Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [240]
Later, she received a smile and a bow, but both were formal. He looked tired but moved and spoke firmly, as if brought back to tone by air and exercise. Where he had been she had not yet discovered, except for the fact that he had spent four days on horseback. He was helpful but noncommittal in conference. From John Erskine, with whom she had formed a pleasant acquaintance, she heard after a week of such meetings that on he journeys to and from Moret he would go further.
‘We pick his brains,’ Erskine said, ‘and he is not unwilling, I think, to advise us. He believes—and I think we are all agreed on it—that the next key figure in Scotland will be Arran, the present heir to the crown. Unhappily, if we identify him too closely now with the Reformed party, the Queen Dowager may well bequeath the Regency to Lennox. Elder, his secretary, is here. Perhaps you have seen him.’
‘I’ve not only seen him,’ Philippa said tartly. ‘I fall over him every time I walk through the door to the Presence Chamber.’ She added, quelling the twitching nerves of her stomach, ‘Do you think both religions can co-exist under Arran?’
‘I hope so. Under Lord Lennox, of course,’ Erskine said, ‘the whole country would be Papist, and moved to it by burnings. It also remains to be seen how tolerant the Queen Dowager will remain after this wedding. With the might of France legally behind her, she may feel differently towards heretics like ourselves. Your husband also says——’
‘He has a theory that if France and Spain end their war, they may make some sort of Holy Alliance together. What is true,’ Philippa said, ‘is that the King of France has borrowed a great deal of gold from the clergy, and they may want to see something soon for their money. Also, it would be nice for the de Guises to have a niece who is Catholic Queen of three countries, provided England can be overrun satisfactorily. I’m glad your expatriates are being useful to you. I thought Francis was remaining aloof from his countrymen.’
‘You will find,’ said John Erskine, ‘that he has changed his policy in a number of things since he came back from Thionville——’ He stopped.
‘Thionville? You might as well go on,’ Philippa said. ‘If anyone has overheard us, we are due for the gibbet already. It’s a town on the Moselle, isn’t it, on the eastern frontier with the Archbishoprics and Champagne?’
‘It is one of the strongest held by Spain, and threatens all that region of France. It has already stood up to at least three assaults, but the Governor of Metz thinks that if the King will raise some German levies, he can take it. Mr Crawford has just been to see him, with Signor Strozzi. I have not, of course, heard the details, but it will form the main part of the French spring campaign, to open, I imagine, after the wedding.’
‘And Francis is arranging it?’ Philippa said.
‘If you were to ask the Duke de Guise, he would answer you differently,’ Erskine said. ‘But from what I hear, there is very little that our friend is excluding, at the moment, from his daily round. D’Aumale tells me that he has been given rooms in the palace.’
Philippa knew that. Since his return from Thionville, Madame Marguerite had seen to it that he honoured his promise to visit her. From the other royal apartments also, one would hear of an evening the remote strains of Du fond de ma pensée and Ne veuillez pas ô Sire; and laughter. M. de Sevigny had become of the magic circle with whom the King steamed daily in his suite of hot baths. Even Mary had asked him to come and play for her, and Philippa had watched while the two sat and conversed. She did not know what the topic was, but she did observe that Monseigneur mon oncle was not altogether pleased when he arrived and discovered them. That evening, the Queen was invited to retire rather early.
For themselves, they never talked, save for a commonplace exchange in public.