Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [222]
Now be the scheris sall ze wnderstand
And be this knyf he beris in his hand.
AFTER HAMILTON, THE journey back to Edinburgh was light relief. They travelled in vast, semi-royal convoy, but even so, they stuck in the snow on the way, and had to improvise shelter in and around a small, worried hamlet, initially visible only as three arms of a windmill and eight or nine bleating spirals of smoke rising from mounds in the unbroken snow.
Argyll’s men, sent ahead, soon found the unblocked doors in the lee which admitted them, readily enough, to the ripe darkness within; although a few provident scythes could be seen glinting among the folk packed round the fires, and the inside doors to the byres were mostly shut. Once informed of the size and quality of the company, its peaceful intentions, its generosity, and the fact that it carried three cartloads of food, drink, canvas and mattresses, the hamlet dug itself out in a trice, and three of the unmarried girls washed their faces. By nightfall, there was a comfortable camp with braziers, lamps and latrines, and a feast to which the cottagers were invited. Some of the beasts had been invited as well, and turned rosily on the spit, while the chime of coins sang out instead through the thatch-smoke.
It was a sociable affair from the outset. While Nicholas hopped about with Tam Cochrane, hammering stakes, directing the labour force in the setting of planks, lying on top of flapping canvas, with a self-important Jodi streaking about with hammers and hatfuls of nails, Gelis settled herself in one of the cabins with Bishop Spens, and rocked a cradle with one foot while talking across him about teething and then, on the Bishop’s initiative, about the effect of the bad weather on planting. When Lord Erskine’s wife came and joined them, the talk switched to weaving, and they transferred themselves to the next house, which held a loom with work still in progress. They were still discussing it when they were called out to see their new accommodation. Tramping over a yard with soaked skirts, Bishop Spens addressed Gelis. ‘You know a lot about dyes, demoiselle. Ah! The Charetty dyeworks.’
‘She knows a lot about a great deal,’ said Joanna Douglas. ‘We meet at Haddington, to help with Cortachy’s little deaf daughter.’
‘And does the child progress?’ said the Bishop. ‘Your royal mother learned quickly. The lady of Cuthilgurdy would make a good teacher, if you have not asked her already.’
Gelis said, ‘Of course! You were with them all in Paris, the two Princesses and Bel. Did you stay with them long?’
‘Long enough to see them settled,’ the Bishop said. ‘Not till they were married, of course; that took some time. The lady Eleanor went to the Tyrol. Very young she was. A clever girl, and well read. She missed Bel, I’ll be bound. She always supposed Bel would go with her.’
‘You know her son died?’ Gelis said. She ignored Jodi, who was jumping and calling.
‘So sad,’ said the Bishop. ‘And Cuthilgurdy itself, naturally, is alienated. Andro Charteris has it now. Not that she is without resources. No. Not at all.’
‘So her grandchildren are not in need?’ Gelis said. Now Nicholas was coming over.
The Bishop said, ‘I should suppose not. Do you know, Lady Erskine? No. Forgive me for changing the subject, but is that the Preceptor over there?’
The tall, slightly corpulent form of Sir William Knollys, lord of Torphichen, head of the Knights Hospitaller in Scotland, was indeed, irritatingly, standing motionless in the middle distance.
‘He’s just come,’ Nicholas said. ‘He left after we did.’ Jodi, drunk with enjoyment, stood just behind him.
In Aberdeen, Bishop Spens did business, like everyone else, with the Knollys family. He had had some relatives in the Order. He had even made the Preceptor his executor. It meant that the Bishop admired Will Knollys’s acumen, but not that the two men were friends. The Bishop narrowed his gaze. ‘What’s he doing?’
‘Costing it all,’ Nicholas said. ‘It seems we are in one of his bailiedoms. The cottagers pay rent to Torphichen. We’ve just killed his sheep.