The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [268]
He eyed her warily, in the way she had learned to mistrust. ‘You aren’t devoted to feathers?’
‘I can take them’ said Philippa, ‘or leave them. I wanted to speak about Lady Lennox and the Angus inheritance. Queen Mary has had a letter from the Queen Dowager of Scotland.’
‘Yes?’ Lymond said. Sir Henry had stepped into the other barge, and Nicholas had followed suit. Ludovic d’Harcourt was still to come.
‘The Scottish Queen Dowager says that she has given favourable audience to Dr Laurence Hussey, appointed by the Privy Council at our Queen Mary’s insistence to break ground for Lady Lennox’s claim to the Angus castles and property in Scotland. And that she has now opened justice to him and given express command that the Chancellery shall be patent to Lady Margaret. That means she is to be permitted a Chancery suit on the matter.’
‘I know,’ Lymond said. ‘In fact, I have, back at Fenchurch Street, a packet I received from the French Ambassador yesterday. It contains a statement sent by Lady Lennox to Scotland, clearing you of all implication in any untoward passage of information between the two countries. I assume you know of the bargain because you are in ceaseless communication with your mother?’
‘Yes,’ Philippa said; and shook the sock free of her shoulder. Kate had told her of that particular bargain. Kate had told her also of the letter from Lymond to Lord Culter, invoking him by his full name and addressing him nowhere as brother. Of what had happened at their last meeting, or at Berwick, there had been no mention either: merely the outline of Philippa’s present predicament, and the further outline of how Lord Culter, if he so pleased, could help her. And Lymond had signed, omitting pointless civilities, with his surnames.
She did not know, for Kate did not tell her, that there was no answering letter from Richard Crawford. Only the required document, forwarded by the French Ambassador the day before, and a small parcel with Culter’s seal on it. And even had she seen what the parcel contained, which was merely a trinket, a crested rose-bush with a single black rose set in silver, she would have been none the wiser.
But Lymond, who did know what it meant, raised his eyebrows at the girl and said, ‘So that at least is happily concluded. Was that all you wanted to tell me? I think d’Harcourt is about to step in.’
And Philippa said, ‘Oh. I shall tell you later. It’s about Michael Surian, the new Ambassador from Venice to England. He came to Court on the 5th … Mr d’Harcourt, Sir Henry is calling you.’
‘No, I think he’s calling you,’ Ludovic d’Harcourt said. ‘He says if you’ll cross to his barge, we can take this one home down river afterwards.’ And taking Philippa’s place: ‘I wanted to talk to you,’ Ludovic d’Harcourt said to Lymond.
‘About feathers,’ said Lymond, his shoulders restfully propped on the cushions. They had begun to move: the grey river wall of the Savoy Palace, green with weed, slid off behind them.
The barge was really too small for d’Harcourt. He stretched his legs, and then folded them under him; then, bumping his cap on the hood, he felt for and straightened it, smoothing the wild, tightly curled hair. He said, ‘I hope you’ll forgive me. But I heard what you and Sir Henry were discussing at table. You think you know who attacked you in Russia.’
‘Well?’ said Lymond. He looked, if anything, bored.
The fresh face beside him was grim. ‘I know you don’t trust me,’ d’Harcourt said. ‘Probably you don’t trust any of us. Since the day we joined you, you’ve kept us all at our distance, and I don’t say I blame you. You talked to Sir Henry as if your killer was bound to be one of the Muscovy Company in Russia.’
‘Well?’ said Lymond again.
‘While you know as well as I do,’ said d’Harcourt, ‘that it might be one of us.’
‘And is it?’ said Lymond.
The backs of the rowers, in Sir Henry’s bright livery,