To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [360]
‘We will thrash him. We will kill him,’ said Henry. The fair face was anxious.
‘I think not,’ said Gelis. The document was tucked in her sleeve. She knew, drawing it out, that now she had the sudden attention of Nicholas, and also of Tobie. Jodi began to sob wildly, and the nurse quieted him, watching over his head.
The vicomte said, ‘What have you there?’
‘No!’ said Tobie.
Nicholas looked at him. Then he faced back to Gelis. He said, ‘Put it away. You have made a mistake.’
‘What is it?’ said the vicomte again.
‘Something I got from a priest,’ Gelis said. She spoke to Nicholas. ‘How can it be a mistake when you don’t know what it is? And anyway, what does it matter? You are going to die anyway. I have to think of the future.’
Tobie said, ‘Gelis. Who else may die?’
She said, ‘Not Jordan, at least.’
The fat man said, ‘Give me that paper.’
Nicholas said, ‘Please.’ His face was wholly without colour.
Gelis said, ‘Have I won?’
‘Yes, you have won,’ Nicholas said. ‘Name anything. Anything. Anything but this.’
‘She hasn’t!’ said Henry shrilly. ‘Grandfather? We’re going to thrash the boy, aren’t we?’ He tugged at the vicomte.
Mistress Clémence said, with an air of total veracity, ‘Your grandfather isn’t going to thrash your little cousin, Master Henry. He is going to bring him up as his heir. He told me so.’
Henry seized his grandfather’s arm, and received a blow which sent him staggering back. ‘Madame! Give me that paper! Take it from her!’ said Jordan de Ribérac.
Gelis, lifting her arm, hurled the crumpled ball to the floor.
Henry recovered his balance and, tugging his knife from its sheath, drove himself across the small room at his cousin. The soldier behind Jodi jumped out to stop him. Mistress Clémence flung Jodi bodily round and thrust him into the arms of the doctor. The vicomte, ignoring all that was happening, stooped to the paper as Nicholas pitched himself forward, followed by the soldiers behind him.
Gelis stood quite still, and watched. You could say that Nicholas had nothing to lose, but he didn’t throw away any hope he might have of life. He twisted as he fell, avoiding the plunging arms of the soldiers. He even got to the document and, crumpling it into his fist, rolled aside, drawing it under his body. Gelis saw Jordan de Ribérac stand, his sword singing out of its scabbard. She saw the soldiers beginning to close. She heard Henry squealing and struggling, and the shrieks of Jodi in Tobie’s arms. And she heard the crash as Mistress Clémence flung open the shutters and Tobie thrust the child out, while his sedate nurse, cap askew, screamed, and screamed, and screamed again into the night. And, lastly, she heard John le Grant’s answering shout.
There were three men struggling still to contain Nicholas: one of them was the vicomte, his blade in his hand. Now he straightened and called. The man holding Henry released him. The rest began to recoil towards the door to the front of the house, all but the two who were wrestling, grunting, with Nicholas. The fat man dismissed one of these with a nod, and as the other knelt back out of range, the vicomte lifted his sword with both hands. Tobie started running, Gelis behind. The fat man spoke once, and then began to bring down the blade.
Gelis saw that Nicholas, attempting to rise, was looking upwards into de Ribérac’s face, and that the fat man was returning the gaze. The next moment, Tobie crashed into Jordan de Ribérac, sending the unwieldy bulk staggering, and followed up with his fists. And immediately, the window and anteroom became thronged with determined men and bright steel.
John le Grant thrust past Gelis towards Tobie with four men at his back. His sword clashed once with the vicomte’s, and then the fat man retreated, his blade flashing, his henchmen about him. The place where Nicholas had gone down was swarming with people: she couldn’t see what he was doing. Mistress Clémence had disappeared: a moment later Gelis heard her voice outside, speaking to Jodi. Steel clattered. More men clambered in and buffeted past her. She wondered where John