Part Four. The End Game. Chapter II. The Ultimate Check 1. The Fast Moves

This very long and emotionally draining chapter needs to be discussed part by part.

June 5-19, 1548

Kate has caged the tiger and now lets him prowl around her home, but always on a leash.

Lymond is also a self-described snake in the garden of Flaw Valleys, a feline Kate does not trust but does find irresistible to nudge and probe. What are Kate's motives with Lymond? Foremost among them is trying to ferret out his story and come to understand just what makes him tick. To do this, she needs to gain his confidence so he will share his confidences with her. That is no easy task because Lymond has erected so many defenses. However, she is remarkably good at breaking them down, often by doing and saying less. He tells her more than he wants in his few outbursts.

For example, when Kate asks Lymond why he won't "bite back" at her jibes, he answers her honestly:

"Because...I am a constant practitioner of the art and you are not."

In other words, "I am a professional at verbal attacks and you, dear Kate, for all your wit and insight, are a rank amateur by comparison." In short, he refuses to attack and hurt her when he knows he could.

Kate also talks about the "normal life" on two occasions, wondering aloud if Lymond believes he will ever have one. She knows of his "permanently unsettled regime" from Gideon and seems genuinely concerned Lymond has created for himself conditions so dire and desperate that he may not survive them and, if he does, he will forever be an outcast.

Kate's probing eventually gets to Lymond. At one point he experiences an outburst of passionate feeling when she presses too hard:

"...I prize freedom of the mind above freedom of the body. I claim the right to make my own mistakes and keep quiet about them...My life is at your disposal, but my thoughts are not."

Pythonissa, the Sorceress

Kate recovers instantly, saying she only wanted to know "a few basic facts," such as whether or not he eats goose eggs. It is a nice recovery, but she must have been deeply stung by the depth and ferocity of his anger. In fact, at this point she decides to stop probing Lymond, and he responds with an unexpected smile and an odd sort of compliment, calling Kate "Pythonissa," a sorceress. His defenses are definitely weakening. He genuinely likes Kate.

Kate is also interested to observe Lymond's attempts to get on better terms with Philippa. His efforts fail utterly. The child loathes him with all her heart and wants him gone from her home. Even his touching the family's possessions is an affront to her. Her beloved music, something she and Lymond have in common, cannot break Philippa's rock-hard defenses. She is more stubborn than he is! Kate listens to the exchange, as Philippa lashes out at Lymond, saying,

"Leave my mother and father alone. Nobody wants you here!" 

Kate was afraid for her.

Italian Tenor Lute
Padua, 17th Century

Why is Kate afraid for Philippa? It is surely not because she thinks Lymond might hurt the child. It is because Kate knows the pernicious effects of simmering, unchecked hatred, especially in one so young. It warps the soul. In fact, Kate has gone out of her way to try to teach Philippa if not forgiveness then at least compassion for Lymond, to no avail.

But out of this disastrous scene comes a moment of rare candor for Lymond as Kate asks and he answers questions about his past. She learns his mother originally taught him to play, despite his father's animosity towards music ("not only did music make men mad, only madmen indulge in it") and, by implication, hostility towards Lymond himself. Interesting. We know very little about Lymond's father.

Tiger, Contemplating Giving His
Hind Legs for Lymond's Coordination

Kate continues the gentle probing to find out more about Lymond's past, about this father who had no use for music, something she knows must have tormented Lymond. She learns nothing more about the father but does find out something she had not known: Lymond has a brother who is quite the athlete. At first she accepts Lymond's assent that his brother is the athlete in the family and Lymond's gifts lie in music and languages, that is, until she recalls what Gideon had said after his stay with Lymond in the Tower: "He can outshoot them and outfight them and outplay them: he's got a coordination that a hunting tiger would give his hind legs for."

Thus, Kate realizes, Lymond's demurral is another feint, another disguise. He now goes on to admit, however obliquely, that he is not only a musician and a polyglot, he is also a gifted athlete, soldier, and much more. When Lymond says, "Nothing arouses suspicion quicker than genuine, all-round proficiency," we know he is not only speaking from his own experience, he is also being disingenuous about his talents, skills, and abilities.

Aside: Notice that Lymond tells Kate he "never cared for it" when referring to military skills, yet he excels at them as he does at everything, and he has become skilled at leading men, too.

Almost amazingly, once "the pressure was lifted," Lymond discloses even more about his past when he refers to his ultimate crime against his sister. He stops instantly at this disclosure, realizing that Kate's patient listening has opened the floodgates of his memories and previously unspoken thoughts, "one of the penalties of being incommunicado for five years." He has had no one, no one, to talk to for five years, the years during which his mother says he became on "artist in the vivisection of the soul."

Now that she has cracked the shell and is peering inside, Kate cannot resist asking what is on her mind: is there any chance this young man could ever have what might be considered a "normal life"? Lymond reveals one last, dangerous fact to Kate: that his brother wants to kill him. He does not explain and Kate knows enough not to press him further, but Lymond does offer her one assurance about his brother's desire to kill him: "If it's going to happen, it won't happen here." Well, now, that's a comfort to Kate, I'm sure.

***

Gideon returns the next day (June 19) with terrible news for Lymond: Samuel Harvey is dying. After talking to Kate, Gideon offers Lymond a horse so he can try to reach Harvey before it is too late. It says a great deal about Gideon and Kate that he wants her opinion and approval before offering the horse, and I am sure Gideon is extremely curious if Kate's opinion of the unwanted house guest has changed while he was away. It has, so much so that Kate probably encouraged Gideon to move quickly with this plan (she, after all, was "already through the door" collecting what Lymond would need for his travels).

Once again, Gideon vents his frustration over the waste of a life that Lymond represents. The fact that his "own people" in Scotland have branded him a traitor when it is clear to Somerville that this cannot be true infuriates every practical bone in his practical body. How practical? As soon as the visitor was gone, both he can Kate "turned and went about their business" with no fuss or gnashing of teeth over whether their decision was the right one.

***

We find out how Will Scott has spent the two weeks while Lymond was at Flaw Valleys: looking for his former Master and finding instead two members of Lymond's old gang, one friendly and one very much not.

Will gives up and goes back to his father's home, only to find there Richard Crawford, who quickly learns from Will's agile reaction that the young Scott has learned a trick or two from Lymond. Here is something odd: it appears that Richard does not know until this moment that Lymond escaped from Threave. I suppose it is possible that word had not reached Richard of his brother's disappearance from Threave, but given his passionate pursuit of Lymond, it seems unlikely that this is the first he has heard of it. I think it more likely that Richard is expressing his disbelief that this was less a miraculous escape and more a carefully executed breakout with help, possibly even from Will. Richard remains unconvinced of the younger Scott's return to the fold, which is why Culter refuses to discuss the current political situation in front of him.

The French fleet is anchored off the Scottish coast and France is promising to help drive the English out of Scotland for two huge concessions: the first is a number of Scottish forts; the second is of far greater strategic importance. They want the little Queen sent to France to be raised in the French court and affianced to whomever the Dowager Queen and the French King decide.

This seems like a high price to pay, but as Buccleuch and Culter point out to each other, the other option is worse: England keeping Scotland under the English heel while the French King seeks alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor.

Buccleuch, with his typically "brilliant lack of tact" asks after Sybilla, and Richard's tart reply make it clear that, if Lymond is trying to drive a wedge between Richard and the rest of the Culters, Richard is making his task an easy one. Wat Scott is a shrewd observer; no one could survive as a border laird as long as Buccleuch without having a keen eye and a sharp mind. Just not a tame and tactful tongue.

***

Richard, Buccleuch, and Tom Erskine are among those present the following day at Holyrood when the decision is announced to send the little Queen to France via a circuitous route, one the Scots and French hope will leave the English fretting "at an empty mousehole" along the east coast.

Tom has the decidedly unpleasant task of relaying to Richard the news from Lord Grey that the English will not ransom Christian. They want an even exchange: her for Lymond. It appears neither the English nor the Scots have any idea of Lymond's whereabouts! Wouldn't they be surprised to know he's almost just around the corner.

***

Lymond is waiting at George Douglas's town house for George to return from the same meeting at Holyrood. Notice how friend George so seamlessly moves from side to side (English to Scottish), an ease undoubtedly best explained by the fact that George has only one side: his own. He has money from the French to play for their team and a safe-conduct letter to the English asking for the return of his son, so life is good for George. That is, until he swings into his Edinburgh house to find Lymond.

George has the upper hand for the simple reason that, for Lymond's threat of blackmail to work, Samuel Harvey has to be alive and he is not. It is interesting to find out that the proof of his death was convincing "because, rare among George Douglas's fantasies, the story was true." George is perfectly willing and able to bend, distort, and otherwise torture truth to suit his ends, making him an especially dangerous adversary and a difficult partner.

But it is only later, after what appears to be a rather lengthy discourse ("after the man had come to light the tapers"), that George administers the ultimate blow: Grey wants Lymond in exchange for Christian Stewart. This is news to Lymond, a fact he does nothing to hide from Douglas. Lymond readily assents to George's plan to use the safe-conduct letter to get him across the border and into Berwick so he can offer himself in exchange for Christian. It is an arrangement that suits both men, which explains why George is "for once in his life...perfectly frank."

