Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [192]
He said, ‘Demoiselle, it is so long ago. Is it certain that the child died? Is there a record of it, or a priest or a physician who might remember what happened?’
But she had shaken her head. ‘It is what everyone asks. But I have never heard of any such.’
He stayed as long as was polite, or a little longer, and left. But although he spent the rest of the day enquiring, he could find nothing, any more than he had found in Dijon.
And yet there should have been something, had the child died. Of course, Adelina—Julius’s late wife Adelina—had insisted that it had lived. But this lady did not think so. And Adelina had had many reasons for lying. She had been lying. If the child had lived, Marian would have told him.
He rode back to his companions in Dijon, and completed his return to the King in a state of abstraction which, misinterpreted, roused them to jealousy. They found Louis south of Noyers and hunting in Moutiers St Jean: he appeared to intend to move west, and showed no further interest in Dijon. It was some little while before Nicholas realised that he had been sent away because the King was waiting for news of a war. Then word came. Electing to go into battle at last, Maximilian, husband of the little Duchess of Burgundy, had led an army of twenty thousand against the French just north of Arras, and had won some kind of victory. That was, half the French and a third of the Burgundians had died, and the Burgundian army had been forced to retreat because the ground couldn’t be held
Nicholas was allowed to go back to Paris. In his absence, he discovered, the King had sent for his dear cousin Alexander, Duke of Albany, made him officially welcome, and set out the pension he would have, in addition, of course, to a lucrative marriage. Naturally, nothing could be done about Scotland just at the moment, but the time would come very soon.
Listening to Albany’s account at the Cock, Nicholas persisted. ‘It won’t come soon. He’s lost half his men. He’s got Maximilian against him in person. Sandy, do you want to stay here for the rest of your life? For that’s what will happen.’ But, of course, it was no good. Sandy had stormed out of Scotland. He wouldn’t go back with nothing to show for it. Sandy said, ‘You return, if you like it so much.’ Nicholas could tell, from the tone, that he knew what inducement Nicholas himself had been offered to stay. It was considerable. It did not include a new wife, but he gathered that Louis was willing to import his old one. After all, Jean de Gruuthuse had a van Borselen mother. To Sandy, his desire to leave must seem indeed like rejection.
Nicholas said, ‘Look. I don’t need to go back to Scotland at once. There are people I could visit in Bruges. Prosper de Camulio is moving about, and I’m told that the Patriarch of Antioch has just been in Tours. They both serve the Pope. They could both be helpful in ways that France perhaps can’t. If the King allows me to go, I could return to you in the autumn, and we could talk again about Scotland.’
The Duke agreed, haughtily. Being Sandy, he was not even as apprehensive as he should be. He could do without Nicol de Fleury. He had arrived in France. He was well fed, well housed, and on affectionate terms with the King. He was still confident. One could only hope, regretfully, that something might occur to alarm him. Nicholas wondered who the prospective wife was. Someone really insignificant, and Sandy would simply go home. Someone truly grand, and it would be apparent to everyone that Louis was aiming