Gemini (85 page)

There was a silence. Then Robin said, ‘You don’t need to over-perform because I’ve been doing the opposite. No.’

‘Were you performing?’ Nicholas said. ‘I didn’t think so. You were faced with a situation, and you have now dealt with it. I am facing one, too. If I go, it is not because I want to. It is because I ought.’

Sometimes Nicholas sounded like one of Julius’s Bologna lecturers, except that he stressed the wrong words. Julius said irritably, ‘Well? I’ve got to go back with your answer.’

Nicholas turned to him. ‘What do
you
suggest that I do?’

Robin was scowling. Damn Robin. Julius said, ‘If spying wasn’t supposed to worry Kathi or me, I don’t see why you need to hesitate. Good God, man: you’ve played the fool in your time with every merchant in Bruges. Surely you can do the same with the English?’

‘I expect so,’ said Nicholas. ‘Robin, I’m sorry.’

‘No. It’s all right,’ Robin said. ‘I knew you would. Go and tell Gelis. Kathi will be back directly. It’s all right.’

Julius was glad to get out.

A
DORNE SAID
, ‘Y
OU’VE
told Avandale and he
agrees?’

‘He hasn’t much to lose,’ Nicholas said. ‘He thinks, as I do, that the message is genuine. England’s used to agents, single and double. She’s already bribed half the population of Scotland, and invited the remaining half to come into the fold. I might prove a waste of time, but I’m not a threat to them. They’ll let me come back.’

‘They may not harm you, but they may expect you to stay. And that’s only half the story. What about your reputation in Scotland, if and when you come back?’

‘There is some security,’ Nicholas said, ‘in the fact that you all know about it. That, and my honest face. And another thing. Andro Wodman has gallantly volunteered to come with me in secret. He’ll lurk. If I can’t get back myself, I’ll try to send back what I find out. At least it should be obvious if they’re splitting the army, or attacking only through Albany’s land. And how long they’re being paid for. That’s vital.’

Of course, he was right. Up till now, an attack of this size would normally concentrate first upon Berwick, and then diversify to other Border
strongholds. But with Albany there, the fall of Berwick, if it happened, might be followed by an invasion through the supposedly friendly lands of Albany’s East March. And if that occurred, it was not enough to garrison the Borders, as they had done. The Scottish host would have to be called out. And the size of the Scottish host was in doubt.

They had talked through all these options. To summon an army to fight a pitched battle against far superior English numbers was good news for the poets, but little else. You might win by a ruse, but more likely you’d end up with smoking fields and dead men. Rather, you avoided general warfare. You negotiated.

On the other hand, if the attacks were to be limited to the Borders, the entire host needn’t be drawn in at all. The frontier garrisons were tough. They might well hold out until the season had ended, or the English pay came to a halt.

If they knew what Albany was going to do, they would know how to handle the King. Once the King knew his brother was present, he would try to lead the entire army against him. And that, of course, was unthinkable. Whatever was in Sandy’s mind, Gloucester was bound to want the King out of the way. Unambiguously and probably finally out of the way.

Adorne had allowed a long silence to develop. He wished he could say something different. Instead, he turned to Nicholas de Fleury and said, ‘I do see. We need this information. I shall not try to dissuade you.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Kathi and I have to thank you about something.’

‘No,’ said Nicholas. ‘Courage is like gold. It only needs to be burnished, now and then.’

G
ELIS SAID
, ‘
IT’S
like being ill: everyone has been so kind. Colin Argyll came and sat and told me how brave I was. And drank all my wine.’

‘In Gaelic?’ Nicholas said. It was late. The day seemed to have lasted for ever.

‘Can you drink in Gaelic?’ she said. ‘Yes, I am sure that you can. Jordan will expect to go with you.’

‘We have had that conversation,’ he said. ‘He has agreed to stay and look after you.’

They were sitting opposite one another. She said, ‘You don’t need to say anything. I know you. If you didn’t do it, you wouldn’t be who you are. When do you go?’

‘Tomorrow morning,’ he said.

She flinched. It was so slight, you would have had to know her very well to notice it. He added, evenly, ‘I have to go quickly, or it’s no good. It should have been tonight, but I said that I couldn’t.’

