Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [346]
But he was saying nothing about it, as he had dismissed the fact that someone had betrayed him to Simon: it isn’t important. But, of course, it was.
She interrupted him then, without compunction. ‘Nicholas? Are you planning something? Are you planning to run down the men who perpetrated those hangings?’
He looked at her. His hands lay at random and loose, and you had to guess at the effort that kept them so. He said, ‘Why? Do you think they should escape?’
‘They may be dead already,’ she said. ‘The underlings, anyway. Tobie saw fallen men from both factions. As for their masters, they can wait. You’ll spoil everything if you hound them down right away.’
‘So I have been told,’ Nicholas said.
‘Who told you? What?’
‘That the principals will suffer for it in time, but not now, when their very guilt could be an asset. That Tam and Leithie’s families, of course, will be lavishly compensated for the delay.’
‘And you have agreed to hold back?’
‘Yes. It is my misfortune to live with the knowledge that I have neither defended them nor avenged them. It would be a greater misfortune if I put my own feelings first.’
‘But?’
‘But if the law does not deal with them later, then I shall. I think that would be allowed.’
‘Allowed by whom?’ she said again.
‘By ghosts, largely,’ Nicholas said. ‘Forget them. We all need to talk about what we have lost and, of course, between us, we shall. I’m only in temporary exile, quelling my impulses. I should like to know about the funerals. Can you tell me?’
She wished she could match him. She could only do her best. She said, ‘Yes, I can. Big Tam’s will be over. They took him to Renfrewshire, to the family church. Will is at Soutra. The Master and Edward Bonkle took him there. He always wanted to go back to Traquair and Yarrow. They will bury him there, and there will be a service at Trinity. Leithie has gone to the Prestons.’
She broke off, studying his face. He was resting propped in the window, a favourite seat. He said, ‘You are telling me that the Kilmirren funeral is over?’ His hands had shifted together, their crusted lesions now glazed and pink.
She said, ‘In fact, it isn’t. Monseigneur left for Kelso as soon as you’d gone. He’s had the caskets brought back and set in the Abbey at Paisley. The funeral Mass will be held as soon as the English crisis is resolved. You said you didn’t want to attend.’
‘I said I wouldn’t attend,’ Nicholas said.
‘Still?’
‘Still.’
The ghosts, she deduced in silence, had had no opinion to proffer. No. It was Monseigneur who had proffered the opinion. She tried to show nothing. After a while she said, ‘Bel will be with him. Kathi is going, and Robin’s grandfather. Men, of course, from the Guard. Someone will arrange to take Wodman. Julius wants to go.’
‘Does he?’ Nicholas said.
She said, ‘He’s in Adorne’s house, with the rest. They’ve all moved from the Canongate meantime. Moriz talked to him about the fight you had. Andro as well. You know Julius. He understands you were sick; but wants to know why, if you really thought Simon your father, you kept trying to stop him from proving it.’
‘But he has stopped now,’ Nicholas said. ‘Hasn’t he?’
‘He’s been told to,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to Paisley. I’m staying here.’
He came over and knelt. He said, ‘Go if you want. You don’t have to be here. Wherever I am, you are with me.’
Out of the turmoil, an affirmation. Below death’s tattered wings, the glimpse of a marriage, still standing firm.
Part V
Thir men of craft suld kepe a gret lawté,
Off fallowschipe and frendfulnes to be,
Off countenans and word of suthfastnes,
And keip thar promys boith to mor and les.
Ta keipe frendschipe it semys weile thaim till,
And fro discord set baith thar mynd and will.
Frendschip and luf encressis aye the tovne,
The commoun gud discord it puttis dovne.
No thing in erd is swetar for till haif
Than is a frend in traist