Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [296]
‘Do we tell him?’ said Adorne. He was looking at Nicholas. Kathi thought, still caught up in happiness, that in that group of six men, there was no doubt which were the leaders. Leaders, not leader.
Nicholas said, ‘That is for his officers, I think. They will have to be told now. No one else, except our own circle. Saunders. Crackbene. Robin. Archie. Andreas.’
‘Julius?’ Wodman said. ‘Liddell must know of the plot. Julius might find it awkward.’
‘All the more reason why he must know,’ Nicholas said. ‘Grey and others will feed us with tales, but we want other sources. At any rate, Kathi can leave the Hamilton household forthwith, and be excused from all further operations. You did prodigiously well. A coup, by God.’
‘De foudre, by God,’ she said, with a certain grimness. ‘I wish I could believe you. I was meant to overhear?’
Nicholas said, ‘They were probably weaving in and out of booths all the time, trying to find one you’d stop at. Andreas may even have noticed.’
She said, ‘Jamie wasn’t acting. He hadn’t been told it was a ruse.’
‘He may know now,’ Nicholas said. ‘He was born in Bruges, in your uncle’s house, don’t you remember? He’s the godson of the English King’s sister. His aunt is married to Archibald Angus. He could be one of Albany’s trump cards, if all this is true. At any rate, you are safe. We are not targets, we’re tools. Will you miss your august life at the Princess’s?’
He sounded mildly cheerful. Her uncle looked satisfied. She realised, woefully, as the fumes of alcohol vanished, that they were reassuring her. For Nicholas, who had given so much of his time to this one, confused man, and to the Boyds, it must have been shocking news, as it must have been for her uncle. She said with sudden resentment, ‘Blind Harry. All Sandy’s stupid, dangerous raids; his outbursts against that reiver Edward and the Auld Enemy of perfidious England; the speeches about the dignity and sovereignty of his nation … He shouted at James for cravenly keeping the peace. He asked people to die for an ideal. They thought he meant it. I thought he meant it.’
Nicholas was quiet. Then he said, ‘He did mean it, although it was coloured by other things. This venture too. He may well be telling himself that he will use the English to get what he wants, and then sweep them out of the country with the help of his friends.’
‘Having got rid of the King,’ said her uncle. ‘But, as we said once of the French, an invading army would expect to be given something more than Berwick-upon-Tweed. They would want garrisoned forts from which they could control all the Lowlands. And do enough men admire Albany to rise up and prevent that from happening? He will have been away for three years.’
‘I don’t know,’ Nicholas said. ‘I don’t think it depends on what the English do with Albany. I think it depends on what we do with the King.’
‘These are princes,’ her uncle said. You could hear a sharpness.
‘These are impaired men who need help,’ Nicholas said. ‘As are we all. We put them first, because half a million people rely on them.’ He and Adorne looked at one another.
Tobie said, ‘So what do we do?’
Her uncle stirred. ‘Advise the Council,’ he said. ‘Abide by what it decides. Continue our preparations for war, and pass the winter as best we can, in good heart. We are not dealing with madmen or tyrants, as Nicholas reminds us. We are dealing with limited men who are doing their best.’
THUS THE WINTER was spent. For Kathi, there were no repercussions. The Princess Mary accepted her retiral with grace, and seemed unaware, as did her son, of any untoward reason. Rob Grey continued to wave to her as he passed from his house to the booths, and might have been equally innocent, although she doubted it. Julius, full of glee, had embarked (he said) on a counter-espionage