Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [311]
The slanting eyes frowned. ‘But if Anna is who you say she is, they couldn’t marry. Bonne and Jodi would be related.’
‘So I agreed to the marriage,’ Nicholas said. ‘I knew it couldn’t take place. I knew who she was.’
Beside him, he felt Gelis move. Diniz, his dark face drawn, took a breath. Nicholas looked only at Julius, whom he knew so very well. Julius said, ‘You knew?’
‘Could you have forgotten those eyes, once you had seen them? I was sure, but it was not hard to collect other proofs. All the small lies. Why would a woman so dark require to protect her skin from the sun? Why was so little known of her past? Then others searched, and found the facts we have told you.’
‘You knew, and didn’t tell me?’ Julius said. It sounded, on the surface, disbelieving and hard. Beneath was something that in another man would have verged on the piteous.
‘Would you have thanked me? Would you have believed me?’
‘No,’ Julius said.
‘No. And I needed you to believe in the gold, because that was the only reason she protracted my life. The mythical gold, brought by Ochoa.’
‘Mythical?’ Diniz intervened. He looked dazed.
Nicholas said, ‘Oh, it existed. But it never left Cyprus, until David de Salmeton dug it up. Ochoa’s messages told me that. But Anna couldn’t read codes, and it was easy to persuade her that the gold was coming, and once I used my password, she could have it. Then Caffa fell, and the excuse had gone, and I had to look for other ways to escape her. It may not feel like it, but you are lucky, Julius.’
‘It doesn’t feel like it,’ he said. ‘She wouldn’t see me.’ It was a cry.
‘Because she is guilty. They will keep her guarded in private just now. But when the courts are free, and they have sorted what advantages to draw from it, she will suffer, Julius,’ Nicholas said. ‘If you condone what she did, you will suffer as well.’
Leather creaked; the brazier whispered. Julius said, ‘What are you going to do?’ There was no fight in him now.
‘About Anna? I won’t bear witness against her, if that’s what you’re asking,’ Nicholas said. ‘I’m afraid that there is enough evidence, in any case, without me.’
‘So what are you going to do?’ Julius repeated. He looked ghastly.
‘Go away,’ Nicholas said. ‘Once I have found David de Salmeton and dealt with him. He will be in the Tyrol, they say, until the spring. He can’t do any harm there.’
‘I beg your pardon,’ Diniz said. The formality grated, even though Nicholas had imposed it himself. Diniz said, ‘De Salmeton isn’t in the Tyrol. The Duke summoned the Earl of Buchan to Nancy. Hearty James expects to spend the winter in camp, and to try to negotiate with the Tyrol from there. He has de Salmeton with him.’
Nicholas stood still. The fate of Anna left his mind, as, slowly, the hand of Gelis also slipped from his clasp. David de Salmeton was in Nancy with Robin; with Tobie; with John. No wonder the elegant Master Simpson had left Ghent with such alacrity. He could return to find Nicholas, once he had disposed of those he ranked as Nicholas’s friends. Robin, and Tobie, and John.
Nicholas was aware that Julius was watching him. He had no time to nurse Julius now. He said, ‘Why the change of plan? Why should the Duke entertain a Scottish envoy in Nancy?’
‘Because Buchan is royal,’ Diniz said. ‘And there is another guest, too. The King of Portugal is due at the end of the month. The Duke’s cousin. That’s why I’m here. I’ve been summoned to Nancy to interpret.’
Diniz was half Portuguese. The uncle of Diniz had been secretary to the Duke’s Portuguese mother. The hated grandfather of Diniz, Jordan de Ribérac, was currently living under Portuguese dominion, unaware that David de Salmeton, whom he had dismissed, was embarked on a campaign of destruction.
Nicholas said,