Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [126]
When his wound was still raw, they had not shared the same bed. Later, he sometimes lay in her arms through his nightmares, but his greatest need often was privacy. Since he was wounded, he had never spoken like that.
Kathi said, ‘I was hoping you’d ask. After all that finger-work, do you think you could help pull this off?’
It was only a taffeta night-robe, its embroidered edges held by a clasp, soon undone. If she knelt by the bed, one gentle hand could (and did) smooth the light stuff from her shoulders, and the same throbbing touch could (and did) draw it down and down, when she stood.
It dropped. The mellow light of the candles curtseyed once, and then played, bright as the flute, on the slight, bare body of Kathi Sersanders, cream and brown, with the silvery marks from two births on her skin. Only two.
ROBIN HAD BEGUN to breathe quickly. The smile had gone from his eyes.
KATHI SAID, ‘I know what you know. I know what I want. May I take it?’
HE SPOKE HER name.
WHEN SHE TOUCHED the sheet at his throat, he caught her wrist, then slowly released it. She drew the white linen down, ushering the travelling light over his smooth, moulded skin. Her own body shared in its radiance.
WHEN HE PULLED her close with his arm, the kiss that followed was the kiss of their marriage night. And with all the tenderness of their marriage night, she cared for her husband; and he for her.
Chapter 14
His richt hand furth to welcum and to call,
And in his left hand breid and wyne withall.
FOR A SHORT while, with the greatest reluctance, Nicholas de Fleury arrived punctually at all his appointments.
Anselm Adorne, Baron Cortachy, was welcomed at Court and confirmed in his current possessions. He was given additionally, by the Queen, a small, profitable concession connected with her Palace at Linlithgow, and received permission to build a modest mill at the east end of that town, to the profit of himself and the convenience of the tenants of the King’s farms. He was invited by the King to appear as a guest judge at the November sitting of the Lords of Council in Civil Causes. Departing from Roslin, Lord Cortachy adopted rooms in his nephew’s large house in the Canongate, accompanied by his nephew’s associate Andro Wodman, the official Scots Conservator, with whom Adorne would now work in tandem. His daughter, Efemie, was placed in the care of a nun and a wet-nurse at Haddington, on the earnest instructions of the Queen, and Crackbene’s wife, Ada.
MISTRESS BEL OF Cuthilgurdy left Edinburgh, and rode west to see Jordan de St Pol at his castle of Kilmirren, Renfrewshire.
She was not well received. The porter, whom she did not know, at first returned to say, a little perfunctorily, that his lordship was away.
‘Oh, indeed?’ said Bel, who might be wee, fat and grey, but who had a tail of four armed men at her back, and a tongue like a graver. ‘And who’s that, pray, who was keeking out of yon top window a minute ago, like the wae combless capon he is?’
‘The demoiselle is mistaken,’ said the man. ‘I am sorry. It is always best to send word in advance.’
‘Aye. If I’d sent word in advance, he wouldna be here. Aweel. Do we fire off our hackbuts, or just take you in with us with a knife at your neck?’
‘Bel?’ Across the courtyard, the monumental person of the lord of Kilmirren himself had arrived in the doorway.
The porter turned. ‘My lord! I am dealing with this!’
The fat man descended the steps. ‘If you go on, I am afraid she will kill you.’ He walked over. ‘Let me give you some instructions for the future. If Mistress Bel of Cuthilgurdy appears on the road without warning again, you are to ring the alarm, send a courier to the sheriff of Renfrew, and call out the local militia. Is that clear?’
‘Yes, my lord,’ said the porter, who was a highly trained soldier and did not enjoy being dragged into a family joke.
‘Good. Come