Читаем Forever Amber полностью

She tossed her black-beaver muff onto a chair, untied the hood she wore and flung off both it and the cloak. Then going to the fire to warm herself she nudged aside with her foot the thin mongrel dog that slept uneasily there, and which now looked up at her with injured resentment.

“God in Heaven!” she exclaimed, rubbing her hands together and shivering. “But I swear it’s the coldest night known to man! It’s blowing a mackerel-gale!”

“May I offer your Ladyship a glass of ale?”

“By all means!”

Heydon went to a dresser and poured out a glassful, saying with a sideways glance at her: “I regret that I cannot offer your Ladyship something more delicate—claret or champagne—but it is my misfortune that too many of my patrons are remiss in their debts.” He shrugged. “They say that comes of serving the rich.”

“Still plucking at the same string, eh?” She took the glass from him and began to swallow thirstily, feeling the sour ale slide down and begin to warm her entrails. “I have a matter of the utmost importance I want you to settle for me. It’s imperative that you make no mistake!”

“Was not my last prognostication correct, your Ladyship?”

He was leaning forward slightly from the waist, his big-jointed hands clasped before him, obsequiousness as well as an unctuous demand for praise in his voice and manner.

Barbara gave him an impatient glance over the rim of her glass. The Queen had been her enemy then. Now she was, without knowing it, as fast an ally as she had. Barbara Palmer, least of all, wanted to see another and possibly handsome and determined woman married to Charles Stuart; if anything should ever happen to Catherine her own days at Whitehall were done and she knew it.

“Don’t trouble yourself to remember so much!” she told him sharply. “In your business it’s a bad habit. I understand you’ve been giving some useful advice to my cousin.”

“Your cousin, madame?” Heydon was blandly innocent.

“Don’t be stupid! You know who I mean! Buckingham, of course!”

Heydon spread his hands in protest. “Oh, but madame—I assure you that you have been misinformed. His Grace was so kind as to release me from Newgate when I was carried there by reason of my debts—which I incurred because of the reluctance of my patrons to meet their charges. But he has done me no further honour since that time.”

“Nonsense!” Barbara drained the glass and set it onto the cluttered mantelpiece. “Buckingham never threw a dog a bone without expecting something for it. I just wanted you to know that I know he comes here, so you’ll not be tempted to tell him of my visit. I have as much evidence on him as he can get on me.”

Heydon, made more adamant by the knowledge that the gentleman under discussion was listening in the next room, refused to surrender. “I protest, madame—someone’s been jesting with your Ladyship. I swear I’ve not laid eyes on his Grace from that time to this.”

“You lie like a son of a whore! Well—I hope you’ll be as chary of my secrets as you are of his. But enough of that. Here’s what I came for: I have reason to think I’m with child again—and I want you to tell me where I may fix the blame. It’s most important that I know.”

Heydon widened his eyes and swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing convulsively in his skinny neck. Gadzooks! This was beyond anything! When a father had much ado to tell his own child, how could a completely disinterested person be expected to know it?

But Heydon’s wide reputation had not been built on refusal to answer questions. And now he took up the thick-lensed, green eye-glasses which he imagined gave him a more studious air, pinched them on the end of his nose, and both he and Barbara sat down. He began to pore intently over the charts on the table, meanwhile writing some mumbo-jumbo in a sort of bastard Latin and drawing a few moons and stars intersected by several straight lines.

From time to time he cleared his throat and said, “Hmmmm.”

Barbara watched him, leaning forward, and while he worked she nervously twisted a great diamond she wore on her left hand to cover her wedding-band—for she and Roger Palmer had long since agreed to have nothing more to do with each other.

At last Heydon cleared his throat a final time and looked across at her, seeing her white face through the blur of smoke from the tallow candles. “Madame—I must ask your entire confidence in this matter, or I can proceed no farther.”

“Very well. What d’you want to know?”

“I pray your Ladyship not to take offense—but I must have the names of those gentlemen who may be considered as having had a possible share in your misfortune.”

Barbara frowned a little. “You’ll be discreet?”

“Naturally, madame. Discretion is my stock in trade.”

“Well, then—First, there’s the King—whom I hope you’ll find responsible, for if I can convince him it may save me a great deal of trouble. And then—” She hesitated.

“And then?” prompted Heydon.