The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [189]
‘My grace, is it?’ she said. ‘It seems my nephew’s making mair free than he should with his unicorns. What for was that Collar?’
Le Grant’s face had turned red. Nicholas said, ‘For getting your niece’s husband out of the country. You may not approve.’
‘Thomas Boyd?’ said the woman. ‘Oh, deary dear. Oh, deary deary dear.’ She walked forward slowly. ‘Were ye hurt just now?’
‘Yes,’ said Nicholas. ‘Most of my party were injured.’
‘Sons of Belial,’ she said. ‘They were to ca’ canny. I told them. Jack, go and see to it.’ The man in the leather jacket hesitated, then went out. The lady of the chamber who had opened the door closed it and sat just inside, her eyes lowered. She was not young, but handsome after an older fashion. Her mistress said, ‘Jack Lindsay. His father came out with me and married a German. It can happen to anybody. Well, come to the fire: you look as if ye need it. I’ll get my physician to see you. Does the priest not have Scots? Where are you from?’
‘Aberdeen,’ said John le Grant, thus addressed. He walked forward. ‘Your grace.’
She said, ‘You don’t know who I am. He does.’
‘I didn’t tell them,’ said Nicholas. ‘This is Father Moriz, an expert in smelting. He does speak English. And John le Grant, mining engineer, navigator, gunner. He has worked in Germany as well as Constantinople. John, this is her grace the Duchess Eleanor of the Tyrol, lady wife to Duke Sigismond and father’s sister to James, King of Scotland.’
There was a silence. The Duchess took the big chair and picked up her sewing. ‘So you didn’t tell them. Well, I have to say the Duke was forgetful as well. He’s away. I wouldn’t exactly know where, but of course he’ll hear how ye mistook the way and got into trouble, and send to Brixen to have ye all join him. In due course. News takes time to travel.’
John le Grant said, ‘This isn’t Brixen? Your grace?’
‘Dear me, no,’ said the Duchess Eleanor. ‘That’s seventeen miles to the south. We’ll go there directly. No, you’ve wandered. It’s the guides. You can’t get good guides nowadays. Do you like soup? My cook makes a good soup. You go off and get yourselves seen to, and we’ll talk properly when you’re done. You’re not very old.’
Nicholas turned at the door, where the man she called Lindsay had reappeared, followed by her lady-in-waiting. Nicholas said, ‘I’ve aged lately, your grace.’ She smiled as they filed out.
She had told him just enough to let him settle everyone’s doubts. First his men, cramming down ale and venison and thick, filling bread in a bare room which, though draughty, wasn’t a dungeon, and had pallets already brought in for the night. By then, even the injured looked brighter.
‘We were in the wrong valley. But we’ve had some luck from it. These are the Duchess’s men, and she’s here, and she’s anxious to do everything she can to make up for it. We’re off to Brixen, her own castle, soon, and then the Duke himself will send for us.’
The men accepted it. Niccolino always fell on his feet.
Once the ale had taken effect, he found a place where he could talk to John and the priest and the three men of his own household. They were sober, as he was. Donat started before he could speak. ‘That guide was bribed! Those places he led us to!’
‘Bribed, of course. By the Duchess, one supposes,’ said Father Moriz.
‘Of course.’ Nicholas looked across at Donat. ‘Your back hurts. So does my arm. She thought it necessary. She’s a capable woman controlling a twenty-year marriage to a self-indulgent, indolent profligate.’
‘They say,’ remarked John le Grant, ‘that he has a bastard for every week of the year.’
‘And they had one child, who died. He also spends money. On the mistresses. On gambling. On new castles – Sigmundsburg, Sigmundseek, Sigmundsfreud, Sigmundskron, Sigmundslust, Sigmundsfried.