Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [277]
They were near the kitchen, in a locked cellar, whose key he found in Bailey’s chamber. They were too heavy to move, so he locked the cellar again and kept the key of it. He also systematically examined the house, until assured that no paper remained which could injure his family. The scrolls from the floor of the kitchen were already in the breast of his doublet together with one other missive: a letter in Philippa’s writing which he had not burned.
There were mules in the small stable at the back of the orchard, and saddles. Soon the streets would be cleared of the last celebrants, the wedding party dispersed, the bride and groom bedded, if no more than bedded, beneath the glorious emblems, for ever one, of France and of Scotland.
He returned to the kitchen, and waited; and presently Philippa opened her eyes.
He spoke, then, the only thought which made words unavoidable.
‘Come, my wife,’ said Francis Crawford. ‘We are going to Sevigny.’
Part V
Le corps sans ame plus n’estre en sacrifice:
Jour de la mort mis en nativité:
L’esprit divin fera l’ame felice
Voiant le verbe en son eternité.
Chapter 1
Le dix Kalendes d’Apvril de faict Gotique
Resuscité encor par gens malins:
Le feu estainct, assemblée diabolique
Cherchant les os d’Amant et Pselyn.
Kings may mourn the death of a favourite, but his disappearance is viewed as an insult.
By dinnertime on the day appointed for his annulment, it was common knowledge that the comte de Sevigny had left Court without leave or apology, and that Madame his lady had vanished also.
This followed a night-long search prosecuted by Richard his brother, and another fruitless essay, different in the quality of its concern, by the four men to whom Lymond was closest.
Called upon in her chamber by Adam, Sybilla Lady Culter took a long time to answer his query and then gave him, steadfastly, the reply which she was to repeat later to Danny Hislop. She knew of no house in the Petit Arsenal district, and had given no address to her son Francis.
Euphemia, brutally questioned by the stricter member of the Culter family, was rather more garrulous. The protestations of Euphemia together with the puzzled and querulous cries of the Schiatti cousins brought to light one other fragment of information. When the comtesse de Sevigny left, followed later by her husband, she had already withdrawn and sent ahead of her all the wealth she possessed banked in Paris.
It was agreed, in a harsh, one-sided interview between Sybilla and Richard, that Austin, isolated in his room in the masterless Hôtel d’Hercule, should be told nothing meantime, except that the signing of the annulment papers had been deferred. The King of France, summoning the Earl of Culter to the Louvre during a break in the wedding celebrations, questioned him sharply about the possible reasons for M. de Sevigny’s absence, and on being satisfied of his brother’s total ignorance, remarked tartly that he would be content therefore if M. de Culter would favour the rest of the festivities with his presence, so that the Queen his daughter might not be deprived at one stroke of quite all of her Scottish supporters.
The King was cross. The attitude of the other courtiers tended to echo that of Piero Strozzi, back at court for his daughter’s wedding: a mixture of irritation, admiration and envy. The Queen of France said nothing; nor did her demoiselle d’honneur Catherine d’Albon, although it could be seen that she had been weeping.
And the six brothers de Guise said remarkably little either, although the Cardinal was both short and stinging in his rebuke to the Duke of Nemours who in his presence made light of the matter. To place his private affairs before those of the King at such a time was an insult to France and to Scotland, not to mention an affront to the Cardinal Legate, whose interest to annul this marriage had been solicited with such untiring vigour by M. de Sevigny. He hoped, said the