Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [85]
She said, ‘You may sit. We have some news from Scotland. The English have tried to seize the islands of Orkney, and have failed with great losses. The Queen-Regent our mother also speaks of French and Scottish raids on the town of Berwick and other places on the Borders, killing five hundred English and taking two thousand prisoners. She mentions particularly the brave part played by my lord of Culter, your brother.’
‘Her grace is too kind,’ said the comte de Sevigny, the faintest edge on his voice. Mary Fleming hoped that her mistress had noticed it.
‘Because of these actions,’ continued the clear, French voice implacably, ‘the Queen-Regent our mother considers that Lord Grey of Wilton may be summoned back to England, or at least will lose most of his army. Thus those who fight in Scotland serve France as well, if not better than those who remain.’
She made the mistake of pausing. ‘My brother is fortunate,’ said Mr Crawford agreeably.
However overpowering he might have seemed, he was not, in fact, her uncle. Mary of Scotland’s young, timbreless voice lifted half a tone and gained in clarity. ‘His highness the Dauphin and I are to be married in the spring time. We shall require the services of wise and brave men to lead our people the Scots in our absence. You have our guerdon, Mr Crawford. His Majesty of France would readily grant remittance of your bargain for that purpose.’
It had been settled today: this marriage which whispering vulgarians throughout the court had been saying would never take place. He was perhaps the tenth person she had told: the sweet satisfaction of it wiped away all her irritation, even when he answered, ‘Your grace has my heartfelt good wishes. But does your grace think that the hills of Tweedsmuir will please Mademoiselle d’Albon?’
His voice, even when he was baiting her, betrayed nothing but the politest inquiry. Queen Mary said, ‘Your wife knows the Lowlands and has lived there. Would it not be more praiseworthy to take your marriage unrevoked back to Scotland? Or must you wait until your brother is killed in some battle? We are told there is no one else to bear arms but small children.’
‘We are all mortal,’ observed the comte de Sevigny kindly. ‘Should my brother succumb while the children are in their minority, I should have to appoint some kind of regent. My career, like your grace’s, lies in other directions. And should France be unable to annul my marriage I shall, with the greatest reluctance, have to travel eastwards.’
He had made the obvious point. The Pope, having made friends with the Imperialists, would be less amenable now to granting favours to the kingdom of France which had abandoned him. Mary said, her hazel eyes direct and pellucid, ‘We had hoped your new knighthood might have prompted you to chivalry towards your wife as well as to our mother, Mr Crawford. The comtesse de Sevigny is quite charming.’
It was not etiquette to rise until formally dismissed. But his intention of shortly leaving the room was as plain as if he had stated it. He said, ‘I am an ardent admirer of both ladies. But I do not wish to be married to either of them.’
She said, ‘You are impertinent, sir!’
It pulled him up, just a little, you could see. He said, giving her his every attention for perhaps the first time, ‘I beg your grace’s pardon. I have been redirected so often against my own interests that I am a little wary, perhaps, when all my friends seem to approach me with wheellock arquebuses in their hands instead of handkerchiefs.’
She lost no time in taking him up on that. ‘Would it be against your own interests, M. de Sevigny? You have a comté and many other possessions. Few men at the start of their career are admitted as a Chevalier of the Order of St Michael. Your redirection, as you call it, does not seem to have harmed you greatly so far.’
‘Quite the reverse,’ Lymond said. ‘It keeps me also within the light of your presence. Nothing in Scotland, your grace, could possibly provide such an inducement.’