To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [239]
‘How does Dr Andreas know?’ Nicholas said.
Kathi grinned. ‘He looks after Ada’s children when they need it. The Crackbene–Crabbe tribe are old friends, didn’t you know? Also, he fancies Ada, I think. Much chance of that, of course, while Mick is about.’
‘You are opening my eyes,’ Nicholas said, ‘to Dr Andreas.’
‘Really? Have you never noticed?’ Kathi said. ‘Necromancers, astrologers and ordinary prophets: women fall at their feet. Diviners as well. You want to watch. Well, it’s too late now, I suppose.’
‘Much too late. Does he draw up horoscopes?’
‘It would be odd if he didn’t. He’s a by-blow of the astrologer John of Vesalia, the town doctor of Brussels. John of Vesalia was rector of Louvain when Bishop Kennedy was there, blazon three weasels. You know all that. He made those awful predictions in January when the fiery star flew across. Dr Andreas says you ought to be careful.’
‘Of women?’ Nicholas said.
‘Of divining. He says the future can open when you don’t want it to. He thinks you should lead an ordinary family life, and keep away from the occult.’
‘He does? Or you do?’ Nicholas said.
Her colour had risen. She said, ‘I do, as well. I wouldn’t tell you, if you weren’t a friend. I know what it’s like when everyone tells you what to do.’
It was enough to shift his thoughts from himself. He said, ‘Who are telling you what to do? The nuns? Because –’
She gave a genuine laugh. ‘Don’t worry. Father Moriz has almost excommunicated himself, putting my case. But there is a strong feeling I should enter a nunnery. The Patriarch of Antioch suggested it first.’
Nicholas said, ‘What in God’s name would you do in a nunnery?’
‘Then what should I do?’ Kathi said.
It was a plain question, asked without coquetry. Asked by a friend, and not by a young sexless person to be protected. He said, ‘What is your illness?’
For a while she was silent. He saw that, unusually, she was not surrounded by work, the traces of a dozen fleeting occupations that might be currently filling her day. She said, ‘I don’t know. I have no warning of tiredness, as most people have. I do too much. I make extravagant use of my energy and call on all my reserves until I collapse. Bad for me, bad for my heart.’
He said, ‘So they want to limit what you do.’
‘That is what they say, Dr Andreas and Dr Tobias.’
‘But that is not how you want to live.’
She looked at him. ‘That is not what life is for.’
‘But there will be no life,’ Nicholas said. ‘You will burn yourself out. The nunnery would be another sort of death, in your case. You need a regulator; someone who will let you do what you want, but stop you from excess. Is there no one?’
She did not answer. She said, ‘Does Gelis stop you?’
‘Me?’ he said.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I told you what Dr Andreas said. Are you not driven as well? To waste no time, to take every chance, to try everything?’
He began to say, ‘But I am never –’ and halted.
‘Never harmed by it? Tell that to your doctors. Tell your doctors that you never have waking dreams, that nothing ever confuses you. If I know, Gelis knows; but while you are competing against one another, she won’t help you. So I say what you have just said to me, but I’ll go further. You need protection. You need Gelis. Make peace with her.’
Her gaze, level on his, was clear as peat water. Good advice. Sensible, unbiased advice. He said, ‘She won’t stop until it is resolved.’
‘Until what is resolved?’ Kathi said. ‘Until she has proved herself cleverer than you are? She may be. If she will only be happy when she thinks she is, then give her that happiness now. Once she has proved herself, then the race will be over.’
‘Will it?’ Nicholas said. ‘And what if she discovers she has been permitted to win? Also … it isn’t merely a race. I am receiving a punishment.’
‘Which you think you deserve,’ Kathi said.
‘Which I know I deserve.’
‘And you are throwing away happiness, both of you, because of that?’
‘Happiness?’ It stunned him, to be talking to anyone about this.
The girl looked at him, astonished. ‘Nicholas, you love her. You