Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [262]
Somewhere in the suave voice there was a thread of real discontent. Nicholas looked at him. It had never occurred to him before. It had never entered his mind, as he witnessed the brave desperation of Phemie’s pregnancy, that the coupling was not, for the Sinclairs, the utter surprise it had seemed.
Sinclair hadn’t noticed his silence. Sinclair was remarking, ‘In any case, whatever action develops, the north and north-east are bound to play some part. As Bishop Spens and the Knights knew, and your Anselm Adorne assuredly does.’
‘Mine?’ said Nicholas.
‘Ours, if you prefer,’ Sinclair said. ‘Without you, he would not be here. Without him, I doubt if you would. And we need you both.’
‘We?’ said Nicholas in the same tone. It was short.
‘Oh, yes; I am Scottish,’ said Nowie. ‘But you are not. You are nothing yet, are you? You have been offered some land?’
‘Yes,’ said Nicholas.
‘But you have not accepted it? Why?’
‘Because I didn’t want it,’ said Nicholas.
‘You see?’ said Sir Oliver fretfully. ‘That is what I meant. You will have to make up your mind, my dear Nicol. Adorne will not make it up for you.’
Chapter 33
In gret lawté thir men of craft suld stand
That baith has cur apon the seye and land.
DURING THAT TRIP to the north, Jordan de Fleury stepped from childhood and became the son of his father.
It was Gelis, daughter of maritime Veere, who had him taught to swim as a child, but his father and the cool lord of Roslin who took him to fish in the wild spate of the Findhorn and taught him how to use it for sport, following these two mighty men, bare to the sun, plunging through the ravine; swirling in the swift, rock-strewn waters like the lean, agile salmon which a man got to love, and to prefer to the fat lazy fish of the estuaries.
It was his father who allowed him to come to the meetings he had with the Priors, the landowners, the royal servants who leased the fishings, at which they talked not only of salmon, but of general trade and all that might affect it, which seemed to include everything in the world. Beforehand, his father now would outline for him, simply and briefly, what was going to happen, and what he wanted, and what to watch for, and Jordan would sit through the subsequent meeting, giving nothing away, but convulsed with private glee at each point scored and object achieved. He learned to watch people’s hands, and their feet, and their eyes. He learned never to despise a man because he wanted something different, and never to underrate him either.
They met Tam Cochrane, after Sir Oliver Sinclair had left them at Speyside, and scrambled all over Auchindoun while he explained its defensive points and its weaknesses; and then rode south to Kildrummy. Master Cochrane was Constable of Kildrummy Castle, which meant that he had to make and keep it defensible. The masons were working there, and the yard was the kind of place Jordan had liked to play in when he was small, with buckets of mortar, and heaps of squared stones and timber, and scaffolding, and barrows, and scratched drawings everywhere. The money for it came from the earldom of Mar, which belonged to the King since the last Earl had died. As a servant in a royal household, Jordan had become quite familiar with earldoms and baronies, and had already attended a baron court, and seen taxes being collected and local men trained to fight, and even to raise their beasts and plant properly. You had to do that, if you had land. Or even if you didn’t, his father said, you should know about it.
They climbed over the Buck of the Cabroch while they were travelling, and he was taken into forests, where he saw trees being sawn and made ready for floating. Master Lisouris showed him how to tell good wood from bad, and he helped manage the oxen. Last thing of all, he helped fell a tree. Then he travelled to Aberdeen with his father, and got a place on a boat going to Leith.
His mother was at the Leith house,