Caprice and Rondo by Dorothy Dunnett Read Free Book Online Page A

and of the family, grown and half-grown, he was leaving behind. Also, his travelling companion the Patriarch of Antioch had called, unacceptably late and no more agreeable than he had ever been. When Kathi found him, her uncle was grim.
    Katelijne Sersanders of Berecrofts might look like a child half her age, but she thought and felt like an adult. In asking her favour, she was conscious of the factors against her. Her abundance of energy (her uncle could say) was deceptive, and her health fragile. She should be settling to marriage, as Robin ought to be fostering his grandfather’s business. And lastly, of course, it was outside common decency that Nicholas de Fleury should claim her thoughts or her time. Deceived by the man whom he had watched growing from boyhood, Anselm Adorne was attempting to forget de Fleury, and so she must, too.
    Despite all of that, Kathi Sersanders sat by her uncle’s desk andput her proposal, and hard man though he could be, her uncle gave her the courtesy of a hearing. A just magistrate, a Flemish–Italian merchant prince with generations of Genoese nobility behind him, Anselm Adorne had not lightly given in, either, when his niece had proposed to marry young Robin. But he was fond of her, and he respected her judgement, and Scotland had offered security. Or so it had seemed to him then. So now, Adorne said, ‘It is Robin, not you, who wants to find and speak to de Fleury?’
    ‘I shouldn’t stop him,’ she said. ‘Robin was his page, then his squire. He can’t forget. He needs to speak to Nicholas; to satisfy himself over what has happened.’
    ‘And you?’ her uncle asked.
    She had not been dazzled, like Robin, by the compendium of assorted delights which made Nicholas at first sight so winning. She had been a critical admirer, a fellow lover of music and, latterly, unexpectedly, a friend. Until the catastrophe. She said, ‘Now I think Nicholas is best left alone.’
    ‘Certainly, that would be my opinion,’ her uncle observed. He did not elaborate, but he was thinking, she knew, of his task. This mission would be thorny enough, without inviting more trouble. Resentful of Adorne, Nicholas might be stirred, if resurrected, to find ways of obstructing the mission. And while he was free to impugn whom he wished, Adorne’s hands were tied. For what Nicholas had done had not been made public, and would not be, for the sake of his victims.
    She said, ‘I want this for Robin, not myself. Nicholas may never appear. He may not want to be found, or he may not be where the Patriarch thinks. I don’t intend to wander for ever, but I do want Robin to feel that at least he has tried. And if Nicholas is still alive, I can’t believe that he would harm you. Although, of course, no one can be sure.’
    ‘No,’ her uncle said. He paused. ‘You would not think of letting Robin travel without you?’ Then, as she looked at him in silence, he answered his own question. ‘No.’
    She wondered if he understood, and thought that he probably did. If Robin went, she must go, and not simply because they were newly united. The truth was that she would be twenty-one in November, while Robin was three years her junior. Soon, the difference would fade, and they would live the span of their lives as contemporaries, lovers and friends. But first, they had to secure the form of their union.
    It had never been her ambition to wed. She would not have done so, had she not seen within this sweet-tempered man all the promise of just such a future. But, wise as Robin was, it was for her, in these firstweeks, to shape from intangibles — dreams, thoughts, sensations — the image of the marriage that they were going to have. She was not alone, for he was aware of it, and helped her as he could. There was a precedent.
    Adorne said, ‘I am not sure that it is wise. But I trust your good sense, and I would not have Robin waste his life mourning a scoundrel. Come with me, then. Let Robin satisfy himself, if he must,