Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [302]
The man who brought it was not known to her, but the superscription, small, clear and level, was in a writing now dearly familiar. She slit the wax, alone in her chamber. He had used, instead of the Russian ring, the seal of Sevigny.
The letter inside was direct as the spoken word, and had no preamble. It told her exactly what he was doing and gave, briefly, an outline of his expected movements.
Three lines dealt with business: I have no reason to expect serious fighting. If I am wrong, Nicholas has control of all my affairs and will see that you are taken home to Flaw Valleys. What belongs to you in Paris will return to you. Most of my other assets, which have for some time been out of France, will in due course follow you there also.
The next line said: I have no premonition about this. It is only necessary to be practical.
The last lines said: I have tried not to reach you, in this way or another, by any disfiguring sentiment. You know, I think, that my feelings on this are quite different.
Below this and above it was an interval, as if with each paragraph the writer had intended to end the letter, but had been brought, in the end, to add to it.
He had meant, perhaps to leave it unsigned. But below, briefly, he had put the words.
I am thou thy selfe.
And below that, had signed his name: Francis.
The courier waited for her reply, which was bright and trenchant and matter-of-fact, as once had been her diary to Kate, written in the Sultan’s seraglio; for its purpose, as then, was to strengthen, and not to weaken.
In it she put only her daily news, but with a detail which, unlike his, covered several pages. She found time, as she was writing, to be deeply thankful that love and self-respect together had demanded that her days should be full, so that he should find nothing there to add to his anxiety.
Only at the end did she stop and read again, with painful understanding, the words of his final paragraph, and the appeal which, despite himself, they held in their closing phrases.
So she finished, as he had done, in a brief key which was very different.
I have told you the work of my hands. The place of my thoughts you may know by now. For yours, the door of this kingdom is open by day and by night if you will lend them to me.
The second seal, the one used by Nicholas Applegarth, was still in the desk. She lifted it out, and heating the wax, imprinted it on the folded paper so that the first thing he would see, when he touched it, was his own crest of Sevigny. Then, having delivered it to the courier, she went to her room and, her head in her empty hands, sought for him.
*
In Paris on the same day, Master John Elder took steps at last to obey his mistress, and sail back to England.
He called at the Palais de Justice for his safe conduct. Next, out of malice as well as necessity, he visited the Hôtel de l’Ange, and inquired for Lord Allendale.
Austin was out, but Lord Culter received him. Dealing briefly with his inquiries, Lord Culter observed curtly that his mother was ill in her chamber, and he thought it exceedingly unlikely that Lord Allendale would want to leave France at present, with or without Master Eider.
Master Elder clicked his teeth, his long raw face full of affliction. ‘The matter of Mr Crawford. That is, I beg your pardon, the comte de … Or no. The Marshal, is it not, of Sevigny? A name whose renown, I am sure, will bring nothing but credit to the Crawford family. But of course, mixed with sorrow.… Mixed, like all great blessings, with sorrow. The young lady, I am told, ran away from him.’
‘Indeed?’ said Lord Culter. ‘Then you have been misinformed. The comtesse de Sevigny is still at her château.’
‘I have it wrong,’ said Master Elder with contrition. ‘It was your brother who renounced all his offices to stay with his bride—a delightful romance: it had all Paris weeping. And then summoned by the King, of course, felt unable to withhold his services. So the Countess expects him to return?’
‘I think,’ said Austin Grey’s voice from the doorway, ‘you should absolve Lord Culter from answering.