Queen's Play - Dorothy Dunnett [83]
‘They’re easy vexed, so, the women here.’
‘On the other hand, the Constable is said to favour reducing the power of both the de Guises and Diane, and marrying the little Queen off to a lesser duke instead of to the Dauphin as planned.’
‘There does be a power of scheming among the grand, high folk there are,’ said Thady Boy humbly.
‘—Finally, Queen Catherine, we know, dislikes sharing her husband with Diane, with the de Guises, and even with his old crony the Constable, though she’s capable of allying with the Constable at a pinch. She dislikes England intensely. She has seen to it that d’Aubigny here, for example, will never rise in the hierarchy since his brother Lennox, my revered relative who hates you, my dear Lymond, so cordially, is at the English Court and a strong contender, if not a strong favourite, for both the English and the Scottish crowns. He, we must not forget, is descended from Scottish Kings, and his wife—my niece—was niece also to the late King of England. No one shakes the King’s loyalties lightly. The Constable was made to release d’Aubigny from prison because the King loved d’Aubigny. The love has perhaps weakened, but the regard is still there. Neither Catherine nor the Constable can injure d’Aubigny; but they will see that he is kept out of the royal mind.
‘The King has other favourites besides the de Guise family. You know them well. St. André. Condé and d’Enghien. The absent Vidame. Each in turn hates his or her rival; nearly all without exception hate the de Guises. So that if someone is trying to kill the little Queen, the little Queen’s mother is in quite a predicament. The foreign assassin is soon dealt with. But the assassin within the Court is another matter entirely. For example, if it were Queen Catherine herself?’
With a smooth rustle, Thady Boy slid down his stool, settling his potbelly on his knees and gazing at the segmented ceiling.
‘A Madame la Dauphine
Rien n’assigne
Elle a ce qu’il faut avoir
Mais je voudrais bien la voir.…
Or Diane?’ said Thady Boy. ‘Vieille ridée, vieille edentée? As you see, I know a verse about her too.…’
‘I have no doubt you do,’ said Sir George, his voice grating very slightly. ‘Do I have to be more precise? The Queen Dowager has to protect her daughter. And she must do it covertly, without knowledge of King or Court. So the man she chose, unknown to the King, is pranking at his very table. Are you listening?’
The ollave’s blank stare, very slightly unfocussed, dropped from the ceiling. ‘Am I not here sober, celibate and buttoned like a March stag? What must I do else?’
‘Dance,’ said Sir George succinctly.
A smile, starting somewhere on the scalp, crawled downwards over the dark, slovenly skin. Thady brought his chin down and his hands up, and sketching an unmistakable gesture, replied. ‘The answer is a doux Nenny, my dear.’
A refusal, sweet or otherwise, was no use to Sir George. He sat up. ‘You understand at least what I’m talking about?’
‘Devil a word,’ said Thady Boy cheerfully. ‘But three months in this fair land have taught me something, surely. Five words, to be precise. A doux Nenny, my dear.’
For a moment Douglas was silent. But he was not of a race easily daunted. He said pleasantly, ‘You would find it helpful to have the friendship of the next Scots Ambassador in France.’
The smile, remaining, matched the abandoned lilt in the voice. ‘Does the Queen Mother know who the next Ambassador is to be?’
‘She will, when you have told her,’ said George Douglas. ‘Myself.’
‘Otherwise—?’
‘Otherwise Henri of Valois, Second of that name, will be told why Queen Mother of Scotland has brought a spy with her, and who he is.’
Thady Boy’s soft voice was sad. ‘It all sounds terrible unlucky. Would it not be a better thing, surely, to put the problem to the Queen Mother yourself? Or would the tale, maybe, fall faint on her ears? I doubt you have axe-land to cultivate