The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [236]
The effect of the mirrors was prismatic. Wherever Lymond looked he could see himself, his hair, his hands, his body, and the bright repeated blaze of the candles, over and over. ‘In France,’ he said. ‘I know when my mind is being attacked.’
‘Do you think I stand here as your enemy?’ said Master Dee. ‘Mr Crawford, was your horoscope drawn up in France?’
‘No,’ said Lymond curtly; and then in the blaze of the mirrors saw a picture long since sunk from his conscious mind: of the house called Doubtance in the Rue de Papegaults, Blois, and a strange and feverish awakening with a woman bending over him.… What was the date and hour of your birth? He said, ‘It may have been done, once. With what results, I don’t know.’
‘If it were to be done again,’ John Dee said, ‘what could you fear? What would you lose?’
‘My privacy,’ Lymond said. ‘And would that speed our business?’
Dee sighed. ‘No,’ he said. ‘You are right. Let us persevere. The Courtenay matter. There must be letters. Many of them appear, as you know, to concern the problems of navigation in which he was interested, but it is not difficult to read behind the lines. He died in Padua, and from what I can learn, all his papers were sealed in a casket and locked up by the Bailiff for safety. Rumour has it that Peter Vannes the English Ambassador has been told to get them and bring them with him to London. He has certainly left for London.’
‘That much I have heard,’ Lymond said. ‘With a thousand Venetian crowns and the commendation of the Council of Ten, Ayes 19, Noes 0, Neutral 0. And he left with the casket. Whether he arrives with the casket is another matter. I think you should leave it to me. Lychpole should have letters for me from Hercules Tait.’
‘Lychpole has no letters for you,’ John Dee said. ‘It is one of the small mysteries I was hoping you would resolve.’
Lymond stared at him thoughtfully. ‘Yes. That certainly calls for attention,’ he said. ‘So does another small matter. How does Philippa Somerville happen to be on visiting terms with the lady Elizabeth?’
John Dee’s pale lashes blinked, once. ‘It was brought about, I believe, by the Lennox family,’ he said. ‘The pretext was the sending of some volumes from Ascham. I believe Madam Elizabeth warned the young lady.’
‘She may have done. She also embroiled the young lady in a matter with which the young lady had nothing to do. I really do not relish the idea,’ Lymond said, ‘of being the medium through which Margaret Lennox and Elizabeth Tudor are assailing each other. And still less do I like the role of stalking-horse allotted to Philippa. If you will convey as much to the proper quarters you will do both of us a service.’
‘But it brought you to England,’ John Dee said. ‘That, or the threat to Richard Chancellor?’
‘I didn’t know about Chancellor,’ said Lymond shortly. ‘I came here on a mission for the Tsar because the Tsar left me no option. Both now and on subsequent journeys I shall willingly give what help I can to Chancellor’s successor, which is the other reason why I am here.’
‘To be sure,’ Dee said. ‘The housewifely purpose of trade.’
‘Slightly higher than that,’ said Lymond pleasantly. ‘So that the fleet shall in good order and conduct sail, pass and travail together in one flote, ging and conserve of society, to be kept indissolubly and not to be severed. You have the makings of a school of cosmography, financed directly or indirectly by the Muscovy Company, which presumably is what the more speculative minds among you have always intended. Charting information Buckland can no doubt supply partly from memory, and we shall help him. On the navigational side, you know what you discussed with Chancellor and what tests you wanted him to carry out. He did use the Tables and instruments. We made some new ones for him in Russia. He also used the paradoxal compass. If you wish, I can tell