Lymond's final, bitter quotation refers to a form of excommunication in the Catholic church, through which the excommunicant is anathematized and delivered to Satan for the mortification of his body. His final words are the most chilling and worth remembering:

"Why else was I born?"

This is a recurring theme in The Lymond Chronicles, Francis Crawford's search for a purpose and meaning to his life. He believes, at this moment, the meaning may be found in the sacrifice of his life for Christian's.

Questions

1. Why does Kate begins to "thaw" towards Lymond despite the way he treated her and Philippa on his earlier visit? He still seems distant and even a bit hostile.
2. What does Lymond see in Kate that makes him eventually open up to her?
3. Is Lymond trying to drive a wedge between his family members, with Sybilla and Mariotta on one side and Richard on the other? If so, why?
4. Do you think Richard really had not heard of Lymond's escape from Threave?
5. Why does George Douglas wait so long to tell Lymond the most important piece of information, i.e., that the English want to exchange Christian Stewart for him?

Favorite Line

"...Gideon would help cook his father if the cannibal quoted poetry at him," said Kate.

Words that Describe Lymond in The Fast Moves

• reserved
• apologetic
• undemanding
• reticent
• clever
• witty
• engaging
• ingratiating
• patient (with Philippa)
• rueful
• amiable
• insightful
• honest
• grateful
• poised
• mocking
• bitter
• resigned

Part Four. The End Game. Chapter I. Twice Taken. 2. Shah Mat

Early-Mid June, 1548

Shah Mat is the Persian term from which 'checkmate' derives. It translates as "the king is helpless" (or broken or defeated). The implication for Lymond is dire, assuming he is the "shah" or king. 
An ebullient Agnes Herries and a sullen, monosyllabic Will Scott inform Sybilla of Lymond's escape from Threave.

Aside: Notice that Sybilla is more subdued ("less fantastic in her manner") than usual. I guess we have a clear idea where Lymond gets his dramatic streak.

Sybilla quickly removes Agnes from the scene so she can speak freely to Will. Why does she not want Agnes to overhear the conversation? Agnes was helpful to Lymond, and Sybilla, drawing her own conclusions about how the escape occurred, no doubt read between the lines of Agnes's story. However, Agnes is still very, very young and can be indiscreet. Sybilla cannot take a chance with her knowing the truth about Lymond's whereabouts. But Will already knows that Lymond was planning to go to Wark to meet Samuel Harvey, and Sybilla tries to shame him into going to look for her son and help him track down Harvey, if possible. Will is still conflicted about Lymond and unsure if he believes him and will help him.

He is not ambivalent about trying to fulfill his promise to Lymond to do whatever is necessary, including conjuring up Shamanism and the Black Mass, to cover for Christian Stewart and save her reputation. Unfortunately, she has gone not to Boghall but to George Douglas's home at Dalkeith, which has just been attacked by the English under Lord Grey. George, the sly fox, escaped but his family did not. Now that's interesting. George slips away but leaves his family behind? Perhaps he believes his life would be forfeit but they will be safe. Or perhaps he is more interested in self-preservation than protecting his kin. Either or both could be true of George Douglas.

In fact, there is a wonderful line from Patrick Fraser Tytler's History of Scotland (quoted in Laura Caine Ramsey's Guide) that says a great deal about friend George:

To be thus overreached and entrapped in his own devices was particularly mortifying to this long-practiced intriguer, and seems to have sunk deeper into his spirit than the loss of either his wife or his castle.

Will is surprised by the news of the English assault on Dalkeith because he thought Douglas and Grey were "on good terms." Sybilla's terse response--"Did you?"--speaks volumes about her opinion of Will Scott's perspicacity, and Will knows it because he is filled with dread (that "sinking feeling" one gets when one is about to be lectured for one's failings). He launches into what is at best a half-hearted self defense, for which Sybilla has no patience. The final insult to Will's injured pride is the fact that Christian, blind though she is and a "girl" at that, has risked not only her reputation but also possibly her life to try to help a man to whom she owes nothing, unlike Will Scott, who was trusted by Lymond and to whom we might believe he owes a great deal. "Not a very clever thing [for Christian] to do," says Sybilla, but brave and bold and true. The contrast with Will Scott's sniveling self justification is stark.

***

The wonderful short scene between Gideon and the indomitable Kate is pure Dunnett. Here we see a woman as sharp-witted as Christian and just as able to do battle with Lymond. She can hardly believe her husband has brought this creature who forced his way into their home and tormented their daughter back to Flaw Valleys. It is a measure of the trust Kate has in Gideon that she tolerates this intrusion. She knows he would not inflict this on her, much less on Philippa, without a very good reason.

And we get an excellent insight into Philippa's nature when Kate opines that her daughter has probably gotten out the horsewhip (chabouk) to start their unwanted visitor's punishment.

***

The Legacy

Kate promptly marches alone into Lymond's room, fully prepared for a frontal assault. What she finds shocks her out of her anger. It is extremely rare for us to see Lymond sleeping, especially a deep sleep. Given that he looks like a della Robbia angel when awake, it is easy to imagine how he looks in repose, and Kate finds that her maternal instincts not only awaken but swing into high gear when she sees the beatific face and the bloody, wounded body. 

The Legacy chair is another delightful Dunnett touch. It tells us something about the Somerville family that they kept this monstrosity, no doubt in part out of sentiment but probably more out of a fine sense of the absurd as a kind of familial touchstone and private joke. It certainly fits the moment of absurdity in which Kate finds herself.

Yes, Kate will tend to the broken man. Why not? That seems to be her destiny ("everybody always brings the old broken-down things for me to patch up"), and she knows full well that Gideon is operating on instinct just as she, too, must put aside reason and follow her instincts. This is not how she envisioned Lymond's imprisonment and punishment, but Kate appears quite capable of giving as good as she gets.

Kate and Lymond's exchange seems a promise of an irresistible relationship: two whip-sharp tongues outdoing one another. Lymond was aware someone had come into the room while he was sleeping but was not awake enough to be sure it was Kate. He has certainly lost nothing of his sense of humor and his acute awareness of his physical appeal, as evidenced by his response to Kate's remark that she already had a good look at him: "Why? Are you going to bathe me?" 

In fact, no one except Lymond himself is going to bathe or tend to him. He quickly outwits Gideon's manservant, locking him and everyone else, including the lady of the house, out of his chamber for the rest of the day. 

Lymond continues his malicious flirtation with Kate as she bangs on his door demanding entrance:

Through the thickness of the door his voice came, slow and flippant. "Mistress Somerville! The proprieties!" said Lymond...

Lymond is extremely self-sufficient and loathe to allow anyone to help him when sick or injured. Something to keep in mind.

***

Lord Grey is back at Berwick Castle on the English side of the border having secured Haddington and taken Dalkeith from George Douglas. The English not only made off with as many possessions from Dalkeith as they could manage to steal, they also secured a number of valuable hostages to ransom, including Christian Stewart. 

Unfortunately for the exhausted Lord Grey, Margaret Lennox is at Berwick demanding to see him. Margaret, recall, was the one who devised the plan to try to gather the Douglases and unite them into a force for the English against Scotland. The plan went terribly awry when the Douglases (including Margaret's father Angus) ended up fighting for the Scots (Pt 3, Ch II). So it is no wonder Grey has no desire to see her again. He thinks that at least he has taught her family a lesson they will not soon forget.

Gideon's wandering attention is quickened when Grey mentions that the French fleet is off Dunbar (about 28 miles east of Edinburgh) while the English fleet is still "fitting out" and probably will still be fitting out at Christmas. 

And now Christian enters, accompanied by Lord Grey's secretary Myles.

Aside: Remember him from the hilarious encounter between Lymond's Spanish captain Don Luis and Grey at Hume Castle? Myles, who does not speak Spanish very well, used the Spanish word for impregnate, causing a further uproar to an already uproarious situation!

Here we get a view of two subtle, quick minds at work, speaking in a few, guarded words right over the heads of Grey and his secretary. From the conversation, Gideon learns that Christian is a friend of Lymond and she learns that Gideon no longer views Lymond as an adversary. Gideon is also able to send Christian a message to be extremely careful and circumspect around Margaret Lennox lest she inadvertently harm Lymond by something she says or does. 

We also learn from Grey, who is totally oblivious to the layered conversation between Christian and Gideon, that Harvey has a leg wound that will prevent him from coming to Berwick and serving as bait for Lymond. 

Gideon leaves in "high good humor for no evident reason," yet anyone who has experienced the intense pleasure of a successful communication against great odds with another human being who is of like mind knows the reason for Gideon's good humor. 

Not in a good humor is Lord Grey in his interview with Margaret Lennox, which is "everything he was afraid it would be." She wants Harvey sent back to London forthwith to make sure Lymond never finds him. Margaret also delivers the news that Lymond has been caught by the Scots, which means Grey really does not need Harvey as bait any longer. Then Grey lets slip, quite innocently, the fact that Christian Stewart was with Harvey at Haddington. He even shows Margaret Christian's letter to George Douglas in which Christian lets George know his services to help Lymond are no longer needed. 

Margaret is determined to find out from Christian exactly what services she has rendered Lymond. Christian, forewarned by Gideon about Margaret's duplicity, is clever enough not to say nothing but rather to say just enough. Christian gives Margaret what she wants: a "simple explanation" for the letter to George. Whether Margaret believes that simple explanation is another matter altogether.

