up, I’ll wager he couldn’t believe his luck.” He smiled wryly. “He might have moved on if it wasn’t for that. But from the way he plays, I think he has a passion for it. Did you notice anything?”

  I shook my head. “He was too busy flirting with me.”

  Richard grimaced. “I saw that. He probably felt some sort of power, as he knows who you really are and you didn’t know him. He’ll pay for that.”

  “You won’t kill him?” I asked, more concerned with the way it would affect Richard than the loathsome Squires.

  Richard met my eyes as I put down my knife. “I don’t know. I don’t plan to, but if he’s going to be a permanent threat, I may have no choice. I can promise to avoid it if at all possible, but I will not tolerate danger to you when I can prevent it. Will that do?”

  “Yes,” I answered, trusting his word. “Will you tell us the rest of your plan, please?”

  “Yes.” He leaned back in his chair. He wasn’t eating much, so presumably he’d had some dinner while I was asleep. “We’ve decided that so long as we are in company, there’s little danger. Also, it seems obvious now his prime target is me, so I’m happy for you to stay here. Otherwise, you’d be in Milan by now, my love.”

  “Not without you.” I wasn’t leaving him in danger aga
in. “And we have to face this, we can’t run from it.”

  He smiled at me with real warmth. “I’m glad you see that. Gervase has said much the same thing. Our plan only needed a little alteration. We thought we might enlist Ravens’ help to skin Squires-Jeffries, which is why we want to strip the tables.”

  More elaborate plans often worked least well. The simpler it was, the less would go wrong. If we could put him in our debt, the balance of power would change, especially if he didn’t know we were in league with Ravens. “But you must be in company all the time,” I said.

  “I know. Don’t worry, I’ve no desire to die young. Not any more.” He paused, drinking some more coffee that one of the footmen had refilled for him. “The biggest advantage we have is that he doesn’t know we’re aware of his true identity. He may be hoping to take us off our guard. Now we know him, we can have a watch put on him; Carier’s arranging it now. Then we’ll be infinitely safer.”

  Gervase put his knife down with a finality that suggested that he had eaten enough. “So what do I do?”

  “You, my dear brother, have done enough. Unwittingly, you flushed our man into the open. Now, Carier tells me, rest and recuperation is the most important thing for you. We must be careful the wound doesn’t take infection.”

  “So I can sit in the sun and dream of glories past? Richard, that would bore me beyond bearing!”

  Richard smiled at him. “You have no serenity, my dear brother. Just a few days and then I hope the game will be over. Then we can enjoy Venice and maybe somewhere else when you’re feeling better. You can give Rose a cultural tour if you both wish and I’ll tag along behind.”

  I looked at Gervase, who stared at us, appalled. “This is your bride-trip! Are you sure you wouldn’t rather be on your own?”

  I laughed. “We can hardly abandon you to your fate, after causing you to be so gravely injured.” I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t prefer to have Richard to myself for a while longer. Still, if we were to have a companion, I could only think of one other person other than Gervase I would like to have with me—my sister Lizzie. I knew Gervase wouldn’t intrude on our privacy and there was no one else Richard trusted as much as we two, so we could be comfortable.

  “Just one thing,” Richard added. “We must make sure Jeffries doesn’t know our direction here. Carier is doing what he can, but we’re doubling the guard in the apartment. There’ll be a few more footmen until we know for sure.”

  “Shouldn’t we move?” Gervase said, alarmed.

  “No, we thought of that,” Richard told him. “We can keep this apartment secure enough, we know it well. A new direction would entail new study, new routines.” He turned to speak directly to me. “Would you like to keep this apartment for our own personal use, or would you like to have somewhere else here? Or perhaps,” he continued, taking my hand, “you would prefer never to see Venice again?”

  “Oh no. I’ve loved being here. I would like to keep it, please.”

  He smiled. “I hoped you’d say that. We might buy the rest of the building when it becomes available. It would make a comfortable residence when we felt like coming here and if we owned the whole it would be more secure.”

  Could we afford it? I hadn’t yet accustomed myself to having such wealth at my disposal and I didn’t like to spend money too extravagantly. For years I’d dreamed of saving my allowance so I could afford an establishment of my own one day. Just a modest house in Exeter I’d thought, a single lady and a companion living her own life had been my ideal. Now my brother’s newfound fortune, my marriage into a family similarly circumstanced, made this so laughably achievable I could look further. Although now all I wanted was a room and one other person.

  “If you don’t mind, that’s enough for me. I’ll get some rest,” Gervase said.

  I saw how pale he was, how shaded his eyes. “You’d be well advised to do that.” I went over to the bed, but instead of taking his outstretched hand, I leaned over and hugged him, careful to avoid his injury. “I’m so glad you weren’t hurt any worse.” He kissed my cheek.

