The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [260]
‘With the lady Elizabeth. Alive,’ Lymond said. ‘Through the Lennoxes’ efforts. They are merely attempting to control my movements: a popular occupation.’
‘They want you out of the country?’ Danny said, speculating generously. And as Lymond threw the key, with a sudden sharp gesture, on his bed, Danny said, ‘I simply love having secrets from Adam and Ludo, but I am risking my fair neck in the Cause. You are supposed to supply me with some basic information, if not to inspire me. Actually, I should love to be inspired. Why don’t we like the Lennoxes?’
‘Because they talk too much,’ Lymond said. ‘What are Blacklock and d’Harcourt doing?’
‘Blacklock, Adam, is drawing maps,’ Danny said. ‘Having been offered the position of cartographer with the Muscovy Company at twenty pounds per annum when you have departed, and having accepted with alacrity. D’Harcourt, Ludo, has got a new woman at Smithfield. Neither of them is likely to burst in on us.’
‘And you?’ Lymond said. He did not, to Danny’s regret, address him as Hislop, Daniel.
‘I,’ said Danny, ‘am risking my neck for Philippa Somerville. I suppose. When your divorce comes along, may I court her?’
‘You will have to discuss the matter,’ Lymond said, ‘with a number of other gentlemen, including one Austin Grey who may even fight you. As a reward for … what is your principal characteristic, would you say?’
‘Treacherousness,’ said Danny, gloriously.
‘That,’ said Lymond pleasantly, ‘is everyone’s principal characteristic. As a reward for bloody persistence, you may know that the Lennoxes have threatened Philippa if I leave the country. They may do it, it seems in two ways. One is by implicating her in my downfall, which is what you are contriving to prevent. The other is by accusing her of trading information to Scotland, which I hope the Queen Dowager is contriving to prevent. There is an inheritance which Margaret Lennox wants very badly. The Queen, I trust, is going to offer her a Chancery suit provided she exculpates Philippa in writing from any suspicion of treachery.’
‘But I thought,’ Danny said, ‘that you and the Queen Dowager of Scotland were no longer on visiting terms? Have you written to her?’
‘No,’ Lymond said.
‘Then——’ said Danny, and cut it off, because he knew now where Lymond had written. There was only one person in Scotland who both knew Philippa Somerville and stood well enough with the Queen Dowager to persuade her to take part in the stratagem, and that was Lymond’s elder brother, Lord Culter. Who at Edinburgh had knocked Lymond clean out of his senses.…
Daniel Hislop, in whose being a mad curiosity flourished at the expense of his undoubted acumen, said simply, ‘Christ! What did you say?’
Francis Crawford turned, and looked at him; and Danny’s smile became suddenly very pretty, if a trifle rigid. ‘I doubt,’ said Lymond dryly, ‘if it would inspire you.’
*
Sir William Petre took occasion to call on Cardinal Pole and ask him if he had discovered the Cicero he was looking for: Cardinal Pole, who shared his interest in rare books, admitted that he had not. Several days after that, Sir William and the Bishop called again to hold soothing talks with the Muscovite Ambassador Osep Nepeja, and to pass directly from there to another part of the house, where they continued their rather more interesting discussions with the Tsar’s other envoy, Mr Crawford.
The grounds for negotiation this time were slightly more practical, and had to do with the very real obstacles in the way of supplying either men or material of the kind the Tsar wanted in these ominous days of impending war. While making this perfectly clear, it had to be admitted that, first, the current truce between France and the Empire was still, officially, unbroken, and that, secondly, although there was talk of war, informed opinion stated that war could not possibly occur until after the harvest, or June at the earliest. Which argued that since England—of course—was neither at war nor about to go to war, the lowering of her own stocks of weapons and powder was undesirable,