In the last section of the chapter we learn that Margaret Lennox has planted herself firmly in Berwick until she is sure Samuel Harvey is on his way back to London and far away from Lymond. Harvey, however, is not going anywhere. His injury is far more serious than Christian believed and may even be life threatening. Gideon learns all this from Lord Grey and then asks leave to go by his home at Flaw Valleys on the way to Newcastle. Little does Grey (or Margaret) know, nor could he (or she) imagine, who is a guest at the Somerville home at that very moment. 

Gideon arrives at Flaw Valleys on Tuesday, June 19, after Lymond has been recovering there for two weeks.

Questions

1. What does Sybilla hope to gain by shaming Will Scott? He has already betrayed her son. Why does she bother trying to get his help?
2. Other than her maternal instinct, is there any other reason Kate decides to try to patch Lymond up and treat him as a wounded creature rather than a felon?
3. Why does Lymond refuse any help or assistance even though he is profoundly injured?
4. Why is Margaret Lennox so determined to keep Lymond away from Sam Harvey?

Favorite Line

[Kate] "The air is filling in a familiar way with hideous subtleties. All right. Instinct it shall be. After all, everybody always brings the old broken-down things for me to patch up: there's nothing actually new about it."

Words that Describe Lymond in Shah Mat (he appears only briefly in this section)

• exhausted
• witty
• irrepressible
• sardonic
• self-sufficient
• broken, helpless, defeated?

Part Four. The End Game. Chapter I. Twice Taken. 1. Forced Play Against Time

Ruins of the Lymond Convent

June 1, 1548

Lymond's band is dissolved with his customary heavy handedness when it comes to this group of rogues and misfits. Realizing they will not be happy about the slaying of the golden goose, the Master has Turkey Mat hide most of the men's pay as an inducement to accept the inevitable. And, of course, Lymond is correct when he says the men could not make him stay if they tried. There is a reason beyond his title they call him "Master."

Will is unhappy on multiple fronts. He wants the band to become his, but he is smart enough to realize that is not going to happen. The dissolution means it is time for Lymond to travel to England to meet Samuel Harvey on June 2, that is, time for Will Scott to act. He has been watching messengers come and go at the Ostrich Inn for some time and knew beforehand the end of the band was nigh.

It is interesting that Lymond trusted Will to hide the gold that is the pay of the men "with special claims"--and that Lymond himself does not know where the gold is hidden. Furthermore, Lymond does not guess that Will has hidden the gold in the convent where his sister died until they have already passed it. This seems unlike Lymond, who is almost always several steps ahead of everyone, especially Will Scott. Has he actually come to trust Will? I don't think so. Has he dropped his guard? So it seems, but the question then is why? Why is he so distracted?

Lymond is in no doubt whatsoever that Will has betrayed him (and Turkey) to Andrew Hunter. Did Will figure Turkey Mat's life into his bargain with death? Will seems willing to die himself if need be, and Lymond sounds as though he means it when he says "if I were alone I'd say throw and be damned." But at the last moment, Lymond takes the offensive when Will's eyes are momentarily diverted to follow the sword that Lymond throws across the floor. And the Master would have subdued his well-trained pupil had Will not hidden a small knife on his person.

What is Will's motive for the betrayal? He tells himself repeatedly, even obsessively, it is because Lymond is a cold, calculating killer, a murderer of "girls": "Kill girls! He could kill girls..." Will seems to have a morbid fascination with Lymond's relationship with females: Christian is a "girl" Lymond has used and abused. Mariotta he mercilessly bullied and killed her child. Eloise is the sister he murdered and even now seems to feel nothing for. Even Margaret Douglas has been treated crudely and cruelly by the Master. However, I believe Lymond's analysis of Will's motives is far more incisive and does in fact lay out a true one: revenge.

"...revenge ... for every doubt and indignity and misery that Scott had suffered [at Lymond's hands]."

It is also important to remember that Will still believes Lymond is planning to sell him to the English, which is also a powerful motive for betraying the Master.

*** 

"heartsease quailed under their hoofs..."

Will does not know until Lymond is brought out of the ruins if he has killed his former leader or merely wounded him. The injury to Lymond's shoulder is not serious enough to shut Lymond's irreverent, sardonic mouth.

The contrast between Will and Lymond is stark: both are dirty and injured and disheveled, but Lymond retains his cat-like cool while Scott's every emotion plays out on his face.

I would be remiss if I did not call attention to the beautiful, expressive language of this section's penultimate paragraph, which describes the countryside and the convent, "wearing the nimbus of its injuries like a coronal," as Hunter's men take the injured Lymond and Turkey Mat away.

***

In the last chapter we found out that Lymond had been substituting his messages for Will Scott's, thanks to Sybilla's intervention. However, Will has managed to communicate on his own with Hunter (probably using the Ostrich Inn), as Sybilla learns at the convent. She sends Johnny Bullo to warn Lymond, but he is too late. Remember, however, that she has the presence of mind to tell the Ballaggan messenger to suggest Hunter take his captive to Threave castle, the home of Agnes Herries and John Maxwell, now Lord Herries. These are people who will definitely be sympathetic to Lymond and may even try to help him.

Asmodeus depicted as a goat ridden
by a witch holding her familiar (the cat)

Lymond's painful silence on the ride to Threave is broken when Dandy Hunter says something. But what does he say that sparks the reply from Lymond about not being Asmodeus, the king of the demons, most especially the demon of lust and the destroyer of marriages? Dunnett does not tell us; perhaps Hunter says something to Lymond like, "Well, the least you could do is to apologize for your horrid behavior." Doesn't that sound like something Dandy would say?

Hunter understands Lymond's classical reference, which explains why his face goes from red (angry) to white (guilty). The color drains out of his face because Lymond is implying something extremely ugly about Hunter's relationship with Mariotta. But Dandy is cool enough not to rise to Lymond's provocation. Immediately after this Lymond throws Mariotta's name out to Hunter. Once again, Lymond shows he knows there has been a relationship of some sort between Dandy and Mariotta.

Will Scott also blurts out another of his reasons for betraying the Master, that is, his conviction that Lymond was about to betray him to the English if Will didn't betray him to the Scots first. Before Lymond can reply, Turkey Mat foolishly and tragically seizes this moment to escape.

Hunter's men enjoy the chase and the kill, and Dandy is hardly bothered at all that a man is dead. He apologizes for Turkey's death to Will, not to Lymond, because he holds the Master in complete contempt. Turkey wants to know from Lymond if Scott prevented his escape, but Lymond tells him that he chose not to take the opportunity Mat gave him to break free. Turkey Mat's death is so pointless and sad it is easy to imagine how this wounds Lymond. I do not think it is giving anything away to say it will not be the last death for which he blames himself. At least Turkey dies with a "pleased look, as if a sunny beach and a flat board and a pair of celestial dice had manifested themselves among the leaves." He comes across as a man who lived his life at full tilt and died without regrets.

***

Threave Castle

Dunnett's ominous description of Threave is shockingly visceral, comparing the
stench of violence there with the powerful, feral odors of frightened, angry animals. Scott is relieved John Maxwell is away and that he and Hunter will have Lymond as their prisoner to humiliate and torment until Buccleuch arrives. However, Lymond has other plans, and quickly gets the hostile crowd on his side using his own brand of irreverent humor and wit, which is, "like Cupid, a notorious locksmith." Lymond's plan to disarm the crowd ends abruptly after ten minutes, and he goes mute. But why? We are left to wonder for now.

Peine Forte et Dure Torture

The easy laughter and enjoyment of their prisoner quickly turns very ugly in the face of his silence, leading to the horrendous scene of torture using the application of increasingly heavy weights. Dunnett describes Lymond as "capriciously vain" but not foolish, meaning he would bear the pain as long as he could but he would not purposely risk his life. At this point Will almost misses the flickering of Lymond's lashes as he briefly looks upward beyond the crowd. Will does the same, and there he sees Christian.

Now everything happens in a whirlwind. Buccleuch and his men arrive, Christian and Sym push through the crowd to confront him about his "whelp's" behavior, Christian forces her way to Lymond while Sym removes the chains weighing the Master down, and Christian confesses she knew who Lymond was all along: "I've known your voice since I was twelve." What an impression it must have made on the lass!

The yard erupts in the kind of ribald laughter Lymond has desperately tried to prevent to avoid tainting Christian by any association with him. He tries again, desperately, to dissociate himself from Christian by mocking red-headed women. By now, the captain and the crowd know their sport has ended, and Lymond is released to be taken to a "fine, dry cellar" of a prison. Before he can move from the place of his torment, and to Will Scott's surprise, Lymond faints. The way Lymond cups his face in a "gesture of half-comic resignation" shows he is in control until the last possible moment before his strength gives out, but even he has his physical limits, and this situation is too much for him.

***

Will Scott cannot make up his mind what side he wants to be on, much to the fury of his father, who never takes much to provoke him anyway. Buccleuch's solution is to stick his son in the cellar with Lymond, a rather neat punishment and one Will deserves after his betrayal. Will fights every step of the way to his prison because, as Dunnett says with her usual wit and understatement:

There is nothing very jolly about being locked in a cellar with a man whom, in every possible sense, you have just stabbed in the back.

