strada). Nicholas held the goblet by his side, out of sight of anyone secretly observing him, and tipped the wine into a waste-paper basket that was a hollowed out tree-trunk (eighty strada). He then stood there impassively, pretending to drink from the now empty goblet as she looked back at him.
‘It is an original Nadine,’ she told him. ‘He is such a splendid painter, don’t you think?’ The painting was an investment that was intended to make Angela a profit.
‘Yes,’ Nicholas said shortly, pretending to take another sip from the goblet.
‘Please sit down, Mr Raspero,’ Angela suggested.
‘Thank you.’ Nicholas sat in a chair facing the door behind which were the six wands keeping him and Angela silent company. He pretended to drink again from the goblet.
‘I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for me,’ Angela told him sweetly, changing the use of her voice, as her breathy voice did not seem to be affecting Nicholas. She focused on achieving a musical tone.
‘That’s all right,’ Nicholas said. He pretended to drink deeply from the goblet until he had drained it, then set the goblet down on the table. He sat back in the chair, ignoring the footstool nearby.
‘Could I pour you some more wine?’ Angela asked him.
‘No thanks, I’ll be leaving shortly,’ Nicholas replied, and pretended to yawn. He sat back trying to look a bit sleepy, blinking his eyes.
‘Please make yourself comfortable, Mr Raspero,’ Angela said in her most soothing voice. ‘Close your eyes and rest if you wish. You have been through such a trying ordeal fighting those evil men.’
Nicholas realised his guess had been right. The wine had been drugged, and now she was trying to put him under with her soothing voice and advice about having a rest. He closed his eyes with his hand on his wand and practised macchato. He could see her look at him and then heard her say softly, ‘Mr Raspero?’ He made no response. She pulled out her wand and tapped on the door opposite Nicholas.
Several men entered the room, their wands out. ‘Bind him,’ one of them said, and by macchato Nicholas could see which of them it was. As the karns came flying through the air Nicholas moved. He drew his feet up and sent himself over the chair in a backward somersault.
Nicholas waved his wand to pluck the karns out of the air, gathering them in his left hand while his opponents paused, wands outstretched. Then Nicholas flipped himself forward into a somersault which ended in his feet planted in the chest of one of his opponents who went back into the wall with a shout of anger, knocking a vase (five hundred strada) off the table to smash on the floor. Nicholas used his momentum to drop down to the ground and roll to his right. In two movements he had two men down on the ground amidst a shattered table (two hundred strada). He gathered their wands into his left hand, having bound them hand and foot with their own karns, while they were still falling through the air. The man who had been giving the orders stood to one side taking no part in the fighting while his remaining men, who were four in number, including an energetic and much-recovered Hugo, crouched facing him bringing out more karns and attacking him with a variety of combinations. Nicholas soon disarmed them and bound them hand and foot, but not without the destruction of a crystalline sculpture (three hundred strada), a glass tray (two hundred strada) and a ceramic globe of the world (six hundred strada).
Angela looked at the broken Greig vase on the floor; that vase cost five hundred strada. The table it had been on was shattered: two hundred strada. The sculpture, the tray, the globe … she was busy adding up the cost of all this destruction when she found herself bound hand and foot and thrown into a chair. This did not stop her calculations: eighteen hundred strada worth of damage!
Nicholas looked around at his prisoners, who looked back at him without saying a word. Then Nicholas returned to his chair and sat down. This time he pulled over the footstool and stretched out. He looked at the man who had been giving the orders earlier, the man who must be in charge of this lot.
‘So what’s going on?’ Nicholas asked him.
‘Introductions are by third party,’ the man told him and turned to Angela. ‘Angela, my dear, perhaps you will introduce us.’
‘Jolly, this is Mr Nicholas Raspero,’ Angela said, still angered by the damage to her property. ‘Mr Raspero, this is Mr Frank Jollison.’
‘So what’s this all about, Mr Jollison?’ Nicholas asked.
‘I would strongly advise you to end this foolishness and untie me, Mr Raspero. I will not talk to you while I am treated in this fashion.’
‘So you’re a gentleman?’ Nicholas asked Jolly, who said nothing in return. ‘I can demand satisfaction from you, then?’
‘I have already said that I will not speak to you while I am tied up, Mr Raspero. If you wish to speak to me, then untie me.’
‘No, I’ll make your bonds tighter while you reconsider your position,’ Nicholas said. He pointed his wand and tightened the cords until they cut off the circulation to Jolly’s hands and feet. Jolly writhed in fury, then began to breathe heavily.
‘Mr Raspero, you will loosen these bonds. Do you understand?’
‘I thought you weren’t talking to me until you were untied,’ Nicholas said.
‘Mr Raspero, you will untie me or you will make an enemy of me. You do not want me as your enemy, believe me. Untie me, now!’
Nicholas raised his left hand in order to carefully inspect his fingernails. Jolly was breathing heavily, his face twisted in fury, but then he groaned, then said, ‘Very well, Mr Raspero, perhaps you might loosen my bonds. I have indeed reconsidered my position.’ No-one present had ever seen Jolly back down before.
Nicholas loosened Jolly’s bonds and waited. Jolly groaned and strove to move his fingers. It took him several minutes, but in time his fingers were moving normally again. Jolly seemed relieved at this, as if he had worried that his circulation would never return to normal.
‘So I can demand satisfaction from you then?’ Nicholas asked.
‘I do not accept challenges, Mr Raspero,’ Jolly replied.
‘Then you are not a gentleman,’ Nicholas told him, ‘are you?’
‘I am a gentleman who does not accept challenges,’ Jolly said.
Jolly was so used to being an absolute monarch that the indignity of his current position was taking time to sink in. He felt no fear, but rather an anger that was directed now to regaining his liberty so that he could destroy Nicholas. The thought that he might be in danger from Nicholas never crossed his mind. An absolute monarch was never in danger from anyone. As far as he was concerned, this situation was temporary, very temporary, and he would have his revenge.
‘So what’s this all about, Mr Jollison?’ Nicholas asked him.
Jolly looked at him, and then decided he didn’t want his circulation cut off again. ‘You are a man of rare gifts, Mr Raspero. I wished to learn whether you would be interested in an offer of employment.’
‘Do you always tie people up before offering them a job?’ Nicholas asked.
As it happened, Jolly did not always adopt such an approach
