Race of Scorpions - Dorothy Dunnett [231]
She was sitting up now, her brows straight. ‘Who?’
‘The Queen,’ he said. ‘And perhaps Primaflora.’
‘The Queen?’ she said.
‘And Primaflora,’ Nicholas said. ‘The Lusignan fight to win, and the Queen is a Lusignan. She failed to persuade me to join her in Venice; she thought she had me at Bologna; she sent Primaflora to trap me in Bruges and later in the Abruzzi. She made me a Knight, when a refusal meant killing my company, and when she thought you might harm me, she sent out orders to stop you: to kill you, if need be. Then, when you found your way to Cyprus, she had no conscience at all about accepting what information you could send her.’
He stretched, and smiled at her. ‘But by then, I had tricked her by taking service with Zacco, and she wanted me dead. You were supposed to arrange that. You or Diniz. When you didn’t, she used you to trap me. And to get rid of the plants. She still thinks to regain Cyprus: she doesn’t want sugar plants sent to Madeira. And I, to be truthful, didn’t want Simon to have them. He has done his best to spoil my trade. It is legitimate to defend myself. I have never done more than that.’
‘And Primaflora?’ she said. ‘All along, she has acted for Carlotta?’
‘All along, she has acted for Primaflora,’ Nicholas said. ‘She has no money, no protector. She lives by her wits and a certain … love of style. She has been waiting to see who will win.’ He paused. ‘We have been lovers. You know that. And there have been others. You probably know of them. This is not the place for explanations, but if I’m being used for a purpose not my own, it seems only fair to return the compliment. I’m not presuming to say that the exercise is distasteful; just that it’s only an exercise.’
She turned with a sudden, generous gesture, stretching her hand to his arm, and smoothing it down to his knuckles. She said, ‘Your palms are hurt already. You think that is how Primaflora feels. I think she is not with you from duty.’
He loosened his hands. ‘She is with me for many reasons,’ he said. He hesitated and said, ‘The plants were part of her fee.’
‘For what?’ she said. She turned fully towards him.
‘For your safety,’ he said. ‘As you see, she has cheated.’ He waited and said, ‘She is jealous. She won’t try again. She will leave the island before you do.’
Her eyes had grown dark. ‘With you?’ said Katelina.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I am the rest of her fee.’
Silence stretched. She looked down, holding his hands without seeing them. She said, ‘I can’t go back to Simon.’
Nicholas said, ‘You must; because of his son.’
Her grip loosened, and her gaze came up, agonized. She said, ‘You have never seen him.’
He had recovered the cool voice, and kept it. ‘You and I made him,’ Nicholas said. ‘With you, he will have a name, and be happy. With me, he will be the bastard of a bastard. And if you leave Simon and don’t come to me, who will care for your son?’
She said, ‘I wondered, when I was carrying him …’ She stopped.
‘What?’ he said. He rose quietly and stood looking down at her.
‘If you would want him. If you were fond of children. If you had others. If you would be a kind father. If you would marry me.’
He said, ‘I have no others. Servants know how to protect themselves. Katelina, we can’t marry. You will have to be father and mother. But as he grows … I should like to know something about him.’
‘I don’t know him,’ she said. ‘He has your nature, and beauty. I couldn’t give my heart to him, as well.’
‘Now you can,’ Nicholas said.
Her eyes were filled. ‘But is that all? Is that all I am to have? I thought in Bruges it was like this because it was the first time.’
‘I could have told you it wasn’t,’ Nicholas said.
‘But you didn’t tell me,’ she said. ‘If you had,