The Deadliest Sin by The Medieval Murderers Page A

year.’
    He burst out laughing. ‘It’s only for a month, and I would be one of three equal leaders. And the leaders have to stay out of society for the whole month to avoid the risk of being
exposed to bribery.’
    Katie grinned. ‘Oh dear, a month in Granny Cat’s company. What a burden.’
    He punched her arm playfully. ‘You always win the argument with your impeccable logic. You’re right – I should do it. But I hope Baglioni’s ship returns before I’m
the co-leader. I would hate to be in purdah and miss our triumph.’
    As it turned out, the ship came back much sooner than Zuliani had expected, even before the election. News of its arrival brought members of the
colleganza
down to the quay, along with
the idle onlookers who liked to see what wonders a trading vessel had brought with it. Everyone peered anxiously at the galley until the sly smile on the face of the captain, who stood at the
stern, told the story. The trip had been a success, and had been made in record time, too. Zuliani missed the galley’s unexpected arrival because he was busy pressing palms at a gathering at
the palace of the grandiose Tron family.
    Unused to such exalted company, Zuliani had recruited Cat Dolfin into accompanying him. She was a member of that social élite formed by the
case vecchie
, and so was at ease with
the Trons. And all the others who attended the gathering – the Tiepolos, the Dandolos and the Gradenigos. In the presence of such silken opulence, and expensively clad men and women, Zuliani
nervously tweaked the collar of his stiff new
jaqueta
. Cat smiled at him indulgently at first, but slapped his hand away when he began to pull at the arse of his new hose.
    ‘Don’t go behaving like some common labourer just to prove a point,’ she warned him through her gritted teeth, ‘or you’ll never be elected.’
    ‘If I have to wear this gear all the time, I don’t think I want to be on the council,’ Zuliani growled. ‘Who’s that over there?’
    Cat looked over to where Zuliani was pointing. A small group of young men, fashionably attired in silk brocade, were bunched around a much older man. The object of their admiration, not to say
sycophancy, had a lined, long face and an imperious Roman nose. Cat thought he was probably over sixty, and his expensive clothes spoke of wealth and power.
    ‘I don’t know, but that’s Domenico Valier standing next to him. He’s my nephew, and as weak as his uncle – my husband – was. I can soon get out of him who the
old man is.’
    Zuliani almost restrained her, but she was across the room, smiling and touching sleeves courteously and at the same time intimately in a way he was incapable of. He didn’t like her
talking to the Valiers. It reminded him of his failure to capture Cat for himself. They had been lovers forty years ago, but then Zuliani had fled Venice under a cloud, leaving Cat pregnant. She
had been forced to marry Pasquale Valier, who had brought up Zuliani’s child – a son – as his own. Though it had all been his fault, Zuliani still resented Valier having taken his
place, even though the man was now long dead. He deliberately turned away from Cat as she moved closer to her nephew, and began to press palms with others in the grand chamber. He decided that, if
he pretended he was a trader selling a
colleganza
to gullible men with money, he could win the inbred
case vecchie
members over to his side. After rubbing shoulders with Kubilai Khan,
getting on to the Council of Ten shouldn’t be all that hard. Just as he was tiring of his task, Cat Dolfin returned to his side. She bussed his cheek.
    ‘You have been doing well without me, I see.’
    He shrugged his weary shoulders, but still grinned wolfishly.
    ‘It would seem I have what it takes to be a politician, after all.’ He paused. ‘So who was he?’
    She looked at him archly. ‘Who?’
    ‘You know who. The old man with the big nose.’
    She ran a finger down the front of his