Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [295]
‘And there is your case against St Pol and de Salmeton,’ Godscalc said. ‘You have to make allowance for that.’
‘To hell with making allowance for that. When? When?’ Nicholas said.
‘Eleven or twelve days,’ Godscalc answered.
Twelve days from that moment, having been betrothed at Sluys and married at Damme, the inappropriately attractive English princess called Margaret, aged twenty-two, made her ceremonial entry to Bruges as the third wife of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, dark-natured, autocratic, and nine years her elder.
On the same day, between noon and the jousting, Gelis van Borselen, twenty-three, was engaged to be taken in third marriage also by Nicholas vander Poele, knight and former apprentice, and twenty-seven years of age since the previous December. They were to be united in the palace of Gruuthuse, and the wedding Mass was to be sung in the church of Our Lady adjoining.
It would be brief. The churchmen and noble families of Bruges had much else to occupy them. After, they had made plans to go nowhere but Spangnaerts Street.
The scheme suited both the bride and the groom, who were each of a singular independence of mind, and anyway had, as was widely suspected, no momentous hymen to break. The union, as it were, was an old one.
That said, it was to their credit that, from the moment of their formal betrothal, they observed the proprieties. Godscalc, self-appointed impresario (with Gregorio), was sentimentally entertained by the unaccustomed restraint of the pair: Gelis magnificently housed in the Bruges home of Henry van Borselen; and Nicholas sleeping, or not sleeping, in the excellent Hof Charetty-Niccolò by himself.
Remembering the dusty, indolent, sweetly benevolent harem of the Ma’ Dughu, Godscalc smiled. Considering everything, his two strong-minded children were behaving very well. As for their combined past, he knew that Nicholas had sent a message to Umar, through Portinari. It might take six months to reach him, but it would conclude, for Umar too, a long and sometimes troubled wait.
Nicholas and Gelis met in company, naturally enough, every day. Arrangements had to be made. It was not always easy, the English princess having arrived with her fleet at the town’s port of Sluys, and the ducal court passing and repassing on its way to the various ceremonies. The future Duchess was to stay there a week. Nevertheless, Henry van Borselen set aside time, and over several days the papers were drawn up which protected Catherine de Charetty and the Bank, while making of Gelis a very rich woman.
She had brought Nicholas a dowry, lodged long ago through the Florentine Monte which took care of such payments. It was not inconsiderable, and she had protested against further settlements. Gregorio, Godscalc thought, would have let her have her way, but Nicholas had been immovable. It was fair. If this was why he had brought back his gold, then he deserved to use it as he wished. It had cost him enough.
The meetings at the Hôtel Vasquez were of a more difficult nature. It was hard for Lucia de St Pol to oppose a marriage between Gelis and Nicholas who had, after all, brought her brother’s perfidy to light and had repaired it. He had also repaired the fortunes of Diniz.
Even so, Lucia possessed strong reservations. She did not enjoy the idea of her son being joined in marriage with a daughter of Marian de Charetty, and leading the life of a burgher instead of that of the landowning class he was born to. She explained her objections, and both Nicholas and Diniz were soothing. She could do nothing about it, save complain.
Godscalc guessed, having met many of her kind, that in time she would forgive them. It crossed his mind to wonder what the journey from Scotland had been like, with Lucia and her brother and David de Salmeton confined together in mutual discord. It made him not unhappy.
Simon, staying with the other Scots merchants at Metteneye’s, had kept well clear, Godscalc saw, of his sister’s family. He had, however, sent his lawyer to register his formal dissent to both unions. He wished to forbid Diniz