To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [73]
‘So?’ repeated her brother in a voice that went with his hat. ‘How impressive, this hunger for news. What shall I tell you about first? The vital English conference just summoned for Alnwick? The distressing dispute over Coldingham Priory? The monarch’s generous offer to mediate between France and Burgundy?’ He reeked of contempt. Or would it interest you more to know that God’s darling, King David sailed into Leith yesterday, or perhaps it was only my lord Nicholas de Fleury and his wife and his son? One could hardly tell, such was the splendour.’
‘Was he wearing big jewels? Sandy says his son is a bastard. Sandy was going to be there,’ said the King’s sister Margaret, hopping up on one foot. ‘I wanted to go. I can swim.’
Optimism ran in the Stewart family. Kathi gazed at her eleven-year-old mistress, thereby avoiding her brother’s eye. Anselm said, ‘The Duke of Albany was there, my lady. He and M. de Fleury spent the night at the Wark but didn’t swim, so far as I know.’
‘Perhaps the bastard can swim,’ said the Princess Margaret.
‘I think,’ said Anselm Sersanders, ‘that my lord your brother found he had made a mistake. From his looks, the boy is certainly the son of M. de Fleury. But I am sure he cannot swim. Should we pass indoors, ladies?’
They began to walk. Kathi captured her mistress, allowing her brother to receive the full attention of the two Sinclair cousins. ‘So where is the lady Gelis?’ asked Betha, the one who didn’t write poetry. The other kept quiet.
‘She and the child have gone to the Canongate house. The two engineers stayed with M. de Fleury to see the cargo unloaded.’
‘But you spoke to them?’ Betha said. ‘You managed to ask about the Countess’s baby? And of course the lady your aunt, although she has much longer to wait.’
She stopped, with Phemie beside her, and Kathi stopped also. You never knew, with Anselm. He would never have put such a question to M. de Fleury, but he was fond of their aunt, as she was. And he had made the enquiry of somebody, for he answered at once. ‘The Princess was well when they left, and the child expected by the end of this month. My uncle hopes to come to Scotland soon after.’
‘With the Princess and her husband?’ It was the other nun, who taught Margaret.
Anselm said, ‘Their plans are not known.’
‘And Aunt Margriet?’ Kathi said.
‘She could be in better health but is cheerful, it is said. A courier from Bruges came to the ship just before they left. One of the child’s nurses told me.’
‘He has nurses?’ said the other Sinclair, called Phemie.
‘Apparently. They have been with the child all along. What more can I tell you?’ said Anselm.
When she got him to her chamber at last, he was flushed and cross. ‘Women!’
Certainly, the youngest nun had giggled too much. Kathi said, ‘It isn’t all prurience. If he stays, M. de Fleury is going to change things for this country, and also for Uncle Adorne when he comes. And it looks to me as if he is planning to stay.’
‘Because he has patched up his marriage?’ He sat down, causing some strips of vellum to hop on her desk. He said irritably, ‘What are you doing now?’
She had been helping the bursar with last month’s accounts and was almost ready to sew them. Lying beside them was the alphabet-board from the school room. She picked it up by the handle and gazed at it as in a mirror with the aim of picking out simple words. ‘Because he wants it to look as if he’s patched up his marriage. Maybe he has.’
‘Well, you know what happened,’ her brother said. ‘She allowed Simon the ultimate privilege, and Nicholas paid her back in her own coin. Stole the child, hid it, and refused to produce it until Gelis promised to resume the marriage, adding in a bit of physical punishment to help her remember, so it seems. If that is patching up a marriage, then it is patched.’
She said, ‘Do you believe that? Of M. de Fleury?’
‘The Duke of Albany believes it,’ he said. ‘Or at least, it doesn’t disturb him. But then, he’s seventeen himself, with three