The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [244]
‘That wasn’t true,’ Lymond acknowledged, still reading.
‘Hercules Tait says that Courtenay died after fourteen days’ fever in Padua, and that Vannes, the English Ambassador, got the chief Magistrate of Padua to lock up all Courtenay’s papers until the Queen wrote to say what she wanted.’
‘Luckily,’ Lymond said, ‘Hercules Tait, who wrote the report, has a friend in the Council. So the following day, without Vannes being aware of it, the Bailiff of Padua was asked to send Courtenay’s papers secretly to the Chiefs of the Ten back at Venice, where the box was opened by a carpenter and the contents all read. A number of letters, marked with a cross, were taken out of the bundle and the rest put back into their linen cover, stitched, replaced and nailed into the casket, which was sent back to Padua, apparently intact. From there, presently, Peter Vannes was allowed to collect it, and is at this moment on his way home to hand it, with the letters, to the Queen. Unfortunately,’ said Lymond reflecting, ‘Tait doesn’t know which letters were abstracted, and he says he is watched and may not be able to get the casket from Vannes.’
‘Why does it matter?’ Philippa said. She looked again at the report in her hand, which included none of these extremely interesting facts.
Lymond shrugged, ‘Courtenay was the sole male heir, several times removed, to the throne of England, if Queen Mary dies childless. There have always been plots to marry him to the lady Elizabeth. He was supposedly involved in the scheme to rob the Treasury last year—they put his secretary Walker in prison. Ruy Gomez and his friends were only recently suspected of trying to kill him—even the merchants can tell you all about that. So his correspondence is highly inflammable.’
‘And who is liable to be burnt?’ Philippa said.
‘I am,’ Lymond said placidly. ‘And more important, John Dee. And more important still, the Queen’s sister Elizabeth. But not until Vannes arrives with the casket.’
In silence, they stared at one another: sardonic blue gaze into clear, vigorous brown. ‘And I,’ said Philippa at last, ‘am about to be suspected as a junior unpaid courier scurrying about between you all?’
‘It is no doubt Lady Lennox’s hope,’ Lymond said. ‘As I told your mother, I shall do what I can to thwart it. She said you had been to Hatfield only once. Is that true?’
‘Yes. Mr Elder asked me to go once again, but I made some excuse,’ Philippa said. ‘Madam Elizabeth did warn me, to do her credit.’
‘I am not sure that she deserves any,’ Lymond said. ‘But if you took her nothing but books, nothing can be proved against you. And if Margaret Lennox did read your letters, she will know that it was not the last sprig of the white rose which had engaged your attention.… What a pity that we rushed into marriage. Your reputation has never been questioned, and you acquired all my ill-wishers instead.… The Pope, it says here, is angry with France for not coming to help him more quickly. He has not therefore hastened to present the French with all their new cardinals, or the Constable’s son with his divorce, which is still being strongly debated. To wit: can the Pope separate a marriage contracted per verba de praesenti, but which, and the rest of it.’
‘… but which has not been consummated. Don’t be diffident,’ Philippa said. ‘The theologians say no, and the canonists disagree, quoting Leo I who in letter 92 to Rusticus, Bishop of Narbonne, says that matrimonium per verba de praesenti is not marriage, nisi accedat copula carnalis.’
‘And you understand Latin as well,’ Lymond said. ‘As I remember?’
‘Well enough to note the implications and observe them,’ Philippa said. ‘Although it removes a certain zest from court life. I should like you to read the papers from Brussels.’
‘You would?’ he said. He put down the papers. ‘How long is it since you were home at Flaw Valleys?’
‘Two years,’ said Philippa.
‘Are you by any chance …’ said Lymond.
‘… baiting you?’ Philippa