Caprice and Rondo

Caprice and Rondo Read Online Free PDF

Book: Caprice and Rondo Read Online Free PDF
Author: Dorothy Dunnett
Everyone was celebrating.
    Within the room, the quality of the air underwent a change. He smiled. He said, his back to the door, ‘So, how was she?’
    ‘Whetting her claws,’ Colà said. He was the only man known to the captain who could move as silently as himself, despite his height. Theyengaged in these exercises sometimes, stalking one another, testing, deceiving. It was part of the return the captain compelled from his guests. In winter, a seaman required to be entertained. Der harte Seevogel , Tough Seabird, they called him.
    Colà said, ‘Is there some problem? You need a friend to help with your buttons?’ He had picked up tinder, and was lighting the lamp by his bed. Paúel closed the shutters and turned.
    ‘I was contemplating the scene of the slaughter. You look as if the girl got to you first, then the father.’
    Colà blinked. His eyes were like pewter platters, and his real name was not Colà. The captain knew what it was, and had called him by it throughout the campaign in the north, where they had met. Then, after the better part of two years, a merchant’s train coming in from the west had insisted on bringing their friend to the guild hall, even though they had only just met him in Lübeck two weeks ago — such a lively, remarkable fellow was he. Name of Colà z Brugge. A one-time merchant who had decided to let his business go hang and see the world. And Captain Paúel Benecke, looking up at this bland, bristle-chinned figure, had said slowly, ‘Oh, yes? Decided to give up your business?’
    ‘Yes,’ had said the newcomer meekly.
    ‘And come to Poland?’
    ‘Why not?’ had said the big man in a reasonable voice. ‘I could see, from the little experience I had, that its people needed advice. Some hints about etiquette. A touch of help as to manners and culture. A bit of —’
    Here, he had been forced to desist by the pack of genial, hard-fisted arms that rose and fell on him: it had evidently happened often before, and he accepted it amiably. When, at last, the two were alone, the captain had set himself to pin the newcomer down in another way. ‘So, what’s the point of all this? Of course they will find out who you are. You have an agent here, haven’t you?’
    ‘Straube, yes. He’s gone to Portugal for the winter. Oh, they’ll find out,’ said the man they called Colà. ‘But they’ll also know by the time he comes back that he isn’t my agent any more. I’ve retired from my company.’
    ‘Why?’ had said Benecke. He remembered trying to kill this man once. He remembered that the first time they met, this man had broken his arm, and later his leg.
    ‘Why do you think?’ the newcomer had said.
    Benecke considered. So far as he knew, the fellow had been good at his job. The business had prospered. If he’d cheated, he hadn’t been found out. That left only women. There had been two: a harridan of a wife, so he’d heard, and a little virgin who thought she was a boy. That is, there had been a lot more than two, but none spoken of seriously. Thecaptain said, ‘I think you just wanted some fun. But since you ask, I’ll guess you killed the wife and raped the little girl-brother Kathi. I liked her,’ said the captain with a catch in his voice. ‘If you’ve raped her, I’ll kill you.’ They were both, by this time, quite full of ale.
    ‘You think you could?’ Colà said; and ducked as the captain got out his knife. Someone took it from him quite soon, and they settled to drink again. Eventually Paúel had to ask. ‘So what happened?’
    ‘You weren’t far wrong,’ Colà had said. ‘The wife flung me out, and the girl married somebody else. So I thought I’d get out.’
    ‘So why here?’
    ‘I thought I’d get out to where somebody owed me a favour. Are you busy this winter?’
    The captain sat up. ‘You want a job?’ There were no jobs in winter. Danzig was sealed in by ice. There would be no ships in the port until March.
    ‘No,’ said Colà. ‘Or not
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