The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [170]
Godscalc said, ‘No. I should not spoil a lifetime of plans. Only for now. Only, say, for two years. Would you leave them in peace for two years?’
It was a strange phrase. Dying men exacted peculiar promises. One soothed, one agreed. Tobias, wholly concerned with the shell on the pillows, only came to realise in the silence that followed that Nicholas was not going to supply a comforting answer. Then Godscalc said, ‘Do you want me to tell Tobie why? No one here knows your strength of purpose as I do.’
‘No. I agree,’ Nicholas said.
‘You won’t go back?’
‘Not for two years. I promise.’
The face of Gelis, looking at his, was a mask.
Godscalc closed his eyes, as though to conserve, if he could, an extra measure of energy. He said, ‘I have heard more convincing avowals.’ The half-smile remained on his lips.
‘You want a Decreet Arbitral?’ Nicholas said.
‘What?’ said Tobie. Godscalc opened his eyes. Tobie saw that it was self-mockery that he had heard.
Nicholas, too, seemed to be smiling. Nicholas said, ‘Then let me do it in form.’
He had lifted both hands and laid them, as he knelt, upon the crucifix between Godscalc’s fingers. Godscalc gathered them, and looked up. ‘I promise,’ Nicholas said.
The two sets of hands rested. The crucifix glowed. Tobie’s eyes blurred. He did not know where Godscalc’s gaze had turned, but he heard his voice, sounding strange. ‘I say it again. Child: be my bridge.’
‘What do you want?’ Gelis said. The words had no timbre.
‘I want nothing.’ The once-big voice was full of pity. ‘I shall exact no promise from you: I have not the right. But we all tread one path. Stay with me on this threshold a moment, and help me remember the love that we share.’
He was smiling. Gelis leaned forward. Pale brow, pale lips, pale strand of hair fallen forward, she stretched her hands to her priest and her husband. For a space, flesh on gold, gold on white, something sacramental seemed to rest in the lamplight. Then, the hands drawing apart, it dissolved.
The crucifix shone. The door opened and closed. Gelis uttered a sound of protest, or appeal. The man, the child for whom Godscalc had waited, had gone.
Godscalc lay, his gaze upon the closed door, his face full of pity. Then he turned his tender smile to the girl.
After that, few came to trouble him. Gelis shut herself in her chamber. Last of all, Gregorio knelt by the bed and received his friend’s blessing before the doctor dismissed him and the German priest, waiting quietly outside, was brought in. Presently the woman came whom Tobie trusted and, leaving the sickroom in her gentle charge, he went to the parlour where the sisters, Catherine and Tilde, sprang to their feet when he entered; and Astorre opened an eye; and Gregorio turned from talking to Diniz and John.
Tobie said, ‘He is sleeping. You’ll see him tomorrow.’
‘Shall we?’ said Gregorio.
‘I think so. But not very much longer. He has what he wanted,’ said Tobie. ‘Where is Nicholas?’
Catherine said, ‘We thought that you’d know.’ As Tilde had become plump and pale, Catherine had grown bright-skinned and shapely.
Tobie said, ‘No. Shall I look for him? He’s probably hungry.’
‘I’ll come,’ said Gregorio. Diniz rose.
‘Good God no,’ Tobie said. ‘I don’t need to call a man to his food by committee.’ He took his eyes from Gregorio’s, and went out.
Tobie’s association with Nicholas de Fleury went back a long way. He began his search, none the less, in a severely practical fashion, tapping at and opening the door of the chamber he used; strolling through the counting-house and its workrooms and offices; poking into this corner and that; and descending then to the yard, wandering casually from stable to storehouse. No horses had come, and none gone. He verified that Gelis was indeed in her room, and alone. He was unsurprised.
Their patron was not on the premises. He had gone out, on foot. And this time, no quack had forestalled him.
So where would a man go in Bruges on a warm midsummer night, his mind burdened with verse, or with numbers?
Once, it must have been easy. An apprentice, bruised