Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [115]
*
‘My lord of Allendale,’ said the remembered voice mockingly. ‘Come then, South Wind, and perfect my garden.’ And as the cell door at Ham shut behind him, Austin Grey moved forward to see his uncle’s prisoner.
He had been rigged out in elegant black, quite unlike the student’s buff jacket at Douai. But the sardonic smile was the same; under the same crudely marked traces of fisticuffs. The man’s smile became wide.
‘Petite coquette (co co co co dae) qu’esse cy? Step on the mat, Marquis.’
‘What happened at Douai is over,’ said Austin. ‘I am here to satisfy my own sense of what is fitting. In case Lord Grey was too occupied, I have to convey to you our apologies.’
‘Apologies? Now that,’ said Philippa’s husband, ‘is extremely novel. I find it even alarming. And as it happens, uncalled-for. I am here, like Rabelais, because I want to be, with my three packets of ash labelled Poison. Poison for the King; Poison for Savoy; Poison for Ruy Gomez. I didn’t think of Poison for Uncle. I thought your gallant kinsman was in Guînes again.’
‘We are leaving for Guînes tomorrow. I wished to apologize,’ said Austin with a hard-held and meticulous courtesy, ‘for the death of your nurse, Madame Jourda. It was inexcusable. I wished to ask what relatives we should send for.’
He had set himself to perform this mission, knowing he would receive little thanks for it. He had not expected the howl of delight with which that was greeted. He stood, concealing his shock, as Crawford seized a chair and flung himself astride it. ‘A spark!’ he said. ‘A riposte! After all these years, a reciprocating witticism! You were due to apologize for the vile stratagem, I would have you know, that led to my capture. Not for the demise of an elderly nursemaid. Forget her and tell me your other reason for braving the cockpit. Or shall I try to guess it?’
‘I am sure you could,’ said Austin Grey. He moved to the wall and leaned against it, a gentle man whose youth disguised, as yet, a steadfastness which no one so far had had real cause to plumb. He said, ‘Your life has taught you how to smell out weakness. Before you whet your claws on me, let me give you some news I have from Scotland.’
‘I know that too. I have heard the nightingale herself. My brother is well, my mother failing,’ said Lymond. ‘And Kate Somerville, I imagine, wants her daughter back.’
‘She wants you back also,’ said Austin. ‘And not for her own sake or yours. You know a clash of doctrine is coming in Scotland. The Queen Regent has to tolerate the Reformed religion now, but once the war is over, her French brothers will want her to fight it.’
‘Perhaps she’ll lose,’ offered Crawford. His manner was helpful. ‘Wouldn’t that intrigue you? I thought the Lord James Stewart seemed an able man. He invited Knox, I hear, back to Scotland. That argues a certain amount of philosophical stamina.’
‘Knox didn’t go,’ Austin Grey said. ‘But if he does, Lord James and Erskine of Dun and all those who don’t agree with the established Church may well rally round him.’
‘To rend the surplice, the corner-cap and the tippet, the badges of idolators. Quite. So what agitates Kate? Not the condition of Scotland. As Guicciardini said, there is a great difference between having discontented subjects and having desperate subjects. In any case, being a woman, although unique among women, Kate thinks of the particular and not of the general. Therefore she is afraid for my family, who like Achilles, would rather till the ground than live in pale Elysium. She thinks that Richard wants me to leave my frantic pleasures to come and help him? No, hardly that either. What, then?’
‘You under-estimate Philippa’s mother,’ said Austin Grey. ‘Just as you are quite astray, it seems to me, in all your dealings with Philippa. Mistress Somerville thinks the Scottish Queen-Regent needs an adviser. A soldier uncommitted to either side whose opinion she can trust at this juncture.’ He could hear with his own ears how pompous