The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [97]
He had spoken too abruptly. Nicholas looked at him. ‘Why? You have a suggestion?’
Gregorio said, ‘I don’t know what you are thinking. You need someone who does.’
The concentrated gaze did not alter.
Gregorio said, ‘Nicholas? At least you won’t harm them?’
‘I am unlikely to harm Margot,’ Nicholas said.
‘Your wife and the child.’
‘You think there is a child? Well, what reassurance can I give you, other than the one you already have? My wife and I play a very long game.’
‘So you believe you can find her?’
‘Of course. I have a list – didn’t I tell you? – of every convent which could conceivably shelter her. She has paid well to stay concealed. And she is not in want of money. As you have no doubt discovered, she has withdrawn from the Bank the whole sum she acquired on her marriage.’
‘I know,’ Gregorio said. The sum was immense – a single rash, magnificent gift bestowed by Nicholas on his bride. Its withdrawal had frightened and shocked him. He said, ‘I cannot trace where it has gone.’
‘No. It has been expertly done. That is, secrecy has been assured for so long as it matters.’
‘And now you will search for them,’ Gregorio said. He could hear the door of the master cabin open groggily.
‘Now I shall wait,’ Nicholas said. ‘Not for long, for obvious reasons. But don’t you think my wife will invite me to visit her soon? To show to me alone that her pregnancy is actually over? To prove to me alone that Simon’s child has been born?’
‘And if she doesn’t send?’ Gregorio said.
Nicholas considered. ‘I should give her a week. Then I muster my men and we begin, one by one, to rout through every convent in Flanders. It may take some time. Unless, of course, you have an idea which way Margot went? It would spare blameless houses some harassment … Ah, Julius. You must be tired from talking so much. Can Tommaso still walk? Do you think we could induce him to go ashore now? Gregorio would be pleased to go with him.’
‘Oh God,’ Julius said. ‘You’ve told him what you’ve been doing.’ He grinned at Gregorio. ‘I told you. The devil’s own paymaster.’
Gregorio brushed past and walked out.
All winter, he had carried this abominable secret; had disputed with Margot over what should in fairness be done. In the end, she had left him for Gelis.
Throughout, he had been upheld by his knowledge of the moderate Nicholas of the past; by his belief in the mature Nicholas who had emerged from the anvil of Africa.
Throughout, he had built his hopes for the future on what Nicholas, given time, would have resolved.
And throughout, Margot – not he – had been right.
Chapter 14
IN SIX MONTHS, the Charetty – Niccolò mansion below the Tonlieu at Bruges had altered, as had its owner. It included, now, the adjacent building; and Gregorio had extended round both the solid fortified wall first begun by the Charetty daughters to keep Nicholas out. Now the two firms were one, but the precaution, after Liège, was a mark of Gregorio’s unsleeping prudence.
The gates were open, waiting for Nicholas. Riding through with his trim cavalcade he saw the forecourt cleared now of its accretion of buildings. A new archway led to the back, where yards and stables and storerooms ought now to stand where the gardens and domestic offices used to be. His private accommodation had been moved to the other house. He had not altered his orders for that.
He hoped, remembering Scotland, that the builders’ work was mostly over. After the vast, storm-lashed estuaries, the towns which straddled ravines, the keeps and lodges and cabins of grey stone and plaster and thatch, Bruges had appeared like a flat-bottomed toy, with its interlocking paved streets lined with red brick-patterned houses; its small-bridged canals ringing with the laughter of skaters. It was February, and cold.
Standing in the slush of the forecourt were groups of people: his outside staff, gathered to see him arrive. Their faces showed a kind of clouded vivacity. He had come back and his wife was not here, but was pregnant.