To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [306]
Mistress Clémence saw that the father had come. She knelt up. Dr Tobias half turned, his face haggard. The girl said, ‘Jodi is safe. Go for help. Dr Tobie will stay.’ Then there was a great surge of water, chilling her feet, and she saw the man had dropped into the pool, breaking more ice as he went, and tugging at something below. She could not see his face, or hear what he was saying over and over. Mistress Clémence looked around her, took her bearings, and sped towards the lights on the shore. Then she changed direction, for someone had called her by name.
And is as a tree, sheltering those of his blood whom he loves.
As once before, Nicholas sank in chill water; as once before, he dragged himself out bearing the weight of a woman, pale hair on his arm. As before, Kathi was with him.
That time, it had been Simon’s sister, and she had been dead. He did not know, now, if Gelis was still alive. Her eyes were closed, her flesh icy. His coat was sodden; he hadn’t waited to strip. Kathi threw off her sealskin and rolled Gelis in it as she lay on the ice, and Tobie began labouring over her. Tobie said, ‘Don’t look, and get those things off. Kathi, look out for Clémence.’ And almost at once, it seemed, a group of men were hurrying towards them, bearing a pallet and followed effortfully by a woman who was not Mistress Clémence at all.
Bel of Cuthilgurdy said, ‘My poor childer.’
Nicholas heard her. It meant something. Last time she had said, What have you done?
It meant something. It meant nothing, if Gelis was dead.
Then Tobie said, ‘Nicholas.’
And her eyes were open. And she was breathing.
Nicholas said, ‘You can’t get away from me like that.’ And she closed her eyes again, but her lips had moved.
They had lifted her into the pallet before his mind started to work and he said, ‘Wait!’
Tobie said, ‘She could die. She has to be dry and warm quickly. You too. Let her go.’
‘To Simon’s house?’ Nicholas exclaimed.
Bel said, ‘It’s empty. I sent him away. Do you think Clémence would have agreed otherwise?’ And as he stared she said, ‘I called her. She is there, preparing for what Dr Tobie might need. I couldn’t wait.’
‘For Gelis’s sake?’ Nicholas said. He had asked Bel to take Gelis to Beltrees. He didn’t even know whether she liked her.
‘Yes,’ said Bel. ‘And, since you don’t ask, for yours.’
In the house of St Pol in the High Street Gelis slept, with Tobie nodding beside her. Kathi had gone, as had Mistress Clémence the moment Jodi’s mother was safe. News had already come from the Canongate to say that her charge was in Pasque’s care, and well. Nicholas had slept unintentionally as well, stripped and warmed and clothed in a bedrobe he hoped he was creasing for Simon, and fallen victim again to one of Tobie’s innocent potions. Awaking, he had found his way immediately, corrosively, to where Gelis was, but once satisfied, had allowed himself to be led back by Bel. He was in her room now, floating still in a sump of opiates and emotion and aware that, at the moment, she was more than his match.
Unusually, she did not make for his throat, appearing willing to heat him some soup in near-silence. It was he who broke it at length. ‘It was not an accident. The inner rims of the horse-shoes were spiked.’ He had seen it on the dead horse. As soon as the beasts picked up speed, they would have kicked their own legs to shreds.
Bel said, ‘I didna imagine the ice chopped itself up. And the sluice had been shut down. That let the springs well up and soop under the ice: Clémence heard them. So what’s next? It’s your shot. A band of pig-gelders and thieves to strake Simon? No one’d miss him.’
‘Henry would,’ Nicholas said. ‘I’ll leave the straking to Fat Father Jordan. And really, Simon and Henry deserve each other.’
‘So?’ the old woman said. ‘You nearly lost Gelis. You nearly lost Jordan. And it wasna Martin’s blame this time. He wouldna give Simon the crook of his pinkie: no one would. Simon’s place in Scotland