The Madman of Venice

by Sophie Masson

  ‘Yes,’ whispered Ned.

  ‘We must trust each other in this, at least,’ said Henri. ‘Do you agree?’

  Ned searched the young Frenchman’s face. Slowly, reluctantly, he nodded.

  ‘Very well. Then you must tell me what happened,’ said Henri.

  Ned said, ‘You must swear to keep it a secret. You must swear, on the thing most sacred to you.’

  Henri’s dark eyes regarded him assessingly. ‘I swear on the Virgin Mary and the memory of my mother,’ he said softly. He held out a hand to Ned.

  As they shook hands, the eyes of the two young men met and Ned knew, without a doubt, that he had grossly misjudged Henri d’Arcy in the past. The young Frenchman could have been a friend, if Ned himself had not been so aggressive and suspicious. He said quietly, ‘Thank you.’

  ‘What for?’ said Henri, raising an eyebrow.

  ‘For tonight. Coming to my aid.’

  ‘I didn’t think of it that way.’ Henri shrugged. ‘I was late for our meeting—my father’s dinner guests didn’t leave for hours, and I couldn’t slip out of the house, and I was hurrying. Then when I turned the corner into the alley and saw those black crows and you lying on the ground, why, I didn’t stop to think, I just ran! I’m just sorry I didn’t catch up to them before they got away.’

  ‘If only I’d been in a fit state,’ said Ned, ‘I could have

  4

  helped you chase them and we might—’

  ‘With mights and ifs, we could put all Paris in a bottle,’

  observed Henri. ‘No. There were too many of them, even for both of us.’

  ‘We could have gone for help.’

  ‘From whom? Didn’t you notice—with all that commotion, not one window in this alley opened, not one door. The inhabitants must be used to keeping their ears and eyes shut. There would be no help from them.’ He smiled suddenly and the smile lightened up his whole face. ‘So, Ned Fletcher, we bury our quarrel, just for now, yes?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ned. He added wonderingly, ‘It is a strange thing, though—if you and I had not decided to fight a duel this night, at this place, then I should never have seen what happened to Master Ashby. I would be asleep in my bed, not knowing anything till the morning.’

  ‘And there would have been no trail to follow, nothing,’ said Henri, smiling. ‘It is true, Ned. Fate works in strange ways, does it not?’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Ned soberly, and then he began to tell Henri about what had happened, from events in London to that night. Henri listened without interruption or comment. When Ned had finished, the other said quietly, ‘There are two choices as to who kidnapped your master: the pirates or their paymasters, or the Montemoros.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ned. ‘But of the two, I think the Montemoros are more likely. You see, I think the pirates would just have killed him, just like they killed Salerio. But the Montemoros would just want to know what he knows.

  Whether he knows where Sarah is, for instance. And so they’d want to question him, not kill him.’

  Henri nodded. ‘Yes. That seems fair enough. You think

 

  Master Ashby came here to speak to the guards in secret?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I do not think those black crows were guards,’ said Henri.

  ‘No,’ said Ned. ‘I think they must have been sent by the Countess. She must have heard about Master Ashby’s visit to the Ghetto. Maybe someone saw him and reported it to the Countess.’

  ‘Possibly,’ said Henri.

  Ned got to his feet. His head was still throbbing, though not as badly as before. ‘We’ve got to rescue him.’

  Henri shook his head decisively. ‘What, go to that house? We’d be captured too, if not killed.’

  ‘But he’s Celia’s father! And he’s at the mercy of those creatures. . . .’

  ‘I doubt they’ll harm him,’ said Henri firmly. ‘The Countess will want him in good health to answer questions. Besides, she must know who he is, or else how would he have been lured here? Then she’ll know he’s a subject of your Queen and that he has influential contacts here as well. It would not be wise of her to kill or injure him. She’s not like those pirates who killed Salerio. She is from a prominent family with a good deal to lose if she gets involved in the murder of a well-connected foreigner.’

  ‘Anyway,’ said Ned impatiently, ‘if we can’t go to that house, we must go and tell Dr Leone at once. He’s clever, and I know he’s got powerful friends. He said so. He’ll know what to do.’ He had never felt like this before, he thought, amazed at himself: strong, clear, decisive, and in control. It was a pleasant feeling, despite his anxiety about Master Ashby.

