To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [353]
Nicholas said, ‘Won’t you sit? Master Martin represents, as you know, the Vatachino. So, I have just learned, does my lady wife. We have been attempting, without much success, to resolve an unusual domestic embroglio. Perhaps, therefore, the lady might leave.’
‘Unusual!’ repeated the vicomte, with a vast and increasing surprise. His eyes gleamed, studying Gelis. ‘The Vatachino! You have been acting for this contemptible firm against your own husband, madame? For how long?’
‘For long enough,’ Nicholas said. ‘She has probably done you quite a bit of damage as well. You must take it up with her.’
He watched, out of the corner of his eye, the expressions cross Tobie’s face: shock, anger, incomprehension. He wondered how this little company had forced its way into the Abbey, and then remembered that today, all the gates to St Maximin’s stood open. He tried not to look at the handsome boy, at his son, who had fixed upon him from the beginning a blue stare of unwinking hatred. He tried not to wonder where Jodi was sleeping, or whether Mistress Clémence might not unsuspectingly enter the room. He speculated on where John might have gone, having failed to find Tobie. He wondered whether Adorne, if he were the anonymous employer of Martin and Gelis, might not come to witness the discomfiture of Nicholas, and remain to expel Jordan. He thought it unlikely. He wondered how long the vicomte had been in Trèves.
He said, in an interested way, ‘Was it your man they hanged?’
‘No,’ the vicomte said. ‘I am not now in the employment of France. That is what I came to discuss. But first, I am interested. Who betrayed the noble lady’s guilty secret? You have just learned it, you say?’ His gaze, roving, settled on Martin.
Martin said, ‘She told Lord Beltrees herself. The sieur de Fleury and his lady have been in contest with one another, as I understand it, to decide who has the better talent for business. The lady has been making her case with my help.’
Nicholas glanced at him but Martin, disappointingly, failed to drop dead. Nicholas said, ‘And since she has now done so, perhaps she might leave and wait somewhere else. I am longing to know why you are here.’
‘I thought I had told you,’ said Fat Father Jordan. He had taken a seat. It creaked, but could not be seen under the spread of his mantle. He said, ‘So she has put her case. And have you put yours?’
Of all his enemies, this man could best detect what was raw, what was bruised, what was sensitive. Nicholas said, ‘The debate is over. I have conceded.’
‘Conceded!’ the vicomte exclaimed. ‘With all the tally of Nicholas de Fleury’s extraordinary achievements to place on the scales! Do you tell me that the efforts of one young demoiselle, however talented, can outstrip his successes at the French Court, or in Scotland alone?’
‘Forgive me,’ Nicholas said. ‘But since you were not here when the matter was weighed, you cannot pronounce on the outcome.’
Martin said, ‘But the matter was not weighed. Lord Beltrees put no case at all.’
The seigneur de Ribérac stared. ‘My dear man! You must not throw away a suit without debating it! I shall be your judge. I shall be your judge and your witness as well, for few know as well as I what you have been responsible for.’
‘It is over,’ said Nicholas.
‘You ceded it. Why, Nicholas, did you cede it? A girl’s skills against yours?’
‘Because,’ Nicholas said, ‘I prefer to live, and I am tired of being attacked in the flesh as well as in the pocket. The Vatachino have tried to kill me once too often.’
‘That isn’t true,’ Gelis said.
‘You know it is true,’ Nicholas said. ‘Ask Martin here. Ask your precious David, when next you see him, how I came to be tortured, how I came to be left to drown in the cisterns of Cairo.’
‘You weren’t tortured,’ Gelis said. ‘As for the cisterns, the Mamelukes lied to him. But in any case, you got away easily.’ Her brows were drawn. She looked, for the moment, like her sister.