Andrea della Robbia: The Announcing Angel

With his "very thews melted with apprehension," Will discovers Lymond at his ease, stretched out like a cat, "impeccably neat" (as always), with all that was unsightly removed from his appearance. Furthermore, his face was that of a "Della Robbia angel," something to store in the back of your mind for future reference.

And now...now Will Scott is about to have the very large and horny scales drop from his eyes in ways he never imagined or suspected. Now that all his plans have been thwarted and there is no longer any way for him to get to Samuel Harvey, Lymond at last clues Will in on what has been going on. The fact that he did not trust Will with this information before now is a measure both of Lymond's general lack of trust in others and his specific lack of trust in Will Scott, which the day's events appear to justify. You could make the case that Lymond might have avoided this fate if he had shared the truth with Will, but the Master is a great judge of character, and his judgment is that Scott is too emotional, too conflicted, too immature, and too unpredictable to be trusted with the truth.

Certainly, Will's sketch of Lymond's character in this scene supports this conclusion. What claims does Scott make?

• His father would have protected Turkey Mat.
• Lymond "hates women" in general.
• Lymond wrecked the lives of four women (Christian, Margaret, Mariotta, and Eloise).
• Lymond has hunted "poor Harvey" like a thing from beyond the grave.
• Lymond betrayed his country by selling the letters Will copied to the English.

Of course, not one of these claims contains an iota of truth, a fact that we observe as it slowly works its way into Will's consciousness. We learn, for example, that Lymond orchestrated Will's "escape" from the tower with Mariotta:

"I leave you to work out why, having seduced my sister-in-law and slaughtered my nephew, I should keep coy silence while you shuffle downstairs at three in the morning with that bantling-brained romantic done up in an oatsack."

Oops. One can only vaguely imagine how Will Scott feels by the end of this encounter, but surely even Will would agree that Lymond's description of him fits all too well:

"You pathetic, maladroit nincompoop, you're never right; but this time you can squat in your misconceptions like duck's meat in a ditch, and let them choke you."

Near the end of the section, Lymond refers to the earlier moment when, as they are leaving the Ostrich Inn after a night of madcap and riotous activity, he encourages Will to look up at the "teaching stars, beyond worship and commonplace tongues. The infinite eyes of innocence." (Pt 2, Ch I) Will was deaf to Lymond's offering that first time. Has he heard him now? Will he understand what he is being offered? Has he had a moment of epiphany and learned something about himself and, more importantly, about Lymond?

*** 

Aside: Once again, I recommend Laura Caine Ramsey's guide to The Game of Kings when reading the exchange between Lymond and Will, which is packed with allusions ranging from the Malleus Maleficarum to Norse mythology.

***

The Night of June 1, 1548

John Maxwell is a clever man. He cannot lift a finger to help Lymond and must be seen to be on Hunter and Buccleuch's side; hence the congratulatory note on Lymond's capture. Enter the redoubtable Agnes Herries, sent by her husband, "as was fitting," to see to the guests. All the guests. Watch how Agnes manipulates these men like a pro. First, she storms in at eleven at night, waking Buccleuch and demanding an explanation for Will's incarceration with the "desperate man" in the cellar. As only Agnes can, she argues and contradicts and harangues until Wat Scott gives up and agrees to let his son out of the cellar. Will is more than willing to oblige, but he does not do so quickly enough for Agnes when he sees that all his father's men have been replaced with Maxwell's. Agnes will have none of his loitering and sends him to bed with a "vigorous impatience" and a loud thud of the trap door banging shut. What the heck just happened?

***

Now we know: Agnes not only leaves the trap door unbolted, she has the utter gall to scold Will for being the one who failed to lock Lymond back in! Will cannot contradict the lady of the house, whose own men will confirm her story (of course). Furthermore, Will's father accepts Agnes Herries' version without question in part because he believes his son wanted Lymond to escape and in part because he cannot imagine Agnes would let a desperate rogue out of his prison in her own house and then lie about it. All Will can do is quietly accept the censure and try to find Lymond.

Agnes once again proves her mettle. Atta girl, Agnes!

***

June 2, 1548

At last, Sybilla and Mariotta talk to each other. It has been a long time coming and the Dowager Lady Culter is loathe to broach the subject of her son's marriage to Mariotta, but the anxiety of waiting without a word about Lymond's fate pushes Sybilla over the edge. She has clearly been wanting to say these things to her daughter-in-law and this seems like as good a time as any. At least it will divert them both!

I find it fascinating that Sybilla uses Janet and Buccleuch as an example of a marriage that works, but it makes sense. First, Mariotta knows them both well and has had ample opportunity to see Janet in action with a man far more stubborn and dense and far less sensitive and caring than Richard. Surely if Janet can manage to have so much influence on Wat Scott and "manage" him so fluently, Mariotta's task with Richard should be far easier. 

The other example--the Maxwells--shows Mariotta the opposite extreme from Janet and Wat. Janet is anything but a romantic, whereas Agnes created a fantasy that John Maxwell played into, with Lymond's help. But both Agnes and Janet share something in common: both are intensely interested in their husbands and understand what each man values and wants the most. This, Sybilla makes clear to Mariotta, is what she has not done. She really has taken little interest in Richard, has learned little of the man she married, and really does not understand what he values and wants and needs. Fortunately, Richard's mother is wise enough to tell Mariotta just enough to help her without telling her so much that she makes Mariotta want to give up.

What Sybilla says about Lymond and Richard's relationship is very, very telling:

"Your tragedy was that the man you became involved with was the very person who created the flaw in Richard's maturing. And if that was anyone's fault, it was probably mine..."

How revealing. And, at the same time, how unrevealing. There is a flaw in Richard that has hindered his growing up and Lymond was the cause. Mother (possibly) blames herself. That's all we know from what Sybilla says--not what Richard's flaw is; not what Lymond did to create it; not what Sybilla did or did not do to instigate the sibling rivalry, if that is what this is. All things to ponder and keep in mind as the future unfolds.

When Christian finally arrives at Midculter, Tom Erskine is there and about to have the shock of his life. We already know that Christian recognized Lymond from their first encounter at Boghall; now we find out that both Sybilla and Christian have been working--separately, it appears--to help Lymond. Sybilla worked out fairly early on that Christian recognized Lymond and was helping him. The "keenest ears in Scotland" belong to Christian, who was present when Lymond appeared at Monteith as the monk and told little Queen Mary the riddle, which was one invented by none other than Sybilla. Also, let us not forget that Sybilla has had contact with her younger son through intermediaries, so she most likely knew about Christian's assistance through those sources.

One of those means, in addition to Sybilla's "normal thought processes," would be Johnnie Bullo, with whom Sybilla expresses disappointment for turning out to be "rather much of an individualist," but she does not elaborate. One thing we definitely know about Johnnie is his propensity to gossip, which leaves little doubt he would have enjoyed telling Lymond's mother about what happened between her son and Christian at Boghall.

And then there is Samuel Harvey, a name mentioned not only by Christian but also by Richard and Andrew Hunter, tying all three of them to Lymond in different ways. Christian does not know the whole story of Harvey, but she knows George Douglas is involved somehow, so she is determined to see him and, "by persuasion and threats," make him help Lymond. Hmmm. How well does she know friend George? Not well, if she thinks either persuasion or threats will move him to help. George will require something that appeals to his self interest.

Tom is not so easily swayed, viewing Sybilla's attempts to help Lymond as natural maternal instinct. But Christian's behavior has him flummoxed. Why would she knowingly help this outlaw? It is left to Sybilla to explain the inexplicable to Tom, that is, Christian's own natural instincts to help a "lame duck" and right an injustice are just as strong as her maternal leanings. Sybilla points out what Tom already knows: Christian is neither someone easily gainsaid nor someone easily beguiled. Furthermore, Lymond is, according to Sybilla, an "artist in the vivesection [sic] of the soul" because he has been the one under the knife for the past five years.

Sybilla leaves Tom and Mariotta (and us) with the puzzling comment that Lymond is "probably the only person in the world now who can restore Richard to any sort of terms with his own future" and send Richard back to Mariotta. The latter claim is easily understandable because Lymond can convince Richard as no one else can of his, Lymond's, total indifference towards Mariotta. But just how Lymond can restore Richard to his future remains a mystery to be revealed.

***

Sunday, June 3

This is the day after Lymond was to meet Samuel Harvey in Wark. He arrives at Wark Castle too late. Harvey, a busy man, is gone. Gideon Somerville initially thinks Lymond's tardiness is an indication that he did not really care about the meeting and, worse, that Lymond is drunk, when in fact, he is exhausted from traveling at a breakneck speed on foot from Threave carrying with him all his injuries. Once Gideon realizes Lymond's true state, he immediately puts him to bed in good, practical Somerville fashion.

June 4

The next morning Lymond is in a far better and cleaner state and spouting all manner of obscure quotations, much to Gideon's annoyance, which leads to one of Dunnett's most cited and beloved lines:

"I wish to God," said Gideon with mild exasperation, "that you'd talk--just once--in prose like other people."