  Questions

  Dr Leone’s house was still dark and quiet when the two young men climbed back in through Ned’s bedroom window. They raced up the stairs to Dr Leone’s second-floor bedroom and tapped lightly on the door. There was no answer. They tapped louder. Still no answer.

  ‘He must be asleep,’ said Henri.

  ‘We’ll have to wake him anyway,’ said Ned. They tried the door. It was unlocked. They went in.

  Dr Leone was not in his room. The bed was rumpled,

  but he was not in it. The two young men looked at each other. Where could he be? Then Ned had an idea.

  Today, when he was telling us about his work, he mentioned that he sometimes got ideas in the middle of the night and then he just went up to his laboratory to work when everyone was asleep. He said he’d had all those rooms upstairs constructed with double layers of wood and rags, so that the sounds would be deadened and no one would be woken up. I wager that’s where he is.’

  ‘Let’s go and check, then,’ said Henri.

  Sure enough, there was a thin bar of yellow light under the laboratory door. Ned tried the door. It was locked, but by putting his ear to it he could hear someone moving about. He knocked.

  There was a moment’s silence from inside the room; then Dr Leone’s voice came sharply. ‘Who’s that?’

  ‘Me, sir. Ned Fletcher.’

  ‘Ned! Wait a moment.’ There came a bang, a scrape, then footsteps approaching the door. It opened. Dr Leone’s face peered crossly out.

  ‘What in God’s name are you doing up at this time of night?’ Then the alchemist caught sight of Henri. ‘And who is this? What is going on?’

  ‘Henri d’Arcy, at your service,’ said Henri, bowing.

  ‘What? Wasn’t it a d’Arcy who brought Mateo and the rest of you here?’

  ‘Yes, sir, Henri has—-’

  ‘What are you two doing, gallivanting around at

  night?’ demanded Dr Leone. ‘And what do you mean by disturbing me? I was just about to test an idea and now you’ve interrupted me.’

 

  ‘Forgive us, Dr Leone,’ said Ned, ‘but this is really important. Master Ashby—he’s been taken prisoner.’

  ‘What?’ Dr Leone opened the door and came out of the laboratory, shutting the door behind him. ‘Are you drunk or dreaming, Ned? Mateo is asleep in his bed.’

  ‘Forgive me, sir, but that isn’t so. He’s been taken prisoner by masked men. We think they are in the service of the Countess of Montemoro.’

  Dr Leone looked quite bewildered. ‘What nonsense is this?’ He looked from one face to the other, and for the first time seemed to notice Ned’s state. ‘Why, lad, you look terrible, as if someone has taken to you with a cudgel!’

  ‘And that’s not so far from the truth,’ said Ned grimly. ‘Dr Leone, you must listen to us. We must help Master Ashby.’

  And he told the alchemist what had happened, except for why he’d been there. At the end, Dr Leone said slowly, ‘This is a fantastic story. It beggars belief!’

  ‘I assure you, sir, it’s all true,’ said Ned.

  ‘But he said nothing to me about going to meet this supposed captain of guards! I never heard of any message telling him to meet this character at the Bosco Alley!’

  ‘Perhaps he was told not to tell anyone,
’ said Henri.

  9 4

  ‘But I’m his friend and I’ve been helping him. We interviewed Dr Tedeschi together. So why didn’t the message come for both of us, luring us out there? Why take only Mateo?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Ned, ‘but perhaps they thought you would not be fooled by it.’ He glanced at Dr Leone’s imposing bulk. ‘Or perhaps they thought you’d be too difficult to capture quietly.’

  ‘Or that you didn’t know as much as Master Ashby,’ suggested Henri.

  ‘All three are possible,’ agreed Dr Leone. ‘But there is yet another possibility. It may have nothing to do with the Tedeschi case at all, but with the pirates.’

  ‘I don’t think so, sir,’ said Ned crisply, and explained his reasons.

  Dr Leone nodded. ‘You may well be right. But lads, before we take this any further, you understand that I must check to see that this isn’t just some strange dream you’ve been having.’ And he locked the door of the laboratory behind him and set off at a run down the stairs, taking them two at a time—followed by Ned and Henri.

