‘I’ve had word,’ said Timothy, ‘from Lord Dynham, the deputy governor of Calais, that Monsieur le Daim will be in Paris very shortly — probably sometime next week — on a mission for King Louis to the city goldsmiths. If Mistress Gray can introduce herself to him as a kinswoman, she may be able to find out King Louis’s intentions with regard to Burgundy and the English marriage between the dauphin and the Princess Elizabeth, straight, as it were, from the horse’s mouth.’
‘And are you sure that Lord Dynham’s information is reliable?’
Timothy got to his feet. ‘It usually is. A great many people pass through Calais on their way home from the Continent, and, unlike most rolling stones, they gather moss. Calais is a hotbed of gossip, not all of it idle. Now!’ He smiled paternally at Eloise Gray and myself, looking so pleased with himself and so condescending that the toe of my boot itched to make contact with his backside. ‘I shall leave you two to get better acquainted in your new roles as husband and wife. Take a walk. Visit the shops. But, Roger, remember, I need you back here at Baynard’s Castle by suppertime. My lord of Gloucester,’ he explained glibly to Eloise, ‘wishes to thank Roger personally for accompanying the Duke of Albany to Scotland.’ Whether or not she believed this, there was no means of knowing: the elfin face gave nothing away. Timothy went on, ‘Tomorrow, Roger, you must be fitted for some new clothes.’ At my indignant protest, he eyed me up and down and responded sharply, ‘You can’t go to France posing as a prosperous haberdasher looking like that. And you will need extra baggage and some samples of cloth to give credence to your story.’
‘And what is my story?’ I demanded belligerently. ‘Until this moment I wasn’t even aware of my new calling.’
He patted my shoulder. ‘Everything will finally be decided upon in the morning. You will both please meet me here, in this same chamber, immediately after dinner, when the details of your journey and of your. . er. . “marriage” will be agreed between us. The tailor will also be present to measure you, Roger, for those clothes I spoke of.’
A moment later, he was gone, whisking himself out of the room before I could raise further objections or subject him to any more of my ill humour.
‘Coward!’ I shouted, but the door had already closed behind him and I found myself addressing solid oak.
I turned back to my companion, eyeing her askance.
She laughed. ‘You needn’t worry, Master Chapman. I don’t require your escort around London. I have sufficient knowledge of the streets to be able to take care of myself. I was here with my lord of Albany two years ago.’
‘Just as well.’ I glowered as she rose to her feet and prepared to depart. But nevertheless she intrigued me, and I detained her by the simple expedient of asking another question. ‘Your mother may be French, but I’d swear there’s Scottish blood in you somewhere. Your father?’
She sat down again. ‘Yes. Maman was French,’ she agreed. ‘She died five years ago. Both my parents are dead, and you’re right — my father was indeed Scottish. He was a member of King Louis’s Scots Guards and died fighting for him, when I was four years old, at the battle of Montlhéry.’
‘Montlhéry?’ I queried, coaxing my tongue around the name, not without some difficulty.
‘Oh, you probably wouldn’t have heard of it,’ she said. ‘It was a battle fought against the king’s own subjects, who wanted to depose him in favour of his brother Charles.’ She added scornfully, ‘They called themselves the League of the Public Weal,’ and spat on the floor in a most unladylike fashion. ‘Common good? They had no thought of the common good! It was pure ambition and greed. I know! My mother told me all about it when I was old enough to understand. Burgundy was one of them. The late duke, Charles of Charolais, as he still was then, fought on behalf of his father, Duke Philip.’ She leaned towards me, suddenly deadly serious, her great violet-blue eyes burning with righteous wrath. ‘Do you know that after he became king — that was the year I was born — Louis bought back Picardy and the Somme towns from Burgundy for four hundred thousand crowns? But then Duke Philip regretted the deal and decided he wanted them back again.’
‘Don’t tell me,’ I interrupted, ‘I can guess what’s coming. Philip wanted them back and to hang on to the money as well. Am I right?’
She gave a mirthless laugh. ‘Of course you are. So he formed this league with all the other malcontents — the dukes of Brittany, Berry, Anjou, Calabria, Bourbon and I don’t know how many others — all pretending that they were acting in the public interest and that it would be better for the country if they put Charles instead of Louis on the throne.’
‘And did Louis win at. . at this place you mentioned?’
‘Montlhéry? Sadly not. My father died in vain.’ Then her little face brightened, losing its bitter look. ‘But King Louis got the better of them all in the end, not by force of arms, but by cunning and sheer strength of will.’
I chewed my thumbnail thoughtfully. ‘And now it would seem that he intends to bring Burgundy to heel by marrying his son to Maximilian’s daughter.’
‘We don’t know that for certain,’ she said quickly. ‘That’s what we’re going to France to find out.’
I agreed. ‘But I don’t suppose it’s King Louis’s intentions we’re being sent to discover, but Maximilian’s. I have no doubt whatsoever that Louis will happily repudiate the English alliance in favour of the Burgundian. He would be a fool not to. And once Burgundy is a spent force, no longer a thorn in France’s side, well then. .’
‘Well then what?’
‘It will be farewell to that annual pension that King Louis pays King Edward so promptly every year.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it’s been paid for the past seven years on the understanding that England would refrain from going to Burgundy’s aid in any conflict she had with France. Which is exactly what has happened. In spite of all the pressure on him from nobles and commoners alike, the king has steadily refused to send an expeditionary force to help Maximilian in his struggle against the French, with the result that he looks likely to have cut off his nose to spite his face.’ I grimaced. ‘My own guess is that this mission you and I are being sent on is a sheer waste of time. Any fool with half a brain could predict that Louis will choose the Burgundian marriage. He has everything to gain from it and nothing at all from the English alliance. Indeed, he’ll be the richer in more ways than one for breaking with King Edward.’
Eloise raised an eyebrow. ‘You think we’re being sent on a fool’s errand? I agree with you about King Louis, but you said yourself that it’s Maximilian’s intentions that are the more important, and what we have to find out.’
I snorted. ‘My dear girl, I’ve just told you that anyone with half a brain could foretell what Louis will do. Well, anyone with the other half must surely harbour very few doubts concerning Burgundy’s reaction. He’s appealed to us, his closest ally, in vain. He’s in a fair way to being beaten to his knees. His wife, who commanded his subjects’ loyalty, is dead and their child too young to be a rallying point. He’s an Austrian, a stranger, which many of the duchy’s people resent. He can either wait for his lands to be overrun or he can rescue a little dignity from the situation by marrying his daughter to the dauphin and making a peace of sorts with King Louis. An idiot could work it out.’
My companion looked thoughtful. ‘So, as you rightly ask, what is the purpose of sending us to Paris? My cousin Olivier, although a very shrewd man as I understand it, can only tell us what we already know.’
‘Guess,’ I corrected her. ‘As for the rest,’ I went on scornfully, ‘our superiors, those set in authority over us, don’t need reasons for squandering money. The discovery that you and this Olivier le Daim are in some vague way related to one another is a heaven-sent pretext for Master Plummer to arrange a secret mission for us into France. It makes him look as though he’s busy protecting the safety of the realm. Our wonderful spymaster general, ever vigilant!’