Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [238]
Kathi was still afraid of David de Salmeton, but he had been careful not to repeat his ill-conceived assault of the summer. Bel wrote regularly. And if Sersanders were to be believed, Andro Wodman continued to prove himself an assiduous watchdog, and a solid partner in business. Although, of course, it was hard for anyone to outbid David de Salmeton if he possessed — as he might possess — all the vanished store of African gold.
The evening ended. Clémence, having been married from Adorne’s house, remained there with her husband for the night, and Robin and his father took Kathi home to where Cristen, a nurse of Clémence’s training, looked after her sleeping daughter. It reminded Kathi yet again of the infinite care bestowed by Clémence on her charges, and how well she had managed the parting with Gelis’s son, even to reconciling him with his protector, Manoli. She hoped that, tonight, Clémence would be repaid with joy.
But it was Tobie’s ecstatic cries which caused Anselm Adorne to smile from the quiet of his chamber, although he ceased being aware of them presently, having other concerns of his own.
Chapter 33
THE BARON CORTACHY, owner of the Hôtel Jerusalem, was late in rising next morning, and hardly prepared when John le Grant came to the door, accompanied by the wife of Nicholas, Gelis. Receiving them, Anselm Adorne found that it was not an untimely descent to explain le Grant’s tardy arrival. They had news.
The young woman, Gelis van Borselen, was alight with it. ‘Nicholas was not in Caffa when it was taken. Nor was Julius. They were both with the Patriarch in Tabriz.’
‘He reached Tabriz,’ Adorne said. Then, realising that he had been ungracious: ‘But that is good news, of course. Tobie will be delighted. He and his wife are still sleeping.’ And, after further thought, ‘And the Gräfin? Was she safe in Tabriz as well?’
It appeared that she was not. It troubled Adorne to think of that lovely young woman in Turkish hands. His visitors agreed. Then they asked after Tobie, and he invited them to stay until the doctor appeared. It led, of course, to an excruciatingly noisy reunion, but very soon they had all left for Spangnaerts Street, where he himself was to join them, in turn. Adorne sat alone for the time being, thinking. If de Fleury was with Uzum Hasan, then presumably he would stay there. Adorne was sorry for his clever wife.
JOHN LE GRANT remained in Bruges, since it was necessary at the end of the season to review the army’s plans for the future. Or so he told himself. He was as thankful as anyone to know that Nicholas was safe. In his moral, Aberdonian way, he was more devastated even than Gelis when the next news arrived, in November.
It was old. It was based on a letter in Latin, written from a monastery to the south of the Black Sea, and sent off in August. It reported that ignorant of the disaster in the Crimea, the Patriarch of Antioch had arrived at a seaport called Fasso, intending to make his way home Finding his intended route blocked, Father Ludovico had left to return through the Duchy of Moscow. His two companions, by name Nicholas and Julius, had elected, against all advice, to re-enter Caffa in search of a Christian lady. It was an unreasonable hope, since the poor lady, if not sent to her account in the fighting, would have been exposed by this time to the lusts of unspeakable savages elsewhere. And the two nobly intentioned persons, if caught, would be allotted no mercy.
Had he not known Gelis better by now, John le Grant would have been surprised by her calm, or wondered if she doubted the news, which carried (if you knew Julius and Nicholas) the ring of absolute,