Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [49]
With Ludovico da Bologna, all news sounded dire, and he had perfected a style of delivery that Adorne found excessively irksome. He had not therefore immediately replied; nor had Katelijne, although she sat up as if roused by a drumbeat. It was left to Robin to exclaim, ‘Ser Nicholas has gone back to Thorn? But, Patriarch, why?’
‘Nostalgia. Curiosity. Lust. His lawyer Julius is in Thorn, with that fine-looking Countess, his bride. Nicholas wouldn’t miss that,’ said the Patriarch. ‘You’ll see him, most likely, when you arrive. I should have told you. My lord of Cortachy, you have to leave Danzig immediately. I have word from the Kanclerz. The King is coming to Thorn in ten days. If you want an audience, you have to go there.’
‘And you?’ Adorne had said after a moment. ‘Or have you perhaps seen King Casimir already on your travels?’
‘Me? Hardly,’ the Patriarch said. ‘He’s been in the south with his sons. If you want to find out what’s happening in Poland, there are more interesting people to talk to than Casimir. So can we tell the Council we’re leaving? I’ve sent a messenger south. There’ll be a house and free food and entertainment: ambitious countries look after envoys. When the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund visited Berne, he was given a three-day group pass to their brothel. I saw his letter of thanks. Casimir married his granddaughter.’
They had lived for over four weeks in Danzig and the Patriarch had provoked him throughout, travelling where he pleased when he pleased, and ordering the embassy as it suited him. Adorne said, ‘I am sorry, Father. I understand that you think we should go, but the talks here are still in progress.’
‘And they’ll still be in progress at Christmas,’ the Patriarch said. ‘Talk isn’t going to get you any further; only a shift in policy is going to do that. Sign the points of agreement. Give them an ultimatum over the rest. Then leave it to the lawyers. They’ll send you your answer to Thorn.’
‘And if they don’t?’ Adorne said. ‘We have to reach Tabriz before the summer is over.’
‘Get to Thorn. See the King. Worry about all the rest of it later,’ the Patriarch said. ‘Are the young people coming?’
The young people had become unaccountably silent. Then Katelijne had said, ‘Yes. If my uncle will have us.’ And, coming round to Adorne’s chair, had knelt. ‘Never mind about Nicholas. Leave him to us. What can we do for you next? You brought us, and we are determined to help.’
Her voice was earnest; her face reminded him, in its innocent glow, of his wife. Touched, Adorne made to say so, but was not given time to reply. ‘And so you shall,’ had said Ludovico da Bologna in his ripest voice. ‘So, my dear child, you undoubtedly shall.’
‘AND SO, MY DEAR CHILD, you undoubtedly shall …’ In private, Robin was a good mimic. He addressed his wife: ‘Didn’t that strike you as sinister?’
‘He meant it to. Nicholas is the Patriarch’s property, so do as you’re told. Never mind that,’ Kathi said. ‘The point is that dear Master Julius and the Gräfin have achieved the impossible and induced Nicholas to change his plans. Why, do you think?’
‘She’s pretty,’ Robin said. Until the recent unpleasantness, Kathi had been intrigued to discover, he had taken a lenient view of this aspect of Nicholas.
She said, ‘Anna is much to be admired, but I don’t think he has rushed off to … to ravish her. Perhaps he wants scraps of news, or to send some.’
‘Or the company of Master Julius?’ Robin said. ‘A sporting friend from the past, who won’t condemn him, as the rest of us do? Perhaps Julius will be another Paúel.’
‘No,’ she said. As a rule, she abstained from discussing