And then, amazingly, Gideon gets his wish after one more "malicious" quotation from Roger Ascham, a noted Protestant, which leads to Lymond's comment about Luther, whose views were not surprisingly deemed heretical by the Scottish Parliament. Now Gideon and Lymond have a serious, straightforward (by Lymond's standards) conversation about the potential benefits of an alliance between Scotland and England. Probably the clearest explanation of these events comes from Dunnett herself early in the book:

Henry, new King of France, ... felt his way thoughtfully towards a small cabal between himself, the Venetians and the Pope, and wondered how to induce Charles [the Holy Roman Emperor] to give up Savoy [in the Western Alps and strategically important to France as a gateway to Italy], how to evict England from Boulogne, and how best to serve his close friend and dear relative Scotland without throwing England into the arms or the lap of the [Holy Roman] Empire. (Opening Gambit)

Here's the situation in brief. The English control Boulogne in northern France just south of Calais, which is also under English control. The French want it back. Earlier in the book, Buccleuch says there is a rumor that the French and English will "promise neutrality" towards Scotland if the English agree to give up Boulogne (Pt 2, Ch 1). Now Lymond opines that France might sell out Scotland in return for the English surrender of Boulogne, even though he does not think so.

As an Englishman, Gideon is worried because Scotland keeps getting outside help from "the dregs of Europe" and attacking England by injecting these foreign fighters "into our backside." Worse, the Scottish ambassador to France, David Panter, is working for a separate peace between Scotland and the Holy Roman Emperor, something neither England nor France would like. Meanwhile behind Scotland's back, France is trying for its own separate peace with England.

Lymond points out to Gideon one of the major stumbling blocks for any peace between their two countries, that is, under Henry VIII Scotland suffered terribly and that suffering has bred a deep hatred of the English by the Scots. Nonetheless, the Scots Commissioners keep reopening talks for a marriage between England's boy king Edward and little Queen Mary whenever the country feels threatened.

The Queen Dowager of Scotland is plotting to keep the Scottish Governor Arran quiet by promising to marry her daughter Queen Mary to his son while she is simultaneously planning to bring more French into Scotland. But Lymond argues that the French are stretched too thin to effectively rule Scotland, so Scotland would be better off under France, which is separated by distance and rough waters, than under England, with which it shares a very porous border.

Edward VI of England
by William Scrots, c 1550

Lymond also alludes to the dangers of religious warfare, "the bloodiest emotion" he knows, the ultimate in the "honest emotion" of hatred that Henry VIII so effectively showed to the Scots and which they reciprocated. Despite his claim to the contrary, Lymond does offer Gideon a solution: let little Queen Mary leave Scotland and grow up in France, where there is no religious conflict; let Mary of Guise have the power in Scotland and "keep the throne warm" for her daughter; go ahead and arrange the marriage between England's Edward and Mary of Scotland so that, if both sides behave themselves, the contract will be honored when the children come of age. 

Sadly, Gideon acknowledges that this "intelligent" approach is not going to happen because the Protector's own position is "shaky" and he cannot afford to do anything to undermine his tenuous hold on power, which Lymond's plan would.

But Gideon is impressed, very impressed, by Lymond's clear, unemotional, logical understanding of the situation, which makes him curious why Lymond is not providing these insights to "his people" in Edinburgh. Gideon has figured out that the "one woman" who has caused and continues to cause Lymond trouble is Margaret Douglas. This was not hard for Somerville to discern given his interesting encounter with the Countess of Lennox in London in April (Pt 3, Ch IV). Unfortunately, injecting Margaret into the conversation causes the "barrier of nationality" to fall between them and the "shutters" that had momentarily opened close again.

Now for the interesting part: Gideon will arrange another meeting for Lymond with Samuel Harvey on his way back from Haddington. But until then, Gideon has to find a safe place for Lymond, and the only place he believes will ensure Lymond's security is the Somerville home at Flaw Valleys. Lymond experiences what is for him a very rare emotion: he is taken aback and completely perplexed by Gideon's plan. He "should dearly like to know why" Somerville not only trusts him enough to arrange another meeting with Harvey but also has enough faith in him to leave him alone with his wife and daughter in their own home.

Gideon understands his rationale no better than Lymond: it is "something that Gideon did not even know clearly himself." It seems that Lymond is not the only person who is a fine judge of character and an excellent reader of men.

Questions

1. Why does Lymond say everyone finds Dandy Hunter "irresistible"?
2. What do you think Hunter says to Lymond to provoke his response about Asmodeus?
3. According to Dunnett, Will Scott knows very well why Turkey Mat bolted. Why did he?
4. What did Johnnie Bullo do that disappointed Sybilla by showing he was "rather much of an individualist"?
5. What is the "flaw" Lymond created in Richard?
6. Why does Gideon Somerville decide on what seems to be the spur of the moment to trust Lymond enough to allow him to wait at Flaw Valleys for the meeting with Harvey?

Favorite Line

"I wish to God," said Gideon with mild exasperation, "that you'd talk--just once--in prose like other people."

Words that Describe Lymond in Forced Play Against Time

• preoccupied
• really furious (with Will)
• surprised
• sardonic
• deeply saddened
• disgusted
• disappointed
• exhausted
• worried
• resigned
• perplexed
• snide
• guilty
• passionate
• dispassionate

Part Three. The Play for Samuel Harvey. Chapter IV. Concerted Attack

1. The Four Knights' Game

We are forewarned that a lion is going to be eaten by a little bird.

Probably early April, 1548 

Lord Grey and Gideon Somerville are in London for a two-week stint, a trip planned in the last section. Gideon does not seem to have enough to keep him busy, so he spends a lot of time with Thomas Palmer, who is now working as Grey's "engineering adviser" in between trips to the dentist for more gold bridgework, apparently. Palmer, who has been around quite a while and was a card-playing friend of Henry VIII, is a good source of rumor and information, some of which Gideon passes on to Grey. But not all of it. Remember earlier Gideon did not let on to his superiors he actually knew Lymond's name. Gideon is a clever, circumspect man who keeps his own counsel.

Unfortunately for Lymond, Gideon encounters Margaret Douglas. She deftly leads Gideon's quick mind to put together the pieces of the puzzle of Will Scott, the Hume humiliation of Grey, the Spanish trickster Don Luis, the leader of Will's band of outlaws who is selling him out, the unnamed Scottish outlaws who captured Margaret, and one "blond, blue-eyed, rapacious ... polyglot" they both know.

Grey's assignment from the Lord Protector is to return to Cockburnspath and, on April 21, begin the fortification of Haddington as a prelude to another assault on Scotland.

Lymond now has the attention not only of Grey but also of the Protector, neither of whom is amused by his "huckstering with the might of the English crown."

***

The Nunnery

Mariotta has been recuperating at the convent near Midculter since late February. Janet Beaton shows once again that she is needle sharp: she doesn't believe for a second that Will and Mariotta's encounter with Sybilla after Will whisked Mariotta away from Lymond was an accident. Or that Will was able to go back to Lymond "without being suspected" so he could arrange a trap for Lymond. The last we saw of Will, he had slipped away from the Tower with Mariotta, and Lymond was furious with him, or seemed to be. It appears from Janet's cynical quizzing of Sybilla that the whole thing was a set-up to get Mariotta out of the Tower and back into the care of Sybilla. Whether Will is part of the deception or just an unwitting dupe is not clear.

Two things are clear from Sybilla's startled reaction to finding Will at the nunnery: she did not expect him to be there today, and she has been seeing him regularly ("he knows I come on Mondays"). Will's message to Andrew Hunter lights the fuse to a hilarious explosion: the messages setting up the trap for Lymond were not sent by Will. They were from Lymond. It is especially amusing that Mariotta is the one who immediately figures out the master puppeteer has once again pulled all the strings.

How much does Sybilla know? Quite a lot. Perhaps everything. First, she has been in communication with Will. Second, she is dismayed he is at the convent at the same time as Janet. Third, she tries to get Will to give her the message in private, but Will, "flustered" and "unaccustomed to the Dowager's little ways," reveals to Janet and Mariotta the existence of his message to Hunter. This destroys Sybilla's ability to make Will play her (and Lymond's) game.

It seems likely that Sybilla has been taking all of Will's messages and replacing them with messages from Lymond!

***

Things start to go wrong for Lymond. He and Johnnie Bullo (not one of Lymond's men, of course) arrive at Cockburnspath and meet with George Douglas, the bearer of bad news. Harvey is in London and not coming north. Lymond must send a message to bring Will Scott into the trap or face torture. Lymond complies and sends Johnnie with a message for Will.

A few days later Grey, Gideon Somerville, and Grey's men arrive and learn of the easy win with Lymond, who, along with George Douglas, is now at Heriot waiting to spring the trap set for Will Scott. Grey and Gideon arrive, Grey triumphant to at last have trapped "the Spaniard," and Gideon, supremely uncomfortable with the whole thing. Notice how Lymond admits he is Don Luis: by rubbing salt into Grey's still throbbing wound by referring to the "tawny velvet" clothes he liberated from Grey at Hume, accentuating Grey's humiliation.

Lymond learns that Grey finally discovered his ruse as the Spanish captain thanks to his old nemesis Margaret Douglas. Lymond makes sure Grey knows George Douglas is present (though trying hard not to be seen) and, while George and Grey confer, Gideon focuses all his considerable analytic skills on Lymond. Here is "a man waiting. Waiting for what?" Whatever it is, Lymond is no broken man; he still has something planned, something he anticipates. Gideon is so intrigued by Lymond he gets Grey's permission to remain on the scene and wait. Wait for what?

