Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [284]
‘… Persuade him that his wife’s a scheming bitch who has lied to him from the start, and is still lying? Who only married him to get within reach of Nicholas? Oh, that’ll be simple,’ Tobie said. ‘Meanwhile, let’s stay and do something difficult, such as remaining alive while the Duke makes up his mind what to do.’
He drained his beaker and handed it out for a refill. Then he sneezed in an explosion of ale. He said, ‘What are you worrying about? Young René won’t raise the forces he wants. The two months will expire. The garrison in Nancy will surrender. The war will be over by Christmas.’
‘Will you take a wager?’ said John.
‘Don’t let’s push it too far,’ Tobie said.
Chapter 39
OVER THE LATTER part of November, as the cold war continued in Nancy, so events hung in chilly abeyance in Flanders, where the Duchess, at the end of her troop-raising duties, had returned thankfully to the voluminous hearths of the Hof Ten Walle in Ghent, in company with the lady Gelis van Borselen, her son and the wife of her doctor. The Duchess’s step-daughter, who was the same age as Robin, had formed a liking for Jodi.
The lawyer Julius of Bologna called at the palace, but was informed, with great courtesy, that the Duchess could not spare the lady Gelis van Borselen at present. He left his address, from which Gelis learned that he and Anna were occupying a small gabled house leased from a cloth-weaving client, and situated close to the Ghent home, at present deserted, of Anselm Adorne and the Sersanders family.
Gelis presently sent Julius a note, in which she expressed her dismay at the account she had received of Anna’s injury. She felt there must be some mistake, and was disinclined to discuss it until she heard the story from Nicholas, whom she still firmly believed to be alive. She hoped Julius would excuse her meantime.
She received a small note in return, signed by Anna, saying simply that she quite understood, and Gelis was to think no more about them. The handwriting was shaky, and Gelis was again reduced to discomfort.
In fact, her claim to be busy was not exaggerated. Warded by the familiar rigours of winter, the Duchess’s court felt entitled to bend its thoughts towards the pleasures of Christmas. It began to dwell, in addition, upon the festive implications of the forthcoming marriage of the richest heiress in the world, the Duke’s daughter. The Emperor Frederick’s protonotary, arriving from Nancy and Metz, had already brought Marie jewels and a letter from her future bridegroom. In return, Marie had dispatched to the teen-aged Maximilian a diamond, her portrait, and her own personal note of acceptance. This entailed little effort, as she had done much the same for seven previous suitors, one of them being a former young Duke of Lorraine. Then the ceremonial planning began, and the dress fittings, and the recruitment of musicians and poets and painters, for which it would have been so convenient to have the assistance of the lady Gelis’s ingenious husband, Nicholas de Fleury.
M. de Fleury was, and sadly remained, beyond call. But his lady was, of course, staying in Ghent, and at hand to advise on every difficulty. Gelis did not object to hard work, having anxieties of her own to subdue. But her isolation irked her at times, and she was pleased to be asked to the Hôtel de Ville banquet, at which the town of Ghent were to honour the future bride and her stepmother the Duchess. It would be in public. All of them would be stringently protected. And David de Salmeton hadn’t come yet.
A MAN WHO HAS HELD the highest office in Bruges exerts a good deal of influence. He can ensure, for example, that an obscurely dressed traveller presenting himself at one of the portals of Ghent is discreetly challenged, surrounded, and swept directly to Bruges