When she still didn’t speak he said, ‘I just want to sit; and perhaps talk.’

‘I know,’ she said.

They talked; and presently, sat closer together; no more. Only very much later, in bed, did she sigh in his arms and say, ‘Let me give you something to keep.’

He had not known, until then, that their marriage had so changed, and so deepened. Whatever became of him now, his decision had brought him this gift.

Before nightfall next day, he had forded the Tweed at the castle of Carham, and had given himself up to the garrison, who expected him. They did not expect or observe a companion, particularly one so adept in fieldcraft as a French-trained broken-nosed Archer. Wherever he went, Nicholas was sure that Andro Wodman would follow.

B
Y THEN, THE
decision had been made to call out the Scots army, beginning with the farthest-flung and most loyal contingents: those of Huntly and the Ogilvies and their friends who drew rents from the south, but whose homes lay in those rich, well-doing lands in the north and north-east. They were to arrive on the Burgh Muir just outside Edinburgh by the middle weeks of July.

On the March, the garrisons waited for orders. Some grew impatient. It displeased the Warden of the West March, in particular, to find that two of his Lochmaben garrison had left without sanction, riding east with a few mounted bowmen. Sometimes these men fought private wars. He hoped the father, at least, would have the sense to come back at once.

F
OREIGN MERCHANTS VISITING
York tended to know the taverns at the two wharfsides and, more officially, the guild-houses and the merchant adventurers’ hall, and some of the churches where business was transacted. Nicholas knew about as much; rather less than he knew of Southampton or Newcastle or, certainly, London. He knew enough to be pleased when he was brought to St Mary’s by means of a boat and the water-gate, which meant that someone thought his identity worth concealing.

It had not been a particularly pleasant journey. His escort had been told to be polite, but this was probably the twentieth defector they had brought south since King Edward’s invitation, and the contempt showed, expressing itself in the officer’s aloofness, and in a little unchecked rough handling from the soldiers. He knew the route reasonably well for the first day: he had fought over it. He didn’t attempt to befriend anybody.

Most of the military leaders, he guessed, would be housed at the castle, or in pavilions close to the massed tents of the host, which he could hear and smell, but not count. The rumoured tally of twenty thousand did not seem unlikely.

The Duke of Gloucester was not in the castle, but enjoying the comfort of the Abbot’s guest apartments in the richest monastery of York. His flag flew above the roof of St Mary’s. There was no other flag, either ducal or regal. A wit brighter than Sandy’s, Nicholas thought, might have put up the three legs of the lordship of Man.
See how I run
.

He was placed in a well-furnished room, and a servant unpacked his saddlebags and laid out fresh clothing. He shut the door when the man left, but there was another on guard in the passage, with the white boar badge on his arm. Nicholas achieved an automatic grooming and awaited the summons. It didn’t take long to come.

He had never met Gloucester, but was prepared for the black hair, the jagged profile, the uneven shoulders. His voice was charming and so were his clothes: a soft brocade robe over a fine shirt, doublet and hose. There was a brooch in his hat. Sandy, seated on the same level, had the look of a man who has put on a lot of weight and lost it again. His auburn hair was elaborately shaped, but he had cut himself shaving. His pale, steady stare was defiant.

The room was handsome, and obviously used as an audience chamber. Against the walls there stood several servants: a chamberlain, a page, a man-at-arms. Closest to the chair of state waited a tall man wearing an expensive light robe over armour: Harry Percy, Earl and sheriff of Northumberland, and Dickon’s partner in the north. Earl Harry’s father had once burned Dunbar. Earl Harry’s father had been a Lancastrian, in the days when the Lancastrian King had made his kingdom in exile at Bamburgh, and had fought and died for Lancaster at Towton. Then York had prevailed, and the family, after a spell in the wilderness, were back serving York. Or rather serving themselves, as all the great Border families were accustomed to do, on both sides of the frontier. Harry Percy was six years older than Gloucester, and had been the head of his house from the age of fifteen. Once, when Percy cancelled a March meeting, Sandy had been very annoyed.

Dickon Gloucester said, ‘Do we need anything, Harry? No. Then perhaps Hugh will stay. We may call for the rest of you later.’ Hugh was the man-at-arms, who placed himself by the wall. The rest left, except for Earl Harry and Gloucester.

