Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [417]
Gelis sought the eyes of John. Before anyone else could speak, Tobie swore. He said, ‘She said I wasn’t to say that. But damn it all—’
‘Who said?’ Nicholas asked.
Tobie looked surprised. ‘Clémence,’ he said. ‘She said that she hadn’t said she knew Bel, and Bel hadn’t said she knew the Duchess Eleanor, and John and I hadn’t admitted we were trying to find out about Adelina, and Moriz hadn’t confessed that he was asking questions everywhere about Bonne. She said if we wanted you to be open, we’d have to be open as well, and she thought the loftier heights of virtue beyond us.’
‘I’m sure she’s right,’ Nicholas said. He looked shaken. He said, ‘I can’t remember any major subterfuges at the moment, but if I do, I tell Clémence?’
‘That’s the idea,’ Tobie said. His tone was one of embarrassed relief.
‘And what will she do?’ Nicholas said.
‘Put you on a physic to flush out your bowels,’ said John sombrely. ‘I tell you, I’d rather have a good penance from Moriz any day. Is that some wine?’
‘No,’ said Nicholas.
‘And another thing,’ Tobie said. ‘While we’re on good behaviour. That old man St Pol isn’t going to live many months. You have to thank him. You wouldn’t have Jordan, but for him.’
Nicholas said, ‘Did Bel ask you to ask me?’
Tobie said, ‘No. Wodman did. You know Tom Swift has been given his and Adorne’s job? Very suitable. Conservator of the Privileges of the Scots Nation in the Low Parts of Burgundy they call him, as from now. Andro Wodman’s helping transfer all the papers. Wodman wants to see you. Then he wants you to go to the old man.’
‘The old man doesn’t want to see me,’ Nicholas said.
‘How do you know?’ Tobie said. ‘Anyway, what will we buy with the gold?’
‘Another room for you to sit in?’ said Nicholas.
Chapter 54
And sen the wanis pvnsing of the man
Is lyk in armony, him nedis than
The richt mesur of musik for to haf
To knaw the wanis pvnsing with the laif.
VISITING JORDAN DE St Pol of Kilmirren was, Nicholas believed, the last ordeal he faced, once he had made known to the lords the decision that he had just reached: to commit himself and his life to the country that Anselm Adorne had considered worth choosing. To become his memorial.
When he left Avandale’s house, his thoughts were on Scotland, and the place he and Adorne held in it. In concrete form, there was little to mark the other man’s sojourn. His life-rental of Cortachy had ceased, and the land effortlessly reabsorbed into the lands of the Ogilvies. His houses in Edinburgh and Linlithgow were rented to provide an income for Efemie, who stayed with her big cousin Saunders and possessed her own loving household.
The same was true, Nicholas supposed, of himself. He had no land, unlike Robin’s family, with their acres at Berecrofts and lucrative near-baronial land at Templehall, which two growing young sons would inherit. In town, their trade in Leith and the Canongate flourished, as it should, with all their prodigious connections. It was not everyone who was great-nephew, like Robin, to the Lord High Treasurer of the country. They had also a new small domain, bought by Robin for Kathi in Yarrow, which she said Nicholas might share if he wished. It was the land Will Roger had loved, south of Traquair, and not far from where he was buried.
After Beltrees, Nicholas had no hunger for territorial possessions, other than the houses he already owned. His business was well placed and thriving, and now his presence was permanent, he could expect to be bound into the fabric of the royal familia, with all the extra emoluments that implied. And there was music with Arnot and others, and the chance perhaps to continue what he and Whistle Willie had begun. Go on, Andreas had said. Use your life to the full.
He had come to that point when, walking quickly, he found himself stopped. He had forgotten that the nuns of the Cistercian Priories had a house in the High Street of Edinburgh, and that the Prioress Euphemia might be there. It had never crossed his mind that Bonne might be there