Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [277]
Robin was out, and the babies were absent. Kathi said, ‘If you’ve come to talk about Nicholas, I have to say I don’t believe what they’re saying.’ Since Rankin’s birth, she had become very slight.
Gelis said, ‘You don’t need to. He isn’t dead. But if David de Salmeton thinks he is, then he might abandon Scotland this winter, and come and amuse himself instead with the rest of us. There is a Scottish embassy coming soon. He could join it.’
‘The King is sending his uncle. I heard. I know Hearty James,’ Kathi said. ‘He quite likes Nicholas, too. In any case, we are safe. The Hôtel Jerusalem is a fortress. But what about you?’
Gelis said, ‘I’ve just talked it over with everyone. I’m taking Jodi and joining the Duchess’s tour. They don’t need me in Bruges: trade has gone to sleep, and so has the war, until both sides can drum up soldiers and money. The Duchess is raising funds in the coast towns and Holland, and that is van Borselen country. My own kinsmen will be manning the escort, and when we come back, it will be to the Gravenkasteel or the palace in Ghent. And these, you will agree, are secure.’
This was true. It was why the Duke’s wife and his one valuable daughter spent most of their lives there in the palace, or the castle so close to it. And Gelis would have her own noble relatives with her, as she said. Louis de Gruuthuse, of the council in Ghent, was married to one of her cousins. Another, Wolfaert van Borselen, seigneur of Veere, had been husband to Hearty James’s sister, a princess of Scotland. Wolfaert’s daughter, aged seven, was betrothed to the Duke of Burgundy’s nephew. Wolfaert’s bastard son was betrothed to Catherine de Charetty.
Kathi said, ‘A Scottish embassy will have access to the Duchess.’
‘Briefly, of course,’ Gelis said. ‘But they haven’t come yet, and even in Ghent, they won’t stay in the Hof Ten Walle or the castle. And by then, perhaps, it will be known that Nicholas isn’t dead, and de Salmeton may stay away till he comes. He does want an audience.’
‘You are sure,’ Kathi said. Her clear, hazel eyes were hard to avoid. ‘You always said you would know about Nicholas.’
‘I am sure,’ Gelis said. ‘It’s more than that. He wants me to know. He is divining, over and over.’
The forbidding gaze widened, then distanced itself. ‘Ah,’ said Kathi, and sank into thought.
Gelis sat silent. Once, she had never known when Nicholas set his pendulum swinging to find her. Then, the void between them had been empty. Time had filled it. Time had so inflamed, so compacted the spaces between them that each time he sought her, she knew it. And so he had stopped.
Until now. Until every hour, every day there came the minuscule jolt; the frisson that ran through her limbs, and buried itself in her body. I am here. I am here. I am here.
Kathi said. ‘He is outrunning the news of his death. He must be coming. He wants it known to everyone that he is coming.’
And, of course, she was right. So long as Nicholas was thought to be on his way, in a grotesque fashion, their danger was lessened. David de Salmeton hated them all, but he wished Nicholas to witness what he did to them. And yet —
Gelis said, ‘Unfortunately, not everyone shares our faith in the pendulum. Tobie, for one. He has gone to join Captain Astorre on campaign, convinced that Nicholas is dead.’ She stopped, her hand to her lips. Then she added, ‘Clémence let him go. She says he’s weary with not knowing what to hope for.’
‘I know,’ Kathi said, her eyes bright, her smile wry. And looking at her, Gelis felt pain, and disbelief, and fright and compassion all at once.
‘Not Robin? Not Robin?’ she said.
‘Who else?’ Kathi answered. ‘He’s a man. He has to prove it. Now he has heirs. And like Tobie, he doesn’t want any more hope.’
‘But he leaves you—’
‘Well protected. He didn’t know, when he left, about James’s embassy. It seemed too late in the season for David de Salmeton to trouble to come. He is better away,’ Kathi said. ‘He and Tobie will look after one another, and John. If there are no more troops to be got, the fighting