***

And so...Johnnie Bullo, the ultimate go-between, has another man deliver Lymond's message not to Will Scott but, as if it were a message from Will, to Buccleuch and, by extension, to Richard Crawford. The Buccleuch and Crawford men set out for Heriot in full anticipation of regaining Will Scott (who is not at Heriot) and capturing Lymond.

Chaos ensues. Every plan goes awry. Bowes' English are outnumbered and flee the mounted Scots. Gideon seizes the opportunity to grab Lymond and flee on horseback. Richard Crawford almost overtakes Gideon and Lymond until the men left behind by Grey (who is learning to listen to Gideon) attack and Richard must give up his pursuit. Gideon is home free until he is hit on the head and all goes black.

***

Gideon is now Lymond's prisoner, and Lymond is quite happy to tell Gideon the truth: that he was the one who sent for his brother and Buccleuch, although he had expected to be long gone with Mr. Harvey when they arrived. He had hoped the Scots would find and capture Grey and Bowes. But since everyone has been "energetically cheating," Lymond is not surprised by the turn of events.

Notice Lymond's reference to Nemesis when Gideon points out his how "abnormally lucky" Lymond was to escape unharmed. To say "Nemesis nodded" is to invoke the goddess of divine retribution and revenge, but it is more. Nemesis means "to give what is due," so in this case, it may mean that Lymond believes Nemesis is nodding to all his very ill fortune and giving him some rare good luck. Or he may mean that Nemesis nodded off and was asleep, so Lymond did not get his due.

On the way back to Crawfordmuir, Lymond and Gideon encounter Will Scott and Johnnie Bullo. This is the first time Gideon has set eyes on Will, and the drama that plays out is probably worth the price of admission for Gideon. Will is furious with Lymond, believing it was not he but his father and Richard Crawford that Lymond had sought to sell to the English. But Gideon, the enthralled spectator, honestly recounts to Will the fact that the Scots had set a "very efficient trap of their own."

One of my favorite lines occurs in this section. When Will barks at Lymond that he must face a reckoning for selling out his father and Richard Crawford to the English, Lymond responds:

"Make me?" invited Lymond and unfurled himself with terrifying suddenness.

It is Dunnett's use of the question mark that makes this sublime. There is a kind of laconic arrogance that echoes the challenges of childhood in Lymond's reply to Will. Here is a man so supremely confident in his superiority that he can stoop to the playful level of a child.

Unarmed and unhorsed, Will now hears the truth from an unimpeachable source--Gideon. Grey betrayed Lymond, but Will's father and Richard are unharmed and on their way home. Everything Will thinks he knows is pure nonsense. Now is the moment Lymond seizes to let Will know he knows about Will's "pattering off" to Dandy Hunter, which Lymond also knows has figured into the multiple mishaps of late.

The scene ends with Lymond watching wide-eyed as Johnnie Bullo rides off. The unusual expression on Lymond's face tells Gideon that Lymond realizes he should have kept his temper in check as he is usually able to do, but this time Will provoked him a little too effectively. It is never good to let potential rivals, enemies, or even employees know your weak spot, and this is what Lymond does in front of Will, Gideon, and Johnnie.

***

Early April, 1548
Easter falls on April 4

Gideon is being kept at Lymond's hideout, and Dunnett says at the start of this section they are at "Shortcleugh." A "cleugh" is a ravine, but the word is capitalized, indicating a formal place name. It seems odd to me that she never mentions Shortcleugh before or after. I believe Shortcleugh refers to one of the places where gold was found in Scotland:

Mr. Bulmer, in Queen Elizabeth's time, searched and found gold, etc., in these places in Scotland, viz., ... 4. Short-Cleugh water in Crawford moor. A Tour in Scotland, vol. 2, 1771, by Thomas Pennant

Lymond starts his inquisition of Gideon already knowing the outcome: Gideon will never agree to the trade of his life for Harvey's even if Grey agrees to it. Of course, Lymond has no intention of killing Harvey, so he claims, only questioning him. The fact is that Lymond has already thought through the examination of Somerville and concluded that Gideon will do everything in his power not to be exchanged for Harvey. We know this because Lymond has Gideon's sword, knife, key to his room, and horse waiting for his imminent departure.

It seems powerfully strange that Lymond, now that he holds the trump card, would simply let him go home, no strings attached. But that is exactly what he is doing. Why? Why on earth, after all the danger and threats and anger and pain and suffering to himself and others would Lymond just let Gideon go when he can try to force an exchange for Harvey? The only answer is that Lymond is a superb judge of men and their character. He says of Gideon, "honesty is your surest asset." Lymond is gambling that Gideon is an honest and honorable man. And Lymond is still smarting from the rebounding humiliation caused by his questioning of little Philippa Somerville: "I owe your family an act of sensibility."

Nemesis wakes up in this section. After "nodding" either in agreement or drowsiness earlier, the goddess of retributive justice now punishes Lymond for the cruelty he showed Philippa when her father uses it as a reason not to help Lymond.

Nemesis
Injure no-one, either by word or deed.
Nemesis watches for, and overtakes, the footsteps of men,
and holds a ruler and harsh bridle in her hand,
lest you do anything evil, or speak dishonest words:
She commands moreover that there be due measure in all things.
Translation of Alciato's Book of Emblems at
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Image by Andrea Alciato [Public domain]
via Wikimedia Commons

At first, Gideon says he will not help Lymond "for no better reason than that you want it." But Somerville's better angels start to work on him, as Lymond believes they would, and it slowly dawns on Gideon that Lymond really is letting him go free without any "undertakings" (promised efforts) on Gideon's side. Lymond's unexpected generosity and also sheer recklessness get to Gideon and he finds himself possessed by momentary madness. Finally, he does make an undertaking, the one Lymond is hoping for.

If there was ever an example of reverse psychology in action, Lymond's handling of Gideon is it. Lymond risks everything he has been working so feverishly to achieve on the gamble he has read Gideon Somerville correctly. He gambles that Gideon will not be able to resist Lymond's wildly generous act to free him without precondition knowing what great store Lymond sets on the meeting with Harvey. Gideon, too, is a superb judge of character, and he has judged Lymond to be worthy of at least some level of trust.

Gideon is amazed that Lymond, who takes this meeting with Harvey so seriously that he is disbanding his company of men because of the danger to them, would put his fate into Gideon's hands. Somerville is not the only one seized by madness.

At the end of this section Gideon wonders to himself if he, like the mystic Evagrius (Ponticus), would "receive the receipt for these pious outgoings in his coffin." I refer you to Laura Caine Ramsey's entry on Evagrius for elucidation of the legend. The meaning of Gideon's musing is that he sees himself as the pagan Evagrius who is converted by, in this case, Lymond. At his conversion Evagrius received a promissary note saying he would be repaid in the afterlife, and Gideon wonders if he, too, will reap a posthumous reward for his "pious outgoings."

***

April 21-End of May

The final section finds Lord Grey in a foul humor despite the advent and persistence of a lovely spring. The fortifications at Haddington are a terrible disappointment requiring the rest of April and all of May to remedy. Furthermore, the Scots and French have a considerable force of men at arms nearby, the French, as Dunnett says with nicely understated humor, "delicately scenting the infested terrain."

But Grey is no slouch. By the last week of May his men have not only made Haddington defensible, Grey has five thousand men and horse, supplies for them all, and George Douglas, having used up all his English goodwill, in his sights.

On his own and quietly, Lord Grey takes one final measure: he sends to London for Samuel Harvey. After so many missteps, misdirections, and miscommunications, Grey is learning, like Gideon, to keep his own counsel.

2. The Pinning Move

Late May

Sybilla has moved Mariotta to Midculter, fearing the poor security at the convent, which makes sense given the hostilities that have occurred in the area and the fact Mariotta was already taken hostage by the English once. Mariotta's only sign of interest is in Johnnie Bullo's alchemical experiment.

Sybilla continues to mourn Christian's absence, which is further evidence of their close relationship and shared sympathies.

Johnnie Bullo's Furnace

At this point, I think it is clear why Sybilla has been financing and encouraging Johnnie's laboratory at Midculter. She is using Johnnie Bullo to exchange messages with Lymond, and the alchemy lab provides the perfect cover for his visits to Midculter. Indeed, Sybilla seems to enjoy his nonsense, too, which is a side benefit. It also helps keep Janet's nose out of Sybilla's business if she is preoccupied with trying to trip up the "mystagogue" Bullo. And the alchemy distracts Mariotta from her own misery.

The arrival of the messenger from Ballaggan, Dandy Hunter's home, brings very bad news indeed for Sybilla. Will is arranging to have Lymond, when he leaves to cross the border, trapped and captured by the English at the same convent where Sybilla's daughter and Lymond's sister died, a very ugly bit of intentional irony on Will's part. Sybilla, interestingly, even seems to blame Lymond for Will's betrayal when she says "he's driven that ridiculous boy half out of his mind, and this is the result."

Notice that Sybilla keeps her wits about her almost as well as Lymond does. She has the presence of mind to tell the messenger to let Hunter know to take Lymond to Threave, the home of Jack Maxwell and his bride Agnes Herries.

Once again Bullo slips out unnoticed to warn Lymond, but this time he is too late.

