Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [370]
‘I was seven years older than Gavin,’ Sybilla said. ‘Then after illness and imprisonment, Francis—my husband—came back to France. He had forgotten his marriage. He had a child, Marthe, by the Dame de Doubtance’s daughter, whom he had also known before he met me.’
‘He also had a son by her earlier,’ Philippa said. ‘Didn’t he? A sick boy who died.’
‘A sick boy, and a daughter. So it seemed to the Dame de Doubtance that her great scheme was going to fail: to breed a son from Francis Crawford who would carry his blood and do what the times had been wrong for the first baron to do. Therefore she brought back to him the recollection of our marriage, and he came back to Scotland, and found Gavin in his place, and Richard a young boy of nine.’
‘That was when he threw Bailey out,’ Philippa said.
‘Yes,’ Sybilla said. The room had become very dark.
‘But not Gavin? He didn’t expose your marriage to Gavin as bigamous, and Richard as …’
‘Gavin Crawford was a vicious and venomous man,’ Sybilla said. ‘But I had wronged him very deeply. He chose to remain my husband in appearance, and to have Richard reared as his legitimate heir. In return, I received the discretion to visit France when I wished and my children, when they were born, were brought up as Gavin’s.’
Francis said, ‘Why? Why did you not …?’ and broke off.
‘Disown Gavin and make it all public? For Richard’s sake,’ Sybilla said. ‘And when he came back to me, Francis—my Francis—had only four years of life left to him.’
‘And all the rest you spent in that castle, tied to his son, putting up with threatened disclosures from Bailey, watching Francis …’ Philippa choked.
‘I had given my word,’ Sybilla said, ‘to both men that I would never tell Francis or anyone else what had happened. And I had committed a sin. To marry a man and his son is not permitted.’
‘So Francis suffered,’ Philippa said.
And Lymond said, ‘No. I understand. You had given your word. And it was more than that. Every step of the way, the signs have been laid for us, haven’t they … even yesterday?’
‘For much of the way,’ Sybilla said. ‘Camille de Doubtance knew me when I was at la Guiche. Through her I made the journey to Ireland where Richard met Mariotta; and Mariotta had cousins who knew Oonagh O’Dwyer.’
‘Every astrologer in France seems to have been her intimate,’ Lymond said. ‘And … Kuzúm?’
Sybilla returned his look steadily. ‘May be Oonagh’s child,’ she said. ‘Or may be Joleta’s. Marthe knew.’
‘And is dead. Poor sister. A pawn more helpless even than …’ He broke off.
‘It is as well, you see, that we do not know,’ said Sybilla. ‘And Kuzúm will always have Kate, and of course, Archie.’
He had forgotten Archie. His brow cleared. ‘And, of course, Archie, everyman’s keeper. Christ,’ he said despairingly. Taire d’une mouche un elephant.’
Philippa turned her head and saw Sybilla look too, and the lines on her firelit face ease a fraction. What this meant to Francis struck her, suddenly, for the first time. She looked at the paper, still held in his hand.
As if she had spoken, he looked down as well. Then walking forward, smiling a little, he held it to Philippa. ‘Read,’ he said, ‘so that you will know what your children might have been. Then give it to Sybilla.’
‘Might have been?’ Sybilla said.
He dropped by her side and laid his hand over hers, where it gripped the chair arm. ‘What did you think I would do?’ he said. ‘Rush to Midculter and bastardize all my nieces and nephews? These are yours. Keep them. Burn them, if you wish. It is over.’
‘John Dee made a prophecy,’ Philippa said. ‘Do you remember it? He said that now you knew what you wanted. The first thing you would have, but the second you would never have; nor would it be just that you should.’
‘I was thinking of it,’ said Lymond. ‘The first thing was you, my Lady bricht … The second, it seems, was my heritage.’
‘Do you regret it?’ said Sybilla. ‘I would have kept it for you if I could. I did not know, you see, what you were to be.’
He lifted her fingers, and looking at her, kissed them. ‘With the Dame de Doubtance to blame,’ her son