Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [290]
‘Jordan is very attached to them,’ Bel remarked. ‘And now, I hear, there is a ship bearing his name. I know who’ll mislike that.’
‘It is rumoured already,’ said Adorne, ‘that Simon de St Pol has taken extreme umbrage; especially as Henry his son apparently had said nothing of it. They are at odds with one another, as usual. The youth ought to be married, but every arrangement so far has failed. Not because the maidens don’t like him—the opposite!—but their land-owning fathers are shy. Kilmirren thrives in good times, but Simon is not a disciplined man, and the same could be said of the boy. No one offers an heiress to a potentially run-down estate, or to a hapless life in Madeira, at the end of the day.’
‘Not while Monseigneur is alive,’ Bel observed. ‘But I agree. Those bonny blue eyes have been conquering girls since before his voice broke, and his elders have been daft not to curb it. Fortunately, Efemie’s too young, and so is Kathi’s wee Margaret. Whoever they get for the lad, they’ll want her in the marriage-bed quickly.’
‘It should be an interesting Yule,’ Adorne said. ‘Were you thinking of coming to Edinburgh?’
‘Not with all that going on,’ Bel said caustically. ‘After your sixtieth birthday, it pays to be selfish, in my view. And yourself? You’re not staying in St Johnstoun of Perth?’
He took a moment before he replied. ‘I’m not sure. I’m going to see Master Julius’s step-daughter at Elcho. Nicholas wishes to invite her to stay with himself and Gelis for Christmas, but I think he is unwise. Her arrival from Germany caused trouble with the St Pols and with me, as Father Moriz has possibly told you. It might happen again. Julius apparently doesn’t want her in the Canongate house. It’s a dilemma. Like young Henry, she ought to be married.’
‘From all I hear, she’s too poor to be considered for Henry,’ she said. ‘Why does Julius not want her? Because she reminds him of his wife?’
‘I think certainly so. And Nicholas, of course, feels responsible because Bonne’s mother was a de Fleury.’ He paused. He knew, from Kathi, she assumed, what the other possibilities were. He said, ‘I don’t know if you’ve met Bonne?’
‘No. What did you make of her?’ asked Bel.
‘We got on very well,’ said Adorne, ‘so long as she remembered which of us carried the purse. She knows she is intelligent. She will make a good marriage partner for somebody.’
‘But not for you,’ Bel suggested, her shapeless face innocent.
‘Not for me,’ he agreed. ‘Bel, you know what I am asking. It is for Nicholas. He carries responsibility enough.’
‘You are asking me to take Bonne. For how long?’
‘Until January,’ he said. ‘Or earlier, if you are a miracle-worker who can find her a husband. I should like to see Nicholas free of these tangled relationships, and able to get on with his own life.’
‘He is free,’ she said. ‘Julius likes to be inquisitive, but I am not holding Nicholas back. He knows virtually all that I know.’
‘As does Mistress Clémence?’ he said. ‘I suspect you chose her for Jordan. You have never said how you met.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘But you can imagine. She’s French, and I was in France with the two Scottish Princesses. I knew she’d be fine for the bairn, but it was the time of the war between Gelis and Nicol, and I didna want to propose her myself.’
It was understandable. Adorne wondered when Nicholas had discovered the complicity, and what he thought of it. He waited, and then said, ‘I thought perhaps you knew her because of your grandchildren. You mentioned them once.’
‘Did I?’ she said. ‘Maybe I did. Well, I’ve only the one grandchild now. And since Henry Arnot kindly let out that my ae son was in cloisters, you have to suppose that I have a married daughter. I have.’
‘In France, then,’ he said. ‘And if Clémence wasn’t her nurse, she was connected to your son-in-law’s people? The family who couldn’t come to her wedding?’
‘Ask her,’ said Bel.
He studied her. ‘But you’d rather I didn’t.’
‘I suspect Nicol