The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [233]
They commanded respect. In spite of their boredom, the three officers of St Mary’s found themselves spending long hours, willingly, round the table; combining with Best and Nepeja in an attempt to define markets and explain officialdom; detailing the concessions made by the Tsar and interpreting those demanded in return by Nepeja. Lymond, mercifully, seemed equally ready to offer help and to exercise restraint through all the discussions which had nothing to do with munitions—that aspect, it could only be guessed, was being negotiated through firmly closed doors. On occasion, he relieved Best as interpreter, and it was noticeable then how their progress improved, as he steered Nepeja, and clarified for him.
Nepeja was already dependent on him. As time went on the three, cynical pairs of eyes from St Mary’s could see that the merchants also, little by little, were beginning to lean on his advice. They had Buckland’s notes of the probable lading of the three vanished ships. They knew now the total losses, including the fragments being recovered from Pitsligo, hardly worth the total cost of the rescue. And, facing reality, they included in these the pinnace Searchthrift, sent out to Vardȯ with the Edward, and never heard of since the Edward’s last call there. So there came the day when Sir George Barnes threw his quill on the paper before him and said, ‘Gentlemen, we have lost six thousand pounds in two years. What is this Russian trade worth to us?’
It was an argument which would be thrashed out in the end, with the Company’s powerful Goverment members, and far from the Muscovite Ambassador’s hearing. No one had to be told that war might be coming; that to buy and refit and victual a fresh fleet of ships the Company would have to raise capital by calling once again on its members. It was Lymond who said, ‘But it seems to me that your trade with Russia on both sides is perfectly secure, whatever happens in the Narrow Seas or the Baltic. This indeed is your lifeline, and perhaps Russia’s. Your object should be to improve your ships, and foster any research which will improve your navigation. And then to look beyond Russia.’
‘Chancellor is dead,’ Garrard said.
‘There are others,’ Lymond said.
‘Burroughs. Vanished on Searchthrift. Wyndham’s dead, and so is Pinteado. Roger Bodenham’s too old, and settled in Spain. No one at Penshurst, and Sir Henry’s off with his map-drawing secretary and his tract-writing chaplain to write the topography of Ireland. Buckland——?’
‘No,’ Lymond said. ‘I am told there is a man called Tony Jenkinson.’
Garrard said, ‘You hear a great deal in Russia. Or—you were friendly with Chancellor?’
‘We talked a little about this,’ said Lymond. ‘Could Jenkinson take a fleet of four ships to St Nicholas?’
‘Perhaps,’ Garrard said. ‘If Buckland and the rest of you advised him. The charts would have to be redrawn.’
‘Adam here could help with that,’ Lymond said. ‘As for the rest, we can supply what we know for a rutter, whether Jenkinson is the man to use it or not. Who could meet us and draw the notes up?’
There was a short silence, during which d’Harcourt met Adam’s eye and Adam in turn avoided looking at Danny. Then Sir George Barnes said with a sigh, ‘There really only is one man. But he’s living quietly. I suspect … I think I had better find out if he can see you. But he’s the man. By the name of John Dee.’
The meeting broke up soon afterwards.
‘We deceived you there,’ Danny said to Ludovic d’Harcourt, watching all the black gowns and fur collars sweeping down the oak stairs. ‘You thought we were interested in trading with Russia.’
‘I did,’ said d’Harcourt obediently.
‘And we’re not,’ Danny said. ‘We want an excuse to call on a caster of horoscopes and a heretic. Maybe he wants his future read? I hear it’s all done with a crystal of coal.’
‘In that case,’ said his colleague briefly, ‘I hope they keep sousing the damned thing with water.’
*
On foot and