The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [245]
‘Oh, good God,’ Lymond said. ‘Kate must be out of her mind.’
‘And thank heaven you aren’t my father?’ said Philippa.
‘Roughly,’ said Lymond, and began to laugh, and then stopped. ‘Look. I must go. Is there anything else?’
Philippa said, ‘You called Mary Tudor asinine. I want you to read these reports. They begin two years ago when King Philip left her to join his father in Brussels for a stay, so he said, of two months. Read them. Read how often she begged him to return, and how often he promised, and how often he disappointed her. Read about all the gossip that began to reach us from Brussels: about the tournaments and weddings and masked assignments attended by the King and his most intimate servants.…’
‘Ruy Gomez?’ said Lymond.
‘Yes. King Roy,’ said Philippa. ‘I know his secretary.’
‘Not,’ said Lymond, ‘the Spanish Tristram Trusty?’
‘Spanish, yes,’ Philippa said. ‘Trusty, no. You know the saying. Germans woo like lions, Italians like foxes, Spaniards like friars and French like stinging bees. I don’t know why they left Scotsmen out. And Greco-Venetians. The only one I know about Greece is the old one. Chi fida in Grego, sara intrego.’
Lymond said, ‘When you tell me about your Spaniard, I shall tell you about my Greek. Attend to what we are discussing. So what did the Queen do about it all?’
‘She took his picture down and kicked it out of the Privy Chamber,’ Philippa said. ‘She wept. She wrote to the Emperor, begging him to let Philip return, and sent Paget to implore him to hurry, because of the Queen’s age, which does not admit of delay. King Philip told her, through Paget, that if he did not return to her the following month, she was not to consider him a trustworthy King.
‘So, for the fourth or fifth time, arrangements were made for the dear man’s arrival; and for the fourth or fifth time he cancelled it: because of illness, he said. She sent three couriers to Brussels, one after the other, and when after nine days not one of them had returned, she was nearly crazy with worry and suspicion. But he didn’t come anyway, because of the Abdication. The Emperor Charles was retiring to his Spanish monastery, having given his son all his kingdoms. They say he turned back at the gates of his palace, crying. But by the middle of September, all his luggage was on board ship for Spain, except his bed and his clocks; and in October the Queen was again told that Philip was coming. I can tell you,’ said Philippa feelingly, ‘nothing was thought of, nothing expected save this blessed return of the King.’
‘Whom Maximilian described as not a prince of much ability, nor with counsellors of great experience and prudence, and no money. Then he put off his coming till Lent,’ Lymond said. ‘Why? Oh, I suppose the trouble with His Holiness.’
‘Ruy Gomez was here last month,’ Philippa said. ‘And you won’t find what happened in these papers. He brought a letter from the King to the Queen, dwelling on the Pope’s misdemeanours and explaining why it was necessary to fight. Paget, but not the Queen, was to be asked to engineer a break between England and France.’
Lymond said, ‘Your Spanish Trusty again? The French are putting it about that the Queen has promised to pay for ten thousand foot and two thousand horse, on condition that Philip crosses to England.’
‘She has promised him three hundred thousand gold crowns,’ Philippa said. ‘Apart from that, she hasn’t committed herself and won’t, I think, until he arrives. She isn’t well. But she observes all the canonical hours. She prays day and night.’
‘And has just sent the Inquisition to purge the University of Cambridge,’ Lymond said, ‘with coffins tied to the stake, and dead men tried for heresy. All for her husband, who is about to make war on the Head of the Catholic Church. While time is moving on: for the Pope, who must have Naples before death finally claims him; for Mary Tudor, with the gates closing between her and her unborn children; and the husband who comes and comes, and has not come yet.…’ He looked up. ‘You are right,