The Ringed Castle Read Online Free PDF Page B

brows lifted slightly.
‘D’Harcourt!’
    ‘It was me,’ said Danny Hislop. And as Lymond continued to look at him, he added bright-eyed, ‘I only said you were gorgeous.’
    Francis Crawford threw down the card he was holding. ‘The buffoon of the party,’ he said. ‘You have, I am sure, enlivened the long summer evenings round the camp fires. Your men, I am certain, find your quips irresistible and your effrontery something to talk about, slapping their knees with their girl friends. With me, you refrain.’
    Danny Hislop, hanging his head, was mouthing a long and inaudible apology. Guthrie half rose to his feet but sank back at a brief glance from Lymond. Lymond said, ‘Since you are still with St Mary’s, I assume your ability is unquestioned and your performance impeccable. It would be a pity to have to take both unsung back to the Bishop. This is a country with no middle degree. Between the top rank, which you will hold, and the bottom rank, which you will be controlling, there is a chasm. If you bridge it this way, you will bring yourself and your friends into ridicule. The proceedings in this room are formal because I intend all our proceedings in Russia to be conducted with the utmost formality. Whatever has been the custom before, in this company we shall use surnames only; and that applies to you all. We are a coterie of foreigners in an old and alien and bigoted society, and to conquer it, we must move away from each other and employ no codes and forget even our language.… What are the defences of Moscow?’ He was looking at Danny.
    ‘Us,’ said Danny. After a second he added, ‘The walls and the rivers.’ His colour was high.
    ‘What walls?’ Lymond said. ‘Tell me how they are manned. And the names of the gates and the bridges.’
    He had picked, as it happened, the most observant man in the company. Danny Hislop pursed his lips, aware of the ranked eyes around him, and then, drawing breath, reeled off with care all the details which Lymond had asked for.
    ‘Good. And the house we are in?’ said Lymond kindly. ‘How would you defend this house, Hislop?’
    ‘Given weapons?’ said Danny. He was recovering, but kept any hint of the caustic most rigorously out of his voice.
    ‘Assuming hand guns and bows and all that goes with them, but nothing else except for your knives and your swords.’
    Danny glanced round. ‘Against what sort of attack? It’s not very defensible.’
    ‘It isn’t, is it? Against an attack by fifty men, with bows and inferior small arms,’ said Lymond.
    ‘Christ!’ said Plummer, But Danny, thinking it out as he spoke,produced, in snatches, the scheme for defence he had been asked for. Then, restored, the bland hazel eyes rested on Lymond.
    ‘Thank you,’ said his commander. He looked round. ‘I hope you all heard it. I further hope you will all obey to the letter the instructions I have laid down on conduct. Because if you make a mistake with these people, you can expect neither to survive in this house, nor to escape through the walls of the city. Is it possible,’ said Francis Crawford, ‘that we might now carry on with our business?’
    Much later, when their discussions were ended and the afternoon was half worn through, Lymond touched Guthrie on the shoulder and walked with him to the window, where they could see the courtyard and the crowded brown ranks of log houses, and beyond them, the walls of the Kremlin. Lymond said, ‘They’ve been in good hands. They will still be under you for all day-to-day purposes.’
    Alec Guthrie said, ‘I should have got rid of Hislop.’
    ‘No,’ said Lymond. ‘We’ve had the cleverness thrust down our throats. Let’s see what other quality he has. Where have you been fighting?’
    There was a year and more to describe, telling of the long power struggle between Henri of France and the failing Emperor Charles with his over-extended possessions in Spain and Burgundy, Italy and Peru, Sicily and the Netherlands.