Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [306]
‘The young woman is safe, and being looked after. So sad! She seems very wild in her talk, but most persuasive: Louis says she is quite insane, and I am not to go near her, nor should you. And I should think not; look at you; this is what she has done to you both? And Nicholas? You are safely back?’
‘I am safely back,’ he said. ‘But would not have remained so, except for Gelis. You have a very … combative cousin.’
‘So was her sister,’ said the lady of Gruuthuse. ‘I always said, they needed a man to keep them in order. It does not do to cling together like shellfish; but nor does it do to stay apart for too long.’
‘I must remember,’ said Nicholas. Gelis looked at him, but he was gazing down at the cup in his hand. Under the blanket he had been given, he had stopped shivering, and the better light, while revealing the contusions, also showed her, for the first time in three years, the face she knew so well, and the changes in it. Then he looked up and smiled, and she felt the colour rise in her cheeks and her throat.
Nicholas cleared his own throat. He looked at Wodman and said, ‘You say that the Gräfin’s husband is coming?’
‘Father Moriz will bring Julius tomorrow. Today,’ Wodman corrected himself, looking at the dark windows. ‘He will have been told what has happened. But of course, he will have to see for himself. As for our original anxiety, Buchan has gone, taking de Salmeton with him, and will presumably stay in the Tyrol until spring. All the threatened danger has gone. You and your family are safe.’
Nicholas said, ‘I am glad you came when you did.’ His eyes kept returning to Gelis, who was still flushing. He had forgotten what fine skin she had.
Her cousin Marguerite said, ‘And now you are both going back to the palace? Come: I shall find you better clothes. You must be longing, Nicholas, to see your son again.’
‘He will be asleep,’ Gelis said. She glanced at Nicholas, and away.
‘Then perhaps you would rather stay here? We have rooms enough!’ She was being both tactful and kind. Before they were married, Gelis had admitted him to her room at the Hôtel Gruuthuse in Bruges. He rather thought Marguerite knew it. Marguerite said, ‘Consider it while I bring you something comfortable to wear. Meester Wodman will help me.’
She disappeared with the Conservator, who appeared familiar with the house. Gelis said, ‘He is staying here. I don’t know if I want to be so close to Anna again.’ She was sitting, her eyes on the fire.
Nicholas said, ‘My luggage is at the Sersanders’ house. Kathi gave me the key.’
‘Who else is there?’ Gelis said. She was looking at him again.
‘No one. That is, there is a housekeeper who lives there. She will make whatever arrangements are wanted.’
‘That sounds very suitable,’ Gelis said. When told, Marguerite seemed to think so as well; Wodman grunted. It was not pleasant, issuing again into the cold, but the journey was short, and their escort delivered them to Anselm Adorne’s house in good order. Nicholas had a key. He opened the door, and she entered a modest tiled hall, warmed by a stove, with three doors leading off, and a narrow staircase which rose to a second floor and then stopped. There was no sign of life.
Nicholas said, ‘The housekeeper’s room is beyond that door. There are two sleeping chambers upstairs. I put my coffers in one.’
‘You thought you were going to face David de Salmeton’s men,’ Gelis said. ‘You must have wondered whether you would come back here alive.’
Nicholas sat on the stairs. ‘Not with my infallible plan. If they weren’t misled by Clémence, they would try to take you. But I would be guarding your wagon, with Wodman somewhere close at hand to track me, and bring the militia.’
‘But he got lost in the fog. And they captured you, as well as me. And it wasn’t David, it was Anna.’ Gelis leaned on the ornamental stair-post and looked down at him. She rested her chin on her arm. ‘I thought you were clever.’