Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [223]
‘Dear, dear,’ said the Bishop. ‘You don’t see the Abbot of Newbattle anywhere? No? Just as well. You remember that distressing dispute over whether Lord Hamilton had pillaged their lead mines. I was afraid at one point that they were about to bring it up at the funeral. And then, pursuing the point, to discover some grievance against Knollys. The Abbot would have enjoyed eating the Preceptor’s roast mutton. I fear we are not as tolerant, we churchmen, as we should be.’
You could, Gelis supposed, describe a Preceptor of the Knights of St John as a churchman. Vowed to poverty, chastity, and devotion to the sick. One of the parties from Rhodes had been the first to annexe Nicholas’s gold. Gelis couldn’t remember how many extremely active sons Sir William Knollys actually had, or guess what the size of his private empire might be, but was sure Bishop Spens could. Bishop Spens had helped arrange the English wedding, and the English peace that went with it. The Order was managed from London, and Knollys traded with England as Spens did, and the Prestons. Whether they liked one another or not, tolerance was necessary for the good of the Crown, as peace with England was necessary.
Nicholas said, ‘They’re calling you over to bless them. The King’s uncles in the best places, then Argyll, then you, Lady Erskine, with your husband. Lord Argyll’s cook will serve, and Tom Yare and Wattie Bertram and I will see to the rest of it.’
‘It smells of horse,’ Gelis said, inside the tent.
‘That’s because we’re sitting on saddles,’ Jodi said. ‘If we were fighting, we’d drink out of helmets, and give our swords to the smith while we eat. Tam says he can put up a hut in an hour, and plait a horse shelter as well. They train teams and race. They train teams of gun-wagons too. Tam says it’s just as important as training archers, for there’s no use having a gun that can’t go anywhere.’
‘Would you like to build camps?’ asked the Bishop.
‘I’m not sure,’ said Jodi. ‘I think houses are better.’
‘I’m inclined to think so as well,’ said Bishop Spens. ‘Tam Cochrane has given me some very good advice in his time. He likes his joke as well. Get your father to take you to Roslin Chapel. You’ll see my face there. Next to the gargoyles.’
Then came the meal, at which everyone worked hard to make the thing a success. At the end, someone called, ‘Nicol? Well, how about it?’
At most gatherings, Gelis had discovered, sooner or later, silence would fall, and someone would say, ‘Nicol! Well, how about it?’ Every Court had entertainers. Only Scotland possessed a highly trained adviser and business manager whom they also relied on for excitement. It sprang, she supposed, from his original concoctions of music and drama, and had progressed as his inventiveness became known. He didn’t seem to mind. She couldn’t remember if Jodi had ever seen his father in action before, and wondered whether or not to be worried. It was the kind of question that Kathi could have answered at once.
The same thought had occurred briefly to Nicholas, in so far as he weighed up most audiences beforehand. Leithie Preston’s birthday inside a locked custom shed on the wharf was a different matter from a novelty to divert Alexander Leigh after supper at Avandale’s. Colin Campbell was something other again, and he had all these Highlanders.
Colin Campbell had already obtained from Nicholas the return he expected on more serious matters. It had been done, smoothly, at another break in the journey, and away from the Preceptor, and the Bishop, and especially away from the royal half-uncles. When, in a private room, the Earl of Argyll said, ‘Well, Nicol?’ he was not looking for jokes. He wanted to know whether the English peace might be threatened because the King’s sister had become secretly pregnant.
It was too important to conceal, if you knew. Kathi had agreed. Nicholas reported it without stress, as one would any fact affecting the wellbeing of a nation. ‘The pregnancy is of about five months’ duration. The father is married, young Will Crichton. Grandson of the Chancellor; connected