Disorderly Knights - Dorothy Dunnett [155]
‘M. le Comte …’ It was the Chevalier de Seurre’s bantering voice. ‘May I point out that what you are proposing is to establish military rule in your country? You are creating an élite of professional leaders to replace your vanishing noblemen. The Queen Dowager comes to you, very humbly, for an army, say, with which to invade England. You say, you, “No. I do not wish to attack England today. Instead we shall turn on our garrisons and push out the French.” And so it is done. What can she do to stop you? You have the strongest fighting force in these islands.’
‘And who takes these decisions in any case?’ came Alec Guthrie’s level growl. ‘Yourself alone?’
Jerott found he was smiling a satisfied smile. So much for under-rehearsed empire building. Lymond said agreeably, ‘Let’s put another question before we start thinking of answers. Since when was the Queen Dowager at once a diplomat, a lawyer, an expert on political and military strategy, a seaman, a philosopher, a clear-minded and unprejudiced onlooker? I am none of these things. She, because in fact she is in many ways a good woman, is some of them. But we, as a unit, are all of them.’
‘I repeat my premise,’ said Alec Guthrie, but the fierce eyes under their hooded brows were narrowed on Lymond. ‘You want to rule.’
His hands loosely behind his back, Lymond considered his answer. He spoke almost at once. ‘My intention is to move among the battlefields of Europe and elsewhere and earn a great deal of money. My conditions are that at the same time we police and protect this nation as best we may, regulating the international squabbles, clearing both sides of the Border of the thieves and the lawless, carrying out justice where justice has up to now failed because of the threat of blood feuds. Beyond that I have no wish to usurp the authority of the Crown. For these services I should expect to be paid, by the Queen Dowager in Scotland and by the English Government over the Border. The payment, I can warn you now, will be in bags of tin pennies. But to your sons and grandsons the effects, if we do our work worthily, should be worth their measure in gold.’
Surprise, thought Jerott in the ensuing silence. Spiritual values have tottered into the discussion. He sounded as though he meant it. It doesn’t matter whether he means it or not. He needs a unifying principle, and he’s picked a crusade … any crusade. Malta, thy wing is here.
‘D …’ said Adam Black lock, and smiling and dogged, tried it again. ‘Dr Guthrie asked who would decide what the force will or won’t do.’
Lymond loosed his hands. He was now, Jerott saw, truly at ease, smiling at the big artist, glancing to the back of the hall where Archie Abernethy and his senior sergeants waited quietly, and then running his blue gaze over all the heads, red, brown, blond, black, bearded and clean-shaven.
‘When this winter is over you will be unbeatable in the world in the arts of war,’ he said. ‘More than that, you will have shared among you your judgements and your learning. Matters of policy will be settled by free discussion between us: who better could deal with it? I invite you now to criticize my views and my plans with your own. You are free to test on your own intelligence and initiative every step I take as your leader. The proviso is … that I am your leader. The casting vote is mine. The final decision is mine, and the unquestioned decision in emergency. And once I have issued my orders, however unlicensed the argument beforehand, I expect them to be instantly obeyed. There is only one punishment here for insubordination, and that is instant expulsion. I hope this is clear.’
‘I follow you on these terms.’ It was the quiet voice of the Serving Brother des Roches, who had held the Châtelet at Tripoli. ‘I follow you on any terms, sir. You have my respect.’
‘And ye hae mine,’ said Fergie Hoddim levelly, ‘if ye intend to argue every decision with this lot. Ye’ll hae to pull straws for who’s tae blaw out the tapers.’
‘The legal mind,’ said Lancelot Plummer caressingly. ‘If we get bored in Scotland, may we depose you