Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [221]
‘Catching your breath,’ Kathi said. ‘Now come back, Banco. It’s too cold.’ They were not dressed for extremes as they should have been. Not as they had been in Iceland, where they had expected to die, and Robin had saved them. Robin, young and determined and agile, come at the risk of his life through the cold snow to rescue them, without knowing that one day he would marry her. She shouldn’t be thinking of Iceland. Not here, not now.
She knelt to help Nicholas, and he unclasped his arms and drew her close, her cold cloak against the chill of his jacket. He said, ‘I know. That was the past. This is the present. It’s all right. It’s all right.’ And he had followed her thought; as she remained for a moment, her cheek pressed under his hand, he resurrected something else from that time, and murmured it over and over, as a physician might, or a priest: ‘Guds frida veri med ydr … guds frida … guds frida …’ The peace of God be upon you, my dear one.
And something in English from that time, also incomparably soothing. ‘All ills shall cease; Baldur shall come.’
‘Poor Baldur. How embarrassed he will be,’ remarked Henry de St Pol, looking down on them.
Light-footed and silent, he had given no warning of his arrival. ‘So Simpson’s stories were true. Dear me, Uncle, are you deaf to God’s thunder? No wonder you didn’t care what happened to Jordan. The race was just an excuse.’ His face, in the glimmering light, was full of contradictory hollows; his eyes dark. Kathi opened her mouth, and then stopped. Gelis was right. This was for Nicholas only.
The arms round her remained. Then Nicholas set her carefully apart, steadying her still with one arm. He had stopped trembling. He said, ‘Well, of course. I always make assignations at night, in deep snow, with my wife within call. Is Jodi with you?’
‘No. I came to tell you. He collapsed and died after you left,’ Henry said. He made no effort to make it sound credible. He added, ‘Can I do anything for you? Build you a fire? If not, I think I’ll go back.’
‘If you know the way, we’ll come with you,’ Nicholas said.
‘If I know my way? Is that going to be your excuse? You lost your way, and the demoiselle came after to find you?’
‘Well, no one would believe anything else,’ Nicholas said. ‘I’m a shy man. We all get caught short sometimes. Then afterwards, I was walking in circles when the demoiselle found me, and we were both very cold. Aren’t you cold?’
‘Who will believe that?’ Henry said.
‘Everyone,’ Nicholas said. ‘You’d be amazed.’
Henry stared at him. Then he turned abruptly and plunged off.
Nicholas prepared to get up. He said, ‘Now we’ll have to find our own way back.’
Kathi said, ‘What will he do?’
‘Nothing. Everyone knows he and I have been quarrelling. I joined Mar and Argyll against him; I stabbed him, for God’s sake. I deprived his family of Beltrees. I saved his grandfather’s life, which to some might seem yet another heartless blow against Henry. Whatever he claims, Henry knows he would be regarded as a young man with a grudge.’
‘But he thinks it is true,’ Kathi said. He was standing, and had bent to pull her up.
‘Yes. Do you mind that?’ he said. ‘Even shown absolute proof, he wouldn’t change, and Robin could be dragged into the argument. As it is, it may do some good.’
A way that puts into their heads, silently, whatever he wants them to do. Kathi said, ‘Not to your relations with Henry.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘No.’ He was slow in answering. Then he said, ‘But it’s better this way.’
She said, ‘They were waving to one another, Henry and Jodi. That’s what you meant?’
‘It is better,’ he said again, as if convincing himself rather than her. ‘Slower, but better.’
Then they went back, to collect Gelis and Jodi and leave. Henry had rejoined his party and could be seen, noisily drunk, celebrating his victory by the fire. He shouted at them as they left, but his words were too slurred to make out. And by the time the company broke up next morning, Henry and his grandfather had both gone.
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