Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [121]
In short. Argyll began peeling an orange.
‘These indeed are the issues,’ Avandale said. ‘So what of his character, Will? He performed his office of Conservator, as I recall, with integrity, and without ruffling too many merchants—apart, that is, from those who thought him too close to the King.’
Will Scheves set down his cup and rubbed his classical nose: a comely-faced, round-shouldered medical man whose even humour and quick wits and energy had brought him within sight of the Metropolitan’s chair. Colin Campbell enjoyed an intellectual skirmish with Will Scheves. Master Whitelaw had less use for frivolity, but set aside time, now and then, for a long, civilised conversation with the Archdeacon on some abstruse subject. Fortunately Will, although privately pretending to wilt, could give Whitelaw good measure. And, because of his student friendship with Andreas, Will Scheves could draw on an insider’s view of Adorne.
‘Dr Andreas is of his household, and loyal, but is not alone in his good opinion of the gentleman. In Bruges, Lord Cortachy has always been severe but respected. The town may have discarded him for the service he gave to the Duke, but no one has ever proved him dishonest. If he settles here, he will serve this country as well. On the other hand …’
‘He loves his peers?’ Avandale said. Though born illegitimate, Drew Avandale was of royal Stewart blood, and had suffered his share of sycophancy. And all of them knew, Will Scheves most of all, how readily this King responded to a personable man with a confident manner.
‘We all do,’ the Archdeacon said. ‘But there’s a little more to it than that. This is a nobleman: his kinsmen are Genoese dukes. He is drawn to remind them, perhaps, that he walks in the same eminent circles. But the book he presented to the King was by Jan, his son, and I think that patronage for his son was what he chiefly hoped for. I’m not sure what my lord of Cortachy now expects of the King, but I can promise you that it will take very little to revive the King’s liking for him. And after that, you will not be able to reject him.’
Argyll said, ‘That was what I was thinking. It was what we feared with de Fleury.’
‘Our decision, as I understand it, was to encourage my lord of Albany’s friendship with de Fleury,’ said Whitelaw. He had taught the King in his day, but not Albany: Argyll sometimes wondered, with amusement, how he’d got out of it.
Avandale said, ‘That, I think, is where my reasoning is tending. If we trust these two men, then there is something to be said for placing them in opposite camps. One will balance the other.’
‘And do we trust them?’ asked Colin Campbell. ‘What did our agile young Burgundian say, in this latest friendly encounter? I trust it was friendly?’ His hands were sticky. Scheves stretched out an arm and proffered a bowl and a napkin from the side table. The water was scented. Avandale’s house always had everything.
Avandale said, ‘Encounters with de Fleury could be said to be wearing but friendly: I am sometimes made to feel, Colin, that I am conversing with you and Archie at once. I am sure he will address me in Gaelic one day. Meantime, he reports regularly, which was the condition of our arrangement. On the business side, he has put in place a skilful structure, supported by Nowie, which co-ordinates the landing and marketing of salmon along the length of the east coast of Scotland, from the Moray Firth down to Berwick-on-Tweed. It will be run by Adorne’s nephew, in partnership with the Berecrofts family and with Wodman’s blessing. He will contribute ships, managed from his own second tenement in Leith, and then from overseas if he goes back. He talks of links with Dumbarton, through Colquhoun. He is also looking into Darnaway timber.’
‘A word of warning,’ said Whitelaw. ‘As I have frequently