Gloucester said, ‘M. de Fleury, you know who I am. Let me present you to my lord of Northumberland, whom you will well know, by reputation at least. Harry, this is Nicholas de Fleury of Bruges, a merchant dealing in Scotland who fought and nearly sacrificed his life at the side of my sister’s late husband at Nancy. I am only sorry that we meet him at this tragic time when her grace the Duke’s daughter has also perished. You will have heard the news? Please, both of you, sit.’

‘I have, my lord,’ Nicholas said. He made the correct acknowledgements, and sat, as did Percy. He added, ‘I had the honour of meeting the Duchess Marie several times, and my wife was fortunate enough to serve the Princess your sister. All who knew the young Duchess will mourn her. Indeed, it seemed possible that the bereaved husband might plan to renew his war against France, in his distraction. So, again, a single death may upset Europe.’

The Duke’s sad expression did not alter. The Earl said, ‘You mean pernicious rumours cause damage. The Archduke is not going to war.’

‘But if he were,’ said Dickon of Gloucester, ‘would you have wished to join him, M. de Fleury? Had you planned to go back to Bruges?’ He knew Bruges well. So did the Percy family. The Percy family had actually
been members, in their time, of the Confraternity of the Dry Tree, of which the greatest recent luminary had been Anselm Adorne.

‘I had often thought of it,’ Nicholas said. ‘I have the goodwill of the Duchess Margaret, as I have said; and of the merchant community. My opportunities in Scotland might seem limited. But there, too, favour has been shown me by many—by his grace at your side, and his sisters. With the right masters, I would have no fear of the future.’ He looked directly at Sandy and smiled. Amazingly, Sandy smiled back. It almost looked natural.

‘You don’t get on with the King?’ Percy said.

‘He is unwell,’ Nicholas said.

‘You mean sick? Mortally sick?’

‘The doctors think not. His grace here will have described his affliction. It makes for uneven behaviour, which deprives him of friends.’

Gloucester glanced at Sandy and turned back to Nicholas. ‘You are saying that, put to the test, the people of Scotland would prefer someone in full health as their king, capable of making firm judgements, and without the perpetual need for elderly, perhaps senile advisers? And if that is so, how many would fight for their beliefs?’

The big question. What had the Douglases said, as they poured over the Border to join their exiled Earl? What had the Earl himself said, and that other exile, Jamie Boyd’s grandfather? What did Holland suggest, or Jardine of Applegarth, who had fled with him? What did Sandy believe, who hadn’t been in Scotland or near it for three years?

How long was the army being paid for?

Nicholas said, ‘My lord Duke, the opposition to the King is underground, and confined to certain areas at present. It needs to be fostered. There is enough to smooth the path, as it were, of a new champion, but not enough to maintain him without help just at first. In six months’ time, the helping force could be dismissed and the kingdom hold successfully under its new King. Of that I am sure.’

‘Six months!’ Sandy exclaimed.

‘That is not what we hear,’ Gloucester said.

Nicholas said, ‘Perhaps, my lord, you have been speaking to the wrong people. The power in all this lies in the hands of the merchants.’

‘Yours?’ said the Earl of Northumberland. It was his function to say what the Duke preferred not to say.

‘With the burghers and their officers, where the money is. Not with me, as my lord of Albany will confirm. If it were so, I should not be here. I should not wish to change kings, or dilute my profit.’

Percy grunted. Gloucester flashed him a glance and turned, smiling, to Sandy. He said, ‘I like your man. He is not subservient. He is honest. I think he will be our good friend. We hope that, now that we know one another, he will further bear out all you have told us of him. Were we to
cross the Border, what opposition might we find, in what castles? And what loyalties can we count on? You know of all his grace’s good friends.’

His voice was still charming. He had just come from Carlisle. He had just attacked the West March and burned towns a few miles from Albany’s Lochmaben Castle: he must have a good idea now of Darnley’s strength in the west. Nicholas therefore didn’t lie, or not much, about that. He said, for the rest, what Avandale and Argyll and Whitelaw had recommended that he should say, adjusted to what Tam Cochrane and John le Grant and a few others reckoned, and further adjusted in the light of some beliefs of his own.