Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [301]
Gelis could have told her. There is more to a contest than that.
Nicholas released his breath, slowly and soundlessly. He wished that Gelis were not here and then cancelled the wish, for to have her here was the ultimate privilege. In any case, she seemed to have sensed what he wanted. Since she could not leave, she had sunk back from the light and was crouching motionless on the dusty floor, watching.
Nicholas said, ‘I knew, Adelina.’
She must have heard him. She continued as if he had not spoken. She said, ‘Shall I tell you who I am, Nicholas? I am not Anna von Hanseyck. My name is not even Anna. The woman you kissed, the woman you stared at so lasciviously in the tent — how foolish you looked! — is your own blood-relation. I am Adelina, the child who grew up with you. I am the child you allowed your great-uncle to take to his bed. I am the child who was left with no family, while you married and married again, taking your pleasure, wringing money out of all your women, using and discarding your mistresses. I am Adelina de Fleury, your grandfather’s daughter.’
‘I know,’ he said again.
Her smile, full of triumph, gave way to a flicker of impatience. ‘You can’t know. Shall I say it again? I am—’
‘Adelina de Fleury. I know,’ Nicholas said. ‘I have always known, ever since I set eyes on you in Bruges. Ever since you persuaded Julius to marry you, just for this day.’
Anna faced him. Behind her, Gelis was rigid with tension but did not pretend to surprise. He was a company project; he had no secrets now. Water lapped. The lanterns stirred, and muffled footsteps above told where the two henchmen were waiting. A stifled bell clanged, once, in the fog.
Anna said, ‘You don’t like being deceived by a woman. You can’t even admit it.’ Within the blazing hair, her face was austere. She added scathingly, ‘You couldn’t have known.’
Again, he wished he and she were alone; that this did not have to take place before Gelis.
As it was: ‘Why not?’ Nicholas said quietly. ‘Because I didn’t denounce you? Because I didn’t tell anyone what Moriz found out about your finances? Because I didn’t show I knew that you were coming to Caffa only in the hope of getting my gold? Do you think I didn’t want Gelis, or my son? Why do you think I never sent for them, except that I knew you only wanted to kill them?’
He had supposed Gelis to have realised that, but he must have been wrong, for she gasped. Anna heard it, and swung round. ‘You knew nothing of this?’
At Anna’s back, Nicholas made the faintest of movements. Gelis said, ‘Some of us had begun to suspect, Adelina, but not because Nicholas told us. Until today, he has never mentioned your name.’
‘Because until today, he didn’t know,’ Anna said. ‘Now he is cringing, I trust, at the thought of what passed between us. How sad! To die branded as a lecherous rascal! To leave me rich as I should have been rich!’ She blazed at him, still resolutely triumphant.
Nicholas waited. The echoes died. He schooled his voice to the same level tone. ‘I was eight when we parted. Too young to understand, or to help, but not too young to remember. Your eyes were the same then, as now. I have never seen their like anywhere else. The colour; and the misery of the putoduli.’
Gelis looked down.
Adelina de Fleury said in a low voice, ‘You wanted me. You can’t deny it. But for Julius, you would have been in my bed. You took me everywhere. I was the chosen person to whom you prated about your feelings, your beliefs. You didn’t know who I was; or how I despised you.’ She had risen.
And again, he repeated his affirmation. ‘I knew,’ Nicholas said. ‘I thought I could teach you that life held more than resentment, or money, or revenge. I thought I might leave you with a flourishing business and we might part, with nothing said. But that was all. I spoke of friendship, but did you hear me speak of love? Did you hear me mention the name of my wife or my son, or anything or anyone close to me? I try