The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [115]
‘The King wants Guelders,’ de Ribérac said. ‘So does Burgundy. He and the Duke may fall out.’
‘If Burgundy wants Guelders, he will get it,’ Nicholas said. ‘You know that as well as I. Scotland needs Burgundy. Or else you would have let Simon claim Gelis’s child.’
‘It is born,’ said de Ribérac slowly.
‘I believe it is,’ Nicholas said. The fat man was clever.
‘You believe?’
‘Legitimacy is a delicate business. It has been laid aside in some hayloft to ripen.’
‘Or in case you do the child harm? From your point of view, it is an embarrassment. From mine, a novelty. Give it to me.’
‘In return for what?’ Nicholas said.
In the silence, he could hear voices outside the door. The clothes, arriving. Someone tapped. When Jordan did not answer, they tapped again. Then Jordan directed a single obscene sentence at the door, and the voices cut off abruptly. Nicholas tossed his apple-core into the fire and stood, watching it wrinkle and seethe. ‘La plus belle me devoit avoir,’ he said. ‘In return for what?’
Jordan said softly, ‘What would you say to legitimacy? Legitimacy for you, as well as the child. Simon accepts you as the son of his loins. You become the heir to Kilmirren. And I rear the child, your successor.’
‘I was hoping you’d say that,’ said Nicholas. He went and sat down, pausing to open a button or two. ‘One yearns and strives and, suddenly, there it all is, and so simple. I should need a statement under oath, of course, before agreeing. I don’t suppose you have a convenient lawyer?’
‘I can get one,’ said Jordan. ‘By the time you have eaten and changed.’
‘And Simon, when he hears, would agree?’
‘He would have no choice,’ de Ribérac said.
‘In spite of Henry? Were I legitimate, a child of my marriage would dispossess Henry,’ Nicholas pursued.
‘Henry is worthless,’ de Ribérac said. ‘You have, I should think, little love for Simon’s small assassin.’
‘I am glad you think the five witnesses were not entirely blind,’ Nicholas said. ‘I am glad, Grandfather, that we are agreed. And in token of it, do you know what I should like?’
‘Speak,’ said de Ribérac. He, too, had seated himself, but away from the fire. His skin glistened.
‘The ring on your finger,’ said Nicholas. ‘You remember the day we first met? I feel I should have something to remember it by.’
‘Mark it, you mean?’ said the fat man. He drew the band off with some trouble and gazed at it in his palm. ‘It is a family ring.’
‘So I see,’ Nicholas said.
He waited. Slowly, the fat man held out his hand and rising, Nicholas crossed and lifted the ring on one fingertip. Below, Jordan’s empty hand curled and turned white.
‘Thank you,’ Nicholas said. ‘I was afraid you’d want my poor daughter to have it, but she has only two thumbs on each hand, and not even a human nose to put it through. But the next child might be normal.’
Jordan’s hand closed on his wrist. Bearing down, he rose to his full height and stood, eye to eye. His skin, neither mottled nor red, had grown ashen. Nicholas laughed into his face. He said, ‘Sign my own death warrant? Will my fortune away? Did you think for a moment I’d do it? It’s time you took to your bed. You didn’t even make sure that the child was a son.’
The hand bearing on his was quite painful. ‘And is it?’ said Jordan.
‘So I am told. I think I believe it. Neither you nor I are likely to see it, I fear, for some time. But it will be reared as a de Fleury, by me.’
‘If it lives,’ said the fat man. ‘She may not let you. She may marry again.’
‘That would be difficult,’ Nicholas said. ‘In my lifetime, at least. Did I give the impression that I would set her aside, or even harm her? I ought to have corrected it. I ought to have mentioned it, perhaps to Gelis herself. I expect her to go where I go, once the child is proclaimed. There will be no doubt, I assure you, of the paternity of the other sons we shall have. And when I have founded my house, my home, my land, my little dynasty, I shall take a ship back