To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [251]
Father Moriz said, ‘What are you doing?’ He stood by the stairs, fully gowned, and smelling of candles.
Nicholas said, ‘Where is Gelis?’ Behind the gag, the boy was sobbing quietly.
The gnarled, truculent face surveyed them both. Moriz said, ‘I will fetch her. Go to the parlour. Who is this?’
Nicholas said, ‘Gelis knows.’
‘Go, then,’ said Moriz.
In the parlour, which was unlit as yet by the dawn and quite empty, Henry ceased sobbing at once. His eyes sneered.
‘Your moment is coming,’ Nicholas said. He found tinder and lit all the candles, so that the boy’s misshapen face glimmered and gleamed. Then he untied the gag.
‘Your wife is a cow,’ Henry said. ‘I have seen both her dugs down her dress.’
The door opened abruptly. Henry stopped speaking. ‘Nice attempt,’ Nicholas said.
It was Diniz, looking heavily worried. ‘Come in,’ Nicholas said. ‘Who sent Catherine to Veere?’
Like the good man he was, Diniz swallowed his questions. He said, ‘Paul invited her. She is friendly with Paul van Borselen. I hope – I hope nothing has happened to her.’ His eyes were on Henry.
The door opened again. It was Tilde, Catherine’s sister, in her bedgown. Diniz said, ‘Nicholas is asking about Catherine.’
‘Why?’ said Tilde. ‘She’s at Veere. Is something wrong?’ Her eyes fell on the boy, and she gasped.
‘This,’ Nicholas said, ‘is Henry, son of Simon de St Pol. Diniz may remember him as a child in Madeira, where he expected to enjoy my execution. Did Diniz not tell you this?’
Someone made a sound, and suppressed it: Henry, his hair aureoled by the light. He spoke in a whisper. ‘I was four years old when it happened. I asked you to forgive me.’ His eyes were full of tears.
‘… And has since,’ Nicholas continued, ‘escaped a charge of attacking a princeling and attempting to blind him in Scotland. You didn’t know this? You didn’t know about his father and Gelis?’
Diniz said nothing. Tilde looked uncomfortably at her husband. ‘We had heard. But –’
‘You had heard. You knew that Henry de St Pol had been sent to the household at Veere. You knew that my son was at Antwerp. You knew that I was absent. And you did nothing about it, so that your sister not only went to Veere, she allowed Wolfaert’s wife to bring my son there. Yesterday. Friday. Yesterday, without mother, father or nurse, Jordan and Henry were together at Veere.’
‘Robin was with him,’ said Gelis. ‘Robin and Pasque.’ Moriz had brought her. She stood in the doorway, her hair rough on her robe, her face ghastly. There were others behind her, one of them Julius. She said, ‘Nicholas?’ Then her gaze fell on the boy.
‘So if Tilde and Diniz helped it to happen,’ Nicholas said, ‘what about Jordan’s mother? Pasque, you say. Do I remember appointing Pasque as senior nurse to my son? She cleans the floors well, it is true, but cannot really be expected to prevent the lady of Veere from walking all over them. Mistress Clémence is the senior nurse. Where is she?’
‘What has happened?’ said Gelis.
‘… Or do I know? Looking after the motherless infants of Anselm Adorne. I sympathise. But Anselm Adorne has many children, and you and I had only one. Still, perhaps you were right. One should be magnanimous. Jordan’s mother, unlike theirs, was alive and could care for him. Except – how extraordinary! – Jordan’s mother left Antwerp as well.’
Tell me. Tell me,’ said Gelis. ‘Where is Jordan?’
‘You have to ask me?’ Nicholas said. ‘I have been in Arras: how should I know? You mentioned Robin; but Robin is fifteen and quite as overawed as Pasque when a great lady breaks all the rules.’
‘Robin didn’t know,’ said Gelis flatly. ‘Robin didn’t know of the danger. I did. It is my fault. It is all my fault, whatever has happened. Nicholas, have pity. Is he dead?’
Father Moriz said, ‘Let him answer that question alone. None of us has a right to hear it. Come. Let us go.’
‘No!’ The scream of the boy stopped them all. ‘No! Don’t go! He will kill me!’
The eyes of Jordan’s parents had locked. Nicholas said, ‘He will never forget what has happened. He is alive.