Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [346]
‘I think that was true,’ Adam said. ‘For a long time.’
‘But not at Sevigny?’
‘No,’ said Adam. ‘I saw them at Sevigny.’ He stopped and then said, without looking at Philippa’s mother, ‘As the pen needs the penknife, they are made for one another. And they know it.’
He could feel how still she had become. ‘But …?’ said Kate.
‘But it is of the spirit only,’ Adam said.
The width of her surprise, it seemed, filled all the room. ‘Why? Why?’ said Kate. And then, ‘No. Of course, it is not fair of me to ask you. But what then was Austin …? No, you didn’t know that either.’ Staring at him, her sunburned brow was lined in her perplexity. ‘Then why did they part?’
He had known he was going to be asked that question. He answered it with the truth. ‘Because Francis could not support it,’ he said.
*
For more than three weeks Adam Blacklock stayed at Flaw Valleys, and during that time was sometimes the only company Kate had, for Philippa seemed to find the society of others for many days quite beyond her.
It was strange for Kate, after eight years of widowhood, to have another likeminded human being waiting, quietly, to be talked to and to give advice when she wanted it. In fact, she did not realize how much of the past they shared, until the first morning after his arrival she knocked on his door, and taking in the small offering of food and drink she had prepared for him, had seen his eyes widen at the sight of her companion.
‘Ah,’ said Kate, ‘last night, you were too late to meet each other. Master Blacklock, this is Khaireddin Crawford. He prefers to be called Kuzúm.’
‘And I prefer to be called Adam,’ Blacklock said. He held out his hand. ‘I know your father.’
Kuzúm, his yellow hair brushed for the occasion, returned the handshake cordially. ‘He rides horses very well. I expect you ride horses very well too. Were you in Russia?’
‘Yes,’ said Adam. ‘He rode on sledges in Russia. He was very good at that as well.’
‘We tried to ride on sledges last winter,’ Kuzúm said. ‘But I was only six, so I didn’t get on very well. I’m going to see Fippy. You brought her home, didn’t you? She isn’t my mother, you know.’
‘I know,’ said Adam. His throat was aching.
‘Aunt Kate says she is going to cry,’ Kuzúm said, gazing at him with those very blue eyes. ‘And I am not to mind, because it is only because she is a girl, and tired after her journey. Men don’t cry.’
‘Don’t they?’ said Adam.
‘Well, only sometimes. I broke my arm once, in the apple orchard. My father doesn’t cry.’
‘No,’ said Adam.
*
On the third day when, for once, she had let Kuzúm out of her sight, Philippa said to her mother, ‘What has Adam told you?’
At last. Kate sat down, and then got up again because it was a good chair, and she had butter on her skirt. ‘He was very discreet,’ she said. ‘But I think I gathered that you have a fine marriage but not a complete one.’
‘That was discreet,’ said Philippa. ‘And what did Austin say?’
‘Austin was biased,’ said Kate firmly. ‘You know he has called twice a day?’
‘I shall see him tomorrow,’ Philippa said, as she had said for three days. ‘In any case, what did he say, including the bias?’
‘It partook,’ said Kate, ‘of the nature of a full-scale cursing against one Crawford of Lymond, but whether for sins of omission or commission is not entirely clear. You wouldn’t like to clear up the point?’
‘No,’ said Philippa. ‘If you don’t mind.’
‘I do,’ said Kate. ‘I don’t care to have my second-best bedroom looking like the den of a hibernating bear. In fact, I am beginning to feel like the gentleman who killed his sister with his bare hands for weeping on a day of official rejoicing. What is wrong?’
‘I don’t know,’ Philippa said. ‘I have to know what is happening.’
‘And you know what is happening, shut up in this room?’ Kate said. And knew, as soon as the words left her lips that, of course, she had hit on the truth.
‘Yes,’ said Philippa. ‘On the ship …’
‘Adam told me that you were upset