Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [357]
‘Haven’t you been able to have her watched?’ Austin said. ‘Or has your spy forgotten you? Or … No. I forgot. You have been on the high seas for quite some time, haven’t you? You wouldn’t even know if she was dead.’
*
Except by pleading, there was no possible answer. The anguish of it got to Richard, or a shred of the kind of perception one still had not learned to expect of him. Richard said, ‘You heard my brother. Where is Mistress Philippa?’
It gave Austin pleasure, clearly, to prolong the silence. He said, at length, ‘In Flaw Valleys, with her mother. She wrote me two days ago, to say that since she would never remarry, it might be better if we did not continue to meet. An abrupt quittance, don’t you think, for the girl she once was? Or could she have been preparing for your arrival?’
Francis Crawford had experienced this form of antagonism before, and when well, was fully qualified to withstand it. Now, nothing was especially easy. The hammer-beats of relief made him unsure for a while of his stance on a floor which still swayed like a sea-deck. He said, ‘Philippa didn’t know I was coming. I am on my way to my own house. I have no intention of seeing her.’
‘I thought I would make sure of that for you,’ Austin said. ‘Lord Culter will, I am certain, be transferred fairly easily, after due negotiation over the Border. Your own stay will, I think, be rather longer. A Marshal of France, a man whose ingenuity wrested Calais and Guînes from us and placed my uncle in such harsh captivity, will not soon, I’m afraid, be forgiven. Nor would it be reasonable to expect your conditions of imprisonment to be any less strict than those of my uncle. I am speaking, after all, to the man who tricked us so ably at Douai, at Flavy-le-Martel, at Ham, at Calais … and, of course, in the matter of his personal bond in Paris. Lord Culter, you will be lodged here.’
He rang a bell and the door opened. ‘And my brother?’ Richard was saying.
‘He will be in private hands,’ said Austin Grey. ‘Where, it is not for me to tell you.’
Richard, a strong man, was resisting the guard who, entering, had gripped his arms to remove him. ‘I demand to know where,’ he said. ‘I demand to be lodged in the same room. Bring Lord Wharton.’
‘Lord Wharton is away,’ Austin said. ‘Take him out.’
The fool was still resisting. Lymond said, ‘For God’s sake get out, Richard. If you do what they want, they’ll release you.’
It got home, evidently, for Richard hesitated, and then turned and walked out. The door closed.
‘You knew we were coming,’ Lymond said.
‘Obviously. There are some powerful people in France,’ said Austin Grey, ‘who dislike you nearly as much as I do. I do not think you quite realize yet what you are dealing with. I know what happened to Philippa in … in the Hôtel des Sphères in Paris.’
The power to cerebrate every physical response had long since left Francis Crawford. He sat down. He said, ‘How do you know?’
‘It was an evening of quite some violence,’ said Austin. ‘Didn’t you imagine it might become a matter of public knowledge?’
Lymond said, ‘I know it’s not a matter of public knowledge. I have just come from Paris.’
‘It hardly counts now anyway, does it?’ said Austin. ‘Now you have left France. Do you still tell me you are not going to join Philippa?’
Whatever he said, he was not going to be believed, but he did keep looking directly at Austin, so that the other man could see his eyes. He said, ‘I left Philippa because I don’t want to be near her. She left me because she doesn’t want me beside her. If you ask her, she will tell you this also.’
‘You devil,’ said Austin Grey in a low voice. ‘Oh you devil, what have you done to her?’
‘Everything, I think; except kill her,’ said Francis Crawford. There was nothing it seemed worth while adding. Eventually, he said, ‘I think you should tell me what you are going to do with me.’
‘Nothing,’ said Austin Grey. ‘I couldn’t make you suffer enough. I haven’t the skill. But I know someone who has.