Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [335]
They had heard, from Jerott, what he had promised. They knew, but were too cautious to count on it, that the disability of his blindness had not so far recurred. Danny Hislop said, ‘It’s a moot point, naturally; but which side would we be fighting for?’
‘You mean,’ said Fergie, ‘there are only two sides?’
‘It makes it simpler to think so,’ said Alec Guthrie. ‘In fact, I think we are being asked to fight for a nation. Am I right?’
‘Not,’ said Danny, ‘the Queen Dowager all over again, dear hearts. She may think she’s the nation, but you should ask Jamie Arran. Or Jamie Stewart, for that matter.’
‘I intend to,’ said Lymond. ‘I am told he is coming to see me, with Erskine. We tried once before, if you remember, to give Scotland a strong arm and a voice of reason, but Graham Malett destroyed them. There will be others like him.’
‘They’re all in France,’ said Danny positively. ‘Friends, I shall be glad to get out of France.’
‘I dare say,’ said Fergie, ‘there’ll be need of a lawyer. What about it, Archie? No elephants.’
‘You’ll not have noticed,’ said Archie Abernethy. ‘But there havena been any elephants since Stamboul, and I’ve had that many backsides in my face since, that I’ve never missed them. I’ve been in Scotland more lately than any of you. I tell you, there are twenty sides in that fight, never mind two, and when they get tired throwing things at each other, they’ll all turn and stamp on the mediator. You’ll need me tae panse you.’
‘Like Danny,’ said Guthrie dryly. ‘I am tired of France. And I’m curious.’
‘It’s curiosity,’ said Jerott suddenly, ‘isn’t it, that’s taking you all? Is there a man of belief left among us?’
There was a little pause. Then, ‘What if there was?’ said Lymond quietly. ‘Are you suggesting it should affect his behaviour?’
Jerott Blyth went slowly red. He said, ‘Then you don’t want my services?’
Lymond said, ‘If you please, Jerott, no attitudes. You would leave your business and Marthe?’
‘She drove Philippa out of Sevigny,’ Jerott said. ‘Did you know that?’
The fringed lids dropped over Lymond’s eyes. Then he said, ‘She probably intended to do something rather different. Do you mean to leave Marthe then?’
‘Yes,’ said Jerott.
Lymond said, with his gaze still on his hands, ‘I can have no one who comes out of pique.’ He lifted his eyes.
Jerott said, ‘If you never met again, your marriage would stand, in the same way that mine never existed. I won’t come running back. When do we go?’
‘Now,’ Lymond said. ‘Before you are stopped, and in the same convoy as the Scottish Commissioners. I shall follow as soon as I can.’
‘But if you are stopped?’ said Alec Guthrie.
‘Assuming that I know what the Commissioners knew? They wouldn’t dare,’ Lymond said. ‘In any case, the secret is out. Some of the Commissioners have survived. All the de Guise family can do is hope that it will be kept quiet to avoid bloodshed.’
Jerott said, ‘And the poisonings? These were the first men of their niece’s kingdom. Failing proof, do they get off with murder?’
‘Failing proof,’ said Fergie Hoddim austerely, ‘a’body: sorner, overlier or Cardinal can get off with murder, and if ye want to suggest otherwise you’ll hae me to contend with. You’re tied, unless you want to do the same back and hang for it. He’s right. Fight them from Scotland.’
‘Thank you, Fergie,’ said Lymond. ‘I can’t think how the Court of Session is meeting, on the grass or on the corn, without you. You will be told when and from where the fleet is leaving. I am … conscious that you are all giving up money and position in France for this.’
‘We only came in the first place,’ Danny said, open-eyed, ‘because you were coming.’
And Archie Abernethy