Game of Kings - Dorothy Dunnett [257]
Erskine said forcibly, “He knew when he made the shot that he hadn’t a chance.”
“He knew that if he didn’t shoot, he hadn’t got a chance either,” said the Queen’s Advocate placidly.
There was a brief silence. Bishop Reid said, “Well, Mr. Crawford?”
Good. He was going to attempt it. Lymond said briefly, “If I hadn’t used the protection of an English lady, as Mr. Lauder so kindly mentions, the secret of the ships’ departure would be a secret no longer. I haven’t any evidence that Acheson’s message was unknown to me. I can only refer you to some probabilities.”
Argyll said sharply, “Go on!”
Lymond raised his eyes.
“Am I not an unlikely messenger? To anyone in English pay in Scotland I should be known as an enemy of Lord Grey and Lord Wharton and of the Earl of Lennox; and also the object of a … well-publicized pursuit by my brother. And even if I were approached, would I risk it for a moment, my relationship with these three men being what it was?
“But the man Acheson was a carrier of dispatches by trade, and an unscrupulous one. We know from what Mr. Erskine has said that Mr. Acheson knew the contents of this message; knew that it was a matter of delivering more than two perfectly legitimate messages from Sir George.
“How did he know? There was no provision originally for Acheson to have a companion. The safe-conduct was widened by Sir George himself to admit me, in order to promote an exchange of prisoners. There is no question, naturally, of accusing Sir George of complicity in treason, therefore you have to believe either that, being provided with this innocent means of getting myself safely to England, I confided my dreadful secret to this perfect stranger; or that when I joined him Acheson was already carrying the dispatch, in which case he was unlikely, surely, to talk about it to me.”
Plausible again. The Lord Advocate saw the eyebrows raised around the table and heard the muttered exchanges.
Reid leaned forward. “What then was the object of going to England? Oh: I recall. The Stewart girl.”
It was what Lauder was waiting for. He hurled his pen from him so far that it cracked on the oak, and flung up an arm like a semaphore to flatten his hair.
“So-o, Mr. Crawford. Your sole reason for going to England, your lonely and chivalrous reason for giving yourself up, for flinging yourself on the mercy of these gentlemen who, as you have so laboriously proved, wished nothing better than to see you dead, was to arrange that the Lady Christian Stewart might go free?”
“Yes.”
At last. Now, by God, you’re hating it, thought Lauder. And I’m going to thrash you until you hate me as well. And then, my lad, you’re going to lose that cool temper and the Bishop had better look out. “Yes,” he repeated aloud. “This is the girl, young, blind, wealthy, in close touch with the Court, whom you encouraged to obtain secret information for you—”
“That is untrue.”
“—while posing as a mysterious and illicit lover?”
“Both these accusations are untrue. Confine your attacks to me, Mr. Lauder.” The controlled voice clashed with Buccleuch’s: “Dammit, we can’t have that, Lauder. The girl was no light o’ love.”
The Lord Advocate said sombrely, “If you will listen, Sir Wat, you will hear that I am implying the reverse. I am saying that this was an honest, gentle and virtuous girl, a young girl of open and innocent years,