Part 41 (2/2)

”Yes,” said Scott shortly. ”It's a matter of life and death..

”Jesus. Whose life? A Scotsman's?.

Yes..

Palmer grinned more widely. ”That's all right: I'm not the vindictive sort. Sine lucro friget ludus, eh? You want this, you say. Then play me for it..

”I'm offering you any price you ask,” said Scott.

”I don't want money..

”Then I'll give you what you do want. Your freedom. Your immediate release, Sir Thomas, in exchange for these papers..

Palmer sat down with a thump, still grinning. ”I like Edinburgh. I like the Castle. I like the company. I can get my freedom any time, for a little cash, and a d.a.m.ned bore it is, with Willie Grey in both ears and the Protector under my hat. Give me the man who can stretch me at tarocco and you can keep Berwick ~and every b.u.mbling Northerner in it..

Scott sat down himself rather suddenly. ”For G.o.d's sake, I'll playcards with you all night, if that's all you want. I'll play every day for a month without the sniff of a win. But not to gamble on this kind of stake. What do you take me for?.

The big man was shuffling the cards. ”A member of a practical nation. I don't want bad play and a sure win: I get enough of it. I don't want a game that's a duty or an imposition or a debt or any other d.a.m.ned, dreary penance. I don't like it and the tarots don't like it. Look at themi” With a flip of his thick fingers he sent the cards reeling across the polished wood, convulsed, mouthing and snarling. ”n.o.body's going to fob them off with paltry wagers of three louis a game. They want flesh, do the tarots..

Scott and Erskine were standing shoulder to shoulder. ”Get the guard,” said the boy without turning his head. ”Quickly. Christian Stewart was killed for these papers..

Erskine didn't go for the guard: he took action. The dive he made for the fireplace was nearly quick enough, but not quite. By the time his outstretched hand had reached the man Frank, the papers were already curling in the smoke a foot above the little fire.

”Call the guard-or try that again-and Frank'll throw the whole thing in the fire,” said Palmer agreeably. He settled comfortably in his chair. ”G.o.d! I was bored. Come along, laddie. I've plenty of time. I'll play you tarocco, my boy, for all the money and every st.i.tch each of us possesses in this room, and these papers go into the rest on my side last of all..

There was a short silence. Then Scott said, ”Let me see the papers..

The boy bit his lip, staring at Palmer's cheerful face. ”It might take all night..

The tooth winked and wagged. ”It might take a good deal longer. Are you in a hurry?”-and continued to wink as Scott argued. At the end of it he picked up the cards and started to ruffle them through his big hands. ”It's no concern of mine what you want them for. I've told you the conditions.” He looked up. ”Why're you worrying? You might win the lot in an hour..

Scott sat down. In silence he untied and pulled off his jerkin and in silence he pushed up his s.h.i.+rt sleeves and laid his hands flat on the table. ”Very well,” he said flatly. ”For G.o.d's sake let's start..

The hour of recess had, .inevitably, nearly doubled before the Committee was harried together again; and even so, the interrogation had been under way for some time when Tom Erskine finally slid into his seat, pa.s.sing on the way a face he knew: Mylne, the Queen's surgeon. But Lymond seemed perfectly composed in his chair: the abuses to his body were perhaps visible, but not those to his intellect, which showed fresh and sinewy still under the sharp and thickening barbs from Lauder. The Lord Advocate was beginning to concentrate his attack: the darts glanced in the silence and were returned, with unfailing felicity.

Erskine said in Lord Culter's ear, ”What's happening?” and Richard replied without taking his eyes from the high table. ”He's got Orkney on the raw, the fool. The nearer the Committee gets to Eloise, the harder he's. .h.i.tting them. They don't like it, and it isn't doing him any good. . . . Where've you been?.

Erskine said uninformatively, ”At the Castle,” and glanced at the top table. Buecleuch's face was turned toward him and the black circle of the mouth shaped the words ”Where's Will?.

Having no desire to answer that either, Tom stabbed a finger several times in the air due west, and as Sir Wat continued to look expressively at him, mouthed the word ”Later” and turned overtly to the centre of the floor.

”You arrived in London,” the Queen's Counsel was saying, ”along with a thousand others taken prisoner in 1542 after the battle of Solway Moss. At that time, as we all know, the late Henry VIII of England had declared war on our King his nephew and was attempting to prove his t.i.tle to Scotland by force. Unlike others of your own rank you were immediately given preferential treatment in being lodged in a private English house..

”After three days in the Tower. Not very preferential..

Lauder looked at his notes. ”We have that point quite clear. All but yourself were n.o.blemen of the first rank, and all those with whom you say you had contact are now unfortunately bearing witness in higher courts than these. The Earl of Glencairn died last year; Lord Maxwell two years ago; Lord fleming and Mr. Robert Erskine at Pinkiecleugh..

