Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [302]
‘You are lying,’ Anna said, with sudden high fury. He understood all that she felt. Gelis, too, would understand, for he had once done this to her. In Trèves three years before, she had supposed herself to have won their long contest, only to find that he held all her secrets. In Trèves, he had spared Gelis that knowledge, until compelled to admit it by Jordan de Ribérac. Here, he was using the same device against Adelina with deliberate cruelty. He wanted, as he had never wanted with Gelis, to deprive this woman of her planned victory. He also wished to win time, in order to find a way to survive. He had laid plans. But in a fog like this, no plans were secure.
And still it was working, for even yet, with both of them in her power, Anna could not bear to continue until she had wrung a retraction from Nicholas. She repeated, fiercely, ‘You are lying. You didn’t know. You wanted Bonne to marry your son.’
For a moment, his gaze passed the woman before him, and rested on Gelis. He saw she was smiling, and happiness, yet again, overwhelmed the misery and the pain. Nicholas said, ‘Because I had to make sure, in the short term, that Jodi and Gelis would live. Gelis is wealthy. Anything I had she would also inherit. She is still my wife.’
He had let his eyes speak, and Anna had seen it. She turned, and then whirled again back to Nicholas. She cried, ‘You did know. You both knew.’
And now he wished he had not chosen to tell her. In a moment, she would let herself think of all that had happened between them, and realise finally how he had deceived her. In a moment, she would return to her purpose, and there would be no more time to win.
Anna stood, watching him; trying to imagine, he supposed, what precise degree of punishment he deserved of her, now. And Gelis. Oh God, he had to save Gelis. Anna said, ‘You think you know yourself, Nicholas de Fleury. You think you know the harm you can do, and have done. You know nothing.’
He had thought she would call for her men. He had not dreamed that a few words could so infect him with dread. And to make matters worse, Gelis suddenly chose to address Adelina harshly.
‘So what do you mean to do? What about Julius? If you harm either of us, the whole of Flanders would hound you!’ She kept her eyes on Anna, who turned to her slowly.
Anna said, ‘People drown in these waters, especially in fog. You will be found in the silt, close to where you strayed from your wagon. Julius will not especially mourn you. He expected to discover Nicholas in Bruges, and to challenge and kill him in defence of my honour. As it is, he will come back to find Nicholas dead. Another drowning, or caught in some drunken brawl. There will be nothing to show how it happened. Are you not sorry?’ she said, looking at Nicholas. ‘Are you not sorry you did not think more of me?’
She was standing close to him.
‘I am only sorry,’ Nicholas said, ‘that I had to make believe that I wanted you. Did you think, that day unclothed in the tent, that the sight of you was alluring? With your ageing body and badly dyed hair, that smeared even your under-linen? You may have been well enough as a child,’ Anna’s nephew observed, ‘but I didn’t want my great-uncle’s leavings.’
Her arm rose and swept down. He rocked with the blow, like the practised wrestler he was, and counter-attacked well enough, using his own momentum and Anna’s precarious balance to kick her feet from under her, locking her with his knee and trapping her as she fell. His hands circled once, looping a length of chain round her throat. Then he pulled himself back to the wall like a swimmer saving another, and stopped, breathing fast. He had enough strength for that, but less than he wished.
Anna lay in his arms, looking up at him, with her breath throttled shut. He tightened his hands under her chin, until her back arched. ‘Drop the knife,’ Nicholas said. She made a guttural sound,