Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [118]
‘And Simon?’
‘Is still in Madeira, and we all have to hope that he’ll stay there. The house is empty, Nicholas. You can say what you want to say, and so can I.’
He rose then, and walked forward, and took his place quietly at her feet, on the stool Jodi had used. She was in her late fifties; old enough to be his mother. Younger than his real mother would have been. He said, ‘What happened at Roslin. I was able to share it with Gelis, instead of having to choose. How did you know?’
She said, ‘I loved Umar, as you did, and this was no different. You think a man, or a woman, dies only once? They die afresh every time a friend hears of it, and be they ten years in the tomb, that is the day that the new-bereaved friend gets to mourn them. You gave Umar his due: the shame was that you knew he was dead, and Gelis didn’t. I made sure it wouldn’t happen again.’
He said, ‘You knew Phemie.’
‘I didna know she was childering. You were the one she trusted with that. But I was here at the sickbed when Adorne’s wife lost her wee bairn, and so was Phemie. I was there in Bruges with Phemie and Margriet when the Princess had her first son under his roof. I spent time with them all many times over, and I would have been glad to see Anselm Adorne share his life with that lady.’
‘Have you told him so?’ Nicholas said.
‘You think I should have been at the kirk,’ Bel of Cuthilgurdy said. ‘And so maybe did he. But I’ve seen him, and Archie. I’ve seen Robin, too.’
Nicholas said, ‘The last time we met—’ and broke off.
Bel stared at him, her fists on her two knees, her mouth set like a saw. ‘Christ fend us, Nicol de Fleury, is this all that ye can make of it? Four years ago, Robin thought ye were God. I charged you to use your influence right, and you did. Get that straight in your mind. I’ve no time for the self-centred man: him that’s aye off in a corner, squeezing the plukes on his conscience. What you’ve done wrong is done: God’ll judge you. It’s what you do now that everything hangs on.’
‘Including me,’ Nicholas said. He started to laugh. ‘I’ve just escaped a charge of ecclesiastical theft. Davie Simpson.’
‘Do you tell me?’ said his hostess. She released her fingertips and scuffed absently at some dog hairs, which fell from her chest to her lap. ‘And that’s a hanging matter, you say? I’d say more like being tied to a board at a horse’s tail. So Davie Simpson played a prank on you, the wee naughty man. Ye ken he pitched me out of my house?’
‘I heard. He’ll pay for it,’ Nicholas said.
‘That’s why I mentioned it. How?’
‘Andro Wodman will tell you,’ said Nicholas. He made it sound like a kindly reminder. ‘At least, I assume he will. You sent him to Flanders, didn’t you, to watch David last year? May I ask you something?’
‘Air’s cheap,’ she said.
‘Yes. Andro and Simpson were in the same company of Royal Archers in France. Wodman killed a man, and he and Davie both left and joined St Pol, who had once been an Archer and was now settled and wealthy in France. I’ve asked Wodman, and now I’m asking you. Did anything happen that would give Simpson a hold over the old man?’
‘What did Andro tell you?’ she said. It was a waste of time. He could tell.
‘That he killed the man, Cressant, in a hand-to-hand fight over a personal matter and that St Pol offered him a lucrative job that tempted Davies also to leave. He had to pretend to have leprosy.’
‘Aye. That’s about it,’ Bel said. ‘And you’re not thinking straight, Nicol. If Jordan de St Pol had anything to fear from Davie Simpson, he wadna have dismissed him. He wouldna even have employed him before that. He would have killed him.’
‘But there’s more,’ Nicholas said. ‘There must be more. Why do you always …’
‘Keep my own counsel? I’m entitled. But I wouldna hold back what would harm you. This is the truth. St Pol will do just what he wants to do. Davie Simpson has no way of controlling him.’
‘But you arranged for him to go to the Tyrol,’ Nicholas said. He felt like saying it. ‘How did Simpson get