1027. Chapter 1027

After Much Ado About Murder

Part Three

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: The game's afoot. Follow your spirit and upon this fanfic, cry," God for Istria, England and Lady Katherine." Rating: K Time: Immediately following After Much Ado About Murder, Part Two.

"So there's to be peace between Venice and Istria? Where does that leave us, Sir Richard?" Will Fox asked.

"It leaves us still employed by Duke Rodrigo until he says otherwise. We'll keep the men busy at archery, or whatever. We'll maintain our sentries, and our discipline. Popes before this one have wanted peace and not gotten it."

The captains then left to see to their men. When they had done so, Lanie, Kate's dusky hued maid, approached her.

She curtsied. "Lady Katherine, you should see your father."

"Is he better? And you should resume calling me Kate, Lanie."

Lanie sadly shook her head. "Since he drinks here, he's clean and warm at night, but he still drinks as much as he ever did. That us, as much as he did after your mother…."

"I'll go see him."

Kate went up the stairs to her father's quarters. As soon as she opened the door, she could smell the reek of sour wine and vomit. Her father was passed out on his bed, covered by a quilt that her mother had made.

"Father, I Love you so. Why can't you stop drinking?"

Her only answer was a snore.

She went back downstairs and found that "Lady" Alexis had dinner waiting for her and Rick.

When they sat to eat, Alexis spoke.

"So, what are we going to do about this thieving bishop in the pocket of Venice?"

Castle, with a slice of bread with cheese halfway to his mouth, stopped and stared at Alexis. Kate was quicker.

"How do you know about him, Alexis?"

Alexis shook her head as if she couldn't believe no one could see something obvious.

"Nobles, wealthy merchants and even prelates seem to think that their lower class servants are too stupid or too ignorant to understand anything. Consequently, they prattle away in public about things that should only be whispered of behind locked doors." The redhead put a sheaf of parchments down on the table. "I have a preliminary report here, gotten just from gossiping servants. I'm in the process of bribing a few so we'll have better reports."

"Can you give us a rundown?" Kate asked, very business-like.

Alexis nodded. "Vaughn is wealthy. He has at least to hundred thousand ducats in a bank in Florence. I assume he has more in other places. I'm working on that. He's bribed several members of the Roman Curia, including a member of the Holy Office…"

"The Holy Office?" Castle asked, unsure of what that meant.

"The Holy Office of the Inquisition." Alexis explained. "He's also bribed a member of the College of Cardinals. However, the people he's bribed are easy to bribe. The problem is that they won't stay bought. All of their names are in the report."

Alexis shuffled some sheets of parchment. "There are a few interesting people in Vaughn's retinue. There's a Father John who seems a bit shaky on how to say the Ave Maria, but who seems in excellent physical condition. I believe him to be Vaughn's assassin. There are also two nuns, Sisters Meredith and Gina who seem entirely too worldly to me. I suspect they're his mistresses. Two of them anyway."

"Nuns having sex?" Castle gasped.

Alexis smiled at Rick. "You can ask Lady Katherine how sex works later." She said sweetly.

Kate covered her mouth and turned away so that her husband wouldn't see her laugh.

Castle quickly changed the subject. "If you need to bribe servants, you'll need funds. Since you work for Lady Kate and me, rather than Duke Rodrigo, the money should come from me."

Alexis looked quickly away and shuffled some of the parchments. "About that, while we were at sea, I took the liberty of purchasing the spices we got from Spolato, using your credit. I may have accidentally forgotten to mention the sale, or your financial part in it to you." Alexis quickly spoke on. "However, I was able to re-sell the spices to a Florentine merchant this morning. You made fifteen hundred gold florins. Um, I took half to cover my upcoming expenses."

Seeing her husband scowl, Kate smiled at the redhead. "That's nice, but in the future, you should keep at least one of us apprised of your financial dealings."

Alexis nodded, knowing which Castle she would keep apprised. She spoke again. "In that case I should advise you that Lord Pietro and I have invested in five percent of a mercantile corporation."

"What in God's name is that?" Castle demanded.

Alexis happily showed off her new knowledge. "It's a wonderful new idea that the Italian city states have come up with. Now suppose you were a shipowner."

"And if I were?"

"You'd have to make choices. You could have your ship take, say a cargo of wheat from Sicily to Ostia, the port of Rome. It's not a long trip and you hug the coast the whole way. There are few pirates, or storms, but if you run into either, you just pull into one of hundreds of ports. No problem. It's safe, but you make very little money."

"I like safe for my money." Castle put in.

Alexis shook her head. "Now suppose you want to make a lot of money?"

"A lot of money is good." Kate said, looking at her husband.

"You send your ship on a trading voyage to the Levant, or the Black Sea, or Egypt. But your ship will have

to sail out of the sight of land and face the possibility of pirates, storms and sea monsters. You may lose your ship and cargo. But if your ship comes back, you're fabulously wealthy."

From the look on Alexis' face, Castle could tell that the redhead preferred fabulously wealthy. "If." He commented.

Alexis went on. "So, what you do is get twenty shipowners together and sell shares in a joint set of voyages. Some ships will carry wheat from Sicily, some will trade with far away ports, but with that many ships, most are bound to return and make some money, so even the shipowners who lose a ship still make money."

"Enough to buy a new ship?" Kate asked sharply.

"They have something called insurance." As Alexis began to explain that, Kate cut her off.

"Later. Now, what have you and Lord Pietro done?"

