Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [278]
Strangely enough, after her first astonishment and annoyance, the bride herself, it seemed, had not been wholly displeased. Richard, reprimanded by his hosts and conscious of the requirements of his assignation, returned, finally to the ranks of his fellow Commissioners who received him with sympathy below which lay, he could feel, the flatness of disappointment.
Archie vanished.
Servants, returning to a house in the rue de la Cerisaye after a night abroad in celebration of the Dauphin’s wedding, paid for by their mistress’s guest, were alarmed to find the door unlocked and the English gentleman dead in his bed. A physician, called in hastily, pronounced the death to be a natural one. The only disarrangement in the house or purlieus was the bursting open of the lock of the stables and the theft of a horse and saddle. Arrangements were made for the gentleman’s burial and the agent, notified, undertook to do what he could to trace the absent Madame Roset. The matter, of little importance, did not come to the ears of the Court.
The Countess of Lennox’s secretary, having attended assiduously all the wedding celebrations, composed a great deal of eulogistic verse and made himself as pleasant and as conspicuous as possible in the Queen of Scotland’s circle, grew tired of waiting for a message from an unknown address about a gentleman who had disappeared anyway, and decided that, rather than go home empty-handed, he should attempt a little research on his own account. After waiting therefore for a day on which all the Commissioners and their kinsmen were occupied, Master Elder left the modest lodging he had been allotted and walked through the fine spring weather to the Hôtel d’Hercule, where he asked politely to see the Marquis of Allendale.
On the same morning, a liveried groom arrived at the Hôtel de l’Ange with a packet for the Dowager Lady Culter. It contained two enclosures. One, a letter sealed with the Sevigny crest, was addressed to the Most Christian King of France, and she laid it aside. The other, a single sheet of paper, was a message to herself from Nicholas Applegarth.
They are both here, and safe, although very tired. The enclosed packet, which I am to beg you to pass to his Majesty, contains a surrender of all your son’s offices and holdings, other than his house and lands in this Seigneurie. Neither M. le comte nor his wife will be returning to court.
I am asked that this should be made clear to those whom it may concern. On my own account, I beg you to see that all this is accepted so far as possible without discord or argument, and that above all no one should think it necessary to come to Sevigny.
I remain, your obedient servant, NICHOLAS APPLEGARTH.
With that letter in her hands, she sat unmoving until the Commissioners returned. Then, summoning Richard and the three remaining officers of St Mary’s to her room, she gave it into their keeping.
To Jerott, to Adam and to Danny, it was the first certain indication that, whatever danger Lymond had feared for her, Philippa was safe; and following her, Lymond had come to no harm.
The news that they were together, and were remaining together, was something else. At that point in their reading Adam looked up and met Sybilla’s eyes, his scarred face intent, but he said nothing and neither did Danny, the perpetual talker. It was Jerott who, flushing, said, ‘What has he done? What is he thinking of?’
And Richard who answered, ‘He has merely broken, as always, every promise he ever made, before man or God.’ And then, ‘I shall have to tell Austin.’
He did so later, when the other letter had been delivered to its destination and the resulting repercussions had done nothing to sweeten his temper. The discovery, on arriving at the Hôtel d’Hercules, that Master Elder had already visited the English prisoner and had been admitted without sanction did nothing to make him feel better. Lord Culter had preserved Allendale’s peace of mind, he well