The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [213]
Lymond said sharply, ‘Courtenay is dead?’
‘Yes,’ said Richard slowly. ‘The only male claimant to the throne. He died in September in Padua.’
‘I see,’ Lymond said. He was looking out to sea, where a gull was soaring with white, knuckled wings, but his eyes did not see it. ‘And the lady Elizabeth?’
‘Is at Hatfield. There was a fuss in the summer, over some seditious papers found in her house. Some of her staff were arrested, and her household has been organized and staffed by the Queen. Since then it has been quiet. Since the hopes of a child heir have vanished, the marriage plans for Madam Elizabeth have been fairly constant, of course. The current one is to link her with Philip’s cousin, the Duke of Savoy. They suggested the Archduke Ferdinand, but the French Ambassador said that if they went ahead with it, they would marry the child Mary Queen of Scotland to Courtenay.’
‘Before or after his death?’ said Lymond with unexpected savagery. He added, ‘You realize you have told me nothing about my lisping child-bride and her tedious divorce?’
‘Oh. Yes,’ said Richard. ‘One of the objects of the truce was to allow the ransoming of prisoners of war. After haggling for months, the Constable of France got his son back, to find that, while in prison, he had fallen in love with a lady and married her.’
‘It happens,’ Lymond said. ‘More frequently in prison than out.’
‘Quite. Except that the Constable had been at great pains to affiance the young man to the King of France’s illegitimate daughter, with all the honours and recognition that implied.’
‘Did it?’ said Lymond.
‘If your father is the King of France,’ Richard said. ‘So there arises the matter of a divorce. The marriage between the young lady and the Constable’s son has not been consummated.’
‘So they say,’ Lymond said. ‘Do you believe Philippa?’
For a moment, Richard was silent. Then he said, ‘Naturally. So does her mother.’
‘I thought you would believe her,’ Lymond said. ‘Yes? Well? You had got to “consummated”.’
‘So it is to be placed before a public convocation of cardinals, and on the current mood of the Pope will depend the outcome of their marriage and yours.… Why do you do that?’ said Richard. ‘You know we believe Philippa.’
‘Perhaps I envy her,’ Lymond said. ‘No one believes me.’
‘Not even Kiaya Khátún?’ Richard said.
Lymond’s eyes, surprised and informed with pure malice, swung back from mid-ocean contemplation. ‘And what do you know about that? You astonish me, Richard.’
‘Only that you took her to Russia. Or so Philippa says.’
‘It was the other way about. But of course you are right. Kiaya Khátún is of the happy family circle.’
‘You didn’t marry her!’ said Richard sharply.
‘No! No,’ said Lymond soothingly. ‘All but the ceremony. We hope to have the four children legitimized.’
For a moment, with sinking heart, Richard believed him. Then he saw the look on Lymond’s face, and found he could bear it even less. He got to his feet, stiff and unslept, with all the weariness of the night suddenly upon him. ‘At least,’ he said, ‘you are back.’
And if he had been looking at his brother’s face then, which he was not, he would have seen worn into the bones a burden identical to his own, which rested a moment and then was as swiftly banished. Lymond, rising also, stood for a moment, contemplating the brightening sky. From nondescript grey, the shell-rim of each turning wave had sharpened into a deep peacock green: the distant sea, tweeded and slubbed with frantic white, lay brown on the horizon. Lymond said, ‘While Best is away, I shall have to be Nepeja’s interpreter and act with the Queen as