David Liss - The Coffee Trader

“Parido?” Geertruid repeated. “I never worked for Parido. I would never even have heard of Parido if it had not been for you.” She laughed and pointed at him. “I knew that’s what you thought. The moment you told me you had undone me, I knew you thought I was Parido’s agent. If I were Parido’s agent,” she explained, “I would have deserved to be crushed.”

Miguel swallowed hard. He had hoped to hear something very different. “You tricked me into trusting you. Why?”

“Because I wanted to be wealthy,” Geertruid said, slamming her hand upon the table. “And a respectable woman. That’s all. I was not working for anyone. I had no plan to destroy you. I only wanted to go into business with a man of influence who would help me make my fortune. And when you lost your money, I stuck by you because I liked you. I never meant to trick you. All I am is a thief, Miguel. I’m a thief, but I am no villain.”

“A thief?” he repeated. “Then you stole that money, the three thousand guilders?”

She shook her head, and doing so let it drop so low that Miguel feared she might bang it upon the table. “I borrowed that money. From a moneylender. A very nasty moneylender. So nasty even the Jews won’t have him.”

Miguel closed his eyes. “Alferonda,” he said.

“Yes. He was the only man I could find who was willing to lend me what I needed. He knew what I wanted it for, and he knew who I was.”

“Why did he not tell me so?” Miguel demanded aloud. “He played the two of us against each other. Why would he do such a thing?”

“He’s not a kind man,” she said sadly.

“Oh, Geertruid.” He took her hand. “Why did you not tell me the truth? How could you let me ruin you?”

She let out a little laugh. “You know, Miguel, sweet Miguel, I don’t blame you at all. What could you have done? Confronted me? Asked of my scheme? You knew already I was a deceiver, and you wished to make your money as best you could. I can’t blame you. But I could not have told you the truth either, for you would never have continued to trust me. You feared that council of yours over a matter of merely doing business with a Dutchwoman. Would you have convinced yourself that any good can come with doing business with a Dutch outlaw ? Particularly one such as me.”

“One such as you?”

“I must leave the city, Miguel. I must leave tonight. Alferonda has been searching for me, and he won’t go easy with me. There are tales of his wrath, you know.”

“Why should Alferonda care? Can you not simply give him the money I transferred to your account? I have repaid the three thousand I borrowed of you.”

“I owe him another eight hundred in interest.”

“Eight hundred,” Miguel blurted out. “Does he know no shame?”

“He is a usurer,” she said sadly.

“Let me speak with him. He is my friend, and I am certain we can come to an understanding. He needn’t charge you so much interest as that. We will reach a more reasonable fee, and I will help you pay him.”

She squeezed his hand. “Poor sweet Miguel. You are too good to me. I can’t let you do that, for you would be throwing away your money, and nothing would be gained but your ruin. Alferonda may be your friend, but he is not mine, and he won’t let his reputation suffer by a kindness. And how good a friend is he, deceiving you as he has done? Even if you could stay his hand, there is the money I owe the agents in Iberia. They have my name, not yours, and they will come looking for Geertruid Damhuis in Amsterdam. If I stay, it will be only a matter of time before I am undone. I must leave tonight, so I will give you no more than you deserve by telling you the truth at last.”

“There is more?”

“Oh, yes. There is more.” Through the fog of her drunkenness, she managed a smile such as never failed to fell him. “You asked what I meant when I said a thief such as me. I’ll now tell you.” She leaned in closer. “I am no ordinary thief, you must understand. I don’t pick pockets or cut purses or break into shops. You’ve wondered often about my journeys to the countryside and, poor foolish man, you have read all the tales, and you have read them because I introduced you to them, imp that I am.”

Miguel reminded himself to continue breathing. “What are you saying? That you and Hendrick…?” He could not quite finish.

“Yes,” Geertruid said quietly. “We are Charming Pieter and his Goodwife Mary. As to which of us is which, I cannot say.” She let out a laugh. “Poor Hendrick is more the fool than you, I’m afraid, but he always did as he was told, and he let the world believe that he was behind Pieter’s heroic robberies. It hardly mattered. I had come to believe that, in this age of stories and adventures, if we could make people believe in Charming Pieter as a hero, no one would turn him in, and the legend would only confound the efforts to catch him. Little did we know how well the plan would work. I expected to hear stories of our adventures, but I never expected to see these tales in print. Half the stories you read are false and the other half wild exaggerations, but they have served us well.”

“Where is Hendrick now?”

“Fled.” She sighed. “He is a silly man, but not so silly as not to know what it means to be unable to pay a cruel usurer. I have not seen him since the loss upon the Exchange. He was never at peace with my dealings with Alferonda and my plans to make our fortune through trade. He could not understand how it all worked, and he thought it doomed. I fear that any way this ended, Charming Pieter’s adventures were destined to reach their conclusion.”

“How could I have done this to you?” Miguel said. He put his face in his hands.

“It is my doing. I put you at risk. And that poor girl, your brother’s wife-please tell her I am sorry to have had to frighten her.”

“She is to be my wife soon,” Miguel said, feeling somehow the need to be honest.

“Is she now? Well, I can’t say I understand the ways of the Israelites, but they are not mine to understand.”

“What is it that Hannah saw? She did not even know.”

Geertruid laughed. “She did not even know. How very amusing. She saw me speaking with Alferonda, and I was afraid that if you were to learn of it you would grow suspicious. But,” she said, pushing herself to her feet, “enough chatter, senhor. I must be on my way.”

“You are too drunk, madam, to leave town tonight. Let me take you home.”

She laughed, holding on to his arm for support. “Oh, Miguel, still trying to find your way to my bed.”

“I only want to see you safely-”

“Shh.” She pressed a finger to his lips. “There’s no need to tell stories. Not anymore. I must go, and it must be tonight, and my being drunk shall only make things easier, not harder.” Yet she did not move. “Do you remember, senhor, the night you tried to kiss me?”

He thought about lying, to pretend it had been no matter to him and he had not bothered to remember. But he did not lie. “Yes, I remember.”

“I longed to kiss you back,” she said, “and more, too. I never let you, not because I did not want to but because I knew you would be more pliable if I never gave you more than enough to whet your appetite. A woman such as I am must know how to use her quim, even if it means not using it.”

“Let me take you home,” Miguel said again.

“No,” she said, pushing herself off with unexpected sobriety. “I said I must go, and so I must. Let us part quickly, or we’ll never part at all.” And so she left, out the door and into the night. Without a lantern. If ever a woman lived who could outwit the thieves and the Night Watch, it was Geertruid Damhuis.

He remained still for a long time. He simply stared into the distance until a pretty girl came over and asked him if he required anything. “Wine,” he whispered. “A great deal of wine.” When he drank it, when he had so much wine in him that he could no longer tell what was right and what was wrong-that was when he would go in search of Alferonda.