Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [354]
Over the next two or three days they sought a solution, and found one. It was, fortunately, the one already reached, beforehand, by themselves, the Queen and the merchants of Edinburgh. Parliament was to be called. The new situation of Alexander, Duke of Albany, would be placed before it, and his future secured. And in order that Parliament might be properly summoned, with the usual forty days’ notice, the freedom of the King was to be achieved by a kindly deception. They discussed the deception, and Sandy agreed.
After the Queen had retired, they sat drinking with Sandy that night, while Nicol treated them, by request, to a number of excruciating tales from his repertoire, followed in due course by Colin, who had a barbed, sleek wit of his own, in both Gaelic and English. Heavy with relief and contentment, Sandy seemed willing to stay there till dawn, and when his servant finally took him away, he was calling for Nicol to go with him, but unsuccessfully, for Nicol had fallen asleep.
When the door shut, he woke up. ‘Well done,’ said Avandale. ‘Well done, everybody.’
A tolerant man, Will Scheves smiled. ‘Especially the Queen,’ he remarked. Grimly, as the Great Margaret would have done, the Queen had made her personal contribution to the effort of pleasing the siblings. It meant losing some land, and she had required a little persuasion; but they had laid the matter before her, and she had agreed after a number of talks, some of them with de Fleury in private. Henry Arnot and Adorne had been right: she had taken to Nicholas de Fleury, and so had the young prince. Because of the Queen, they had been able to promise Darnley a fee for what he was doing, as well as immunity. Because of Will Scheves, they had an inducement to offer the King’s uncles. To the public, Edinburgh Castle was sealed, with the monarch inside, but of course there had been constant secret communication between those who occupied it and those who were holding the kingdom together outside. As soon as he, Avandale, got back to Edinburgh, he and the King’s uncles would meet, and the King’s freedom would be arranged.
It would take just over a month. Beginning immediately, the Castle would be placed under siege by the Provost and leading merchants of Edinburgh in the name of Albany, who had spurned England to seek the love of his brother. And during the month, someone had to persuade the King that he was in no danger from Albany. He trusted the merchants. He was already unsure of the motives of his half-uncles and Darnley. When, in due course, the uncles would (tragically) be driven to surrender, James should be reasonably glad to emerge. It might be, by that time, that someone like Darnley could explain what was happening. This is the price of Gloucester’s retreat. Pay it, for now.
Or possibly, of course, pay it for ever. Albany’s first condition for returning to court had been the prior departure of Argyll, Scheves and Avandale himself, ‘who had so nobly held the breach, but who must now be allowed to return to the peace of their estates’. Albany did not wish the King’s veteran Councillors, the men who had known him as a boy, breathing over his shoulder. They were being permitted to install him, that was all.
They had agreed. It had been foreseen. It was why they had left Whitelaw behind. They were all leaving for Edinburgh in the quiet of the evening tomorrow. As soon as they had conferred with the uncles, Will and Colin and he would disperse. Not too far, naturally. God knew, they would still require to confer and to meet. But of the old inner Council only Archie Whitelaw would remain, and James of Dunkeld to watch out for the Church, and Nicol de Fleury to watch out for everyone. If Albany was Gloucester’s Trojan horse, then de Fleury was theirs.
Colin’s mind, obviously, had been running along the same lines. Stirring, flushed, in his shirt-sleeves, Argyll said, ‘Niacal, fhir mo chridhe, fhir mo chridhe,