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Authors: Philippa Gregory

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BOOK: Fools' Gold
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‘You have expensive ideas,’ he complained. ‘If you had been brought up as a farmer’s son like me you would not willingly be sawing coins in half.’

She laughed at him, and he did as she requested and soon the coins lay halved on the bench before them.

‘Are they the same colour all the way through?’

Luca picked up a magnifying glass and scrutinised the coins. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘There’s no skin on any of them, nor any trace of a different colour inside. They’re yellow all the way through, like pure gold.’

‘So now, it’s the last test: we have to weigh the coins,’ she said. ‘Weigh them very accurately.’

Luca paused. ‘All right. What weight should they be?’

‘A full noble is 108 grains,’ Ishraq said scowling at the manuscript, trying to understand the symbols. ‘It says that density is equal to mass divided by volume.’

‘Hang on a minute,’ Luca said. ‘Say that again.’

‘Density is equal to mass divided by volume,’ she repeated. ‘The test is to weigh pure gold and then weigh the test gold to find the mass. Then the second test is to put it in water and see how much the water level rises. That gives the volume.’

‘Mass,’ Luca repeated. ‘Volume.’ Ishraq thought that he looked for a moment like a troubadour when he sings a particularly beautiful song. The words, which made no sense to her, were like poetry to him. ‘Density.’

‘It says here that we are to take a piece of pure gold and then put it in a measured jug of water and see how much the water rises. Then we do the same with the same weight of our test gold. Gold which has been mixed with other lighter metals will move more water. Gold that is pure is more dense – it will displace less water.’ She broke off. ‘You know, I’m reading the words but I feel like a fool. I don’t understand what we are to do. Do you understand what is meant?’

Luca looked transported. ‘Density is equal to mass divided by volume,’ he said quietly. ‘I do see. I do see.’

He did not bother to shout for Freize but ran up to the kitchen himself and came back down with a clear glass of water. ‘We’ll have to go out to a goldsmith and buy some pure gold,’ he muttered.

‘What for?’

‘So that I know how dense pure gold is. So that I know how much the water rises. So that I can compare it with the coins.’

‘Oh! I see,’ Ishraq exclaimed, suddenly understanding. ‘I have a gold ring, that I know is pure gold.’

‘It’s hollow, it’s in the shape of a ring,’ Luca said, thinking furiously aloud. ‘Doesn’t matter. The central hole has no weight. We are weighing the gold of the ring not measuring the area. Get it.’

‘It’s Isolde’s mother’s ring,’ Ishraq explained. ‘I have carried it and her family jewels for her ever since we left home.’

‘Are you sure it is pure gold?’

She nodded. ‘The Lord of Lucretili would have given his lady nothing less,’ she said.

He did not even hear her, he was looking from the gold nobles to the water in the glass. Ishraq ran from the room up the stairs to the girls’ rooms and lifted her gown, to rip at the hem of her linen shift.

‘What on earth are you doing?’ Isolde asked. She was standing on a wooden chair, a dressmaker kneeling before her, hemming a gown. On one side a tirewoman was making a magnificent headdress and there were carnival masks all around the room, silks, satins and velvets thrown everywhere in a jumble of richness and colour.

‘Getting your mother’s gold ring,’ Ishraq said tersely, tearing at the delicate hem stitches. ‘For Luca to weigh against the gold nobles.’

‘Still?’ Isolde said irritably. ‘You’ve been locked in all morning. And I heard you drop a plate.’

‘Smashed it,’ Ishraq said cheerfully, retrieving the ring and pulling down her dress again.

‘Make sure he doesn’t damage it,’ Isolde said disagreeably. ‘That ring is valuable.’

Ishraq said nothing but raced back to Luca. He was pacing up and down, scowling in thought, he hardly noticed her come in until she put the ring into his hand.

At once he turned and put it on the delicate spice scales that Freize had brought them from the kitchen. He added the tiny weights – the smallest was half a grain of wheat. Isolde’s mother’s ring was just over 121 grains.

‘Write it down,’ Luca ordered Ishraq. ‘The ring is pure gold, 121 and a half grains. Now. How much water does it move?’

Luca lifted it from the scale and put it into the water glass. At once the water rose within the glass. With a sharp piece of chalk Luca marked where the water level rose, and then hooked the ring out with a fork and held it over the water so that every drop fell back into the glass and the water level was the same as before.

‘You are certain this is pure gold?’ he asked quietly.

Ishraq was impressed with his concentration. ‘Certain,’ she whispered.

‘Well, the noble should be 108 grains,’ Luca said. ‘And the noble plus half of one of the quarter nobles should be exactly 121 and a half grains. So the mass is the same. If it is less dense, then it has been mixed with tin or something lighter than gold, and the water will rise higher.’ Gently, without making a splash, he dropped the full coin into the glass of water, and then dropped the sawn half of the quarter noble on top of it.

They both held their breath as the water level rose, sticking to the side of the glass, but definitely rising up and up until it reached the mark set by the ring.

‘The coins are pure gold,’ Luca said in quiet triumph. ‘Someone, somewhere is either stealing English nobles fresh from the mint in Calais, or else they are mining the purest gold, and forging their own.’

The five of them were elated, as if they had found the gold mine itself.

‘So what next?’ Isolde asked. ‘How will we find the mint? How will we find the forgers?’

