Disorderly Knights - Dorothy Dunnett [206]
‘You’re a liar. She’s in the village, with Archie Abernethy after her. Kate, I don’t like these little accidents that happen to Philippa. When I say under your eye I mean it. Until you hear from me, I want you to watch her, or have her watched by someone you can trust, night and day. Unless …’
For the first time, Lymond hesitated, and Kate set her teeth. If she had been a man, she would have clipped him over the jaw for his own sake, as he had done to Philippa. But Philippa was her child, and she was not a man. Seething with sullen anguish, she had to let him go on. He said slowly, ‘I’ve hesitated to come, for it puts you in a thankless position. But for Philippa’s sake I have to try. Someone hinted to me once, a few months ago, that Philippa had some information of detriment to me. I gather it was nothing particularly deadly. It sounded like some childish effort to puncture my undoubted conceit … and God knows, if it would exorcise her fear of me, I don’t care who pulls the rug from under me. That doesn’t matter. Except that more and more it seems possible that Philippa’s dirty secret, whatever it is, may be the cause of these strange accidents. Suppose, Kate, that she has got hold of something that another person besides myself might want concealed?’
The surprise to Kate was total. She stared at Lymond, scowling. ‘There’s nothing that I know of,’ she said. ‘And heavens, of course she won’t tell you herself now, less than ever. I think … I think in fairness you’ll have to tell me who told you.’
‘Graham Malett.’
‘Oh.’ Kate’s brown eyes became fixed. Gabriel. She said, ‘Sir Graham and Philippa met at Hampton Court, in my brother-in-law’s house, and became sister-spirits. I wonder if … George Paris’s bribe!’ exclaimed Kate in a burst of discovery, and blushed crimson to the raspberry-stained collar.
There was a brief silence, during which Lymond’s face altered, and she could see exhaustion flattening him like unwanted armour. He said, ‘All right. I haven’t heard that. I forget we are on two sides. It may help you to know that I knew it already, if you will believe that. If Philippa really has proof that Paris is a double agent and Paris knows it, then he may be the source of your trouble. Or … you ought to know … that apart from his spying activities between France and Ireland and England and Scotland, he is involved in a small private transaction of extreme illegality partnered by a man called Cormac O’Connor and a wily old seaman who would seduce Philippa with the greatest of pleasure, but wouldn’t attack her, and affecting people like—my God,’ said Lymond, coming to an abrupt halt himself. ‘The Kerrs.’
Kate said icily, ‘We are not on two sides. There was no need to spring into full national plumage and tell me all that. I was going to tell you anyway. George Paris was in Uncle Somerville’s house getting paid when Sir Graham visited Philippa. Paris and Sir Graham left about the same time in spite of Uncle Somerville’s efforts, and there was an accident on the river. Paris got into the water—he can’t swim—and Sir Graham dived in from his boat and rescued him. Profuse thanks to God and Sir Graham, and eventually the two part after exchanging names, Paris giving a false one. So Philippa says. She knew who he was, but didn’t tell Sir Graham.… We are not on two sides,’ repeated Kate angrily at the look on Lymond’s face. ‘It only seemed politic at the time. In any case, when Sir Graham collected himself and his belongings again, wringing wet, and went to continue downriver, he found he had Paris’s cloak. And in the cloak, a bag containing a great sum of gold, in English money, and some writing from the English Privy Council.…’
‘Did Paris guess what had happened to it?’ said Lymond.
Kate shook her head. ‘It was very heavy. He must have assumed it fell safely to the bottom.’
‘Then what did Sir Graham do with the cloak and the money?’ asked Lymond.
‘Tried to trace the owner, of course, under the name Paris had given him. And of course, couldn’t find him. So he went back to Uncle Somerville