  The door to Master Ashby’s room, on the first floor, was shut but not locked. They went in. Dr Leone stood stock-still in the middle of the room, looking at the empty bed, the open window, the twisted sheet tied to the catch of the shutters. ‘Mother of God,’ he whispered, ‘he must have climbed down the sheet. In his state of fitness! He could have broken a leg!’

  -M- 95

  Ned felt absurdly proud of his employer. ‘He is a much nimbler man than you might suppose, sir,’ he said, ‘and braver.’ ;

 

  ‘Of that last quality I have no doubt,’ said Dr Leone. He sat down heavily on the bed. ‘Well, it seems you were right. At least, it seems he’s gone off into the night. Quite who took him—that’s a different matter.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘But you haven’t explained one thing, young Ned.’ He shot a glance at Henri. ‘Or you, Monsieur d’Arcy, come to that. What were you doing at the Bosco Alley at that time of night?’

  ‘I. . . we . . . that is, Henri and I, we had arranged to meet.’ Ned’s face flamed. ‘We were going to fight a duel.’

  ‘A what?’ said Dr Leone faintly, looking at Ned as though he were mad.

  ‘A duel,’ said Henri calmly. ‘Ned and I—well, we’d had a disagreement. We were going to sort it out that way. That’s all.’

  ‘And now?’

  ‘Now, we’ve agreed to shelve our quarrel. There are more important things at the moment, Dr Leone.’

  ‘I see. Very wise. A duel! What foolishness. You would do well to forget such things completely. Well now, let’s see . . . We need reinforcements. We will go and pay a visit to a captain of the Watch, who’s the son of a friend of mine. He might be able to bring some of his men with us, to go to that house on Bosco Alley.’

  9 6

  ‘But, sir, if you tell him why—’

  ‘Not a word about the Tedeschis—or indeed pirates— shall pass my lips. I’ll just tell him I have had a good friend abducted by malefactors and held in that house. It’s not altogether uncommon for such things to happen. Occasionally foreign merchants and the like are kidnapped and held to ransom by armed gangs. Usually they’re from the outer islands, but even in the city, it’s been known to happen. We’ll go there and demand entry.’

  ‘What if they refuse?’ said Ned.

  ‘Then we storm the house,’ said Dr Leone calmly. ‘But I don’t think it’ll come to that. Not if entry is demanded in the name of the Duke.’

  ‘What if they’ve moved Master Ashby from the house?’ said Henri.

  ‘Well, then we’ll have to think of something else,’ said Dr Leone. ‘Just give me a minute and I’ll be ready. We’ll set off at once. The Watch-house is only two or three streets away.’

  The Captain of the Watch was a hard-faced young man only a few years older than Henri and Ned. He sat at a table with several of his men, playing cards. He listened to what Ned thought must be Dr Leone’s carefully edited story without a flicker of expression, then said something rapidly in Italian. Dr Leone answered, fluttering his hands about, gesturing to Ned and Henri. The

  -M- 9 7

  Captain looked steadily at them without speaking; then he said something sharp and rough. Henri flushed. He saw Ned’s bemusement and said, ‘He says we’re fools. Duelling is forbidden in such circumstances. We should have had seconds, and it should have been out in the open, and in the day.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Ned, ‘but if we’d done that, everyone would have known.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Henri, shrugging. The Captain had turned back to Dr Leone and seemed to be consulting with him. Henri whispered, ‘They’re negotiating. It’s highly irregular, he says, but he’ll do it, for a financial consideration.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Ned wryly. ‘Who ever heard of men- at-arms doing things for love?’

  In the end, and after much haggling, the Captain came with four of his men, all burly young fellows who looked like they might certainly be handy in a fight. And so it was that they went back to Cannaregio to the relentless rhythm of the tramp, tramp, tramp of the men of the Watch.

  9 8 ->*-

  WOLF’S DEN

  lhe house stood dark and quiet. The alley, and the streets near it, were perfectly still and empty. The inhabitants were either asleep or lying low.

  Bang, bang, bang! The Captain was no respecter of people’s sleep. ‘Open up, in the name of the Duke!’ he roared in Italian. Ned didn’t need anyone to translate. It was perfectly plain.

  There was silence. ‘Open in the name of the Duke!’ roared the Captain again.

  ^M-99->->

  A shutter creaked open. A tousled dark head peered out of a first-floor window. A voice croaked a question.

