The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [266]
‘Then you will be careful,’ Sidney said. ‘From what Will Petre tells me, the Tsar cannot afford to lose you. Perhaps you have heard that they have refused my whole order of gunpowder?’
‘Perhaps,’ said Lymond, ‘you don’t know the right people.’
‘Or read the right books,’ Sidney said. He turned and, stretching out his arm, lifted something from a table against the window behind him, and laid it beside Lymond’s plate. ‘I bought it back for you.’
It was the Cicero. For a moment, Lymond sat without touching it, then he lifted his eyes, for the first time, directly to Sidney’s. He said, ‘But I did not find him.’
‘Open it,’ Sidney said.
Inside the front cover, two lines of quotation had been added, below Lymond’s own name and the name of Pierre Gilles, the first owner. They had nothing to do with the Cicero. One was from Robert Thorne’s letter to King Henry VIII: There is no land uninhabitable or sea unnavigable. And the other was merely a phrase: They made the whole world to hang in the air.
‘But you tried,’ Sidney said. ‘I now wish to speak about owls, and this excellent theory of John Dee’s, that a mirror propelled into space at a speed greater than light should be able to reveal all history to us by reflection. M. d’Harcourt, do you favour the prospect of all your lightest actions being subjected to the scrutiny of your grandchildren? I have begun to shed all my vices already. Philippa, when he returns from Spain, you will have to watch your conduct with Don Alfonso.’
‘I have to watch it already,’ said Philippa gloomily. ‘Don Alfonso is the first thing any mirror would pick out; like a cake with periwinkles on it. Have you noticed my hat?’
‘I have noticed,’ said Henry kindly, ‘that you are wearing a sock with a tassel in scarlet. I thought it better not to refer to it. Spanish?’
‘Spanish,’ said Philippa.
‘The Count of Feria,’ said Lady Dormer, ‘has given my dear Jane a diamond.’
The company murmured its approbation. ‘And there you have it,’ said Philippa, turning her brown eyes owl-like to Lymond. ‘Jane Dormer gets diamonds and I receive socks.’
He turned and looked at her, his face perfectly blank. Then he said, ‘Where are you wearing the other one?’
Her eyes, staring at his, were equally expressionless. ‘I keep my dowry in it,’ she said.
He studied the smart little cap below which, for once, she had allowed her brown hair to hang loose. ‘Forgive my scepticism,’ he said, ‘but is it big enough?’
‘My head,’ said Philippa, ‘does not require a large hat. And a Somerville cranium brings its own dowry. Moscow does not have a monopoly of females with compounding assets.’
‘No. The world is full of them,’ Lymond said. ‘But not usually borne in the head. Robert Best is as good as a play, isn’t he? What else has he told you?’
‘Why?’ said Philippa. ‘Shall I be shocked?’ She reflected. ‘Could I be shocked?’
‘After Suleiman’s harem? I should think it unlikely,’ Lymond said. ‘I was simply afraid you would explain it all too clearly to poor Robert Best. Your wedding night, sweet Philippa, is going to be a revelation to someone.’
‘When I wriggle up from the bottom of the bed? Do they do that in——’
‘Lady Dormer,’ said Lymond, ‘is listening to you.’
‘She is watching me. She is listening to M. d’Harcourt. Why do you call him M. d’Harcourt? You called Jerott Jerott.’
‘I called Jerott a great deal worse than that. His name is Ludovic. You will like him. He doesn’t like eagles.’
‘Slata Baba? Did you call her Slata or Baba?’ Philippa said. ‘Or was she exempt, since she couldn’t presume on acquaintance?’
Francis Crawford turned to her and laid down his knife. ‘Philippa Somerville,’ he said. ‘Will you kindly take a new sight for your cannon? You see me beaten quite flat to the groundsilling. Try Mr Jenkinson. He may understand Persian love-poetry.’
‘With internal rhymes?’ Philippa said.