Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [206]
Calm down. It is distressing; he is your brother; but there is nothing to worry about.
Approached with finesse, the King might have accepted it more calmly. As it was, with the impertinence of Dunbar Castle fresh in his mind, James was scathing. Reconciliation, indeed! Was it likely? Of course, Sandy thought that France would send an army to rouse discontented Scots against England. No doubt Sandy thought he would lead it. Once he realised that no army was coming, he would leave France and come back to take his punishment like a man, and settle down.
With variations, this was presumably what the King had been proclaiming ever since the siege of Dunbar. Whitelaw, who was present (his spectacles dim as soiled ice) had no doubt pointed out, with the rest, that any kind of sentence passed in absentia would simply drive Albany irrevocably to France. But now, with Albany not only remaining in France but about to be married, the situation might be thought to have changed.
‘And M. de Fleury?’ the King was saying. ‘Why is he here? A Burgundian, a guest in this country, he takes the part of the King’s own brother against the King. What did Louis offer him to be his man?’
‘A pension for life and the comté of Fleury, my lord,’ Nicholas said. ‘I refused.’
‘Because you are to be a double agent,’ the King said.
‘My lord, the King of France has no need of me in order to obtain information from Scotland. No. I felt, with my lord of Buchan, that time is on Scotland’s side. France cannot use force until her own war is finished. Whatever his grace of Albany may say, he will not be required to decide his own future until then. It is why it seemed best to allow him, if he wished, to leave Scotland.’
Nicholas paused. ‘I share my lord’s deep regret at the loss of life at Dunbar. It was inadvertent, I am sure. My lord Duke’s artillery was not accurate to that degree.’ Avandale was there as well, but he supplied no support, not even a nod of affirmation. His reasons were different from Henry’s. Before the King, they must not seem to be in collusion.
Unexpectedly, the support, such as it was, came from Buchan. ‘De Fleury did refuse. It looked genuine. Sandy was furious.’ It wasn’t graciously put, but it was said, and all the more convincing, perhaps, because it was cursory. Vaguely, Nicholas wondered what the Duchess Eleanor had told Hearty James about him, nearly three years ago. Not vaguely at all, he remembered what the Patriarch had said of the Duchess’s health. He hoped it wasn’t true. Both the Tyrol and her own country needed her.
He was dismissed with something like truculence and got out before anyone captured him. Parliament, long since summoned, was due to meet within the next week. Princess Margaret was also due to report for her wedding at Nottingham. What the King should do about Sandy and Margaret would have to be decided immediately. Nicholas had already had a note from Argyll, summoning him to the tavern. When a second messenger came, he tipped him to turn a blind eye and went off to his house.
There was a large crate stuck in the doorway, with Kathi and her brother Sersanders pushing from outside, and his wife Gelis pulling within. Gelis’s face was pink with laughter and she exclaimed when she saw him, in an exaggerated mixture of delight and despair. She looked beautiful enough to consume on the spot, and he saw no hope of a mattress for a very long time. He made a suggestion, and very soon the crate had slid indoors, leaving a strong smell of lard on the doorpost and an excited ballet of dogs in the street.
They collapsed into chairs, leaving the box on the floor. Mailie, beaming, came in with a tray. Gelis said, ‘Something told me you were back. They haven’t put you in prison?’
‘It wasn’t my fault,