Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [96]
He could drink, after a fashion. It turned out that he was hungry, and Nicholas sent him back to his room and found bread and milk and some honey, which he melded and brought him. He had not offered to undress him, and the boy had done so himself. He sat up in bed, commenting, ‘You make a good servant, Uncle. Might we make a permanent arrangement? All my meals, when I want them? A ready hand to empty my privy?’
‘A ready hand to find an unbruised place and bruise it,’ said Nicholas equably. It was not how he felt. He had just realised who had ordered this punishment, and whom Henry was proposing to challenge tomorrow. While the boy ate, Nicholas left the room. When he came back to collect the empty bowl, he leaned over the bed, to Henry’s amusement. Then the amusement turned to rage, for there was cord slipped and knotted across Henry’s bruised chest and round his wrists and the bedposts, and while he was straining painfully against that, Nicholas took his hammer and nails to the shutters and lifted the key of the door.
Henry said, ‘What do you think you are doing? You can’t keep me for ever. You can’t keep me for a day—I’m due on duty tomorrow.’ There was puzzlement mixed with the rage. ‘What’s it got to do with you?’
And then enlightenment. ‘You’re going to bring him. You know who he is. You’re going to bring him and let him do what he likes.’
‘I know it’s John of Mar,’ Nicholas said. ‘And that it’s because of what happened at the Vespers. I’m not going to bring him. I’m going to tell his brothers to deal with him.’
‘The King? Of course, he’d listen to you!’ Henry said.
‘Or Sandy Albany, for preference. If they control Mar, I’d have to undertake that you wouldn’t revive the quarrel by challenging him.’
‘You expect me to accept this without challenging him?’ Henry said.
‘It’s a rule,’ Nicholas said. ‘Everyone is excused from challenging princes. He is brought to order by his family, and honour is satisfied. And if you refuse, I’ll tell your grandfather all about it tonight.’
He cut the cords, neatly, as he was leaving, and got the door shut and locked before Henry could blunder towards it. Henry shouted in a painful, muffled way for a while, and then stopped. Nicholas lay in bed listening. He had meant what he said. He had to go to see Avandale in the morning, and Avandale would do what was required. Nicholas hoped not to have to tell Jordan de St Pol before then; afterwards, it shouldn’t be necessary. It would be known soon enough that Mar had initiated a cowardly attack, and had been reprimanded by his royal brother. A challenge would be forbidden. Of course, it wouldn’t end there. Mar would try again. But Henry wouldn’t be here.
Towards dawn, Nicholas fell asleep at last, but not for too long. Today was his meeting with Avandale. Today he had to take Adorne’s letter, and Kathi, to Roslin.
Today was another day without Gelis, and Jodi, who did not have golden hair and blue eyes, but who had learned how to show love, and receive it.
And still it was not safe. It was not safe for them to come.
Chapter 10
Thir iudges suld richt veill attend
Fra pryvate luif and faynd thame to defend.
Sentence of luif evermoir bein blind,
As in a proper actioun ay ve find.
Erar a man to de thairin forquhy,
His is proper luif him blindis suddanlye.
ALL THE WAY to Roslin with Kathi, Nicholas did what he never did, and presented her with a detailed report on all his activities.
This marked a nerve-racking departure. It also represented the aftermath of a short, stormy scene with her brother who, after a night spent largely pacing the floor, was still in no mood to condone the wiles of some sluttish nun who had trapped his ageing uncle into a lucrative marriage. When Nicholas appeared, he received the full blame. If Nicholas bloody knew, why hadn’t he told Sersanders? If Nicholas bloody knew, why hadn’t he stopped it?
It was vain, at this point, to reiterate that the lady was an earl’s daughter and richer than their uncle Anselm. Kathi had shut him up finally by recalling that if their uncle were to be