Part 14 (1/2)

'No, not tomorrow, we shall play tennis all day, until the next day, the Feast of Saint Bartholomew.'

With the Queen Mother white with fury beside him the King left the Council Chamber.

Steven was still badly shocked when he reached the cave.

He had turned over the probabilities and the possibilities that the body he had left lying on the floor was the Doctor's until rational thought was almost beyond him. He sat heavily at a table and put his head in his hands. Preslin came over to him.

'Where's the Doctor?' he asked. 'Is something wrong?'

Steven stared at him uncomprehendingly for several seconds, then a look of total astonishment came over his face as he jumped to his feet and hugged the bemused apothecary. 'He's alive!' he shouted. 'He's got to be alive!

The body didn't have the parchment on it.'

'Steven, what on Earth are you talking about?' Preslin asked, disengaging himself.

Steven tried to explain but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth in the proper order. 'It doesn't matter!' He was close to tears of relief. 'It really doesn't matter!'

But it did a little later when the Doctor arrived in a dog cart. 'You wicked old man,' Steven cried reproachfully, 'letting me believe that the body might have been yours.'

'My dear boy, how you could have thought that for one moment is quite beyond me,' the Doctor replied in surprise. 'You know my knack' he clicked his fingers 'for dominating a given situation.' Then he took the parchment out of his habit, called for a quill pen and some ink and sat down to work.

Two other encounters were taking place about the same time and neither was as pleasant as the Doctor's reunion with Steven. The first was between King Charles and the Queen Mother in his chambers at the Louvre and any form of royal protocol was dismissed out-of-hand.

'I gave orders to be left alone, rnother,' he said angrily as she marched into his room.

'It's become your notion of late to give orders without consulting me,' she snapped back.

'I happen to be the King of France, madame, you'd do best to remember it,' he retorted.

Catherine snorted with derision. 'A pale shadow of a King you make,' she taunted. 'Your younger brother, Henri, would be ten times the King you are.'

'Guard your tongue, mother, or you'll end your days in a convent,' he threatened.

'Child,' she sneered, 'you haven't the courage.'

He reached for the bell rope. 'All I have to do is pull this.'

'Do so, I beseech you. Summon your guards, have me arrested. But you will need a good reason for your Council and for the people of France who love me.'

'That I'll supply,' he answered categorically. 'The conspiracy by you, Tavannes, my brother and de Guise to a.s.sa.s.sinate Admiral de Coligny.'

'Don't forget the Abbot of Amboise,' she sneered, 'for all his pious words he had a hand in it as well.'

'I'll s s send you all to the block,' he stammered.

'For trying to rid France of a foe?' she mocked.

'The Admiral's my friend. You, madame, G.o.d help me, are the enemy.'

'Am I? I think not, my son. I care too much for my country to see it face ruin as de Coligny, every Huguenot would have it.' She paused for effect. 'You have a nest of vipers in your Court, Your Majesty.' She spat out the words. 'You even married your sister off to one, that Huguenot from Navarre, who'll usurp your throne as quick as look at you.'

The King tried to reply but suddenly his lungs were on fire and with the first rasping cough, blood welled up into his mouth. Any energy, any resistance he had, ebbed away as the Queen Mother drew his head to her bosom.

'There, little one, there,' she said and caressed his back.

The second meeting took place in the office of the late Abbot who still lay on the floor. Duval told his story of the the two Abbots to Tavannes, Anjou and de Guise all of whom listened attentively with an occasional glance at the body. When they had finished Tavannes slowly circled the corpse.

'How can you serve us in death,' he asked, staring down at it, 'better than you did alive?'

'We'll put about the story that the false Abbot's Huguenot secret agent entered the office and slew him', de Guise suggested.

'It's not enough,' Tavannes countered and pointed to the body. 'That must be used.'

'Throw it onto the streets, let the people see how treacherous these Huguenots are,' the Duke of Anjou proposed.

Tavannes chuckled. 'We'll take the words from Navarre's own mouth and blow up an incident out of all proportion to put Paris in a tumult. Even all of France.' He looked at the other men in turn, finally settling his eyes on Duval. 'Personally, my friend, I think you killed the right man,' he said and pointed again at the cadaver. 'Let it be found in the morning, more cruelly a.s.sa.s.sinated by the Huguenots, in revenge for the attempt on de Coligny's life.'

They left the office, locking it behind them as Duval with renewed courage told them of Anne's release.

'Get them back,' Tavannes ordered.

'I shall attend to it personally, Marshall,' Duval replied.

Lerans entered the cave as the Doctor was signing the parchment with the Abbot's signature.

'You were magnificent, Doctor!' he exclaimed.

'They learned whom I am not,' the Doctor replied, 'and Duval must've shown them the body by now.'

'Whose body?' Lerans asked and the Doctor told him all that had happened.

'Tavannes is wily,' Lerans said, 'and he'll turn it to his advantage, if he can. He dare not touch the Admiral but he will try to find a way to attack us. Where are we most vulnerable?' he asked.

'Anne Chaplet and her family,' Steven replied and briefly told Lerans how he had rescued them.

'Then we've no time to waste,' Lerans said. 'Come on, Steven, and you as well, David.' The three of them leapt into two dog carts and raced away.

Duval beat them to the house but only just and from their cover behind a wall they could see him with Colbert and four halberdiers who surrounded Anne, her brother and her aunt.