Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [207]
‘There is more. You could lick the door while you’re waiting. So what’s happening?’ Gelis said. It was fair enough. Sersanders also needed to know, and he would tell Berecrofts and the rest. Nicholas talked as they ate. From Albany and the French, he went on to speak about Bruges, addressing himself to Sersanders and Kathi at the end.
‘So you see, it is settling. Diniz suggested that the time is quite near when your uncle might think of going back. But I have one piece of sad news. Arnaud has lost his wife. She didn’t recover from the birth of Aerendtken. Friends have taken the little girl and the baby, but he is very distressed. Antoon is helping. He is now a canon of Lille: I called and saw him. And I saw Julius and Moriz in Cologne. Julius would like to come here, but only, I think, because business is slow. With a little help, it should recover.’
Gelis said, ‘He might be better out of Cologne. It must remind him of Anna.’
Kathi said, ‘What did Moriz think?’ He always forgot, when away from her, how slight she was, and how brilliant her eyes. Robin was well, and the children: he had established that right away, as he had been reassured about his superior page Jodi.
He said, ‘Moriz has worked hard at the business and is loath to see it abandoned, I think. But it isn’t fair, either, to leave him and Govaerts stranded in Germany. Their help was only meant to be temporary. What is happening here?’
He listened to all of them. First the business, then the Court news. Mar was back from the Don and the Spey, fulminating against Tam and all the Cochranes, and everyone’s Constables and bailies, including his own. The Queen was pregnant again, and had vacated the marital bed till next summer. ‘Ludovico da Bologna was talking about that,’ Nicholas said. ‘That is, he was discussing the Queen with a clerk in Bologna who wants to write a book about women. Father Ludovico knew her father. He says you and your uncle told him a lot on the journey to Poland. Your uncle thinks the Queen secretly wants to be like the Great Margaret. You know? The one who ruled Scandinavia for ever?’
‘It just felt like it, I expect,’ Gelis said. ‘So you gave Father Ludovico all the gossip? How was he?’
‘Hungry,’ Nicholas said. ‘Rather like me. No. I’d better go. I’m supposed to be reporting to Lang Bessie. Newly home from the sea, I deserve a good welcome somewhere, and she’s clean.’
Gelis said, ‘That’s why you wanted the food? You’re going to be drinking with Colin Campbell all evening?’
‘That’s why,’ he said. ‘Shall I show you what’s in the box?’
‘I want to guess,’ Kathi said. ‘Why don’t we all guess? Nearest correct answer gets to run away with the King, maybe? Nicholas, wasn’t it risky to go on those raids, and garrison the castle with Sandy, and travel with him to France? You could have found yourself labelled a forfeited traitor.’
‘Except that I had told everyone beforehand,’ Nicholas said. ‘I even made a discreet call at Aubigny, on my way back from Dijon. Everyone but King James knew the plan, and approved it. Once Sandy had made up his mind, he was best out of the kingdom. I could talk to him. There was a chance he might listen.’
‘But the King didn’t know. You were entirely dependent on the King’s trust in his advisers. What if something happened to change that?’
‘Then I start on the Queen,’ Nicholas said. ‘And help her become another Great Margaret.’ He was on his knees. ‘I need a hammer. And a pair of shears. And something to lever with.’
Ten minutes later, they were all on their knees. ‘You win. I couldn’t have guessed,’ Kathi said, awe in her voice. ‘The drinking-man’s nose. The eyebrows. The chin. When did he have it done?’ And as an afterthought: ‘Does he have wrinkly hands?’
‘Hugo always does wrinkly hands. He began it three years ago, before they decanted him over to Soignes. This is just the left outside wing. He’s working on the royal portraits now. Does it remind you of a riper