The Day of Atonement (30 page)

“I would be curious to know how you were so fortunate this time,” Eusebio said. “Why did they not detain you further?”

“I believe they determined there was nothing for them in holding me,” I answered. “It is true they will arrest Englishmen, but only when there is good reason. I am new to this country, with few connections and little wealth available for confiscation. To keep me in the Palace would be to anger the Factory and gain nothing in exchange.”

Eusebio studied me for a moment, but said nothing. He was clever enough to recognize that even if the Inquisition saw no profit in imprisoning me, it would certainly never neglect an opportunity to exploit a vulnerable Englishman.

I lowered my gaze. “They asked me to report questionable activities on all New Christians,” I admitted. “Naturally, I agreed, but I shall tell them nothing. I shall always say—truthfully—that I see nothing of the sort.”

“Hmm,” Luis said. “This could work to our advantage. If they have a friendly agent watching us, one who will never speak ill of us, then are we not safer than if we did not know the identity of the person who might report us?”

“I don’t know,” Eusebio said. “If we do business with him, the Inquisition will inevitably turn its gaze upon us.”

“And if we back out now,” said Luis, “the Inquisitors will grow suspicious.”

Eusebio nodded. “True enough. It’s a damned precarious position.”

“For my part, I shall protect you any way I can,” I said. “They cannot threaten me with anything to make me falter.”

“You are in Lisbon, and must protect yourself as we do,” Eusebio said. “If you are arrested in earnest, you shall name anyone you know. You think you won’t, but everyone does.”

“I do not wish to impose myself on you,” I said. “I can only tell you that I would lay down my own life rather than condemn another man to the Inquisition. They may torment me, but I shall never speak a word against anyone in this house.” I bowed once more and left the room.

I had just reached the front door when Luis called to me. “Hold, sir. A moment.”

I paused and turned to face him. “I wish I had not come here. I only wanted to make certain you were unharmed.”

“Eusebio is angry because you acted the hero before his wife,” Luis said. “His manhood is injured, but he will see the logic and his desire to do business will win out. I promise you. I shall certainly do everything I can to convince him you are precisely the man you say.”

“I thank you.”

“In other words,” Luis said in a whisper, “I shall lie to my own son on your behalf.”

What had Luis learned? “Have I not given you every reason to trust me?”

Luis smiled. “That you have, but that is not the same thing as being honest. I shall be blunt and tell you I’ve long suspected you were not what you seemed. Your look and your coloring made me suspicious, but I was not entirely certain until you revealed yourself in the church. Your Portuguese is near flawless, hardly the halting speech of a man in the country a few weeks.”

I said nothing. No one else had noticed, but I had been caught out. The question now was what this meant for my relations with the Nobrezas.

Luis nodded to himself and looked wistful, as if remembering something. “I will ask nothing more. I do not wish to know. Secrets are never safe in Lisbon, no matter what we may vow to ourselves. I believe you are not here to harm us.”

“On my honor, that is true,” I said quietly.

“Then it shall suffice. Perhaps the day may come when there will be no more secrets.”

“I hope that day will be soon,” I said. I replaced my hat and departed.

When I at last returned to my inn, Franklin heaved himself from behind the bar and waved.

“Mr. Foxx, sir. You are wanted.”

I planned to ignore him, but instead I stopped in my tracks. Inácio sat near the innkeeper, drinking Franklin’s beer.

I looked past Franklin. “Inácio, what do you do here?”

Inácio rose and walked toward me. “A word in private, if you please.”

I muttered an incoherent excuse at Franklin and led Inácio up the stairs. Enéas waited there, and looked stunned to see Inácio enter with me, but was wise enough to say nothing. I waved him away and gestured for Inácio to sit.

I poured him a glass of wine and sat across from him. “I am surprised to see you here. I did not think you were the sort of man who frequented English taverns.”

“I’m not,” Inácio admitted. “But I heard that you were arrested by the Inquisition, and I wished to make certain you were not detained.”

This was curious. Was he truly worried for my well-being, or did he merely fear that he might somehow be caught in the web if the Inquisition came after me? “How did you hear it?”

Inácio snorted. “I hear everything. A man in my position must.”

“And what would you have done if they had not released me?”

“What could I have done? Nothing. But if you were released, I wished to know of it at once.”

“Why?” I asked. “How is that information useful to you?”

“It is useful to me,” Inácio said, his voice slow with anger, “because you are my friend. Or have you forgotten that? Are you so convinced I played some little game with you about Gabriela that you think I would rejoice to see you taken by the Inquisition?”

I shook my head. “Forgive me. That you are here is proof enough.”

“This city makes us all fear our own shadows, but the time to doubt yourself is when it seems a man plots against you when he has nothing to gain.” He grinned. “Now, if toying with your heart had gold at the end of it, then you should mistrust me.”

I managed a smile. “That is the old Inácio! And I thank you for your concern. It is a complicated business. The Inquisitor I seek is trying to get me to turn against Nobreza.”

“I thought you were here to kill him, not give him New Christians.”

“It is complicated,” I said, “and the less you know, the better.”

Inácio nodded. “Agreed. Tell me nothing else. I shall tell
you
something, however. I hear things, and it has come to my attention that your barman below is in the Inquisitor’s pay.”

