Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [303]
Master John Elder was not unused to the knowledge that other people were glad to get rid of him. He climbed with undisturbed aplomb to Lord Allendale’s room, and once there said, ‘I see, since the poor young lady has been deserted, you must feel in honour bound to stay here to help her. I hope you can. I only hope you still can. I hear she is to bear him a child?’
‘That is not true,’ said Austin Grey harshly. ‘Or Lady Culter assures me so.’
‘I hope the poor girl fares well,’ said Elder sententiously. ‘Men of violence are rarely gentle in their dealings with the opposite sex. Children may be denied them. Poor lady. I shall ask Lady Lennox to write to her mother. That is, if you are not to be persuaded to come to England yet? The Commissioners, I am told, are not enjoying the full brightness of the Cardinal’s pleasure at present.’
‘Their privileges, I suppose, could not continue indefinitely,’ Austin said. ‘The war has enforced economies, and the unrest has meant firmer measures to protect the public order. As soon as the English fleet ceases patrolling the Narrow Seas they will be permitted to go. I mean to wait at least until then.’
‘And, perhaps, take the comtesse de Sevigny back to England with you?’ said John Elder warmly. ‘How that would delight the Countess my mistress! Then, I have to tell you, the coffer entrusted to you by the Palais de Justice is to be transferred to me. You were about to take home at their instance the effects of a deceased English gentleman, so they tell me? Are they here?’
‘In this room. In the corner,’ said Austin Grey, nodding. And stood, displeased and astonished as the secretary, bending over the coffer, read the label and straightened with a long, slow and unscholarly imprecation.
‘Was this the man who is dead?’ said Master Elder. ‘A man named Leonard Bailey?’
‘Why?’ said Austin coldly. ‘Did he owe you money? He was a scoundrel, I am told, if not a murderer.’
‘What!’ said Elder. Then recovering, he folded the shabby skirts of his black robe about him and sitting said, ‘Tell me all about him.’
It took five minutes, no more. At the end, ‘So that is all you know?’ said Master Elder. ‘He was found dead in the Hôtel des Sphères in the morning, having dismissed the servants the previous night, his habit when hiring a woman. On returning, however, the varlets found no sign of a femme usagère, though a horse was missing and later, several coffers of money were found locked, to the servants’ surprise, in a cellar. Then the mistress of the house, whose guest the gentleman appeared to be, was discovered dead in the yard, instead of on an extended visit, as Bailey had given out. It was thought that the store of money came to his knowledge, and that having murdered her for it, he died naturally from overstrain and excitement. Do you believe that?’
‘Why not?’ said Austin Grey.
‘And the horse?’
‘Someone stole it. The house was empty. There was no one to stop them, and the streets were full. It was the night of the Queen of Scots’ wedding.’
‘It was the night M. le comte de Sevigny, Chevalier de l’Ordre, vanished from the wedding festivities in pursuance of Madame, his charming wife Philippa,’ John Elder said. ‘It was the night an elderly gentleman called at Mistress Philippa’s rooms and was given, by arrangement, a large sum of money in four coffers, which represented all the gold she had then banked in Paris.…
‘Suppose a woman did dispose of her person to Leonard Bailey that night. Suppose that, unwisely indulging his appetites he suddenly perished, leaving her in a state of shock and unable to return to her business. Or ailing: so impaired that her husband, Bailey’s pander, was forced to remove her from Paris?’
‘What are you saying?’ said Austin. He was ashen.
‘I wonder if you remember,’ said Master Elder, ‘when we talked of the charming Marthe, who so resembles her step brother the comte de Sevigny? Did it never strike you as strange that such a resemblance should exist between a