Disorderly Knights - Dorothy Dunnett [82]
‘—He will become the fresh scapegoat,’ said Lymond, ‘Of course. But would you bear witness for him against your own Grand Master?’
‘If we lose Tripoli,’ said Gabriel, his beautiful voice grating, ‘I will call the Order from the ends of the earth to sit in judgement on this sorry son of Christ’s church.’
‘Upon which all the Spaniards will come and vote for Juan de Homedès’, said Lymond unspectacularly. ‘Nothing but death, I fear, is going to rid you of your saintly leader, and a good many of his little flock are going to trot before him to the grave. What you need,’ said Francis Crawford, his blue eyes guilelessly wide, ‘is an assassin.’
It was almost imperceptible, the change in Jerott Blyth’s face, the shadow of anxiety on Gabriel’s. ‘But I,’ added Lymond with continuing calmness, ‘am not the man.’
*
After only two days on Malta, M. d’Aramon’s two galleys left again, on the heels of the Ambassador, taking with them two knights of the Order, Graham Malett and Jerott Blyth, and, to the Grand Master’s anger, an unwanted observer in Crawford of Lymond.
Among those who wished them Godspeed was de Villegagnon, withdrawn from long vigil in St Lawrence’s, where he had prayed beside Gabriel most of that night. ‘You will know,’ he said abruptly to Lymond, ‘that I am not permitted to leave. And indeed, I may serve the Order best here. I commend your courage in doing what there is no call to do. I do not hope that even if God grants you life, you will come back to us.’
‘I do not come to Malta for wealth or honour, but to save my soul,’ said Lymond, quoting, his voice amused. It had been the inscription on one of the Turkish bracelets they had found after Mdina.
‘You were perfectly honest about your reasons for coming to Malta. This I grant you,’ said de Villegagnon. Under the tanned skin he had flushed, but his voice was level. ‘You have earned your wages as a captain of mercenaries. I only wish our own hands had not been tied. There might have been more for you to do.’
‘But in my other capacity, you must own I have been kept quite busy,’ said Lymond. ‘My post as an independent witness of the Order’s troubles with a strong bias towards the French.’
There was a moment’s silence. Then de Villegagnon said, neither confirming nor denying the implicit accusation, ‘I am not in the running to become Grand Master.’
‘But la Valette is, I believe,’ said the independent witness. ‘And Leone Strozzi, who is in French pay. And de Valuer, Governor of Tripoli, placed there I understand precisely to put him out of the present Grand Master’s way. And of course, Graham Malett. Except that so long as Juan de Homedès leads an all-Spanish cabal in Council, no French man or French ally has a chance.’
After a while, ‘Gabriel told me,’ said the Chevalier de Villegagnon heavily, ‘that you believed you had been brought here to rid us of the Grand Master by force. You accuse us now of inducing you to do so by guile. In the first assumption you are wrong. In the second.…’
The big knight paused. ‘If to inform the world of the arrogance, avarice and cruelty of a would-be Christian is to do wrong, then the blame is mine. I have heard you talk to the knights, I have seen you watch and listen, and I have heard the questions you do not ask. You know as well as any of us where we are weak. I am not asking you to help as a kingmaker,’ said de Villegagnon bitterly. ‘I ask only that all who would save Christendom should help us make this breach whole.’
Face to face they stood wrapped in violence, deaf to Jerott Blyth standing burning at Lymond’s side, and Gabriel waiting quietly at the door. Lymond, for once a fraction less than cool, wore an expression de Villegagnon could not interpret, and looked for a long time as if he wished to give no answer at all. At length, ‘Quite,’ he said. ‘I know perfectly well what you want. You are to be honoured for it. But I am not at all sure that Christianity’s best hope is not that the Order of St John of Jerusalem should disappear from the earth.’
VI
God Proposes
(Tripoli, August 1551)
IT took