Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [49]
Her eyes were stark, but she didn’t give way. She said, ‘Of course I do.’
‘Then,’ said Nicholas, ‘don’t you think that he would feel the same? Keep the child, that is the first thing. It is yours. And next, let him know.’
‘Nicholas?’ she said. ‘Think. If I tell him, I give him no choice. This is not something he could or would hide. Yet he is a great man. How could I go there, and have him install me in some house, in the same town as his children? How could I force him to consider leaving his home and exiling himself to this place, out of a sense of duty towards me?’
‘He is a widower,’ Nicholas said. ‘There are dispensations; there are procedures which you could follow, I am sure. You could marry.’
‘There, you don’t know him as I do,’ she said. ‘It may sound possible, but more likely it would cut one or both of us off from the Church. I don’t mind, but for him, that would be terrible.’
‘He would have his love for you,’ Nicholas said. ‘And yours for him.’
There was a space. Then she said, ‘Would love not spare him this?’
‘Perhaps,’ Nicholas said. ‘But respect comes into it as well: regard for his beliefs; for his right to decide for himself. I should want that. Everyone would. Phemie … give me a letter to send him. Then it is between him and his conscience. But at least he has the dignity of a man, making a choice. He wouldn’t want to be spared.’
‘No. I see that,’ she said. After a while, she continued, ‘Whatever I sent—he wouldn’t receive it for two weeks … a month. And as long for the reply. Longer, if I go north.’
‘I shall be here,’ Nicholas said. ‘Don’t go away. Talk to me. I shall come whenever you like. But until you hear what he wishes, no one can be sure of a name.’ He smiled. ‘You have not spoken one, even yet; and neither have I.’
She released a long sigh, and looked at him in something gallantly close to her usual manner. She said, ‘That is certainly true. If I … When I … Now that I am writing this letter, how will you know where to send it?’
‘I shall have to guess,’ Nicholas said. ‘Or send it in triplicate to three very surprised men. Phemie: he deserves you, and you deserve him.’
RETURNED TO SIR OLIVER and his sister, Nicholas was formal and brief. ‘I have no more to tell you than your lady cousin has told you herself. There is nothing she wants to add meantime. If and when there is, she will tell you herself. No one could appreciate your present kindness more than she does.’
‘But she told you the name of the father,’ said Sinclair.
‘It was never mentioned,’ said Nicholas. ‘She has, however, asked me to visit her. Would this be allowed?’
‘Allowed?’ Sinclair said. ‘My dear Nicol, how strange you make us sound. Of course, unless I am away, you will always be welcome. Indeed, there are some matters that you and I might well talk of with profit before you go back. You haven’t eaten? Then come along, my dear man, and favour my board.’
Betha was staring at him. He agreed. On the way, she addressed him in an undertone. ‘Are ye as wabbit as ye look?’
‘Worse,’ he said.
‘Aye. So you’re sending to him, is my guess. And nothing’ll happen until he sends back. But meanwhile, you’ve done that lass a rare service, Nicol de Fleury. I’d kiss ye for it, if ye didna have such a sore face.’
He laughed, but all through the meal he found himself thinking of Phemie Dunbar. He had told her not to go north. So long as she stayed fast in Roslin she was safe. But anyone, seeing her now, could guess that the child was conceived in the latter part of the autumn. And would remember that, during that season, Phemie had not been in Scotland at all, but in Bruges.
Then the meal ended at last, and Nicholas left. He was free to make the next call on his stirring agenda: to visit Adorne’s nephew, Sersanders, and tell him how Robin fell. And refrain from telling him anything else.
Oysters, where are you? I want to be kidnapped, tonight.
Chapter 5
Befor the knycht on the left syd suld stand
Ane officer