“You were bound for Holland, to ask what help your mother might give.” Belinda leaned forward and close. Lantern light moved golden across hair and face; it cast moving shadows in her bodice. Waves whooshed, breezes lulled. The ship moved gently as a rocking cradle. “That would be scant. Nevertheless you chose to fare with us, to arrive sooner near your goal, though you’ve just a single companion and hardly two shillings to click together.”
Rupert shrugged. “The venture’s desperate enough that that recks little.”
“Your boldness thrills me.” She pointed to herself. “See the chill rising on my flesh… Still, you’ll not shun assistance, I’m sure.” A deep sigh. “Would I could furnish troopers and a frigate! Impossible; my lord’s a peaceful man.” Her lip lifted a fraction. At once: “After difficulty, I’ve persuaded him to offer you this purse. The gold should reach some ways along your road.”
“Belinda, I—I cannot,” Rupert stuttered, half dismayed. “I dare not—”
“Aye, you do!” she said fiercely. “I’d liefer’twas a gift, but call it a loan if you wish. King Charles can repay us, when you’ve come down off those crags you’re scaling to bring him his crown back from the vultures’ nest. Your duty, Rupert. You may not refuse.”
She caught his right hand in her own and drew it across the table, where her left brought the pouch up against his palm. Slowly, he closed fingers on it. After a few more seconds, she let him withdraw from her clasp and blew him a kiss. “Wise man, in this if in naught else,” she sang. “I have no words to thank you.”
“Indeed you do. Words of yourself, Rupert. Your adventures, your achievements—and perhaps you’ll draw my portrait, being a master artist?”
“I’d love that.”
She turned her head back and forth upon twining neck and rotating shoulders. “Which profile?” she murmured. “What pose? We must try many positions—Oh!”
That last was no cry of joy. Pulling his gaze from her with an almost audible rip, the prince saw Duke Hernan in the doorway. Clad in a nightshirt and robe, leaning on a cane, features sunken and sallow, he gave them a shaky smile.
“Your Grace!” Rupert jumped to greet him and lead him to the table. “What a wonderful surprise. You’re feeling better?”
“Better, yes, better.” As he settled down next to his wife, Rupert on his other side, the diplomat continued: “Yes, yes, si, blessed be thees calm, though honesty does make me confess ow w’en we reach Tunis I’ve promeesed feefty candles een thanksgeeveeng to San Antonio, that ees St. Anthony, you know, who leeved een the desert very far from water.” He blinked benevolently at them. “You’ave done your beeznees?” She nodded with small enthusiasm. “My gratitude’s unbounded to your Grace,” Rupert said. “Here, let me fetch a glass for you.”
“No, no,” said Hernan. His voice was unsteady. “My stomach ees steel back een that last gale we’ad, heh, heh, heh. Ah, to be young again! But you two weell find’ow soon golden youth does flee.” He wagged a finger. “So lay up treasure een’eaven now, because pious self-denials, fasteeng, abstentions, are worth much, much more at your age than they weell be later w’en you must practeece them anyway. Nay, seet down,’Ighness, seet down. I deed awaken and thought eet would be jolly to join you two young people and, yes, yes, maybe counsel you, geeve you advice from an expeerience wheech ees, eef I may say’t, long and—and varied. Yes, varied. Ah, I remember once een Barcelona… seexteen’undred and twenty-nine eet was, or twenty-eight?—I theenk twenty-nine, though per’aps—bueno, eet was the feast of the Eleven Thousand Virgeens, I do remember that—”
Rupert made himself comfortable and prepared to exercise the virtue of patience. Belinda interrupted by a touch and a soft remark: “Darling, I’m very happy for you. But have a care. You catch cold so easily.
Rupert, would you close the window?”
“Nay,” said the duke. “Open, open. Fresh air refreshes. True, I am a beet a-sheever, seence my lady reminds me…’owever, an old campaigner, heh, heh, heh. You young caballeros’ave’ad your adventures, yes, yes, you’ave, I deny eet not, but let me tell you—”
“And you must be starved,” Belinda said. “Take a comfit.”
She offered him a particularly gooey one. He gulped and waved it away. “No! My stomach…. Per’aps a glass of water, a dry beescueet—”
“Ship’s biscuits are best left alone on Friday, dear. And Rupert, in spite of what he says, I must insist you shut the window, no matter how hot, close, and greasy-smelling it gets. As for thee, my lord, if thou canst rise (from thy bed, at any rate,” Belinda added under her breath), “I’d be remiss did I not see to’t thou receivest better nourishment than a spoonful of broth or gruel. I’ll have the cook roused at once to prepare thee—let me think—” She made a pretty gesture of frowning, touching the corner of her mouth, then beaming. “Ah, yes! Eggplant and onion fried in oil, garlic below and melted cheese a-bubble above, with lavishness of pepper. Moreover, midnight’s not far off, when thou canst lawfully take a pork chop.”
The duke changed color and swallowed several times. “No,” he said feebly.
She did not seem to hear. “Ah, my lord,” she asked, “will it not be delicious, a fat-dripping pork chop and peppery fried potatoes? Or might these be better cold, their grease congealed? Nay, the sovereign remedy, I’ve heard, is the raw white of an egg, let slide down the throat ere one goes on to fat pork and oozy potatoes.”
The duke lurched to his feet. Rupert hastened to assist him.
“Furthermore,” Belinda said, “I’ve heard well recommended the chewing of tobacco. We can buy a good, strong quid from the slop chest—”
“I… feel seeck… again,” the duke choked forth.
Rupert took his elbow. “Come, let me help you to your couch,” the Rhinelander urged.
“No, no—stay, por favor—” Hernan tried to straighten. “We… del Monte de Gavilanes… old campaigner—” He made what haste he could out the door and down the passageway.
Rupert stood awhile silent. Belinda sipped her wine.
“You were a trifle injudicious, I fear, my lady,” said Rupert, not looking at her.
“Aforethought, as you can’t quite utter? Oh, I knew what I did,” she admitted insouciantly. “Yet think not ill of me. He has more years than my father who wedded me to him. Shall I not, then, look to his welfare as might a dutiful daughter? And you know how an ancient must ofttimes be cosseted, aye, cozened, when weakness has sapped judgment. I feared he’d overtax what strength the stresses of work and war, followed by this rough journey, have left him.”
“Well—”
She beckoned. “Come, sit. You owe me some diversion, did we not agree? Here, take a confection”—she reached it to him—“drain your glass and refill it, and lay aside that earnestness which, I believe, is armor for a heart much too tender.”
Inch by inch, he obeyed.
“You learn,” she encouraged him. “Next let me start your tongue rolling. I’ve heard how, after being freed from Linz, you chanced upon the Emperor himself and his huntsmen, threatened by a wild boar, seized a spear and slew it. True?”
“Not wholly.” Sherry gurgled into his goblet. “Truth is,” he said, growing more at ease as he talked, “under the law there, my release could not be final till I’d kissed his hand. Thus I was seeking him, unsure whether he’d allow this ceremony. The boar was not really endangering his life, though’twas forsooth a gross brute, causing the hunters great trouble. An opportunity. If I, a stranger, helped them, he’d doubtless reach to clasp my hand—”
Belinda listened.