Questions

1. Who are the four knights in the title of part 1?
2. Why does Grey send for Samuel Harvey?
3. Why would Sybilla tell Hunter to take Lymond to Threave?
4. Do you believe Sybilla blames Lymond for Will's betrayal?
5. Who is the lion eaten by the little bird?

Favorite Line

There she found herself in the embarrassing position of the social suicide who wakes up after the laudanum: the skies had fallen and done nothing but add to the general obscurity. 

Words that Describe Lymond in Concerted Attack

• deceptive
• scheming
• irritated
• irritating
• amused
• amusing
• taunting
• sarcastic
• witty
• wily
• arrogant
• exasperated
• angry
• manipulative
• reckless
• audacious
• honest

Part Three. The Play for Samuel Harvey. Chapter III. Mate for the Master.

Lymond and four women: Molly, Mariotta, Agnes, and Christian. Notice how he treats each of them very differently. 

1. A Bereft Knight Is Checked by His Own Side (about March 8, 1548)*

*Richard has been "seventeen days in the field." The battle with the English took place on February 21 and 1548 was a Leap Year. This may not be the exact date wrong, but it's close.

Sybilla and Christian are still with the sulky, convalescent Queen at Dumbarton when Richard finally arrives there looking to apologize to Mariotta. Sybilla is more anxious and vulnerable than we have seen her before. She knows things that Richard does not and it falls to her to deliver some very unpleasant pieces of news and point out the potential consequences of his further obsessive pursuit of Lymond.

Richard has not thought through the implications of his bringing his brother "to heel." It has not occurred to him, as it has to his mother, that his "unreasonable hatred" of Lymond brought to full blossom in Lymond's destruction will "convict Mariotta publicly of deceit." I am reminded of George Eliot's Middlemarch, when Casaubon stipulates in his will that Dorothea will lose her inheritance if she marries his cousin Ladislaw. What does this do but "publicly convict" the blameless Dorothea of an improper and dishonorable relationship with her husband's cousin? Sybilla is pointing out that this is what would happen to Mariotta as well: it would confirm in the public mind that there is an illicit relationship between her and Lymond where none in fact exists.

Sybilla now exhibits one of her few errors in reading others, an error Christian instantly detects: Sybilla offers to have Mariotta found, removed from Lymond's sphere of influence, and returned to Midculter. What she does not count on is the depth of Richard's anger, the strength of his pride, and the extent of his long-smoldering resentment of Lymond. Lymond, the irrepressible, infallible little brother with "success at the end of each of his pretty fingers" always got and still gets the love of all of Richard's women, including, most importantly, his mother.

Richard even goes so far as to claim that Lymond murdered their sister. Remember, Lymond said to Christian back at Boghall (Pt 1, Ch VII, Part 2), "If I told you that I had murdered my own sister..." First we have Lymond positing that he might have murdered his sister and now we have Richard claiming he did. This terrible scene is mercifully interrupted by two pages announcing the Queen Dowager wants to see Richard right away.

---

When Christian moves to comfort Sybilla after Richard leaves, the Dowager is described as having "pretty fingers" just like Lymond's. Hands are very important to Dunnett, who had a painter's eye for such details.

---

Mary of Guise looking none too
pleased with Richard

Richard is so thoroughly consumed with his own hurt and outrage he flouts the Queen Dowager's command that he go to Edinburgh to buck up that wobbly frog with his wits in his belly (Arran), which is all the pretext Buccleuch needs to suggest Richard be locked up. It is interesting that we do not see this remarkable scene between Mary of Guise and Richard Crawford, but instead hear it told by the always colorful Wat Scott, which greatly enhances the humor in an otherwise very tense and unhappy situation.

The question remains: why did Buccleuch want Richard out of commission at this time? Wat and Richard just recently had a huge, friendship-ending dispute when Crawford and his men showed up at Buccleuch's rendezvous with Will. Wat is not above exacting his revenge, but he also does not want Richard's obsession with Lymond once again to threaten his son and family. He sees this as a nice cooling off period for Lord Culter.

This presents Sybilla the perfect opportunity to ride south, with the Queen Dowager's permission, of course. Where and why she is going we do not yet know.

***

Meanwhile...Gideon Somerville cannot get out from under the thumb of his English overlords. This time Lord Grey wants Gideon to travel with him to London to see the Lord Protector. In the meantime, Grey has ordered the border lords to continue to harry the Scots and keep them from retaking the forts now in English hands.

***

Molly, looking as if she has been
attending decumbitures all her life.

Lymond at last returns to the Tower at Crawfordmuir to discover what "all of Scotland" already knows about Mariotta. He missed the entire drama of her arrival, subsequent miscarriage, the surgeon's visit, and Molly's nursing. Molly again proves her value as one of Lymond's spies. She tells him that Will Scott met with Andrew Hunter at the Ostrich when he came to retrieve her to attend Mariotta. Hunter stayed at the Ostrich a week "for no very good reason" and asked a lot of odd questions. Molly gives Lymond an account of Dandy and Will's conversation but, alas, we are not privy to it. All we know is that Molly believes Hunter is potentially a problem for Lymond and, thus far, Molly has never been a problem for Lymond.

***

Isn't it interesting that Lymond waits a week at the Tower before seeing Mariotta? In part it is because Mariotta is still weak and ill, but the wait only helps embellish his aura of mystery and power in Mariotta's mind. She has created a fantasy like a glowing halo around Lymond, a man she has seen exactly once. When he finally comes to her, his appearance is not as she remembers: this time he is tidy and sober. Mariotta is surprised when Lymond tells her he is sorry to learn she lost the baby, undoubtedly because in her fantasy he wants her for himself and no heir for Richard. Then she surprises Lymond by telling him she left Richard. When she tries to explain why, she finds it very difficult, except for the issue of the jewels.

But Lymond will not be put off: he wants to know exactly what Mariotta and Richard quarreled about. Although we do not hear Mariotta's recital of grievances, we can easily imagine that they are not nearly as terrible once told as they were in her imagination. They are, to use Dunnett's own characterization, an exercise in naivete from beginning to end. Lymond's words and reaction are contrasted to Mariotta's: as he speaks, his eyes are seraphic and "supremely adult." Lymond even tries to show Mariotta that he has given Richard cause to hate him and to hunt him down, such as the fire at Midculter, which she has conveniently forgotten. Add to this the jewels Mariotta told Richard came from Lymond and her own blatant infatuation with his younger brother and you have a big enough stew pot of jealousy and resentment to drive any man into a rage.

Now that he has heard her tale and knows how things lie, Lymond changes his tone and tactics with Mariotta. He assumes the cold, brutal persona of a man interested only in revenge on his brother and taking what is his, by getting rid of the heir and giving Richard grounds for divorcing Mariotta. In short, Lymond paints for Mariotta the exact picture that is in Richard's mind all the while insulting her (her brain is smaller than a chick-pea). Of course, Lymond's icy recitation of his complaints against Richard evokes from Mariotta a remarkable about-face--a wounded defense of her husband--to which Lymond responds as only he could.

He, like Christian earlier in the chapter, refers to Richard's deep interest in the welfare of his pigs: "I thought we would be shikk to shikk, indivisible, like Richard and his piglets." This makes me laugh out loud it's so funny. I can't help thinking Dunnett had "dancing cheek to cheek" in mind when she wrote this sentence. Mariotta, however, finds nothing humorous about this or anything Lymond has to say. All her pretty fantasies are dashed to bits in this one terrible interview. Which is exactly what Lymond wants to achieve.

***

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Shikk are demons mentioned in the Arabian Nights that are half a human being, divided "longitudinally" (vertically), so when Lymond describes Richard and his piglets as "shikk to shikk," he conjures up an image of a creature that is half man and half pig.

---

***

Why Lymond's about-face with Mariotta? He starts off as Good Lymond, with care and concern, talking to her like a normal human being. Once he has heard her tale of grievances, he instantly turns into Bad Lymond: cold, calculating, cruel, vicious. Why? Because he wants Mariotta to stop viewing him as if through a hagioscope, that is, with a squinting, narrow, distorted view. He wants Mariotta to see he is not some dashing hero come to her rescue. She needs to know in no uncertain terms he has zero interest in her except as a means of hurting Richard and that his bad reputation is well deserved.

Before jumping to the conclusion that Lymond means Mariotta ill, it is best to recall he exchanged his truly valuable prisoner--Margaret Douglas--for Mariotta, who has no value to him as a hostage whatsoever, and he initiated the exchange without hesitation.

The soft-hearted Molly, of course, scolds Lymond for his performance for Mariotta. Molly, taking literally Lymond's suggestion that Mariotta would fare better sharing her grievances with Will Scott, sends Will up to sit with Mariotta that night. It's the last anyone at the Tower sees of them both, and Lymond is none too pleased that Will has taken off with his sister-in-law. At least that is how he behaves, but Molly, remember, has never caused him any problems, so one is left to wonder if this isn't another Lymond ploy.

***

Argyll pipers do get around, don't they? Remember it was an Argyll piper who played so memorably at the Ostrich when Lymond plotted with John Maxwell (Pt 2, Ch 1) Now Hunter has a "chance encounter" with him? Not likely in Dunnettdom, I'll wager. We also learn what Molly's girls overheard: Will and Hunter exchanging views on whether and how Lymond might be selling Will out to the English. Will expressed his suspicions and Dandy offered what he knows, that is, Grey wants Will, and Lymond has been seen twice near George Douglas's house.