  The Captain shouted back, ‘In the name of the Duke!’

  The head nodded and disappeared. In a few moments they heard someone fumbling with the bolts on the heavy door. The door creaked open to reveal a young man of about twenty, with sleepy eyes and a determined chin. He stared at them and said something in Italian. The Captain snapped something back.

  ‘He’s saying he has reason to suspect a crime’s been committed and that the criminals are hiding here,’ whispered Henri to Ned.

  The young man launched into voluble denials, which the Captain cut off with an eloquent gesture, indicating to the young man he should stand aside and let them in.

  He shrugged and did as he was told, sulkily.

  Once inside, the Captain sent his men to search the rooms. Dr Leone went with him. But he asked Henri and Ned to stay with the young man, in case he should try to escape, or raise the alarm. The latter sat on the floor with his back to the wall, looking anywhere but at the other two young men. Ned and Henri conferred in low voices.

  ‘Do you recognize him? Is he one of the men who attacked Master Ashby?’ asked Henri.

  ‘Can’t tell. They wore masks. It’s not the one with the scar, I’ll wager. But it could be one of the others.

  I hardly saw them.’

  «»

  Henri turned to their prisoner. ‘Who are you?’

  -H- 100->-*-

  The other looked at him for a moment, dark eyes unfathomable; then he shrugged and looked away.

  ‘He won’t tell us anything,’ said Ned. ‘But it does not matter. The others . . .’

  At that moment, Dr Leone came back. ‘There seems to be no one here, except an old man who was in bed and that youth,’ he said in English. ‘He claims to be the youth’s father and says they live here alone. The Captain’s men are searching the attics. Are you sure it was this house?’

  ‘Quite sure,’ said Henri and Ned together.

  ‘Well, let’s hope, then, that—’ began Dr Leone as the Captain and his men clattered into the hall, followed by a rather frail-looking old man in nightcap and nightshirt. The youth immediately leaped towards him. ‘Papa!’

  Ned was going to stop him but was halted by an imperious gesture from the Captain, who
then turned to Dr Leone and barked out some words.

  ‘He says there’s no one in the attics either,’ said

  Henri. ‘He’s not very happy. He thinks he was sent on

  <•

  a wild-goose chase.’

  ‘It was no wild-goose chase,’ said Ned indignantly. ‘You saw them go in here!’

  ‘Maybe then he’s already been taken away,’ said Dr Leone, brightening. ‘The backwater near here is an offshoot of the big canal, so it’d be quite easy to be far away in a matter of minutes.’ He turned to the Captain, who rapped something back. Dr Leone snorted in disbelief.

  -H- 101-H-

  ‘The Captain says the old man told him they have no boat,’ explained Henri. ‘Dr Leone said that was a lie, no household in Venice was without a boat.’

  Dr Leone spoke again. The Captain shrugged. Henri said, ‘He’s saying there’s no one here, that we must have been mistaken.’

  Dr Leone tried to speak again, but the Captain brushed him off. Dr Leone sighed, and turned to Ned and Henri. ‘I’m sorry, lads. We have to leave.’

  ‘But. . . but we haven’t asked these people here any questions!’ said Ned. ‘They’re hiding something, I’m sure they are!’

  ‘The Captain says he talked at length to the old man. He says they’re just ordinary people. He says it’s clear that not only is there no one else here now, but there was no one else here tonight at all. He says that you two are just confused, or troublemakers. I tell you, he’s pretty annoyed,’ said Dr Leone ruefully.

  ‘But—’

  ‘I’m sorry, Ned,’ said Dr Leone. ‘But there’s nothing we can do.’

  Ned blurted out, ‘No! We can’t just let—’

  The Captain put a heavy hand on his shoulder. ‘Andi- amo,’ he said. Let’s go. And his tone left no doubt that he would brook no opposition whatsoever. So, reluctantly, Ned and Henri allowed themselves to be propelled out of the doorway and back out into the street, while the youth

  -H- 102-H-

  and his father clung together, the very picture of wrongly accused innocence.

  There was nothing more they could do in Bosco Alley tonight. Even if Matthew Ashby was still there in the house—which was unlikely, as the search had been pretty thorough—the villains had been alerted and would move him as soon as possible. No, said Dr Leone, they would have to change tactics, and go for a really bold move.