The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [322]
He said, his eyes closed, ‘Beshrew Loose Ladies in the Night. You use your scents like a Turkish concubine. I wish you would throw them away.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Philippa said. ‘You are standing under a lamp. Where are you going?’
‘A boat for Greenwich,’ Lymond said. He stared into the darkness. ‘They have killed d’Harcourt.’
‘I heard,’ Philippa said. ‘He came for me. Give me your hand.’
And as his spread hand was taken, and he felt her other hand on his arm, authoritatively pushing and steering, he said, ‘You know?’
‘That your headaches lead to blindness? Yes, I know,’ Philippa said. ‘But be quiet. Or they will hear us.’ And after that, she did not speak again for a very long time.
He did not therefore know which wharf she finally took him to, or how she found the boat into which someone pulled him. There seemed to be several men rowing and, from the conversation and the wind on his face, a small sail, which lent them suddenly an extra impulse of speed, tipping the boat so that he was turned over, on the sacking someone had put under his head.
He had not been quite conscious but he awakened sufficiently to think that the vessel was riding too smoothly to be going against the tide. That meant that the full span of a tide, with a little over to allow for the turn … that meant that, at worst, six hours had to elapse before Jenkinson’s fleet could lift anchor and set sail from Gravesend. And perhaps more. The tide still seemed to be running strongly. He said, not knowing how far to project his voice, ‘What time is it? Philippa?’
And Philippa’s voice said, ‘I’m not sure. But the helmsman thinks you will do it. If you will lie still, I am going to lay a dripping wet handkerchief over your forehead. The smell I can do nothing about. But it will perhaps drown my scent.’
He could not remember saying anything about her scent. After a moment the promised wet handkerchief did arrive, and water ran down into his hair. It was another sensation, if it did not signally help. He said, ‘Have you enough money?’ because he did not wish the sum he carried to be known, and she said, ‘Yes. We have reached an agreement. They will take us all the way to Gravesend. Will that do, or did you want to be put off at Greenwich?’
The barge at Greenwich might even have gone. And he did not feel capable of explaining to an irate captain and his escort and rowers, precisely what had happened, and that he himself had had no part in the attack on them. He said, ‘All the way,’ in the kind of encapsulated speech which had proved most successful lately and went to sleep. Or so he supposed.
When he wakened, how much later he did not know, the motion of the boat was much rougher, and he could feel it labouring against the kicked waves of the contrary tide. He said, ‘How much farther? What time is it, Philippa?’
And Philippa’s voice, from the same place, said ‘It is nearly the turn of the tide. I can see a group of masthead lights, lying down river. It will be dawn soon, and we can wave.’
His eyes closed, unsolicited, with the relief of it. Philippa said, ‘How long do these attacks last?’
He said, still with closed eyes, ‘Not so long, as a rule. I had a blow on the head.’ And, reminded of something: ‘Philippa? Do you know who sent the boat which took me from the royal barge? Who else besides Alec and Fergie doesn’t want me to go back to Russia?’
He heard her change position. And when she next spoke, it was apparent that her back this time was to the rowers, and her voice was lowered as well. ‘The French Ambassador,’ Philippa said. ‘And the Queen’s sister, the lady Elizabeth.’
He had no need, any longer, to speak in monosyllables. The thunderous weight was lifting; his head ached, but he was able to think, in some manner. The sense of Philippa’s presence returned: soon he would be able to see her. Lymond said, but not as he had said it once before, ‘What have you been doing?’
‘I went to Michiel Surian,’ Philippa said. ‘The new Venetian