All this Dandy is helpfully relating to Wat and Janet Scott. Now notice: Janet interjects that Dandy did not know Lymond has (or had) Mariotta. How does Janet know this? Obviously, she has been talking to Dandy before this conversation with her husband, but the circumstances of Janet and Dandy's discussion are a mystery. One thing is clear: Janet's scheming goes on. Buccleuch misses this point altogether and is just glad that Hunter is so kindly offering to help him recover his son.

***

Spring, 1548

The gateway to Holyrood, built
by James IV, 1503

The wedding of John (Jack) Maxwell and Agnes Herries, orchestrated with such care by Lymond finally takes place at Holyrood Palace, and Lymond is there to offer his congratulations and a gift.

Maxwell knows his new wife well: he introduces Lymond not by name, which he must not, but as the man who saved his life at Durisdeer. Ah, ha! Now we know a bit more about that memorable action Lymond undertook at Durisdeer, saving Maxwell from Harry Wharton's sword. What could be a more thrilling wedding gift to Agnes than to meet another real-life knight in shining armor? Maybe a brooch set with angels' heads and worth a fortune? Probably not. She has wed the hero of her dreams and met another even more dashing, mysterious hero bearing costly gifts. Quite a nice start to a marriage for a little girl with a face like melted candle wax full of teeth!

Lymond adds another feminine conquest to his supposedly long list of adoring women (according to Richard).

The brooch. In Pt 1, Ch 4, Dandy Hunter presents his mother with an hugely expensive and garish brooch with diamonds set in angels' heads and carved in onyx. This brooch certainly seems to be the same one: diamonds, angels' heads, and onyx. File this for future reference.

***

---

I recommend Laura Caine Ramsey's guide to The Game of Kings when reading the exchange between Lymond and Christian, which is packed with allusions ranging from the Old Testament to one of the first English comedies.

---

***

Christian is also at Holyrood for the wedding and has answered a summons she supposes is from Tom, who is expecting an answer regarding his offer of marriage. But it is Lymond, not Tom, who has arranged this meeting. Her reaction when she hears Lymond's voice tells us that she remains in a state of emotional and spiritual turmoil over him. Their playful verbal combat continues apace, each using a rapier wit and each in turn deflecting the other's rhetorical thrusts.

We learn that Christian knows the names of the three men Lymond has been seeking, presumably from Sybilla but possibly from other sources. She did not offer them up in the gypsy tent when she brought Lymond the news about Crouch's whereabouts, so she may have uncovered the other two names later. She is uncommonly well informed. Notice that she instantly figured out that George Douglas is Lymond's convenient intermediary in securing Samuel Harvey.

Epaminondas clutching the
javelin to his breast

Christian makes an interesting comparison between Lymond and Epaminondas, the Theban general who, according to legend, was wounded by a spear in battle. He clutched the point of the spear to his chest long enough to learn of the Theban victory against the Spartans, knowing that when the spear was removed he would die. Christian suggests that Lymond may be in part responsible for his troubles by clutching his problems to his "evil chest" like a javelin tip, but he succinctly rejects the idea that his affairs would be any better if he did not. I think this is an important insight into Lymond's character: he believes he must clutch his troubles to his evil chest and suffer the consequences. He is not being completely facetious when he tells Christian that he has been "gifted with a surfeit of Satanity," that is, he is inherently evil.

There is an abrupt shift in Lymond's tone when he addresses Christian by her name and warns that his plans may or may not turn out well. And now, here it is: the farewell. Lymond tells Christian in a way she will understand without having it spelled out for her that there is no future for them as anything but acquaintances, and that, only if all his plans go well:

"Whatever you touch will return warmth to you and whoever you share it with will be twelve feet tall like St. Christopher."

In short, Lymond is telling Christian she will not be sharing her warmth and her life with him.

Even though he hopes Christian will not regard him as insensitive, Lymond thinks it is important to state the obvious: if Christian had not been blind, she would never have had this adventure with him. Her reaction is very interesting: this experience, quite apart from making her more tolerant of her blindness has turned the years of quiet, desperate acceptance into a rage against the darkness. It has made her acutely aware of what she has missed. Of all men, only Lymond has shared the thrill of adventure with her, and then only because she could never see his face.

And now he is gone.

***

Sybilla is back, but from where? Richard has been released for the wedding festivities. Sybilla admits to Christian that she is frightened. Then she adds, "My sons sometimes seem so much stronger than I am." This is an interesting juxtaposition of thoughts. I think Sybilla is frightened by her sons' strength in part because it means she cannot influence them as she has hoped and in part because of the inherent danger in two strong men violently opposing each other. Neither will yield.

Is it also possible that Sybilla is sending Christian a subtle message about Lymond with that comment? Lymond is strong enough to walk away from "a woman ... with a familiar spirit," someone rare enough to be his match and possibly a mate for the master? I am not sure, but what we do know is that immediately after this scene, Christian accepts Tom's proposal. I think this meeting with Sybilla somehow finalizes Christian's decision to accept Tom.

Of course, Tom, as second son, is the Master of Erskine, just as John Maxwell is the Master of Maxwell. Lots of mates for Masters in this chapter.

***

Dunnett's description of Richard is another perfect example of why she is simply the best.

The third Baron Culter had the sort of pride that makes a man walk straight back to the place where he has been publicly undressed and dare the universe to look down on him.

We learn so much about Baron Culter's character from two sentences: his pride is strong enough to carry him right back into the lion's den looking all the while like an emperor instead of a victim. Just like Lymond. Dandy Hunter takes advantage of the situation by approaching the scandalized Richard and offering to broker a rapprochement between him and Buccleuch.

The deal is too tempting for Richard to refuse. Will knows Lymond is going to betray him and has sent Dandy a message saying he knows how it is to be done.

Once Richard and Wat Scott patch things up (sort of), they examine Will's message:

• Lymond plans to ride east to an unspecified location.
• At this location Lymond will secure Samuel Harvey from George Douglas and Lord Grey.
• Once Lymond gets Harvey, he will send a message to Will to join him.*
• When Will arrives, Grey will take him.
• Will proposes in his letter that when he gets the message from Lymond he will notify his father.
• Buccleuch, Culter, and their men will descend on the rendezvous spot and take Grey, Douglas, and Lymond.
• Meanwhile, Will Scott will find his own way home.

*It is not at all clear how Lymond will get a message to Will unless he takes one of his own men or perhaps Johnnie Bullo with him. However, he cannot risk letting one of his men know he is betraying Will, and Will would never respond to a message delivered by a stranger. 

The discussion now turns to the hostages that Wharton killed after Maxwell turned on the English and joined the Scots at Durisdeer. This is one of the consequences Jack Maxwell was weighing (Pt. 2, Ch. III) when deciding whether to fight on the Scottish side. This was a particularly difficult discussion between Maxwell and Lymond. It was Lymond who laid out the choice brutally and succinctly: "Save the Carlisle chickens, and you let the Stirling stables burn." At Lymond's urging, Maxwell chose to fight with the Scots and thereby win Agnes Herries (and her title and property). The price was the lives of half his hostages. An ugly choice, but it is important to recognize that Lymond wanted Maxwell to make this choice and in so doing, he condemned a number of innocent men to death. Lymond can be ruthless.

Buccleuch has the right of it: "We're seeing times ... that crack the very marrowbone of tragedy."

In the final act of the chapter, Sybilla, playing the Foolish Mother, tries one more time to get Richard to see reason regarding Lymond and Mariotta. Now we know where she went when she left the castle. She went to the convent at Culter to see Mariotta. Richard, unconsciously aping Lymond's posture when Sybilla last saw him at Midculter, does not want Mariotta back, but it does not seem he has considered the possibility that neither does his wife want him any longer.

Poor Sybilla. One son a hunted and hated outlaw wanted for a capital crime. Another son bent on capturing and/or killing his brother. A marriage between son and daughter-in-law in collapse. The loss of her first grandchild. All the calm order of her life destroyed, with only more pain and suffering on the horizon.

Questions

1. Why does Sybilla ask Christian to join her when she confronts Richard knowing he will detest airing family secrets in front of an outsider?
2. Where did Lymond get the brooch he gives to Agnes as a wedding gift?
3. Lymond encounters Molly, Mariotta, Christian, and Agnes in this chapter. Which important woman who appears in the chapter do we not see him with?
4. Why does Lymond decide not to pursue a romantic relationship with Christian?
5. By urging Maxwell to side with the Scots, Lymond directly contributes to the death of the hostages at Carlisle. Is Lymond simply heartless, as Maxwell suggests in an earlier chapter, or does he have other motives?

Favorite Line (one of the classic Lymond quotes)

"All I ask in this world," said Lymond a shade grimly, "is half an hour when I don't know what I'm doing; but no one has granted me the privilege yet."

Words that Describe Lymond in Mate for the Master

• Cold
• Cruel
• Calculating
• Unkind
• Concerned
• Solicitous
• Sardonic
• Sober
• Inquisitive
• Ruthless
• Charming
• Ingratiating
• Self-deprecating
• Playful
• Serious
• Sincere
• Honest