‘Could we buy so much gold that the money changer cannot serve us from his own store?’ Luca suggested. ‘Then we’ll ask him where we can go to collect it. If he won’t say, we’ll have to watch him, see where he goes to get a chest of gold.’

‘We can take it in turns to watch . . .’ Ishraq started.

Luca shook his head. ‘No, not you,’ he said. He glanced at Isolde and saw her nod in agreement. ‘I am sorry, Ishraq, but you can’t. If we want to pass as a wealthy family then you two have to behave like ladies. You can’t come to the Rialto and spy on the gold merchants.’

‘Really, we can’t,’ Isolde told her.

‘I could go dressed as a common girl. Or dressed as a boy! Isolde has bought a room-full of costumes and masks! It is carnival time, almost everyone is disguised.’

‘It’s not worth the risk,’ Brother Peter ruled. ‘And besides, you should not be wandering the streets exposed to danger. It happens that we are here in the only time of year that women are allowed out of their homes at all. All the women in Venice will dress up in disguise, wear masks, and go out on the streets for the twenty days before Lent, the city is never more unruly than now. They are a most extreme people. This is an exception, a time of utter licence, the rest of the year they only go out to visit privately in each other’s houses or to church.’

‘But as it’s carnival, surely we can go out masked and disguised?’ Ishraq insisted. ‘Even if it is only for these weeks?’

‘Only if you want to be mistaken for the whores of the city,’ Brother Peter said crossly. ‘You would be advised not to go out at all. It is a time of great sin and debauchery. I would advise you to stay indoors. Indeed, I have to request that you stay indoors.’ He glanced at Luca for his agreement. ‘Since you are travelling with us and have agreed to enact the pretence that we are your guardians, I think it is right that you should give us the power to decide your comings and goings.’

‘Nobody has that power over me,’ Ishraq said quickly. ‘I don’t give it to you, I don’t give it to anyone. I didn’t leave home and then run away from the nunnery to be ordered about by you and Luca.’

Luca flushed. ‘Nobody is ordering you,’ he said. ‘But if we are to keep up the pretence that we are here as a noble family you will have to behave like the companion of a noblewoman. That’s simply what you agreed to do, Ishraq.’

‘I’ll go out masked,’ she promised herself.

‘As long as someone goes with you,’ Luca compromised. ‘Apparently the whole city goes quite mad for the days of carnival. But if Freize goes with you, or the housekeeper, you should be all right.’

‘So can I come with you to the Rialto this afternoon?’ she asked. ‘To see Father Pietro? If I am masked?’

Luca shook his head. ‘This is my quest,’ he said. ‘I go alone.

Freize beamed. ‘I go alone too,’ he said. ‘I’ll go alone with you.’

The two young men left the house together; Ishraq and Isolde, at the upper-floor window, watched the black gondola nose into the middle of the Grand Canal and swiftly cut through the busy waterway.

‘I’m going out,’ Ishraq said. ‘I’m going to get us boys’ clothes so that we can walk around as we please.’

Isolde brightened. ‘Do we dare?’

‘Yes,’ Ishraq said firmly. ‘Of course we dare. We’ve come all the way across Italy. We’re hardly going to be stuck indoors now because a couple of priests think that Venice is too sinful for us to see.’

‘I’ve ordered us both gowns from the sempstress.’

‘Yes, but I don’t want gowns, I want costumes. I want disguises. I want boys’ clothes so that we can go where we like. So no one knows who we are.’

‘Go then,’ Isolde said excitedly. She put her hand into the pocket of her modest grey gown and pulled out a purse. ‘Here. Brother Peter gave me this, for alms for the poor and for candles at church, and for other things – who knows what – that he thought we might need: trinkets that ladies of a noble family might have. Go and get us breeches and capes and big masks!’

Ishraq laughed, pocketed the money and went from the room.

‘And get me a big hat.’ Isolde slipped from the room and leaned over the marble staircase to call to her friend. ‘One that will hide my hair.’

‘And I’ll trade with some of your mother’s jewels!’ Ishraq called softly up the stairs.

Isolde hesitated. ‘My mother’s jewels? Which ones?’

‘The rubies,’ Ishraq insisted. ‘This is our chance to make a fortune. We’ll trade in the jewels and buy English gold nobles and watch them rise in price. When they’ve doubled in value we’ll buy the rubies back and you’ll still have them plus a fortune to hire your army to march on your brother.’

‘We could make so much money just by trading in the nobles?’ Isolde asked, tempted at the thought.

‘We might,’ Ishraq said. ‘Shall I do it? Shall I go to the money changer and buy gold nobles with your rubies?’

‘Yes,’ Isolde said, taking a chance, tempted by the thought of a fortune easily made which might win her back her inheritance. ‘Yes, take them.’

At the Rialto the two young men found Father Pietro in his usual place, the bustle of the crowd all around him, someone juggling with daggers nearby, and a performing dog circling slowly and mournfully, a small ball balanced on his nose, his clown-faced owner passing the hat. They did not notice Ishraq, dressed as a boy, hat pulled low over her pinned-up hair, a black mask over her eyes, transacting her business with Israel, the money changer. They did not see her get into a hired gondola and quietly go away.

‘This is my master,’ Freize introduced him, elbowing his way through the crowd to get to the priest. ‘This is Luca Vero’

BOOK: Fools' Gold
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