Race of Scorpions - Dorothy Dunnett [138]
Tobie said, ‘Well, Christ, he’s happy again. Whatever he was missing, he seems to have seen it. What’s he looking at now?’
‘A boat,’ said John le Grant. ‘Coming across from that galley. Hailing us.’
Nicholas had thrown back his head. His face was the face of a child at a carnival. The shipmaster walked to the rail. A man in the advancing sloop called again, and continued to flourish his arms. The shipmaster signed to his trumpeter, and the oars back-pedalled and held. The sloop came nearer. ‘Hell and damnation,’ said John le Grant under his breath. Tobie said nothing.
In the sloop was the courtesan Primaflora. Her hood fallen back, she let the rain beat on her face as she gazed up at the deck of the cog. Nicholas raised his bound arms in a gesture of unassumed and explicit delight and, seeing him, her face opened in a smile to make every man envious. He stood, prevented from moving, and watched her. There was an interval, during which the sea lifted the sloop and the girl and her woman clung, struggling to board. Boxes were transferred. Then Primaflora was on deck, and greeting the shipmaster, the Grand Commander, Lomellini.
They looked mystified, Tobie thought. He said, ‘They didn’t expect her. Do you suppose …’
‘She’s here against the Queen’s wishes? I was supposing just that thing,’ said John le Grant. ‘And look at Nicholas, man. He’s got her again, and no marriage. I grant you. That laddie can plan.’
‘I should think the planning was hers,’ Tobie said. ‘And either a convincing lie, or a fair greasing of palms, or they would never have agreed to her boarding. She’s coming over.’
They hadn’t seen her since the miserable night when the Court of King Arthur attended the death of Tristão Vasquez. Then, she had been the Queen’s attendant but not, perhaps, enjoying the Queen’s fullest confidence. There had been soldiers with her, Tobie remembered, clearly told to stay with her wherever she went.
There was no one with her now but her woman. She left the Commander, the Genoese and the shipmaster and came across to them all. She said, ‘The Queen was so reluctant to allow me to come, I feared to miss the ship altogether. I have held up your sailing. I am sorry.’ She walked as she spoke, taking them out of earshot of the ship’s officers. She said, ‘They won’t let me talk to Niccolò, or at least, not yet. Will you give him a message?’
‘Of course,’ said John le Grant. Tobie looked at him suspiciously.
She smiled. She said, ‘I trust you not to give me away. I have no leave to come. I have left the Queen, but they mustn’t know until I have landed. Will you tell Niccolò?’
‘Won’t they send you back?’ Tobie said.
‘They would find it hard,’ she said. The Commander had come to her side. She smiled to them and, turning, to Nicholas, and then left the deck.
Tobie said. ‘Do you believe that? What are we talking about? We can’t give a message to Nicholas.’
‘Loppe can,’ said John le Grant. ‘Didn’t you see? Nicholas is to share the Grand Commander’s own cabin. They don’t trust him anywhere else. So all the trip, Loppe can run between us.’
‘And between Nicholas and Primaflora,’ Tobie said. ‘That makes me feel a lot better. No, it doesn’t.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Captain Astorre. Crossing the harbour bar, the ship lurched again, and gave every sign of continuing to do so. ‘Don’t worry. Remember which is the lee rail, and don’t think of Nicholas. You’ll get back your sea legs in no time.’
Very soon after that, the willing black servant Lopez had cause to unlock his master’s cabin in search of a boat cloak. Nicholas, lying on one of the seats, said, ‘Well, well. Tobie been sick yet?’
Loppe looked at him in the way Tobie sometimes looked, which reminded Nicholas of a collector searching for chips, scratches and signs of dubious craftsmanship. The African said, ignoring the question, ‘The lady Primaflora wishes you to know that she is here without leave of the Queen, although she has told the Grand Commander otherwise. She expects to join you on Cyprus.’
‘I counted on it,’ said Nicholas. ‘You can tell her that, if you like.’
‘It was