Part 6 (1/2)

'With pleasure,' Steven said and tried to keep a serious expression on his face as they left the room. The Cardinal's palace was the epitome of luxury with high, vaulted corridors and priceless tapestries and paintings hanging on the walls. The floors were tiled in marble and along the centre was an exquisite red pile carpet. Here and there were satin-covered chairs and the white double doors which opened to the rooms beyond had superbly painted and delicately decorated panels. Steven thought that it was a far cry from the streets he and the Doctor had walked along the previous day. Then they came to a double door with two liveried halberdiers standing outside.

'My Lord Abbot,' Duval said to neither in particular and the doors were promptly opened. Duval waved Steven to lead the way in and the doors closed silently behind them. They stood in a small, carpeted reception room furnished with chairs, similar to the ones outside,and an ornate desk. The man seated behind it jumped to his feet as soon as he saw them. He had an hara.s.sed air to him but he was clearly relieved to see Duval.

'My Lord Abbot awaits, sir,' he said, scurrying over to a second double door to open one side of it. This time Duval went in first, the door closing discreetly behind them.

The Abbot of Amboise sat on a high-backed, gilt chair behind a huge, intricately carved, marble-topped desk. His cowl was thrown back off his head and his hands joined as if in prayer with the tips of his forefingers resting against his pursed lips. But the eyes above them were cold and hard. Steven decided that he had never seen the Doctor look so angry.

'Who is this fellow?' the Abbot asked in glacial tones as he swung his joined hands away from his lips to point them at Steven.

Both Steven and Duval were completely taken aback and, after a moment, a confused Duval looked from the Abbot to Steven and back to the Abbot again while Steven stood and stared.

'What would the wretch with me?' the Abbot demanded, while Duval stammered and stuttered. 'Speak up, for mercy's sake!'

'I th thought you kn knew him, my Lo ord,' Duval finally managed to say.

'I have never seen him before in my life,' the Abbot snapped. 'Put him back where he was found.'

'Yes, my Lord, at once, my Lord,' Duval replied and, grabbing Steven by the arm, ushered him out of the room.

Subtle old devil, Steven thought as he let Duval lead him away, realising that the Doctor had meant for him to be taken back to the auberge.

'Clap this creature in the cells,' Duval ordered the guards as soon as they reached the corridor.

'That's not what he meant,' Steven protested as the halberdiers grabbed him by his arms. 'He wanted me taken back to the auberge.'

For a fraction of a second Duval hesitated but then he remembered the Abbot had said that he had never seen Steven before. 'The cells,' Duval insisted and hurried back to the Abbot's office where his second reception was even frostier than the first.

'I ordered the arrest of some heretic apothecaries. Where are they?' the Abbot demanded as the door closed behind Duval.

'In hiding, my Lord,' the luckless Duval replied. 'They heard of the warrant.'

'How?'

Duval shook his head. 'I don't know, my Lord, other than the fact that the Huguenot Viscount Lerans was involved.'

'And who might he be?'

'He was presented to you at the banquet last night.'

'As were many others,' the Abbot snapped. 'Describe him.'

Duval looked around the room. They were alone, the Abbot and he, so he leant forward across the desk and lowered his voice. 'The tall, blond-haired young man I challenged at the Roman Bridge Auberge,' he murmured discreetly and then asked the Abbot if he remembered the incident.

The Abbot's eyes became those of a cobra as he looked through hooded eyes at Duval. 'Ah, that young man,' he muttered and abruptly ended the interview by ordering Duval to bend every effort to find the apothecaries.

Once outside and walking slowly along the corridor towards his own office Duval was curious about the Abbot's refusal to acknowledge Steven but was satisfied that he had done the right thing to throw him back in a cell.

It was not until later in the day he learned the Abbot had personally signed a doc.u.ment ordering Steven's immediate release.

7.

Admiral de Coligny As soon as he was released Steven made his way to the auberge to wait for the Doctor. The landlord, Antoine-Marc, although not pleased to see him, was curious to know how Steven had spent the night.

'Asleep,' was the only reply he received and Steven toyed with his goblet of red wine whilst watching the door.

But the first familiar face he saw was Nicholas Muss who came over and greeted him.

'No sign of your friend?' Muss asked and, while Antoine-Marc tried to eavesdrop, Steven told him everything that had happened since they last met.

'The so-called Abbot was the Doctor,' he concluded, 'or, if not, the spitting image of him and in that case why would I have been released?'

'Did you see him sign the doc.u.ment?' Muss asked.

'No, a guard came into the cell and told me I was free to go,' Steven replied.

'So you're waiting here for him,' Muss said, 'to have something similar happen again tonight if he doesn't show up?'

'I honestly don't know, I'm completely at a loss because I haven't the faintest idea of what's going on,' Steven admitted.

'Then come with me to Admiral de Coligny's house,'

Muss replied, 'at least, there you'll have a roof over your head.'

'But the Doctor?' Steven protested as Muss laid a hand on his shoulder.

'In one guise or another, I'm sure he'll turn up eventually,' Muss remarked enigmatically and paid for Steven's gla.s.s of wine as they left, leaving Antoine-Marc some more information for Simon Duval.

'There were no difficulties,' the Doctor told Lerans back in the cave, 'as the Abbot walked out of one door, I walked in by another, put his seal on Steven's release and gave it to a nervous, fat young man named Roger Colbert.'

Lerans laughed. 'You've made a good start, Doctor.'

'But where is Steven?' the Doctor asked.

'Safely tucked away at Admiral de Coligny's house,'

Lerans replied, 'and it's better that he knows nothing of your activities.'

'Why?' The Doctor was indignant.

'Because the fewer who know, the better.'

'These people know.' The Doctor gestured to the apothecaries and their families.