To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [142]
She was alone in the parlour, dressed softly as often happened these days, with her fair hair unbound. She said, ‘I see that you believed me. Or is it the wine?’ She picked up the object, a wooden gun, and, carrying it to the door, spoke to someone and came back without it. She studied him again. ‘Jordan will be ready whenever you like. Did you want to ask me something? About Katelina?’ She took a chair, waving him to another.
‘I wanted to tell you something,’ he said. He remained standing.
‘You preferred her, on reflection, to me? How in particular did she excel? Tell me. Show me.’ And, as he glanced at the door: ‘No one will come in,’ Gelis said. ‘You may be quite explicit.’
Then he walked to the window and turned. He said, ‘I wanted to tell you what I knew of her death. I left her in Rhodes. I heard that she was about to sail home to Portugal when she learned that Diniz, her husband’s nephew, was in Famagusta in Cyprus, and elected to join him instead. She didn’t kill herself. She was mortally wounded during the siege of the town. I know that was true. I was a prisoner in Famagusta myself. I was there with Diniz in the last days of her life, and worked with the Arab who nursed her. He didn’t mention a child. Nor did she.’
‘Of course not,’ Gelis said. ‘Wouldn’t you claim that she adored you? Wouldn’t she want to spare you the pain and the guilt? Wouldn’t she swear others to secrecy? After all, the coming child must have been yours. Simon was in Portugal. Or was she promiscuous?’
‘I don’t know,’ Nicholas said. He felt tired. ‘She was your sister.’
‘Alone and pregnant,’ Gelis said. ‘Frightened; caught in a war. Knowing that she had already borne you one child, and managed to pass it off as her husband’s. But another? She couldn’t explain that to Simon. He would kill her, and your bastard Henry, and you. So her solution was to go where her pregnancy would never be discovered, because she would be sure to die first. As she did.’
‘I am sorry,’ he said. ‘That is no more than guesswork. Would she lie when she was dying? I think not.’
Katelina had not, in the end, been afraid. She had been concerned about sin, the sin they had committed together, and he had comforted her. Simon would never know; and if they had betrayed Simon once, he had betrayed Katelina his wife many times. He had told her that if atonement were required, he, Nicholas would willingly pay for it.
As he was doing.
He said, ‘So, you see, there is no proof of the pregnancy, and everything points to it being untrue. What astonishes me is not that you believe it, but how and when you decided to tell me. That, from your point of view, was a mastercard – the last, it might be. So why play it? Why throw it away?’
‘I spoiled your Play for you,’ she said.
‘A moment’s gratification, for that price?’
‘I don’t know.’ She affected to ponder. ‘I deserve some amusement, don’t you think? And I did have a reason. I should prefer your whole attention, Nicholas. The quest for beatification is all very well, but first of all you have to clear me from your way.’
‘I am quite content to have you where you are,’ Nicholas said. ‘In my house, with our excellent child. If you impede me, I shall tell you.’
She gazed at him. She said, ‘You really think, don’t you, that you are omnipotent? There is no proof, you say. Did you ask me? No, you assumed it. So why not ask me now?’
His throat had dried. He took his time, and said, ‘I am asking you.’
She smiled. Her hair, wheat-coloured, strayed over her cheek and her skin was polished like ivory. She said, ‘Then here is my gift to you. You spoke of Abul the physician. He nursed my sister, with Diniz to help him. He could not keep the complications of her condition from Diniz, young as he was. Diniz knew she was bearing your child. He was forbidden to tell you.’
‘But he told you?’ Nicholas said. The boy Diniz, now a grown man. The hesitations, the compassionate gaze, the unexpected tenderness now and then.
It was true. And Diniz had known.
She was hesitating. ‘Ask Diniz,’ she said at last.
He said, ‘Perhaps I can