The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [270]
He stopped. Nicholas de Fleury said, ‘Please go on.’
Adorne said, ‘It now seems that he travelled on the same galley as de Francqueville and the rest, and died with them. If so, this unfortunate man may have been the fourth member of the party, not Gelis. But there is no absolute proof. And there remains the mystery of her wedding ring. If she were not on board, how did it come there?’
Marian de Charetty, on her wedding day, had looked into those prodigious grey eyes. Adorne himself had faced them often enough, stick in hand, full of exasperation that he still hoped was good-humoured. Nicholas de Fleury lowered his gaze. He said, half to himself, ‘To mislead me.’
Exasperation overcame Adorne once again. He said, frowning, ‘By getting another to carry it?’ It made no sense. The girl was hardly to know that her friends were going to die.
Nicholas said, ‘No, of course. I spoke without thinking.’ His face conveyed, briefly, a polite mixture of bafflement and apology. Behind that could be glimpsed something of much greater intensity, matched in degree to his present extreme pallor.
Adorne rose. He said more kindly, ‘It is not certain. But word will come. I suggest you go back to Damietta and take ship for Venice. If they have no news, go to Bruges. Surely your wife is what matters.’ A voice called outside, and he frowned. The voice came nearer. The door crashed open.
‘Father?’ said Jan, his student son. Then his gaze passed to de Fleury who, drawing a breath, had looked up.
‘You!’ said Jan Adorne. ‘You, you false-hearted animal!’
And another voice, even more inopportune, followed behind. His secretary, priest and chamberlain, John Gosyn of Kinloch, entering, exclaimed: ‘Claes vander Poele, as I live! You have apprehended him. I shall call the Dragoman. We shall see what the penalty is for a Western merchant using an assumed name and Muslim costume in Cairo!’
‘No,’ Adorne said. De Fleury got up, his eyes intent on the priest. He would know, of course from the doctor that John Gosyn was the John de Kinloch he had crossed in the past. Adorne continued adroitly. ‘No, Father John. This young man’s punishment already awaits him in Bruges. We are Christians. It is not for us to throw him to the heathen. For my sake, the Chief Dragoman will put him on a boat for Damietta, where there is a house of the Knights of the Order. They will send him to Genoa. My relatives will take care of the rest.’
Once, a schoolboy in Bruges, Jan Adorne had applauded the impudent marriage of an apprentice. Now he said, ‘Father, he would only escape. He is a barbarian. Let barbarians deal with him.’
‘He is a Christian,’ said John de Kinloch reflectively. ‘And might well try to escape. But what could he reap from such a foolishness, other than painful martyrdom or lifelong obscurity?’
‘You hear,’ said Anselm Adorne to his prisoner. ‘Shall I call on the rest of my party for their opinion? I would consign you to Genoa, my son would let the Mamelukes have you, and Father John, if I understand him correctly, feels indifferent, since any escape will bring its own punishment. And indeed, you would be naked of gold or resources, for John le Grant and his house would be watched.’
For a moment he thought that his pace had been a little too leisurely, and that Reyphin and Lambert would appear. Past experience of Nicholas de Fleury would suggest a ready recovery, followed by action. But that was not always the case. Anselm Adorne ended, and Jan immediately began to say something, but de Fleury paid as little attention as if Adorne and he had been alone in the room.
De Fleury said, ‘True to the hand, the tongue, the loins. The choice is mine, you are saying. Ainsi soit-il.’
He moved on the words, while indeed he was speaking. Jan, throwing himself in his way, found himself left stumbling behind as the lattice was wrenched open and de Fleury ranged the balcony and then encompassed the steps to the courtyard. By the time they reached the gates, the crowded alley beyond showed no trace of him.
Returning, Jan was pale with anger. ‘He laughed!’
‘He was looking