To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [307]
‘Hardly,’ said Nicholas. ‘I hear Kilmirren has never been richer. Flourishing lands, handsome castle, expensive shipping in Ayr. Fat Father Jordan is preparing a bolt-hole.’
‘Or maybe Simon has been onbeset by his conscience at last,’ Bel remarked. ‘So what are you going to do now?’
‘About Simon? Suggest some lines of enquiry to the magistrates. They may indict him or not; I think not.’
‘I wasna speaking of Simon,’ she said. ‘I was speaking of rank stupidity and self-indulgence, and a bairn already old enough to ken when something is wrong. But for the skill of that woman his nurse, the skaith would be much greater already. End what you are doing.’
‘End the marriage?’ Nicholas said. ‘Or my work? Or myself? What would please you?’
She was looking at him in the way that hurt most. She said unexpectedly, ‘What did your friend Bessarion say?’
Tobie should keep his mouth shut. ‘He rambled,’ Nicholas said. ‘In the way old people do. So give me your advice.’
Bel said, ‘I didna want ye in Scotland. Then I thought that perhaps that was the only solution. Now I say to you, go away.’
‘I am going,’ he said.
When Gelis woke, Tobie brought Nicholas to her, having warned him what he would see. Even so, he felt sick. He said, ‘You were kicked.’
She turned her bandaged head towards him. One of her eyes was swollen and darkened. Simon’s revenge on them both. A traditional ducking, in the traditional place for loose women. A less than traditional drowning, in the way that Simon’s sister had drowned. Simon had wanted Gelis obliterated. And the chance had come to remind Nicholas savagely of the past, as well as make him a widower. As ever, Simon had no idea what he was interfering with.
Gelis said, ‘Thuggery seems to be the fashion this year. You pulled me out, I’m told, with Katelijne. Practice from Iceland.’ She hadn’t been by the river four years before, when Lucia drowned. She had been in Flanders then, giving birth to their son.
He said, ‘It was Mistress Clémence and Tobie who found you. I want to talk to you when you feel better.’
‘I feel better,’ she said. Her face round the bruising was composed. ‘What were you going to say? That I deserved it? That when you humiliated Simon last year, you made quite sure this would happen? That it is rather a pity you don’t seem to be able to protect anybody, even Jodi? Where would you like us to hide next?’
‘That depends,’ he said, ‘on our talk. We were playing a match. I thought we should set a finishing date.’
‘I owe this to Bel? Peerless Bella?’ she said.
‘Bel has remarked, yes, that Jodi is growing. And time is passing in other ways.’
‘I don’t work to dates,’ Gelis said. ‘Just by result.’ She shivered suddenly.
He said quickly, ‘I still think we should talk. But not now.’ He smiled, to make it less serious. ‘If neither of us can achieve a result in five years, then I think we should both retire anyway.’
‘You want to finish this year?’ Gelis said.
There was a silence. He said, ‘By the end of December, for choice. Think about it.’
She said, ‘I used to be afraid of your patience. I asked you once if you would wait twenty-five years if you had to.’
‘What did I say?’ Nicholas said, as if he had forgotten.
Her breathing was shallow, and her eyes had the brightness of fever. ‘You said you thought I knew my own mind better than that. I do. I know it very well. I do not want to be tied to a date.’
‘But I do,’ Nicholas said. ‘I shan’t press you. Think about it. Get well. But before we sail in the spring, I shall come to you again and ask the same question. If you are as good as I think you are, you should know the answer by then. Every trader has to set dates, or starve. It’s nothing. It’s a matter of calculating how soon you can be certain of winning.’
He looked back at the door, but she lay with her eyes closed. She looked frightened. But he had had to do it, or so he believed.
Chapter 42
NICHOLAS LEFT HIS wife alone for three weeks, securely attended in the house in the High Street. Her friends visited her when she became well enough to receive