Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [253]
Others stayed for reasons they did not disclose. The Browns, for example, still occupied their big house in St Margaret’s district, and that night the three travellers drank with them there, although they slept at Tom Yare’s. For some shipmen, it was clear, trade never stopped, no matter who was in charge. The great scattered family of Browns had a kinsman in Melrose and nuns at St Bothan, all of them served by the wagons from Berwick, bringing their food and their coal and their salt. The Holland family traded with England, even while Dick composed his verse for the Scottish Court. One of them was an outlaw at the horn.
There were others, as well, who had links with the English, but it was not a subject which came up that evening, or not while Julius was there. Julius, full of wine and bonhomie, had been keen to discuss the potential slump in Tom Yare’s own fortunes, but Yare was smart enough to outmanoeuvre Julius on that. Julius had then introduced the name of Anselm Sersanders, and asked if it were true that, twelve years ago, the bright lad had cuckolded Martin Purves the merchant in Berwick, just before he’d gone off to Lille? And was it true that Saunders still blithely called himself Purves’s agent?
Yare had looked surprised, John had grunted, and Nicholas had said with interest, ‘My God, that must be a first. I never heard of anyone getting Saunders to bed without handing over the equal of a half-share in the Great Customs of Hamburg. Are you sure?’
Which perhaps sowed a doubt.
Later, when Julius had gone off to bed, Yare had gathered John and Nicholas for a round of claret, and had laughed over it, wharring away. ‘You lie too well, Nicol. Weren’t you in Lille only last summer?’
‘I couldn’t resist it. She’s a pretty little woman as well, with an indulgent husband and an adored little girl of eleven. Stop laughing. And for Christ’s sake, don’t tell that to Julius. He’s already got one daughter too many.’
John stared at him accusingly. ‘You’re making this up.’
‘I’m not. Ask Antoon. You know Adorne’s son is being given a prebend in Aberdeen? His canonry at Lille is not apparently proof against political pressure, and with the family wage-earner over here, saving Scotland, it seems only right that Scotland should be helpful. And Lille is a good market for us.’
He hesitated, and then decided to say it. ‘Tom, I know Julius was over-curious, but tell me in general. Who stands to lose most if Berwick changes hands?’
‘The King,’ said Tom Yare. His bright eyes snapped round to Nicholas’s, and his burr ripened. ‘The King owns the town. We exported [expohted] eighty lasts eleven barrels of salmon the other day. He exchanges some of it for wine: we imported eighteen pipes of yon through England. And the yield from the Berwick fisheries is his. And the land rents. And quite a good bittie more.’
‘But he pays for defence,’ Nicholas said. John was sitting still.
‘In general, yes. The bailie of the earldom of March would see to the castle. Parliament votes extra, as now, in time of war. But the deficiency is made up by the King. It’s a fair exorbitant business, maintaining a frontier town.’
‘So Berwick isn’t and can’t be a gold mine, so long as it sits where it does. It’s a fortress, and a symbol, like Calais. Therefore James isn’t moved entirely by greed when he sets such store by it?’
‘No,’ said Yare. He got up and refilled their cups, watching what he was doing, and then sat down again. He studied Nicholas. ‘No. It’s a symbol of his success as a king. It came as a gift, not a conquest, but he’s not going to be the man to relinquish it. He was brought to look at it when he was only ten, a wee speug with his big royal retinue. Sandy was haled here as well, when he was just a year or two older. This is your heritage, he was told. This is what your forebears expect you to protect. If England takes Berwick, I, Tom Yare, tine my fees, my perquisites, my position, my easy route to southern