Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [143]
She knew him, of course, from her previous visits, as she was herself known to most of the higher officials. She had served in the royal household; her cousin Wolfaert van Borselen had been married to the King’s royal aunt; she was the wife of the Flemish prodigy Nicholas. Once, she had been too close to Simon de St Pol, and had attracted the interest of the King. It had ended in shame and embarrassment for Simon and for James, rather than for her, and the King had since accorded her guarded respect. Latterly, she had been accepted in more general terms, in her own right, since she knew how to conduct herself, and had an excellent grasp of the inner niceties of business. That is, she always knew who was preying on whom, and was an intelligent listener.
She knew by heart, as Nicholas did, the inner structure of the Court. You had to recognise everyone in power. Titles were not a safe guide. The Master Cook was not a man in an apron. He was the administrator who ensured, if the King wished to travel with five hundred members of his household to greet an incoming embassy, that there would be fleshers and fishmongers, cattle and poultry, cooks and cooking utensils and ovens to provide all they needed for as long as they needed it. He accompanied the monarch to war, and if the King elected to honour a subject with a visit, the Master Cook would present himself and his staff to the host three days in advance, and would be responsible at the end for distributing drink-silver to all the hosts’ servants. Master Cooks were honoured with lands and privileges and frequently moved to other eminent posts. Ushers of the King’s Chamber Door were equally versatile. They could be Keepers of Royal Castles and pay the King’s debts, collect his dues and arrange for his personal luxuries, imported in the Usher’s own ships, or those of the King. Master tailors handled everything to do with woven cloth, from outfitting the entire court at Yule, to constructing tents for the King and his army. The new Archbishop of St Andrews dosed the King and imported his books and his medicines. Thomas Cochrane, master mason, built castles for comfort and war, and designed and assembled what was needed to furnish them, both for comfort and war. There was no clear demarcation. They acted, and were rewarded, according to their various abilities, and the order of these was very high.
Of the Lords Three, Gelis had found some affinity with Mr Secretary Whitelaw, who knew Cologne as she did, and possessed a practical knowledge of law which she seldom tired of dissecting. Colin Campbell she usually left to Nicholas, who could match him in malicious urbanity. But Avandale, riding beside her just now, equated more closely to the courtly lords of Brabant and Burgundy, Zeeland and Flanders whom she knew, as deft in the field as when negotiating a marriage in some foreign throne room. A handsome man for his years, Andrew Avandale spoke with disarming enthusiasm of his preferences in music and poetry, and entertained her with faintly scandalous stories of prominent figures they both knew, and brilliantly scandalous stories of courts overseas. About the monarchy, he had no tales to tell. He had been an astute Warden of the West Marches in his time, and guardian of at least two of the great castles of the kingdom. He told her an anecdote, not to be repeated, about the present Bishop of Argyll (a Colquhoun), which made her laugh aloud.
They were riding towards the country of Lennox from which his rents came—the disputed rents from the earldom of Lennox which were his for life, but which might also be claimed by Stewart of Darnley, or even by Haldanes and Napiers. It was a measure of Avandale’s character and standing, and also that of Lord Darnley, that the situation, however irregular, had been accepted on all sides, if without particular pleasure. Stewart country such as the Lennox was historically loyal to the throne, and, in this instance, encompassed the salmon fisheries of Loch Lomond as well as the great castle of Dumbarton, built where the