They were like Englishmen, and Swan felt at home. He prowled the city – alone, or with either Cesare or Giannis or Alessandro or all three, from St Mark’s to the Arsenal. He learned the way to the Jewish ghetto, and made friends there.
His last day in Rome, against the cardinal’s express instructions, he’d crept out of the palazzo and visited Isaac. He’d deposited his new hundred ducats and left Isaac’s house with a letter to a Jew of Venice, with an enclosed letter of credit and a short missive in Hebrew.
So early in his visit to Venice, he left Cesare and Giannis drinking in a foreigner’s tavern and caught a boat across the lagoon to the Iudica, as the locals called it. It had its own gate and a watch.
The young man at the gate didn’t look like a Jew. He didn’t have a beard, and he didn’t have a cap, and he wasn’t wearing a long gown. He leaned against the gate with the negligent hostility of any young man, and he wore a sword, which Swan knew was against the law.
‘Stop,’ he said, when Swan approached the gate. ‘State your business.’
Swan bowed. ‘I have a letter for Aaron Benomye, from Isaac Gold of Rome.’
The young man brightened. ‘Really?’ he asked. ‘May I see?’ He was considerably more polite. Swan warmed to him.
‘Here,’ he said.
The young man glanced at the cover and tapped the envelope of parchment against his thumb. ‘The rabbi may still be with his family,’ he said. He rang a small iron bell, and another surly young man appeared.
‘I’m going to take this foreigner to Rabbi Aaron,’ he said.
And off they went, through a jumble of alleys – dry alleys. The Jews didn’t have to use boats to get around.
They went past a synagogue, and up a set of steps to a private house that didn’t seem to be on any street – it was between one and another. This, too, was like London. The young man knocked, and the door opened a crack. He spoke in low tones, and handed in the letter.
He lounged against the building. Another young man passed, and they engaged in a display of male bravado that would not have been out of place among the toughs of Rome. In his new-found maturity, Swan smiled.
The door opened. A narrow-faced man in a long beard and a long gown was standing in the entrance.
Swan bowed.
‘This is Rabbi Aaron,’ said the young man. He made a sign with his hands and bowed, and walked away.
‘Please be welcome in my house,’ Rabbi Aaron said. ‘I do not lend money,’ he added, somewhat severely.
Swan was startled. ‘Of course not!’ he said.
Rabbi Aaron smiled thinly. ‘I feel I must say it. Why do you want to learn Hebrew and Arabic?’
‘I wish to travel to the East,’ Swan said. ‘As for Hebrew – it is the language of scripture.’
‘Hmm,’ said the rabbi. ‘Yes and no. Greek is the language of much of your scripture. Hebrew – hmm. But yes, it is a useful language for a theologian. No one speaks it – in Jerusalem, for example.’
‘I memorised the alphabet on the road,’ Swan said.
Rabbi Aaron heard him out, and nodded. ‘Very well – you are serious. I will be pleased to have you as a student. How often?’
‘Every day?’ Swan suggested.
The rabbi smiled. ‘So young. Twenty ducats a month.’
Swan bowed and paid in advance.
Time in Venice flew by.
Swan went to the Jewish ghetto every day. After a week, the gatekeepers let him pass without comment. After two weeks, old women began to nod to him as he passed. Hebrew kept him busy inside his head, and Arabic threw him.
He spent long hours lying on his narrow bed in his inn, staring at the crazed cracks in the plaster of the ceiling and chanting verb endings to himself.
Every evening, he would meet Alessandro, and sometimes the other men, in his tavern’s main room. Alessandro was increasingly restless at the delay.
Early in the third week, Alessandro appeared at Swan’s door in the early afternoon. Swan was fully dressed, sitting at a table – a very small table – writing by the light of an open window.
Alessandro leaned over him and watched his pen move. ‘Arabic,’ he said.
Swan nodded.
‘You make a face like a fish when you concentrate,’ Alessandro said.
‘Uh?’ Swan said.
‘I need you for a duel,’ Alessandro said.
‘A duel?’ Swan asked.
‘One of my idiot cousins made a stupid remark in public and now I have to fight,’ said the Venetian.
Swan shrugged. ‘Do I have to fight?’
‘Possibly.’ Alessandro shrugged. ‘I’m sorry. And I meant to give you lessons, but my time is not my own.’
‘When?’ Swan asked, reviewing his list of nouns.
‘Now?’ Alessandro said. The man was so seldom at a loss that Swan took a moment to recognise what was happening. ‘Are you in trouble, my friend?’
Alessandro blushed. ‘Yes. But think nothing of it.’
Swan had been working in his second-best shirt. He wiped his fingers idly on it and made a face when he saw how much ink he’d smeared. He found the inn’s towel and wiped his hands on that, instead, but the damage was done. He pulled on his dull black doublet, and laced it. The black doublet and hose were worn by virtually every young man in Venice, regardless of class. The slightly fashionable Florentine cut of Swan’s actually added to his anonymity.
‘Don’t wear your sword,’ Alessandro said. ‘You aren’t a citizen.’ He held his hands wide. ‘Carry it. With the belt wrapped around it.’
‘Do I get a buckler?’ Swan asked.
‘Of course!’ Alessandro said.
Swan perched a small hat with an enormous ostrich plume and a small jewel on his head. Foreigners were not allowed to wear jewels on clothes, but hats weren’t included in the sumptuary law. The jewel was glass.
Peter was sitting in the kitchen, drinking wine and helping prepare food. He was very popular in the inn.
‘I’m going to fight a duel,’ Swan called.
Peter waved. ‘If you kill the fellow, take his money. Do you need me?’ he asked.
Swan looked at Alessandro, who gave a minute shake of his head. ‘Three in a boat,’ he said with a shrug.
They walked down to the Grand Canal, caught a boat on the steps by St Mark’s, and were rowed across the lagoon, past Murano, to a small island with a monastery.
As they approached, Alessandro began to fidget.
‘Care to tell me what happened?’ Swan asked.
Alessandro shook his head. ‘A matter of honour. But I fear my enemy has brought too many men, and intends a murder.’
As the boat edged up on the island, Swan could see six men standing by the monastery wall.
Swan felt his pulse increase. ‘Three each,’ he said.
Alessandro looked at him. ‘You cannot kill any of these men,’ he said. ‘You would be imprisoned or killed. Their fathers are very important men.’
‘So is your father,’ Swan said.
‘My father is going to disown me,’ Alessandro said, and the keel of the boat touched the muddy shore.
He jumped ashore, and looked back. ‘Perhaps you should go back to your inn,’ he said, and pushed the boat off the strand. The six men were coming. ‘I’m sorry, Thomas. I didn’t think it would be this bad.’
Swan ran down the gunwale, as he’d learned to do on London wherries, and leapt ashore. He grinned. ‘What did you do?’ he asked.
Alessandro shook his head. ‘It is difficult to explain. It is an old matter.’
The six men were approaching.
‘Let me get this right. They outnumber us three to one, but I’m not to kill any of them.’
‘Yes. Do not draw your sword. They must make the first move.’ Alessandro was calmer now.
‘We wouldn’t want to have any advantages, would we?’ Swan said. He unrolled his sword belt and buckled his sword on. He swung his hips to make sure of the hang of the scabbard.