Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [69]
‘I think you should blame me for that, rather than Marthe,’ Lymond said. ‘The Dame de Doubtance’s interest in my parentage seems to have entangled us all. I am sorry if I have been less explicit than I might have been. It involves, as you might imagine, the closest members of my family.’
Jerott said, ‘If you believe anything discreditable about the closest members of your family then you’re a fool, Francis; and so are Marthe and Philippa for misleading you. Why don’t you stop them from tampering?’
Lymond laughed, and lifting his cup, toasted him mockingly. ‘Why don’t I go to Russia?’ he said. ‘In fact, Philippa appears dedicated to whitewashing my antecedents and Marthe to carrying out, with some reluctance, the last behests of the Lady. That, I imagine, concludes her interest, unless she has received further instructions from the hereafter. The two people who led us into the ambush at Lyon were both from her household.’
Jerott went very red. ‘Marthe didn’t know that,’ he said. ‘Neither did I. Marthe heard the hammering and let the boy out. You didn’t warn her.’ He paused and said shortly, ‘At any rate, you and Philippa dodged them. No real damage was done.’
‘No,’ Lymond agreed, and laid his cup gently down. ‘No real damage was done. Come. Finish your wine and I shall take you downstairs and past the sleeping d’Albons.’
‘Wait,’ said Jerott. ‘I had a message from Marthe. She had no success in Lyon in tracing the old woman’s key. She’s sent it to Philippa to try it at Sevigny. You know Philippa has been staying there, and went to see the Dame de Doubtance’s old house in Blois?’
‘Yes,’ Lymond said. ‘Nick Applegarth writes to me.’
‘You do keep her under surveillance, don’t you?’ said Jerott. ‘Apparently she has made no world-shaking discoveries. She is going to visit the convent at la Guiche and then leave for England. The Schiatti boys brought back a letter for Marthe. Is Philippa safe to wander about the countryside, Francis? I told Adam she had some Culter grooms with her.’
‘I have asked Nicholas to make up her entourage,’ Lymond said. He lapsed into thought. Jerott, losing all of his shallow momentum, remained resting and closed his eyes presently. When he opened them the room was quite silent and the fire, burning down, had left the room dim so that all he saw of the King’s commander in Paris was a line of admirable, unmoving limb and a hand finer than Marthe’s, loosely laid on the chair-arm.
He was not asleep. He was listening, Jerott saw, to the sound of rapid footsteps. A moment later there was a rap on the door and hardly waiting, Archie Abernethy marched in.
Encumbered with sickening torpor, Jerott assembled his guts and made to stand upright. ‘I beg your pardon. I fell asleep. Marthe must be worried.’
‘She was going to bed when I left her,’ said Archie Abernethy. Jerott had never noticed before how the little man studied Francis. The bright black eyes in the lined face covered every inch of his body and face, from his unchanged clothes to his hand by the half-empty wine cup. And Francis, although his words were not addressed to Archie, had his eyes fixed on him in return.
‘It’s one o’clock, Jerott,’ said Lymond softly. ‘Marthe will long since have been asleep. Archie?’
‘I was sweirt tae interrupt ye,’ said Archie. ‘And it’s a civil mischief forbye, no’ an army matter. But the clash has gone round that the Calvinists are holding a coven at the Hôtel Bétourné and sacrificing live bairns on the altar. The Châtelet’s sent out five hundred foot and archers to block either end of the rue St Jacques, and they’ve got wagons and armed men in the rue du Foin and the rue Poirée and all the other streets thereabout. They say the Calvinists will leave their meeting-house at two in the morning, and God help them when they skaill. The streets are clear, but the houses are buzzing with Papes like a wasp-bike, all gleg-set tae stone them.’
‘Five hundred isn’t enough,’ said Lymond. He was at his desk, pulling out writing-paper. ‘Thank you, Archie. I shall