The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fic - By Mike Ashley Page 0,96

and smiled.

“There was one girl, actually. Well, there was more than one, but this one was special. Gurbesu had long, black hair, a dark complexion, and curves in all the right places.” He sketched the shape of her body in the air with both hands. “She had brains to go with her body too, and helped me with my duties as Kubilai’s chief crime investigator.”

Katie laughed out loud. It was like the tinkling of a small bell.

“You were an avogador?”

“Yes. What’s so funny about that?”

“My grandmother said you were the biggest rogue in Venice.”

“Well, your granny was wrong.” He paused for effect. “The biggest rogue in Venice is the Doge. But I ran him second best.”

They laughed together, their treble and bass blending like a peal of bells in a tower.

“Anyway, you know what they say. Set a thief to catch a thief.”

Katie leaned against his shoulder, her long tresses draping over his arm.

“About this Gurbesu. Did you love her?”

Zuliani waved his hand dismissively.

“Love? What’s that? She was beautiful, mind you. All Kungurat girls are – the Khan gets a hundred of them every year for his harem. Virgins all. That’s why Gurbesu had to be smuggled away. You see, before she got to the Khan, she had lain with me. But as for loving her …” He shook his head. “There’s only one woman I loved.”

“Really? Who was that?”

Zuliani stared off into the distance, and pictured the woman he had been forced to abandon almost forty years earlier. His crooked deals and an untimely death had caused him to leave Venice abruptly. Leaving behind the incomparable Cat, love of his life. Her true name was Caterina Dolfin – she of the peach complexion and pale blonde hair – but he called her his Cat. Her slender but muscular body moved like a cat too when they made love. There were tales of her giving birth to a child while he had been in the East. But her family had spirited her away to the mainland and, when he had returned many years later, he had been unable to trace her. He sighed.

Katie prodded his ribs with a slender finger.

“Who was she, this love of your life?”

Zuliani was looking at her eager, young face, and about to tell all, when he heard a piercing cry. He looked up and saw his neighbour, old Justinia, waddling across the square. He had never seen her move so fast. She was waving her hands and screaming. And he could hardly believe what she was saying.

“Signor Niccolo, your house is on fire.”

Stunned, Zuliani remained seated under the elder tree, until Katie took a firm hold of his hand and hauled him to his feet. Together, they ran down the west side of the church, and towards his house. They could both hear the crackle of the flames before they could even see the house. Reaching the canal, they looked up. Flames were shooting out of all the lower windows, the shutters merely shards of burnt timber already. Zuliani gasped.

“I don’t believe it. The place is so damp. How could it have gone up like this?”

Katie just gazed in horror at the sight.

“Nick. All your precious things from the East.”

Zuliani knew what she meant. It was a lifetime – his lifetime – going up in smoke. Even as they watched, the flames found their way up to the next floor, only one below his attic rooms. And all his memories. Tongues of fire burst from the shuttered windows, and smoke billowed out across the canal. Suddenly, Katie pointed upwards.

“Look!”

Zuliani followed where she was pointing, and saw a face at an upper window. Someone was inside – but who? Zuliani had left the house bolted and barred. Vettor, his servant, had been sent off to visit his family at Malamocco. Surely he could not have returned yet? If he had, he was in dire trouble now. The figure at the window leaned out, waving his arms. Zuliani’s eyesight wasn’t so good, but Katie recognized him.

“It’s Francesco Tiepolo.”

“Tiepolo? What’s he doing in my house?”

Even as Zuliani spoke, the terrible cries of the traitorous conspirator carried over the roar of the flames.

“For pity’s sake, help me. I am roasting to death.”

Zuliani called up to him.

“Is there anyone else trapped with you?”

For a moment, Tiepolo seemed to look fearfully back into the room, and Zuliani thought there was someone. But Tiepolo must have just been looking at the encroaching flames. He now turned back to the horrified onlookers, terror