  Richard and I left and went through to the drawing room, which I was glad to see returned to its proper appearance. So much had been in my mind earlier I wouldn’t have noticed if they had removed all the furniture, but the sight gave me some pleasure now. We sat on the sofa and Richard reached across to the table, picking up a paper. “I have something for you.” I stared at him in surprise. Hadn’t he given me enough? “It’s an old custom in my family for the groom to give the bride a present on their first morning together as a married couple. By tradition, it’s usually land, to give her some independence of her own, but my bride-gift is slightly different. I’m sorry it was delayed, but Gervase brought it with him from home.”

  He gave me the paper, a legal document, signed at the bottom in three different hands, one of them his. “You know,” he said, slipping his arm around my shoulders, “that everything you own is in law mine and I hope you know I consider it to be ours, but this is yours alone. We’ve arranged a legal contrivance, a trust which makes it in effect yours.”

  I tried to read the document, but legal language is a language of its own, not understandable unless one is taught it as formally as you might learn Latin and Greek. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s a full quarter share in Thompson’s. Now there are four principals. It gives you a say in what goes on, a vote on the important matters, a right to be consulted. In monetary terms it’s not much, but that’s not what I wanted to say to you with my bride-gift.”

  I understood so well that it took my breath away. I just sat, staring at him, holding the paper, suddenly so valuable. “You can’t do this. You don’t have to.”

  “No,” he agreed, smiling. “But I want to.”

  For Thompson’s was his own, the thing he and Carier had created independently, with no help or even knowledge from his own family. Everything else was inherited, created by someone else, but Richard had told me once Thompson’s was his guarantee of independence. It owed nothing to the existence of the Earl of Southwood or Viscount Strang and everything to the existence of Richard Kerre. He was letting me into every area of his life, letting go of “I” and “me”, replacing it with “we” and “us”.

  I was discovering that this was typical of him, this generosity, but I was also aware he might regret it. Perhaps one day he might want some independence from me, somewhere he could be on his own and I resolved not to get involved unless he asked me to, to appreciate the gesture but not to intrude. I had always been taught the first duty of a wife was to obey. It was something I had never treated completely seriously, seeing how couples I knew managed with that dictum, but Richard was showing me the value of co-operation, something I knew to be very rare, in marriage or out of it. When he gave, he gave completely, without reservation. The gift overwhelmed me.

  He was watching me, but I didn’t know what to say to him, except to thank him.

  “It’s your right,” he said and drew me to him for a kiss, which effectively stopped any further discussion.

  He was very considerate and gentle that night, reassuring me with his love, comforting me out of the remains of my shock, holding me close all night. I fell asleep in his arms and woke up in the morning, seemingly never having moved.

  WE SENT A MESSAGE TO the Palazzo Barbarossa the following day, to inform them we were bringing two illustrious clients to see the “Strangs” and word duly came back they would be welcome at about eight. Freddy joined us for dinner and Signor Verdi arrived shortly after. With some trepidation and a good deal more caution than before, we stepped into the gondola and were poled up the Canal to the palazzo. I took comfort in the thought this was nearly the last time Mrs. Locke would make an appearance, for I had found the pretence was becoming tiresome.

  I liked Mrs. Locke, but I wanted some time to get used to being Lady Strang and Mrs. Locke was getting in the way. Richard, though, seemed to be enjoying the masquerade as much as he had when it had first
begun. He had sharpened, gained an edge of recklessness and danger.

  We introduced Freddy as Lord Thurl and Signor Verdi as Signor Contarini, whereupon his accent became distinct, his command of English much poorer. He confided to us in the gondola he and Freddy had contrived a scheme to pluck one pigeon and fatten the other, should he be there.

  “I’m depending on it,” Richard said. “We need to reassure him we know nothing, suspect nothing. I shall behave as though my shoulder is stiff, but apart from that, no one is to refer to the incident unless we are asked.”

  It had taken a long time that morning to persuade him I should go and then he had nearly reneged on our agreement at the last moment, asking me if I wouldn’t rather remain at home to care for Gervase. I had strenuously resisted any attempt to leave me behind. I persuaded him I must face Squires-Jeffries again and in any case, it might arouse his suspicions if I didn’t make an appearance. He was obviously much wilier than we had previously given him credit for.

  Ravens met us at the door to his smaller salon, the one decorated with mythological scenes and bowed to Lord Thurl, expressing surprise he had not met him before. “I’ve been abroad,” Freddy explained and Ravens was all smiles.

  “You are welcome here, my lord. I hope we may meet many more times. Shall we go in?”

  Squires-Jeffries was already there, with his “wife”, smiling as unctuously as ever, but examining Richard and myself closely. His scrutiny naturally made me uncomfortable, but I dared not show him any of my new found aristocratic arrogance. I lowered my head instead, tried to remember who I was supposed to be, but at the same time I realised that if this was a public masquerade, it couldn’t have been more false. For no one here was as they seemed, even the servants were Thompson’s and watchful. What a tangle!

  We sat down at the tables and began to play right away. The stakes were high, but we knew Ravens would not expect the Lockes to honour any notes of hand tonight, so we could play comfortably on their behalf. In any case, we were being allowed to win, although only modestly, perhaps a sign of good faith from our new employer.