Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [130]
Music and Willie Roger. Nicholas de Fleury had had ten months to notice that they were not precisely man-eating dragons. One could conjure with them, and live. At the end of this song, Nicholas said lightly, ‘Now you have surprised me. Shall we try that together?’ And watched her eyes, her full-lidded violet eyes, as, sharing the bench and the page, he and she repeated the little performance, at first muted, in unison, and then with her voice moving in harmony above and below, until they ended together. Then she looked at him, her colour high.
He said, ‘Do I thank Kathi for this? You and I have never spoken of music. I didn’t know you could sing.’
‘But everyone knows of your voice,’ she said. ‘There was a famous motet someone made for you in Edinburgh. Lord Cortachy used to say that he wept.’
‘It was probably tedious enough to deserve it,’ Nicholas said. She had remained at his side, the paper loose in one hand. When he leaned to offer her fruit, she lifted twin cherries, and tilted her head to admire them. ‘We spoke of my parents,’ she said. ‘But where did that voice come from? Or don’t you know?’
‘I don’t know,’ Nicholas said. ‘My mother’s side, at a guess. She died when I was quite young.’
Anna looked at him. ‘Were you sad?’
‘I thought the sun would never shine again.’
‘You were an only child? My sisters died.’
Nicholas said, ‘I wasn’t brought up alone. I had an aunt two years younger than I was. Adelina. A red-headed spitfire.’
Anna laid down the stalks. ‘She was in Geneva. Julius told me. When your mother died, Adelina went to Jaak de Fleury at the same time as you did? So you would comfort each other?’
‘We might have, but they kept us apart. Didn’t Julius hear about that?’ Nicholas said.
‘He doesn’t speak about her. After all, he didn’t come to Geneva until you and she had both gone. What happened, Nicholas?’ Anna said. The plate of cherries lay between them. She leaned across it and laid her hand on his arm. ‘What happened? Your great-uncle beat you. Did he beat the little girl, too?’
‘I saw him beat her. I saw him kiss her,’ Nicholas said. ‘Then she went to a convent. She was too young to know what was happening.’
The hand on his arm was steady and cool. ‘But you were not. Did he beat and kiss you?’ Anna said.
Nicholas gave a grimace. ‘He beat me. Better men have managed to do it as well, and I deserved some of it, I expect. I didn’t like him, but not simply for that.’
‘And the wife, Jaak’s wife Esota? Julius didn’t like either of them,’ Anna said.
‘They were both strange,’ Nicholas said. ‘I escaped and so did my little aunt. It’s a common enough sort of childhood, and did me no lasting harm, although there were some things my uncle did later that I couldn’t forgive him for. As for Adelina, I expect she went on to make a wise and good-hearted nun. Or perhaps she changed course and married, and is the matriarch of a brilliant, red-headed family. I wish I knew her. My wife — my first wife, Marian de Charetty — wanted to help her and was hurt, I know, to learn that she didn’t want to be found. But I hope she’s happy, wherever she is.’
‘And rich,’ Anna said glumly, and took her hand back in order to choose another couple of cherries. ‘While here we are, starving in penury.’ Her gentle mockery was for him, and herself.
His gaze had been on the cherries. She didn’t spit the stones out, just removed them in a practical way from her lips and laid them down. He said abruptly, ‘I haven’t made music since Trèves. Did you know that?’
‘It was a very small hurdle,’ she said.
‘Not to me. You have been very kind, and I want to repay you. Anna, I have found some good trading outlets for Julius, but they all need investment.’
‘I know you have no money either,’ she said. ‘Unless, of course, you are volunteering to put yourself up for auction?’
‘Goodness, I’ve already done that,’ Nicholas said. ‘Where do you think I go in the evenings? No. I, too, have a confession to make. I didn’t come here because of you or the Patriarch, but because of some gold that was stolen from me in Africa. My shipmaster