Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [186]
But for Sandy, Nicholas might have had a harder time than he did. Dunbar Castle was packed full of neighbours and henchmen in jubilant mood, at least to begin with. These, the Ellems and the Trotters and the Dicksons and the rest, were apt to remember that Nicholas de Fleury was a Burgundian before they remembered that he had ridden, after all, on Sandy’s last raid. And he might not be the King’s puppet like Adorne, but he was the one in the boat who had tried to take Sandy back. One of the Lochmaben supporters, Applegarth, made a point of that.
It was Sandy who pointed out that Nicol, alone, could hardly have hoped to get him back to Edinburgh anyway. He might not agree with what they were doing, but all he ever tried to do was talk them out of it. To which he had added that they might not especially want de Fleury, but he made a good hostage.
After that, it was like watching the lettering of a very long invoice, item duly following item, irrevocably, to the final accounting.
The garrison, settling in, began to relieve the tedium with forays into the countryside, lifting fresh provisions, driving off sheep and cattle and adding to the numbers of compliant women. The King’s Councillors, having established that Albany was there, and apparently waiting for French help, sent a competent force to camp in the town and fields facing the castle, both to prevent depredations and to dissuade sympathizers from joining the Duke. By the third week, it could be seen from the banners that the companies which made up the force belonged to men of some power and influence in the kingdom, and that they had both handguns and light artillery. A week after that, the rumbling of wheels and the lowing of oxen told that Lisouris or Cochrane or Bonar or maybe all of them had been detailed to fetch the big cannon. Unspoken message to Albany: Even if the French come, what can they do against this?
Nicholas hoped to God that the coastal lookouts had been warned, and Crackbene and John and Alec and Leithie and Gelis’s latest admirer the Great Andrew had ships tucked away and ready to intercept other ships, or were telling everybody that they had. There was no possibility, none, that the King of France would send an army to Scotland just now. But Sandy wouldn’t believe that. All they could do was persuade him that if an army did come, it would be nullified.
The banner of the commander, flying from a comfortable house in the town, was that of Drew Avandale. It had an avuncular look. Drew Stewart, in his day, had been King’s Guardian to this young King’s father. Very soon, if he kept to the plan, he would send his own familiar chamberlain to the causeway gate of the castle, asking Sandy to meet him and talk.
He sent the chamberlain, who was rebuffed but not killed, which was fortunate, as no response had came from France, and the mood within the castle had changed to one of angry anxiety. The failure was no surprise to Avandale, but it had established a channel. He was there, if Sandy wanted him.
Then the reply came from France, brought by sea on an innocent salt-ship. Untied, it kept rolling up. The top said, Ludovicus, Dei gratia Francorum rex, illustrissimo et praeclarissimo principi Alexander, Albani duci, salutem cum prosperitatis incremento … Cher et spécial ami …
The bottom said, Got your message, but No.
Nicholas, trying not to beat someone at chess, looked up and then stood as Sandy erupted into the room. ‘Louis won’t do it,’ Nicholas said, guessing.
‘Go on. Say it. You told me so,’ said Albany. He was deeply crimson.
Nicholas said, ‘Of course he wants to. But he can’t. It would be suicide while he’s at grips with Burgundy. What else does he say?’
Sandy flung down a paper. ‘That the ship which brought the courier will return in a week, and that it is his dearest wish that I should use it to travel to France, where there will be a welcome such as no man ever had, and freedom to live as his guest until the time is ripe for me to bring about that alliance of Scotland and France of which we both dream.’