“I know,” I said. “I have been avoiding him since I found out. No doubt he wants to learn about my plans so he can pass the information along.”

“Very likely. That priest is the devil himself.”

“Do you know anything about him?” I asked. “Why does he hate Englishmen so much?”

“I shall tell you what I’ve heard,” Inácio said, “though I don’t know
if it is truth or rumor. They say his father is English, and that he raped his mother.”

I leaned forward. The explanation might have been pure fancy, but it was certainly interesting. “Who was this man?”

Inácio shook his head. “A merchant, the stories say. A young man who had too much to drink, and found a
fidalgo
’s daughter out on the street later than she should have been. Perhaps she was meeting her lover. I don’t know. But he not only took her, he hurt her. Apparently the mother is addled now. Some say she is cloistered in a convent here in the city, though I know not if it is as a nun or in the care of nuns.”

“Hmm,” I said. “It sounds like a revenge play, but it would explain a great deal.”

“Your life is a revenge play,” Inácio said. “Who are you to judge?”

I laughed. “It is good to talk to you again, Inácio.” And it was. I had no intention of giving myself over to trust entirely, but it seemed as though, in his clumsy way, Inácio wanted to look after my interests.

Inácio picked up his wine. “Tell me. You cannot toy with this Inquisitor forever. Next time he will not let you out of the Palace. You will have to act soon.”

“I intend to. It may be you can help me with something.”

Inácio coughed. “I told you that my help must be limited.”

“No one need know it is for me, or to what it is connected. Can you get me a mule cart and have it left for me at a location I tell you at the time I tell you?” It was, after all, a simple thing, and having Inácio tend to this meant I’d expose myself to fewer people in the city.

Inácio narrowed his eyes. “You will give me the money in advance?”

“Of course.”

“And a small fee to compensate me for my time and knowledge?”

I inclined my head. “A small fee.”

“Then it shall be my pleasure.”

* * *

When Inácio left the room, Enéas came back in and threw his arms around me. I allowed the boy to embrace me for a moment. “What is it?”

“I heard that the Inquisition took you,” he said. “I am relieved you are well.”

I shook my head at the wonder of it. I had come to Lisbon to kill a man, to take one life in the hopes of remaking myself into something less violent. How had all these other things happened instead? How had I come to be a father to this orphaned child?

“I would not let them keep me,” I said. “Who else would make certain you did not return to your criminal ways?”

“You’re the one planning to rob a vault,” Enéas said. He grinned as he spoke, but then studied my face to make certain he had not insulted me.

I smiled just enough to let him know he was not in trouble.

“After you have taken the gold and done what you need to do, you’ll leave Lisbon?”

I nodded. “I can’t stay. I’ve taken too many risks.”

Enéas cast his eyes down.

“You will have to learn much better English if you are to do well in London.”

The boy’s eyes lit up. “Of course. I will work very hard. I will learn the language and I will be the best English servant in London. And when I am older, we will go deer hunting together. It is what Englishmen like to do, is it not? We will ride through London, shooting deer, and it will be a very good time.”

I nodded again. “It will be a very good time,” I agreed.

All was prepared, and I needed only darkness. I sat in my room without troubling myself to light a lamp until I felt it was time to go. Then I slipped noiselessly through the Lisbon streets.

It was after midnight. Most
renegados
had long since fallen into drunkenness or violence. But I did not take unnecessary risks. On every street, I clung to the shadows. I turned corners with silent caution. The sky was domed with heavy, gray clouds, but it was nearly a full moon, and occasionally its light pierced through.

Down the street from the nondescript building that held the vaults, I reviewed my plan and scouted the area for any unexpected travelers. On the far end, Enéas would meet the mule cart that Inácio had secured. Once the cart was in place and loaded, we would have to drive it through the streets quickly; the trick then would be getting it to Luis Nobreza without attracting the notice of any soldiers. There were few patrols at night, but it would only take one. Any Portuguese soldier we might encounter would
be inclined to inspect the cart. If he discovered several thousand pounds’ worth of gold, he might choose to keep it.

There was nothing for it. I could not steal gold and transport it across the city without taking risks. I approached the building’s door. No sign of movement, no sound of footsteps. I was alone. I had just heard the bells chime midnight not five minutes before. It was time to begin.

The door was heavy and the lock solid, but it was no more complicated than other locks I had dealt with before. I took from my pocket a leather roll that contained my picks and went to work. The tapping of the picks echoed through the streets, though only a trained ear would know the sounds for what they were. A passerby would think it nothing more than the tap of rat claws on a tin roof. More importantly, almost anyone out at night would have his own secrets to attend.

At last the tumblers turned and the lock’s bolt retracted. I pushed the door, wincing at its long and mournful groan, and stepped into the foyer, where I faced the second door and its locks. These were trickier, but at least now I could work without fear of discovery. I set to it, not troubling myself with the noise or how much time I took, and within ten minutes the door was open and I looked into the long hallway. I moved forward, my soft leather boots making only the occasional hissing scrape.

At the end of the hallway, I came to the door of the vaults. This was the most dangerous part of the operation. If there were guards who would be in a position to surprise me, they would be on the other side. This door had three more locks, each as complex as those on the front doors. I could not hope to gain access in less than five minutes, and picking these locks, I would generate far more noise than I would like. Unfortunately, it was my only option.