Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [31]
He stopped. Kathi said, ‘No. I didn’t know him.’ Ghent was where she and her brother had been born. It was where all the Sersanderses lived, that radical family into which Anselm Adorne’s sister had married. Her own parents were dead, and her brother now living in Scotland. But there was a Sersanders house in Ghent. She had lent it to Nicholas once. Before Nancy. She said, ‘But perhaps he was someone you knew? Had you met him?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘He was on the council. Outspoken, of course, like your father, but he didn’t deserve that. I mourn him, but I mourn still more what is happening.’ He looked up and spoke with a vehemence that came close to savagery. ‘I wish you were in Scotland. I wish your husband would come. I have sent again to ask about the delay, but nothing happens.’
‘The weather,’ Kathi said. ‘But look. Those were Gantois. This sort of madness doesn’t happen with Brugeois. You served the Duke, all of you, but you fought for the town and its rights.’
‘So did the men who ran Ghent,’ her uncle said. ‘No. It will settle, so long as nothing hasty is done. There has to be some central control; it is too large to leave solely to the Estates of the regions, when there are all these competing and disparate states. Brabant, Flanders, Hainault, Namur, Holland, Artois, Zeeland—think how different they are. At the very least, the countryside mustn’t suffer because of the power of the towns and the guilds. On the other hand, the central authority must work to be accepted; must be seen to be just, and to be able to defend the states from their enemies. It takes time. But we shall manage.’
‘I’m sure,’ Kathi said. ‘Meanwhile, commonsense suggests that you should leave for Scotland, not me. Have you thought of it?’
‘No,’ said Adorne. ‘This is where I am needed. And indeed, I couldn’t go if I wished: there are no safe conducts for burgh officials.’
‘You are a prisoner?’ Kathi said.
‘Do I look like one?’ said Anselm Adorne. ‘Or Hugonet, or anyone else? No. Our master has gone; there is a vacuum, or what is perceived as one; and we remain, men of another régime, answerable to an inexperienced girl. We must stay till our place is decided.’
‘As it was decided for John Sersanders?’ Kathi said. ‘If you won’t leave, I’m going to call Nicholas back.’
‘To take which side?’ Adorne said. ‘What he is doing just now is creating a refuge fit for his wife, and for you and your family, eventually. Do you want to condemn Robin to what is happening in Ghent, or in Bruges?’
‘Ghent or Bruges may not let Robin leave,’ Kathi said. ‘He is a Sersanders by marriage.’
There was a pause. ‘That is true,’ Adorne said. ‘But they will surely allow him a Scots convalescence? You will sail as soon as he comes. I will hear no refusal: I will put you on board with the children myself. As for me, this is the house and the church I have built. This is the country where my family has lived and been respected for two hundred years. This is where I will die.’
Chapter 3
Suld God haue maid thi cors in quantité
Lyke to thi will and thi desyr to be,
So large of persone suthlie suld thow bene
That all this warld suld nocht thi cors contene.
IN SCOTLAND, IT pleased Nicholas de Fleury to make his public entry into the King’s town of Edinburgh in a royal cavalcade, passing up the incline of Leith Wynd, and turning his back on the house of Archie of Berecrofts and Anselm Sersanders in order to pass through the portals that led to the High Street. The banner of Scotland flew above him, and at his side rode Alexander of Albany, the King’s brother, curtly conversing. Jamie Liddell, politely silent, rode behind him.
As they progressed,