all that the girl doted on her lover, and had the usual canaler’s tough outlook on life, Marco didn’t think that she really approved of Caesare’s . . . profession. And he thought that, underneath the temper, she was actually quite fond of him and Benito.
But just to be on the safe side—
Rafael had suggested he hide out here about two weeks, then come back into town. Get hold of Benito first—give him a note for Caesare. Use the old Montagnard codes, and flat ask him if he thinks I’m better gotten out of the way, permanent-like. Then make a counteroffer. Say—say that I’ll do what he wants me to do; come in, stay here, or leave Venice altogether.
The last wouldn’t be easy, or desirable from his point of view, but he’d do it; he couldn’t go north—but south, maybe? Or maybe hire on as a hand on an Outremer-bound ship?
That was a possibility. The sailors had seemed pretty rough characters, but basically good people, when he’d met a couple at Ventuccio’s. But—
He had a fairly shrewd notion of what some of the duties of a very junior (and passable-looking) sign-on might well