Aurelianus turned to him apologetically. 'Will you, sir, be so good as to excuse us for a moment?' He was all but Wringing his hands with embarrassment
'Of course,' Duffy assured him with an airy wave. 'I'll divert myself with your excellent library.'
'Fine.' The robed man took the woman roughly by the arm and led her to the far corner of the room, where they proceeded to converse in heated whispers.
Duffy buried his nose in a book, but, being a cautious man, strained his ears to catch as much as he could. He heard Bella's hoarse voice say, 'The word is they've begun assembling the akinji in Constantinople...' Aurelianus asked a question about supplies and the Janissaries, but Duffy couldn't follow the woman's answer.
News of the Turks, the Irishman thought. It's all you hear these days. I wonder why this old bird's so interested.
'All right, all right,' Aurelianus said finally, flapping his hands at the woman. 'Your personal speculations don't interest me. Here.. .here's some money. Now get out. But first put that dagger back.'
Bella sighed sadly and took a jewelled dagger out of the prodigious bosom of her dress. 'I was only thinking a woman needs to be able to protect herself.'
'Hah!' The old man chuckled mirthlessly. 'It's the Turk sailors that need protection, you old vampire. Out!'
She left, slamming the door, and Aurelianus immediately lit several incense sticks in the candle flame and set them in little brass trays around the room. 'I'd open a Window,' he said, 'but in very old towns you never know what might be flying past in the darkness.'
Duffy nodded uncertainly, and then held up the book he'd been leafing through. 'I see you're a student of swordplay.'
'What have you got there? Oh yes, Pietro Moncio's book. Have you read it?'
'Yes. As a matter of fact, it was Moncio and Achille Marozzo I was dining with this evening.'
The old man blinked. 'Oh. Well, I haven't used a sword myself for a number of years, but I do try to keep up with developments in the art. That copy of della Torre there, in the dark vellum, is very rare.'
'It is?' remarked the Irishman, walking back to the table and refilling his glass. 'I'll have to sell my copy, then. Might make some money. I wasn't real impressed with the text.'
Long cobwebs of aromatic smoke were strung across the room, and Duffy fanned the air with a little portfolio of prints. 'It's getting murky in here,' he complained.
'You're right,' the old man said. 'I'm a damnable host. Perhaps if I open it a crack...' He walked to the window, stared out of it for a moment, and then turned back to Duffy with an apologetic smile. 'No, I won't open it. Let me explain quickly why I called you in, and then you can be on your way before the fumes begin seriously to annoy you. I've mentioned the Zimmermann Inn, of which I am the owner; it's a popular establishment, but I travel constantly and, to be frank, there is often trouble with the customers that I can't control even when I'm there. You know - a wandering friar will get into an argument with some follower of this Luther, a bundschuh leftover from the Peasants' War will knife the Lutheran, and in no time at all the dining room's a shambles and the serving girls are in tears. And these things cut into the profits in a big way -damages, nice customers scared off, tapsters harder to hire. I need a man who can be there all the time, who can speak to most customers in their native languages, and who can break up a deadly fight without killing anybody - as you did just now, with the Gritti boys by the canal.'
Duffy smiled. 'You want me to be your bouncer.'
'Exactly,' agreed Aurelianus, rubbing his hands together.
'Hm.' Duffy drummed his fingers on the table top. 'You know, if you'd asked me two days ago, I'd have told you to forget it. But.. .just in the last couple of days Venice has grown a little tiresome. I admit I've even found myself missing old Vienna. Just last night I had a dream - Aurelianus raised his eyebrows innocently. 'Oh?'
'Yes, about a girl I used to know there. I Wouldn't really mind seeing her - seeing what she's doing now. And if I hang around here those three Gritti lads will be challenging me to a real combat in the official champ clos, and I'm too old for that kind of thing.'
'They probably would,' Aurelianus agreed. 'They're hot-headed young men.'
'You know them?'
'No. I know about them.' Aurelianus picked up his half-consumed snake and re-lit it. 'I know about quite a number of people,' he added, almost to himself, 'without actually knowing them. I prefer it that way. You'll take the job, then?'
Oh, what the hell, Duffy thought. I would never have fit in back in Dingle anyway, realistically speaking. He shrugged. 'Yes. Why not?'
'Ah. I was hoping you would. You're more suited for it than anyone I've met.'
He knotted his hands behind his back and paced about the cluttered room. 'I've got business in the south, but I'd appreciate it if you could start for Vienna tout de suite. I'll give you some travelling money and a letter of introduction to the Zimmermann brewmaster, an old fellow named Gambrinus. I'll instruct him to give you another lump sum when you arrive there. How soon do you think that can be?'
Duffy scratched his gray head. 'Oh, I don't know. What's today?'
'The twenty-fourth of February. Ash Wednesday.' 'That's right. Monico had a gray cross on his forehead. Let's see - I'd take a boat to Trieste, buy a horse and cross the tail end of the Alps just east of there. Then maybe I'd hitch a ride north with some Hungarian lumber merchant; there's usually no lack of them in those parts. Cross the Sava and the Drava, and then follow the old Danube west to Vienna. Say roughly a month.'
'Before Easter, without a doubt?' Aurelianus asked anxiously.
'Oh, certainly.'