Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [304]
‘No,’ said Austin. ‘I … There are surely several possible explanations.’
‘Several,’ said Master Elder, staring at him. ‘But all of them start with the same premise. If Madame Marthe is a bastard, then the gentleman whose colour she shares is almost certain to share her bastardy. I believe,’ said John Elder, ‘that our eminent friend is not the son of Gavin Crawford. I heard this belief was shared by a distant relative of Mr Crawford’s, a great-uncle called Leonard Bailey. One of the reasons I am in Paris this season is that Leonard Bailey promised the Countess, my mistress, to do what he could to obtain documentary proof that Francis Crawford was not what he seemed to be. He was being paid a large monthly fee to look for some original evidence, or even a copy of it. I have been waiting ever since March to hear from him.
‘Now I know why I did not hear. He found his originals, did Master Bailey; and he auctioned them. And in return for them, he obtained four coffers of money, a virgin, and a grave in unhallowed ground as a murderer.’
*
When, later, he broke into her room, Sybilla thought that her courteous young Allendale was gripped, fever-wild, with a sickness. Then she began to distinguish what, in his hoarse shaking voice, he was shouting, and exerting her own clear, scarifying force of personality made him sit down, and lower his voice, and then take in his trembling hands the strongest drink she could find him.
Then she heard him through to the end, although much of his story she had to guess from half-heard whispers and once, for a long time, he could not speak at all. During the recital she herself became very white, but she sat, her back straight, her hands tightly clasped on the long robe before her, and neither drank herself, nor interrupted until it was over.
Then she said, ‘Much of this seems to be based on assumption. Have you any real proof?’
‘All I need,’ said Austin Grey. ‘I have just been to the rue de la Cerisaye along with Elder. We found the servants with the help of the Célestins. We found the girl who let Philippa in, one day she called to see Leonard Bailey.’ He stopped and then said, ‘You see, it explains why your son knew he couldn’t get his divorce; because the grounds were to be …’
He could not finish. After a bit he went on, with courage: ‘And so he had to leave Paris, too, before Madame Roset was found.’
‘I thought you said the authorities accused Bailey of killing Madame Roset?’ Sybilla said. Her hands shook, and she steadied them.
‘Why should he?’ said Austin simply. ‘Whereas Lymond had every reason, if she knew what Bailey did. Lady Culter … you have been ill … and you must forgive me … but no son of yours could have acted like this, nor, if he did, do I believe you would own him.
‘If Lymond is not entitled to the name he bears, then he has married under false pretences, and there are grounds for annulment which never existed before. I beg you, for Philippa’s sake, tell me. Who is he? Who is he, if he is not Francis Crawford?’
‘He is Francis Crawford,’ Sybilla said.
‘You would protect him?’ Austin said. ‘Even yet? Or is it——?’ He stopped.
‘… myself I am protecting?’ Sybilla said. ‘Perhaps. Certainly, I am speaking for Richard, and for all his family. If Francis bought the proof, as you say, then it is surely destroyed, and whatever shame you bring down on our kin, you will still be no closer to an annulment. None of this is Richard’s fault. Need you ruin him also?’ She paused to collect herself and then went on.
‘There is something else I want to say. You assume that this was done with my son’s connivance. I think that you have guessed correctly. I think that Philippa knew Bailey had those particular papers, and I think that she paid the price he demanded. But, Austin, there is no man on earth who will make me believe that Francis knew it beforehand.’
‘But you don’t know your son,’ Austin said. He