Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [286]
He left very soon, on his way, he told her, to the Priory of Elcho, to visit the orphaned daughter of a kinswoman. She had heard of the girl from Anselm Adorne, who occasionally passed through on his way to Dundee, or even once or twice further north to Cortachy, the Crown lands from which he received his baronial life-rent.
They hardly needed his attention, being looked after for him in absentia. She wondered if this unusual activity signified that Adorne was planning to make his stay permanent. Certainly she hoped his very capable niece would remain, and continue her surveillance of Mary. She had been surprised and pleased by the Burgundian’s stated objection to that, considering that there was nothing but friendship, she was assured, between de Fleury and the lady Katelinje Sersanders. They said that de Fleury’s wife had his undying devotion, and that other women considered her fortunate. As for herself, it required more than a good presence to impress her these days. It required political acumen. She was glad to see that he possessed it.
GELIS, WHO HAD her own opinion of the Queen, was charmed to find it justified in every nuance of the graphic account unleashed upon her by Nicholas, returned in a state of semi-hilarious exasperation from the north. ‘First her Danish grace, and then the German Bonne. It was like having dinner with Beowulf and supper with the Elector of Saxony.’
‘No sense of humour,’ said Gelis. ‘They didn’t laugh at your jokes.’
‘My God,’ said Nicholas, sitting down knee-deep in dogs. ‘If that were all. No. I agree with the others. If the King doesn’t kill her first, that grim determination is going to do more for his future than two dimpled knees and a pretty face. She’s got three good men; they’re telling her the truth, and carrying her along with their thinking as far as they can. She’s rigid; she hasn’t got their intellect, but she’s bright enough to do what she may have to do.’
‘But they think she needs you?’ Gelis said. ‘Or no. They want her to understand and agree with whatever you may have to do about the King.’
There was a brief silence. ‘About was a nice way of putting it,’ Nicholas said. ‘Better than to or for. Anyway, you have the situation in a bombshell. They also want me to help spy on Sandy, and produced several sticks and a carrot. You will be glad to hear that I refused to plant Jordan as a double agent in disguise with the Princess Mary. They’re going to use Kathi instead.’
She was very familiar, now, with the many ways in which Nicholas dealt with anxiety. She said now, ‘I know. Kathi came, while you were away. We both thought she should do it. It is important, and Mary and Sandy are really not very responsible. And anyway, you’ll probably learn far more from Julius’s remorseless pursuit of Liddell than she will at the Hamiltons’. She did say, if she found anything, that she’d tell you before anyone. So what about the Elector of Saxony?’
Again, it was one of the joys of her life to interpret him correctly, and she received her thanks, as now, in his face. He said, ‘All right. Farewell, Beowulf. Elcho was nothing by comparison. Muriella wasn’t there; she had pined, and been sent to stay with friends, with or without a chastity belt. Bonne is putting up with it all, while sardonically unsurprised that we have failed to find her a husband. She will have to come here for Yule.’
‘Julius should be back by then,’ said Gelis hopefully. ‘And John le Grant speaks German.’
‘And operates guns. He would need them with Bonne,’ Nicholas said. ‘I think a little pastoral guidance by Father Moriz is indicated in the near future. And that’s all the news.’
‘Is it?’ she said. She saw by his face that, until this moment, he had genuinely forgotten about Bel. When he bent abruptly to divest himself of the dogs, it was almost as if he was distractedly pressing back other oppressions. She said, ‘It’s all right. You wanted to put it away. I don’t want to disturb it. Just tell me that you found