”The nation's subsequent failures in the field,” said Lymond gently, ”are my misfortune, not my fault. Sir George has already told you that I stayed at his brother's London house under no special concession.

The Bishop of Orkney cleared his throat. ”And why, Mr. Crawford, did you not then return to Scotland ten days later as did the great majority of such boarded prisoners? Were your scruples such that even tongue in cheek you could not bring yourself to sign the necessary oath of allegiance to King Henry, as your compatriots did? Men of honour, it seems to me, must be prepared like them to sell that honour for their country's good. Why did you not sign?.

”I wasn't asked,” said Lymond, and a fleeting regret slipped through the pleasant voice. ”Only prelates and barons were thought to have sufficient tongue and sufficient cheek..

Richard swore. It was Lord Herries who saved the situation with a brusque and ba.s.s inquiry. ”Since he's a younger son, there would be little point, surely, in asking Mr. Crawford to sign a bond to serve the King in Scotland?.

The Bishop said, breathing heavily, ”I disagree. He was, in sort, his brother's heir. If he were innocent he would have contrived, surely, to return on some pretext..

”The thing reeks of inept.i.tude, doesn't it?” said Lymond. ”If I were a spy, it was shockingly careless of the English to capture me in the first place. And if I were a spy, my first thought would have been to return to Scotland as fast as I could. According to the Bishop, my treason lay in not promising to work secretly in Scotland against the Queen. If that's treason then let's make an end. I admit it..

Lauder was undisturbed. ”You made King Henry no promise to serve him?.

”You had in the past performed no service for him?.

”I had not..

The Lord Advocate looked mildly regretful. ”And the presentation to Francis Crawford, Scottish gentleman, of the manor of Gardington, Bucks, was an elaborate ruse to make us believe you had done these things? King Henry must have thought you very important to us, Mr. Crawford. You did, I suppose, receive the deeds of this lords.h.i.+p and manor?.

”Yes. I did..

”And can you suggest why, if it was not in grat.i.tude for favours received?.

”Europe's most Christian Bachelor and I had nothing in common,” said Lymond. ”He had a fancy to control my tongue. And also to restrain his niece..

”Ah, yes. The Lady Margaret Douglas, now the Countess of Lennox. Are we to take it that, seduced by your charms, the lady asked for Gardington as her dot?” George Douglas, he saw, was watching the prisoner like a predator.

”Not precisely. She is, shall we say, a person of violent but practical enthusiasms. She has already been imprisoned twice for endangering the succession, and one of her lovers, as you may recall, died in the Tower from a surfeit of Scottish heart and English briar. No. At a guess, she wanted . . . a new stimulus and a new experiment. And encouraged her uncle to leash me permanently by telling him what I had found out; and even perhaps some things I hadn't..

Methven's silly voice cut through the tactful silence. ”And what had you found out?.

The Master's gaze neither looked at nor avoided Sir George. ”Something of his immediate plans, which later became common knowledge. I had access to rooms which should normally have been closed to me, and found them out by chance..

”Bedrooms?” inquired the Queen's Counsel.

The veiled eyes lifted. ”Not every legal doc.u.ment is framed in a bedroom, my lord.” The Justice-Clerk laughed aloud.”Well,” said Henry Lauder. ”You have an estate and a beautiful lady in prospect, and her wicked uncle allows you to enjoy neither. The gift of the estate has already made your fellow Scots suspicious; your return to Scotland is finally made impossible by spreading the news among your countrymen that you were responsible not only for the disaster of Solway Moss, but for a long career of previous spying and intrigue. . . . Why trouble with all this fearsome plotting, Mr. Crawford? If King Henry didn't like you, weren't there simpler and more obvious means of getting rid of you?.

Argyll, surprisingly, said, ”I can see the point of some of it. His Majesty learned just after our prisoners reached London that our King had died and Scotland was accordingly under a regency, and he was immediately bent on winning over as many leading Scots families as possible to his interests. Hence all the prisoners being taken from the Tower to better lodgings, and the offer to let the most important go free if they signed an oath of allegiance to England. It wasn't the time for the sudden murder of a prisoner of war in his hands-even a less important one..

”Also,” said Lymond, continuing the argument with an unbounded scholarly detachment, ”he probably wanted to protect thereal purveyor of secrets. If Edinburgh was becoming suspicious, he was calling off the hunt by making me scapegoat. Then, having discredited me at home and with the prisoners still remaining in London, he could dispose of me in safety..

”And yet you survived?.

”I was taken to Calais and allowed to fall into the hands of the French. Perfectly simple..

”And after that, the galleys?.

”Yes,” said Lymond with no trace of expression in his voice.

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