Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [305]
Nicholas said, ‘My lord, forgive me, but it has been a long journey. Would you object to somewhere less formal? If so, of course we stay here.’
‘My room,’ Sandy said. ‘No. I understand. You will be more comfortable in my room.’
He was learning. Nicholas supposed you couldn’t live with King Louis and not learn.
SANDY SAID, ‘THEY spy everywhere. Christ, what did you mean, six months before I get any support? I wish you’d never come. You’re saying all the wrong things. I’ll never get out of this alive.’
‘You will. They’d rather have you on your own than have to deal with James and Avandale and the rest, or Buchan or Atholl as regents.’
He stood still and kept his voice calm while Sandy paced backwards and forwards. The sun had beat all day into the room and the air was stifling hot. Sandy was sweating, his creamy skin blotched. Nicholas said, ‘Come on. You sent for me. If you don’t want to tell me, I’ll guess what the choices are, and suggest what I’d do in your place. Then I’ll go.’
Sandy said, ‘It’s obvious, isn’t it? My brother threw me out of the country, and France can’t send an army to help me get back. England can, though, and they have.’
‘Under Gloucester,’ Nicholas said.
‘Of course under Gloucester!’ the Prince said. ‘He’s a king in these parts. Northumberland, Durham, Cumbria. Men rally to him, as they will to me. He knows what it’s like to have a brother killed.’
Nicholas drew breath, and then left it. He said, ‘So Edward is content to let him establish what power he likes in the north, add to his lands, perhaps, and win a few laurels. I would guess that his first objective has always been Berwick, but they’ve brought an army big enough to attempt other things. They might send it over the Border at several points, to take the strongholds they’ve demanded, like Lochmaben. Or if they think it might be successful, they’ll start with Berwick, and hope to surge north through the whole of your East March, and set you on the throne. Or they may not have decided what to do until they get nearer, and weigh up their chances. What do you think?’
Sandy said, ‘I don’t need to think. I know. They’re going for Berwick, and then straight through to Edinburgh. They’ve told me. That’s why it was so stupid to talk of six months. It’s going to be fast, and sudden, and irresistible. It’ll be finished in twenty-eight days.’
A wasp, sweeping about, snarled past them both and slammed into the window. It dropped and lay, breathlessly buzzing. Nicholas said, ‘That’s Gloucester’s contract time? That’s how long his army has been paid to stay in Scotland?’
‘The main army,’ Sandy said. ‘There’ll be another seventeen hundred, a holding force, paid to arrive for two weeks next month when the other troops leave. I shall be on the throne by then. They know I’m coming. They’ll be gathering secretly now, the men of the Merse and the Borders. My own Annandale, too.’
‘Annandale isn’t doing much to keep Gloucester pinned down at Carlisle,’ Nicholas said. ‘Sandy, you know this isn’t true. Jamie Liddell himself must have warned you. It will take considerable force to put you on the throne, and a good deal to keep you there. And the more foreign help you need, the more you’re going to have to concede for it. You would end up with less power than you had under James, and a struggle that could last the rest of your life.’
Albany said, ‘You have a poor opinion of my popularity, it seems. Or my capacity as a ruler. What do you presume to know?’
‘Only,’ said Nicholas, ‘that in the nature of things, the man in the saddle always has the advantage, and even a genius can’t lightly replace him. We all know the King’s failings. We also know that he is well advised, by men who have the good of the kingdom at heart. He sometimes escapes them and does foolish things. But in a prospering country,