Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [135]
‘Well, I think I prefer it to Wolfaert,’ said Nicholas mildly. ‘I suppose you’re right. All the good Henry names are Italian. But remember the problem, when you come to baptise your first son.’ He added, with vague hopefulness, ‘There was some talk of trailing a bladder, and shooting at it, for money?’
‘You think you can beat me?’ said Henry.
‘Jodi can beat you,’ said Nicholas scornfully. Henry was beginning to recognise jokes.
In fact, Jodi was remarkably good: so much so that Henry remarked tolerantly, ‘You’ve been practising.’
‘No. It’s your bow,’ Jodi said. ‘I brought it with me. That’s what I’m shooting with.’ He paused. ‘You don’t want it back? Aunty Bel said you didn’t.’
‘Aunty Bel?’ Henry repeated. It was sharp.
‘Mistress Bel. Not his real aunt,’ Nicholas said. ‘Bel of Cuthilgurdy.’
‘I don’t imagine she’s anybody’s real aunt,’ Henry said. ‘And if she was ever a Cuthilgurdy, it was forty years ago, my grandfather says. The land’s long since gone to somebody else. So how do you know her? Because she used to hang about my father’s sister?’
‘She went to Timbuktu with us. You were too young, perhaps, to remember. You would have enjoyed it.’
‘I’ve been to Africa,’ Henry said.
‘Jodi hasn’t. Where?’ Nicholas asked.
Later, they fished.
Later, Henry settled down to dice with the crew, and lost badly, and accused them of cheating. Later, he either ignored Jodi or sneered at him. Then the wind rose to gale force, and they lost a spar and had to cut a sail free and Alec broke open a keg of strong ale and they were all uproarious again.
Up and down; up and down. No, they were not going to fall in love and marry between Leith and Berwick; but at least they arrived in Berwick, all of them, rather soiled, rather damp, but undamaged in flesh and in spirit. Yare sent Jodi up to his house, from which he and his father would ride home with a good guard next morning. Nicholas stood with his other son on the riverside quay, watching the partial unloading begin. He said, ‘You don’t fancy sailing on to Middleburg? It would let you mend fences with Veere. Wolfaert can be an ass, but he’s quite a powerful man in these parts. Or you could sell your fells directly to Antwerp.’
‘You want to know what the competition is?’ Henry said. He turned from the river, his blue eyes held wide, as if by some new resolution. He said, ‘I heard you tried to drown my father’s sister at Berecrofts. I heard you thought it was my father, and held her under the water.’
‘I was there when she drowned,’ Nicholas said. ‘She tried to cross a frozen river in snow. Why do you think I would kill her, or your father?’
Henry said, ‘Because you wanted to be one of us.’
Nicholas said, ‘I wouldn’t have minded being one of you, although not for the inheritance. I had enough money. But in fact, I couldn’t be a St Pol without harming my own family, and I wouldn’t do that. If I were one of you, my marriage would be void, because my wife and your mother were sisters.’
‘So that wasn’t why you wanted to kill my father,’ said Henry. ‘It was because he knew what a slut your mother was. He was a boy when he was made to marry her, and she cheated. Everyone knew.’
Men shouted; horns blew; winches creaked. If you listened, you could hear the surf far away on the sandbanks. Nicholas said, ‘Everyone believed it, certainly. Your father and grandfather made sure of that. I think they had their reasons.’
‘I’m sure they had,’ Henry said. He laughed.
Nicholas said, ‘I meant that your father was fifteen when he married, and my mother was nearly twice as old, with a child on the way. He probably felt trapped and resentful. Does it matter? I have my own wife and son. I have no designs on your family. I was hoping that you would talk about it, like this, so that I could tell you so.’
Up, and down. Henry said, ‘You think I want to hear your pathetic excuses? Pardon me. You’ve dragged me on this squalid trip, and that’s enough. You won’t, I hope, expect