Cathedral of the Sea (8 page)

After five years’ hard work as an apprentice, Grau became a qualified craftsman. He was still bound to the master potter, who was sufficiently pleased with him to start paying him a wage. When Grau reached eighteen, Grau kept his promise and married Guiamona.

“My son,” his father said to Bernat, “I’ve decided to give Guiamona a fresh dowry. There are only two of us, and we have the best and most fertile lands in the region. They might need the money.”

“Father,” Bernat interrupted him, “why do you think it’s necessary to give me an explanation?”

“Because your sister has already received her dowry, and you are my heir. The money is yours by right.”

“Do as you see fit.”

Four years later, when he was twenty-two, Grau sat the public examination, which took place in front of four officers of the guild. He made his first pieces for them: a water jug, two plates, and a bowl. The four men looked on closely, and then unanimously granted him the title of master potter. This allowed him to open his own workshop in Barcelona, and of course to use his own stamp, which was to be put on every piece of pottery made in his workshop, in case there were any complaints about his work. To honor the meaning of the word “grau” in Catalan, he chose the outline of a mountain as his stamp.

Grau and Guiamona, who by now was pregnant, moved into a small, one-story house in the potters’ quarter. By royal decree, this was situated on the western edge of the city, in the land between the new wall built by King Jaime I and the ancient Roman fortifications. They used Guiamona’s dowry to buy the property, having saved it for just such an occasion.

It was there, with the pottery workshop and their living quarters sharing the same space as the kiln and the bedrooms, that Grau began his career as a master potter. It was a time when the expansion of Catalan trade was bringing about a revolution among the potters, calling for a specialization that many of them could not accept.

“We’re going to make only jugs and storage jars,” declared Grau. “That’s all.” Guiamona glanced at the four masterful pieces he had made for his examination. “I’ve seen lots of traders,” he went on, “begging for jars to sell their oil, honey, or wine in. And I’ve seen lots of potters turn them away on the spot because their kilns were full of complicated tiles for a new house, bright crockery for a noble, or an apothecary’s pots.”

Guiamona ran her fingers over the masterpieces he had created. How smooth they were to the touch! When Grau had triumphantly presented them to her after passing his examination, she had imagined that she would be surrounded with similar beautiful pieces. Even the guild officers had congratulated Grau, because he had shown he was a true master of his craft: the decorations of zigzag lines, palm leaves, rosettes, and fleur-de-lys on the water jug, the two plates, and the bowl, displayed a wealth of color on a white tin glaze background; the coppery green so typical of Barcelona that every master potter had to use, but also violet manganese, black iron, cobalt blue, and antimony yellow. Each line or design was of a different shade. Guiamona could scarcely wait for the pieces to be fired, in case the clay cracked. As a finishing touch, Grau applied a layer of clear lead glaze, which made them entirely waterproof. Guiamona could still feel how much smoother they were. But now ... all her husband was going to make was storage jars.

Grau went up to her. “Don’t worry,” he said to calm her fears. “I’ll make more pieces like them just for you.”

Grau’s calculation had proved correct. He filled the yard in front of his humble workshop with jugs and storage jars, and soon the traders of the city became aware that in Grau Puig’s workshop they could find everything they wanted. No longer would they have to beg for favors from arrogant master craftsmen.

As a result of this, the building that Bernat and little Arnau came to a halt outside was very different from that first tiny workshop. What Bernat could see out of his left eye was a big house on three floors. Open to the street at ground level was the workshop; the master potter and his family lived on the upper two floors. Along one side of the house ran a garden for vegetables and flowers; on the other were sheds leading to the kilns and a terrace where hundreds of jugs and storage jars of all shapes, sizes, and colors were displayed. Behind the house, as stipulated in the city regulations, there was empty ground where the clay and other materials could be loaded and stored. It was here too that the potters threw the ashes and other waste from the kilns, which they were forbidden to throw into the city streets.

Bernat could see from outside that there were ten people working nonstop in the workshop. None of them looked like Grau. Bernat noticed two men saying good-bye next to an oxcart laden with brand-new storage jars. One of them clambered on board the cart and set off. The other man looked well dressed, so before he could disappear back into the workshop, Bernat called to him.

“Wait!”

The other man watched him approach. “I’m looking for Grau Puig,” said Bernat.

The man stared him up and down.

“If it’s work you’re after, we don’t need anyone. Our master has no time to waste,” he growled, “and nor have I,” he added, turning his back on the newcomer.

“I’m a relative of Grau’s.”

The man stopped in his tracks, then whirled round to face him.

“Hasn’t the master paid you enough? Why do you insist on demanding more?” he snarled, pushing Bernat out into the street. Arnau began to cry. “You’ve already been told that if you come here again, we’ll report you to the authorities. Grau Puig is an important man, you know.”

Although he did not understand any of this, Bernat let the man force him backward.

“Listen ... ,” he protested, “I ...”

By now, Arnau was howling in his arms, but then all of a sudden there was an even louder cry from one of the upper-floor windows.

“Bernat! Bernat!”

Bernat and the man turned round together and saw a woman leaning half out of the window, arms whirling like windmills.

“Guiamona!” shouted Bernat, returning her greeting.

The woman pulled her head in. Bernat turned to the man, his eyes narrowed.

