The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [9]
His grandfather said, ‘Get rid of the bawd.’
‘Bawd!’ said the lady.
‘I beg your pardon,’ said his grandfather, looking at her. ‘My lady, will you excuse us? And – Henry? I see your father is furthering your education?’
He didn’t know what to say. ‘Go!’ muttered his father in no special direction.
‘I should prefer to dress,’ said the lady.
‘Then pray do,’ said Monseigneur. ‘We see you don’t mind an audience. I might even be more appreciative than a seven-year-old. Henry, I shall speak to you later.’
‘Simon?’ said the lady.
‘I think you’d better dress in Henry’s room,’ said his father. ‘Henry will show you the way. I apologise for the vicomte. Although he does not lodge in this wing, he seems to feel entitled to go where he pleases. Henry?’
Henry said, ‘She can go somewhere else. I’ve got hawks in my room.’
‘That, of course, must take precedence. So take her somewhere else, Henry,’ said his grandfather. ‘And then return to your room until I call for you.’
He took her somewhere else, but instead of returning to his room, he crept back to the half-open door, behind which his grandfather was haranguing his father. He could see them by holding the tapestry back just a little. If he were his father, he would knock him down. If his grandfather lifted a hand to his father he, Henry, would rush in and kill him. With the fire-tongs. With anything. He listened.
It was the old story. You would think that at last it didn’t matter, whether the crops were sown a bit late or the hides not always cured to perfection or the smithwork patchy, or the peats left cut and lying too long. With the money from Madeira and the African voyage, they had enough to buy clothes with for years – even his silly aunt Lucia said so. And silver harness, and hawks, and jousting-armour. He had seen his father’s new jousting-armour. You would think even his grandfather would be impressed, instead of threatening to get rid of Hugo and Steen, who had run the house and the land all the time his father was in Madeira and Flanders and Portugal. If Hugo and Steen were no good, why was his father being blamed for not staying in Flanders?
Flanders was a country far to the south, further south than England, across the Narrow Sea. Flanders was ruled by the Duke of Burgundy, the richest prince in the world. Henry had never been to Flanders.
‘I cut short my visit to Bruges,’ his grandfather said, ‘because I bear a French title, and should be far from welcome at the Duke of Burgundy’s wedding. But Kilmirren sends cargoes to Flanders. Why did you leave?’
Chamberpot Jordan. He occupied the only big chair like a throne. Everything about his father’s father was big: his height, his width, the huge rolled hat on his head, the thick coat, the long robe, the solid boots. His hair was grey, and the whites of his eyes were yellow. He was old. He was over sixty years old and would live for ever, his father said, because he kept the accounts of the devil. His father had got out of bed and, without hurrying, had pulled on a gown without fastening it. His father had a narrow, ridged shape like Jesus. The old man said, ‘You had a meeting with Nicholas.’
‘Who?’ said his father. He sat down on the platform-base of the bed and pulled on his slippers. Then he got up without an excuse and busied himself round the door of the privy. Henry felt hot. He knew who Nicholas was. Nicholas vander Poele, a wicked tradesman from Bruges who hated and cheated his father, if he could. But his father always won.
His father came back and sat down on the bed-base. ‘Good. Are you comfortable?’ said his grandfather. ‘How unfortunate that we always seem to meet when your physique and intellect are both at their feeblest. I asked about your meeting with Nicholas. It was, as I remember, to determine the fate