Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [59]
‘Most of it currently going in the wrong direction. Yes, it would be good,’ Kathi said. ‘Unless he chooses to work in Poland on his own account.’
‘Would that be better?’
‘It’s too early to say, and none of us could influence him anyway. Julius might as well ask him.’
‘I thought so,’ Anna said. ‘I know he cannot go back, but I thought it might keep one channel alive, between Nicholas and his friends and his family. I had this hope — you will think it far-fetched — that he and his wife might be reconciled. But now I am not so sure. That is the other question I have.’
‘I see,’ Kathi said.
‘No,’ said Anna swiftly. ‘I have asked you too much. We should not be discussing these things. Forgive me.’
It was her perception, as always, which was so disarming. Kathi said, ‘I did hesitate, but you are right: it’s important. I feel as you do. Until this happened, I thought they would spend the rest of their lives together, he and Gelis. Robin thought so as well. If he had had his way, we should have come to Poland weighed down with gifts and messages and tales of Jodi’s prowess. Thank God we didn’t.’
‘Tell me why,’ Anna said. Her voice had changed.
Kathi gazed at her, frowning. ‘Oh dear,’ she said. ‘You see, it would simply have made matters worse if he hated her. And if he didn’t —’
‘It would have reminded him of all he had thrown away,’ Anna ended. ‘I am a fool. I am a miserable, unthinking fool. He sat as if listening to every detail I told him about the Bank, about Jodi, about Gelis. He said nothing much. I had a feeling sometimes that he was thinking about something else, but he didn’t stop me. He accepted the paper with the little boy’s poem. Only, afterwards …’
A poem from Jodi. Kathi felt sick. She rose and walked across to pour wine, her back turned. She said, ‘What happened then?’
‘He set fire to it,’ said Anna steadily. ‘I found it later that evening, in ashes. Does he love them?’
Kathi stopped pouring. My snivelling little wife and her bastard. She said, ‘To hear him, no. I can’t tell you what to believe. But if I had no love for a child, I might discard what the child sent, but I shouldn’t burn it as if it would infect me. Don’t you think?’ She collected herself and turned.
Anna sat where she had left her, motionless except for a glimmer under her lashes, like mist on the curve of a glass. Kathi set down the wine and went to sink down beside her. ‘But you weren’t to know what was best. Anna, he is a grown man who has to learn discipline. If you hurt him, he deserved it. And whatever he may feel about Gelis, nothing can be resolved unless she changes her mind. Perhaps she will. I haven’t seen her since Trèves.’
‘Nor have I,’ Anna said. She dragged her palm over her cheek. ‘This wasn’t my intention. I’ll go.’
‘Have your wine first. I don’t know the answer to your questions,’ Kathi said. ‘I’d say, give him work if you can, but don’t be disappointed if he throws it over quite soon. The point is that he must come to decisions, not us.’
Anna looked up from her cup. ‘Julius says that your uncle would never take Nicholas to Tabriz. But perhaps that would be best?’
‘Not for my uncle,’ Kathi said.
‘Nor for Julius,’ said Anna. ‘How well organised we should be without menfolk.’
‘And how dull,’ Kathi said, cheering up. She had heard Robin’s voice.
Later, when Anna had unobtrusively left, Kathi ran downstairs and found herself in the midst of what anyone else would have called a celebration, but her uncle referred to as an expression of cordial optimism. He had been received by the city. The magistrates had not asked him to welcome the King, but trusted that he would attend, as civic guest, the Pentecostal Mass at which the King would be present on Sunday. Thereafter, as a matter of course, the Chancellor’s office would communicate a day and a time for his audience. It was done. Soon, he would have completed his mission in Poland, and they could set out for Tabriz.
‘Where is Father Ludovico?’ asked Kathi.
‘At the Franciscans’. The Marienkirche. They’ve got pickled oysters,’ said Robin. She