“Does Mistress Guiamona know you?” the man asked.

“She’s my sister,” Bernat answered curtly. “And by the way, nobody in this house has ever paid me a thing.”

The man apologized, hoping he was not in trouble. “I’m sorry. I was referring to the master’s brothers: first one came, then another, and then still another.”

But Bernat saw his sister coming out of the house, so he cut the man off and ran over to embrace her.

“WHERE’S GRAU?” HE asked his sister once he had cleaned off his eye and handed Arnau over to the Moorish slave who looked after Guiamona’s small children. As he watched the boy wolf down a bowl of milk and cereal, he added: “I’d like to greet him too.”

Guiamona looked uncomfortable.

“Is something wrong?”

“Grau has changed a lot. He’s a rich and important man now.” Guiamona pointed to the many chests lining the walls of the room: the sideboard; a piece of furniture Bernat had never seen in his life before, which was filled with books and crockery; the carpets adorning the floor; and the tapestries and curtains hanging from windows and walls. “He barely attends to the workshop and his potter’s trade these days; it’s Jaume, his chief assistant, who sees to everything. He’s the man you met in the street. Grau is busy as a merchant: ships, wine, oil. Now he is a guild official, which in accordance with the laws and usages of the city, means he is an alderman, a gentleman. Soon he expects to be made a member of the Council of a Hundred.” Guiamona looked around the room. “He’s not the same anymore, Bernat.”

“You’ve changed a lot too,” Bernat said, interrupting her. Guiamona looked down at her matronly body and nodded. “That man Jaume,” Bernat continued, “said something about Grau’s relatives. What did he mean?”

Guiamona shook her head, then replied.

“What he meant was that, as soon as they heard that Grau was rich, all of them—brothers, cousins, nephews—suddenly started turning up at the workshop. They had fled their lands to come and seek Grau’s help.” Guiamona could not help noticing her brother’s expression. “So you too ... ?” Bernat nodded. “But you had such a wonderful farm!”

When she heard Bernat’s story, she could not hold back her tears. As he told her what had happened to the lad in the forge, she stood up and came to kneel next to his chair.

“Don’t mention that to anyone here,” she warned him. Then she laid her head on his lap, and went on listening. “Don’t worry,” she sobbed when Bernat had finished. “We will help you.”

“Ah, sister,” said Bernat, stroking her head. “How do you intend to help me when Grau would not even help his own brothers?”

“BECAUSE MY BROTHER is different!” shouted Guiamona so loudly that Grau took a step backward.

It was night by the time her husband returned home. Small, skinny Grau, a bundle of nerves, strode up the staircase, cursing. Guiamona was waiting for him. Jaume had told him what had happened: “Your brother-in-law is sleeping in the hayloft with the apprentices, his boy ... with your children.”

Grau charged up to his wife.

“How dare you!” he shouted at her when she tried to explain. “He’s a fugitive serf! Do you know what it would mean if they found a fugitive in our house? My ruin, that’s what! It would mean my ruin!”

Guiamona let him talk. He whirled round her, flinging his arms theatrically into the air. He was a good head taller than she was.

“You’re mad! I’ve sent my own brothers overseas on ships! I’ve given my sisters dowries so that they would marry outsiders, and all so that nobody could accuse this family of the slightest thing! And now you ... Why should I act any differently for your brother?”

“Because he is different!” she shouted, silencing him.

Grau hesitated. “What? What do you mean?”

“You know very well. I don’t think I need to remind you why.”

Grau avoided meeting her gaze.

“This very day,” he muttered, “I’ve been meeting one of the five city councillors with a view to being elected to the Council of a Hundred as a guild official. I think I’ve won three of the five over: I still need to convince the bailiff and the magistrate. Can you imagine what my enemies would say if they found out I had given shelter to a fugitive serf?”

Guiamona reminded him softly: “We owe him everything.”

“I’m only an artisan, Guiamona. A rich one, but still an artisan. The nobles look down on me, and the merchants despise me, however much they are willing to do business with me. If they found out I had taken in a fugitive ... do you know what the landowning nobles would say?”

“We owe him everything,” Guiamona repeated.

“Well, then, we’ll give him the money and send him on his way.”

“He needs his freedom. A year and a day.”

Grau paced nervously around the room. Then he buried his head in his hands.

“We can’t,” he said. “Guiamona, we can’t do it!” he said, peering through his fingers. “Can you imagine ... ?”

“Can you imagine! Can you imagine!” She butted in, raising her voice at him. “Can you imagine what would happen if we threw him out and he was arrested by Llorenç de Bellera’s men or one of those enemies of yours? What if they found out that you owe everything to him, a fugitive serf who agreed to give you a dowry that was not yours by right?”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No, Grau, no. But that’s how it is. If you won’t do it out of gratitude, do it out of self-interest. It’s better for you to be able to keep an eye on him. Bernat wants his freedom. He won’t leave Barcelona. If you don’t take him in, there will be a fugitive and a little boy, both of them with the same birthmark by their right eye as I have, wandering the streets of Barcelona. Think how useful they could be to those enemies you’re so frightened of.”

Grau stared hard at his wife. He was about to respond, then thought better of it and merely waved his hand. He left the room, and Guiamona could hear him climbing the stairs to the loft.