"There is a group of twenty-four Genoese, Florentine and Aragonese ship owners. They have excellent ships and captains with experienced crews. They plan to…"

Kate cut her off. "How much does five percent of this cost? Cost us?

"Forty five hundred ducats for you and Sir Richard and I have five hundred ducats invested myself."

Castle opened his mouth to speak.

"Our dinner is getting cold." Kate said. "We should eat." Both women were too busy eating to talk to Castle.

As they were finishing their meal, Lanie, Kate's maid spoke to her.

"Kate, your father is awake." Lanie looked away from her friend. "He's not sober, I fear."

Kate sighed and rose from the table.

"Kate, do you want me to go with you?"

She smiled at her husband. "No, it's better if I see him l alone."

She went up the stairs to her father's quarters. The room was clean and brightly lit with candles. Her father was laying on top of a clean bed, freshly shaven, well fed, clean and drunk.

"How are you, Father?" She asked softly.

"Katy? Is that you?" He looked in her general direction.

Kate moved closer to him. "I'm right here."

James Beckett smiled. "Can you hand me the jug of wine on the table, Katy?"

"Father, could you try to stop drinking? For my sake?"

James Beckett's eyes filled with rage. "How the hell can you ask that of me? Every time I try to stop, I see your mother. I see her dying, I hear her screams. And I'm as helpless now as I was the day he died. She was my wife and I couldn't save her." He lunged across the bed and grabbed the jug of wine. He took a long swallow. "Get out. Don't come back. Get the hell out of here, woman."

Kate left with tears streaming down her face. She stood in the hallway until she could stop crying, then went to her husband.

Castle could see by her red eyes that she'd been crying. He went to her and put his arms around her.

"Are you all right?" He asked tenderly.

She shook her head. "No. It hurts me so to see him drunk all the time. And this time he yelled at me. He told me to get the hell out of his room." Kate began crying again.

"Can I do anything for you?"

"Nothing. There's nothing anyone can do and that's what hurts the most."

Castle had her bath filled with hot water and gently cleaned his wife as she cried. When they were done, he took her to bed and held her all night.

The next morning at breakfast, Alexis had news for them.

"I have bad news."

"What is it?" Kate asked, back in control of herself, once more.

"Vaughn is asking us, by which I mean Duke Rodrigo, Lord Pietro, Don Federico, Sir James, you and Lady Kate as well as all of the captains of the companies, to a dinner he's hosting."

"Why is that so bad?" Castle asked.

"Because it gives him a chance to kill us all at once, or at least start picking us off one by one." Alexis rose from her chair. "I need to find out what that weasel is up to." She quickly left.

"He wouldn't kill us all at once right here in Pola, would he?" Castle asked his wife.

"Probably not. But I'll be taking my formal dagger to the dinner."

The invitation, for the dinner that night, arrived in the morning.

"He didn't waste any time." Caste said at breakfast.

Kate and Alexis were studying the invitation, written on expensive vellum with exquisite handwriting.

"He's invited your father." Alexis muttered. "He probably is hoping Sir James will embarrass us while drunk." Alexis suddenly realized what she had said and who she had said it to. "My apologies, Lady Katherine. I didn't think and did not want to imply…."

Kate waved the apology away. "I'm more aware than anyone that my father drinks too much. You cannot hide that from me, Alexis."

Alexis smiled. "I'll put Lanie and a dozen archers by his room, in case Vaughn tries to come here and take him to the party in his….."

"Usual state of drunkenness." Kate finished. "We'll explain that he's not feeling well, which is the truth, if not the whole truth."

After breakfast, Alexis went with Kate and Rick to their quarters. Alexis stared at Rick when she was done examining their closets.

"As I expected, Lady Katherine has the clothing one would expect from a beautiful and wealthy aristocratic lady. She'll do fine." She turned to Rick. "You, Sir Richard, are very much a different case. You have one almost suitable outfit. However, you appear to last worn it at a ball given by a family of pigs in their sty. I have three tailors and their apprentices outside who'll remedy that."

"Alexis, I'm a soldier, not some popinjay. All we need to do is…."

"Burn those offending rags and outfit you properly. Sir Richard, you are more than a soldier. You are a wealthy man. You are a powerful man with an army at your beck and call. You are an influential man who has the ear of a Duke, a Lord and an English Baronet. And most importantly, you are the husband of a beautiful and intelligent woman, Lady Kate. Now undress so the tailors can begin."

"Undress? In front of you?" Castle cried.

Alexis left. "Tailors! You will have him ready two hours before sundown." She ordered imperiously. The tailors ran to do her bidding.

As Rick stripped, to the appreciative gaze of Kate, the tailors and their apprentices rushed in. Alexis had already told them what she wanted, so they were able to set right to work.

In only a few hours, Castle was dressed. A cobbler had provided soft leather shoes for him, dyed a shade of deep red. His legs were encased in white linen hose that were tied to his silk drawers. A loose blue silk shirt covered his torso with an embroidered silk robe over that, falling to his knees. Alexis had found a bejeweled belt to which was attached a workmanlike sword. Sir Richard was a gentleman, after all, and should be armed. On his head was a wide, floppy beret with a green feather held in place by a golden clasp.

"I look like one of those types who hang around courts and write awful poetry to aristocratic married ladies in hopes of bedding them." Castle grumped.

"You'll have no trouble bedding this aristocratic married lady." Kate said. "In fact, I guarantee you'll bed me. And you are so very handsome, Richard. You should dress fashionably more often."