The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [347]
She had to wait. A page brought her a posy of flowers, and another brought her a concoction of fruit juice and offered to look after her attendants. A third finally took her up a grand staircase from which she glimpsed rooms filled with tables and clerks. They all looked frayed. M. de Fleury, when she was shown into his room, displayed all the unforced composure of a spinning top which has picked its own speed. He seemed pleased: her visit had coincided, perhaps, with a statutory restorative break. ‘Salve virgo Kaiherina’ he said, offering her a seat.
The beard had gone, allowing him the use of one or both dimples. The incandescence of the journey to Cyprus had also gone. They had not met since the evening in the royal Palace at Nicosia: Je prens d’Amour noriture, followed by his departure. Whatever he had wanted other than gold, he had not got, or kept it. She said, ‘About Jan,’ since he had, as it were, introduced the subject.
He poured two goblets of wine and kept one. Nicosia had changed that, too, she had noticed. ‘No. First, about you,’ he said. ‘I was sorry not to visit you at the Clares. Was it tedious?’
‘They were very garrulous,’ Kathi said. ‘They talked about other guests they had had, and showed me something of Cyprus. The Monastery of Cats. Kouklia. Famagusta. They are extremely well endowed by the King’s mother. About Jan. He’s fond of his father. He can be silly.’
He sat down, the cup in his hand. ‘Oh dear,’ he said. The remark might have applied to part or to all of her speech. He added, ‘I thought Jan had been offered a post in the Apostolic Threshold. Seriously silly?’
‘Not enough to kill anyone,’ Katelijne said. ‘But extremely eager to return any recent blows to the family pride. I suppose, too, that this is a time when the lords of the night watch are off duty.’
‘ “During Carnival, all jokes are acceptable,” ’ he quoted mildly, and drank, thinking. Then he smiled and looked up. ‘Thank you. The warning is noted. So what about the Relazione, the Great Book? Is it finished?’
She took a gulp of her wine. It was strong. She said, ‘I’ve seen the last words: Conclusio Peroptima et Salubris, Amen. I think that’s all he’s written, apart from the beginning. But he’s headed it up with his father’s name and all his titles and most of the four orders of chivalry.’
‘Four?’
‘He got another one in Jerusalem, and one in Cyprus. The Sword. The same as you have.’
‘That is serious,’ said M. de Fleury. ‘No wonder Jan thinks it a crime to interfere with such eminence. All the same, I don’t think you should be involved. You’d be safer in Bruges.’
‘I doubt it,’ she said. ‘Anyway, I’m fond of him, too.’
‘No one in the world could doubt that,’ said M. de Fleury.
He changed his tone. ‘It has hardly, all the same, constituted a health cure, this trip. Unless the Blessed Virgin St Catherine has managed to make up for the imbecilities of the rest of us? Have you brought something back from Alexandria? From Cyprus? From Sinai?’
She looked at him. ‘In health? They say I am better, but perhaps Dr Tobias could have cured me at home.’
He said, ‘Yes, in health. I am sorry. Spiritual wellbeing is not my affair.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘In any case, it’s all too recent to tell. I should put it aside. Put it green in the straw, and leave it to ripen. In six months we shall all know what we’ve brought back.’ She stood. ‘I must go. My uncle is presenting his letters to the Doge this morning.’
He rose as well. ‘We shall see one another in public, I am sure. We are not savages. And all your other friends here will want to meet you.’
At the door she said, ‘There is one other thing. Simon de St Pol is in Venice.’
For a moment he was absolutely still. Then he said, ‘You are sure?’
‘My uncle called at the Ca’ Frizier, the Scots lodging. He knows the family. He said M. de St Pol was there.’
M. de Fleury stirred and then smiled, opening the door and gazing peaceably beyond it. ‘Then let us