Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [366]
‘I didn’t notice anything,’ Nicholas said.
‘You wouldn’t. They were also doing some genuine work. But I shouldn’t mention it to Knollys,’ Adorne said. ‘You know he was Lord High Treasurer himself for a year? Thirteen years ago. He has a secure house at Torphichen, and remains glad to rent out its secure rooms; but I don’t think Archie wants to be badgered. Nowie, of course, esteems the Preceptor as we all do, but with personal reservations. You have been told to leave Knollys alone?’
‘I have been told to leave everyone alone,’ Nicholas said. ‘For the moment.’ As time went on, the white heat of his anger over Lauder had died, as the killers had probably done, on the spot. That put the blame on the men the killers were trying to please, and the mad and glorious folly that had sent Tam on to the bridge, and Leithie to help him, and Will to gallop about getting angry. Anyway, no one had been punished because it was not a time to make enemies. And some recompense had been made: Leithie’s young Archie would probably get the good land at Cousland that the Prestons and Cochranes held under the Sinclairs, and Leithie’s widow had been given the prize money Leithie had earned bringing the wine-ship back from Orkney. It had angered Nicholas, to begin with, that the few lands of both men had been forfeited, as if they deserved to die. But unless that happened, of course, the law would have to be invoked. And the King would re-grant them, in time.
Adorne was speaking again. ‘Nowie feels protective over his tenants. You may find that, in the long run, he has forestalled you. I have to tell you that I have been interfering as well. Mistress Bel knows. I have set myself to search out the man who put the St Pols on your trail. I want him caught for your sake, of course, but there are other considerations. Whoever he is, this man also knew more than he should about Sandy. He could create a rift between Albany and the King.’
‘He won’t,’ Nicholas said. ‘I don’t think he was interested in Sandy or me. All he wanted, surely, was to hound the St Pols into danger. Otherwise, why drag them in? He could have got rid of me by himself. Look, it’s over. I don’t want to know who did it. It’s four months ago; I can’t think there is any more danger. And if there is, I’d rather risk it than have Simon’s private affairs dragged into the open. Tell Bel, and anyone else.’
‘Only Kathi,’ Adorne said. ‘But we think there is nothing shameful about it: nothing that would reflect on the St Pols. You must trust us. We don’t agree with your theory, but we’re not as gallantly perverse as Julius. We think the message came from the Border country; from a resident, even, with friends over the river. We think you were the target. Perhaps he thought you a traitor to the King. Perhaps he knew you weren’t, and wanted you out of the way. Plenty of Borderers have a good understanding with the English. And he needn’t dirty his hands: the St Pols’ dislike of you was well known.’
‘It’s a nice theory. But why pursue it?’ Nicholas said. ‘Some small two-facing laird in the Borders isn’t going to damage the King’s trust in Sandy. He won’t get near him, for a start; that I can promise you.’
His voice had sounded, he thought, as it usually did. Despite that, the other man’s face altered in the flickering light. Adorne said, ‘The King wants you with him through Yule? To entertain him?’
‘And Sandy. And Mary. Everyone will be at Court but the Queen and the Princes. It is the crucial time. If they are going to live and work together, the foundation for it has to be laid now. As you can imagine, it won’t be especially delightful for me, but there are other players and other musicians, besides Will. It won’t be as fine, but nothing ever will be as fine, and they won’t notice it. And it will free me to help in other ways.’
Adorne said, ‘You think that excellence will never return, but it will. Nothing ever stays still. A branch dies, and the sap gathers, and bursts forth elsewhere. Would you rather be preached at by Camulio?’
‘I don’t think