The Last Enchantment - Mary Stewart [46]
"Soon after Luguvallium, did Lot of Lothian ride this way?"
"Yes, but not through Olicana itself. There's a road -- it's little more than a track now -- that cuts aside from the main road, and leads due east. It's a bad road, and skirts some dangerous bogland, so though it's the quickest way for anyone heading north, it is very little used."
"But Lot used it, even though he was heading south for York? To avoid being seen in Olicana, do you suppose?"
"That did not occur to me," said Gereint. "Not, that is, until later...He has a house on that road. He would go there to lodge, rather than come into the town here."
"His own house? I see. Yes, I saw it from the pass. A snug place, but lonely."
"As to that," he said, "he uses it very little."
"But you knew he was there?"
"I know most things that go on hereabouts." A gesture at the padlocked chest. "Like an old wife at the cottage door, I have little else to do but observe my neighbours."
"I have reason to be grateful for it. Then you must know who met Lot at his house in the hills?"
His eyes held mine for a full ten seconds. Then he smiled. "A certain semi-royal lady. They arrived separately, and they left separately, but they reached York together." His brows lifted. "But how did you know this, sir?"
"I have my own ways of spying."
He said calmly: "So I believe. Well, now all is settled and correct in the sight of God and mankind. The King of Lothian has gone with Arthur from Caerleon into Linnuis, while his new queen waits at Dunpeldyr to bear the child. You knew, of course, about the child?"
"Yes."
"They have met here before," said Gereint, with a nod that added plainly, "and now we see the results of that meeting."
"Have they indeed? Often? And since when?"
"Since I came here, perhaps three or four times." His tone was not that of one passing on tavern gossip, but merely briskly informative. "Once they were here for as much as a month together, but they kept themselves close. It was a matter of report only; we saw nothing of them."
I thought of the bedchamber with its regal crimson and gold. I had been right. Long-time lovers, indeed. If only I could believe what I had suggested to Arthur, that the child could, in fact, be Lot's own. At least, from the neutral tone that Gereint had used, that was what most men assumed as yet.
"And now," he said, "love has had its way, in spite of policy. Is it presumptuous in me to ask if the High King is angry?"
He had earned an honest answer, so I gave him one.
"He was angry, naturally, at the way the marriage was made, but now he sees that it will serve as well as the other. Morgause is his half-sister, so the alliance with King Lot must still hold. And Morgan is free for whatever other marriage may suggest itself."
"Rheged," he said immediately.
"Possibly."
He smiled, and let the subject drop. We talked for a little longer, then I rose to go.
"Tell me something," I asked him. "Did your information run to a knowledge of Merlin's whereabouts?"
"No. Two travellers were reported, but there was no hint of who they might be."
"Or where they were bound?"
"No, sir."
I was satisfied. "Need I insist that no one is to know who I am? You will not include this interview in your report."
"That's understood. Sir -- "
"What is it?"
"About this report of yours on Tribuit and Lake Fort. You said that surveyors would be coming up. It occurs to me that I could save them a good deal of time if I sent working parties over immediately. They could start on the preliminaries -- clearing, gathering turf and timber, quarrying, digging the ditches...If you would authorize the work?"
"I? I have no authority."
"No authority?" He repeated blankly, then began to laugh. "No, I see. I can hardly start