Niccolo Rising - Dorothy Dunnett [73]
“Let me take you to your chamber,” said Tobie. “I’m a physician. Your husband should have warned you of our arrival.”
The mountainous face turned up to him, eyes timid. “I forget,” she said. “He is busy. Wine for his guests. My servants …”
“They will look after us. There’s plenty of time for that. Now. You should be in your bedchamber. I’ll help you. Thomas, Claes, Loppe – stay till I come back.”
He observed, as he helped her out, the glance she cast over her shoulder at Claes. But Claes, he saw, had already backed himself discreetly to share a wall space with Loppe, and was murmuring to him, and grinning. He thought he caught the reflection of his own voice. Tobie, labouring to lead the invalid lady of Fleury to her room, was conscious that this time, perhaps, he had uncovered a pattern of relationships which would have been better left alone. He could deal with it. He knew his own competence. But this – this did not promise to be pleasant.
It fulfilled its promise. The mistress of the house, excusing herself, was absent from supper. The master, when he eventually emerged with Astorre and the notary Julius, looked strongly displeased, and confined himself at table to biting courtesies. The inferiors Loppe and Claes, if they ate at all, were not visible, and Thomas, who was, soon learned to keep his mouth shut. The master of Fleury had no time to waste on the emissaries of his non-relative Marian de Charetty, and now their business was done, wished to be rid of them. A thing denied him until tomorrow, when Francesco Nori of the Medici would call on them.
They shared two bedchambers, as was natural, Astorre and the Englishman in one, with Claes on the floor; and Tobie and Julius in the other, attended by Loppe. Tobie, uneasily served by his digestion, made his way through the night to the appointed place in the yard and found himself accosted, returning, by a shrouded figure he recognised, alarmed, as his hostess. She, no less alarmed, muttered apologies and hurried off, her robes trailing. He took the trouble, before lying down, to check the whereabouts of all his party. In his own room, Julius snored, and so did Loppe. In the next chamber, sleep had claimed both Astorre and his deputy, but had apparently escaped the former apprentice Claes, who was nowhere to be seen.
He slept, and woke to an empty room and the sounds of pandemonium. He lay, waiting. It was Julius, finally, who opened the door and sat by his mattress, irony on his handsome face. “You hear?”
“I dare not imagine,” said the doctor, “what has happened. But I might guess, Madame has been ravished?”
The straight-nosed, classical face relaxed its grimness. “I suppose you’ve met this before.”
“It is common,” said Tobie. “By the negro this time, perhaps?”
The face opposite him was bitter. “Where would be the pleasure in that?” said the notary.
Tobie sat up.
“Not –”
“Of course,” said Julius. “Claes.”
“What will happen?”
Julius said, “That depends on M. Jaak. If he insists, it will be a long imprisonment. Or they’ll mutilate.” He paused. “Astorre will try to prevent it. I’ll do more. I shall see that they don’t.”
Tobie had met this kind of calm before, too. He said, “You won’t help him by laying yourself open to punishment. Astorre has only to swear that the boy never left the bedchamber. Can’t he do that?”
“Astorre and Thomas went to bed drunk,” Julius said. “Everyone saw it. They wouldn’t have noticed if Claes had brought Esota into the same bed and forced her between them.”
The doctor studied him. “When he met us, M. Jaak referred to another incident. He accused you, I take it falsely. This, therefore, is something Madame de Fleury is accustomed to doing. Something of which her husband is well aware, and probably others. Would an accusation against the boy stand?”
“Oh yes,” said Julius. “The lady has a reputation. That will spare Claes the ultimate penalty. But not the rest. He’s rich, M. Jaak, and has the favour of the French king. And Claes was out of his room. So were you.”
“Following Claes,” said the doctor. “How can one explain such