The Lady and the Unicorn (2 page)

‘Once you've made the paintings,’ Léon reminded me, ‘your work is done. I'll take them north to the weaver, and his cartoonist will enlarge them to use for the weaving.’

I should have been pleased that I wouldn't have to paint the horses large. Instead, however, I became protective of my work. ‘How do I know that this cartoonist is a proper artist? I don't want him making a mess of my designs.’

‘He won't change what Jean Le Viste has decided on — only changes that will help the design and making of the tapestries. You haven't done many tapestries, have you, Nicolas? Only a coat of arms, I believe.’

‘Which I scaled up myself — I had no need of a cartoonist. Surely I'm capable of doing so on this commission.’

‘These tapestries are a very different matter from a coat of arms. They will need a proper cartoonist.
Tiens
, there's one thing I forgot to mention. You'll need to be sure there are Le Viste coats of arms throughout the tapestries. Monseigneur will insist on that.’

‘Did Monseigneur actually fight there?’

Léon laughed. ‘Undoubtedly Jean Le Viste was on the other side of France during the Battle of Nancy, working for the King. That doesn't matter — just put his coat of arms on flags and shields that others carry. You may want to see some pictures of that battle and others. Go to Gérard the printer on the rue Vieille du Temple — he has a book he can show you of engravings of the Battle of Nancy. I'll tell him to expect you. Now, I'll leave you to your measurements. If you have problems, come and see me. And bring the drawings to me by Palm Sunday — if I want changes you'll need enough time to get them done before Monseigneur sees them.’

Clearly Léon Le Vieux was Jean Le Viste's eyes. I had to please him, and if he liked what he saw, Jean Le Viste would too.

I couldn't resist a last question. ‘Why did you choose me for this commission?’

Léon gathered his plain brown robe about him — no fur trim for him. ‘I didn't. If it were my choice I would have someone who has done more tapestries, or go direct to the weaver — they have designs in hand and can work from those. It's cheaper and they are good at the designs.’ Léon was always frank.

‘Why did Jean Le Viste choose me, then?’

‘You'll find out soon enough.
Alors
, come to me tomorrow and I'll have the papers for you to sign, and the money.’

‘I haven't agreed to the terms yet.’

‘Oh, I think you have. There are some commissions an artist doesn't say no to. This is one of them, Nicolas des Innocents.’ He gave me a look as he left.

He was right. I had been talking as if I were going to do them. Still, the terms were not bad. In fact, Léon had not haggled very hard. I wondered suddenly if his terms were still in Paris
livres
after all.

I turned my eyes to the walls I was to dress so sumptuously. Two months to draw and paint twenty horses and their riders! I stood at one end of the room and walked to the other, counting twelve paces, then walked across, counting six paces. Pulling a chair to one wall, I stood on it, but even reaching as high as I could, I was far from touching the ceiling. I pulled the chair back and, after hesitating a moment, stepped up onto the oak table. I reached up but was still at least my height again from the ceiling.

I was wondering where I could find a long pole to use for measuring when I heard humming behind me and turned around. A girl stood in the entrance watching me. A lovely girl — she had pale skin, a high forehead, a long nose, hair the colour of honey, clear eyes. I'd not seen such a girl before. For a moment I couldn't say anything.

‘Hello, beauty,’ I managed at last.

The girl laughed and hopped from one foot to the other. She was wearing a simple blue dress, with a tight bodice, a square neck and narrow sleeves. It was cut well and the wool was fine, but it was not ornate. She wore a plain scarf too, her long hair falling almost to her waist. Compared to the servant who had cleaned the fireplace, she was clearly too fine to be a maid. Perhaps a lady-in-waiting?

‘The mistress of the house wishes to see you,’ she said, then turned and ran away, still laughing.

I didn't move. I've learned from years of experience that dogs and falcons and ladies come back to you if you stay where you are. I could hear her feet slap across the floor of the next room, then stop. After a moment the steps began again and she reappeared at the door. ‘Are you coming?’ She was still smiling.

‘I will, beauty, if you will walk with me and not hurry ahead as if I were a dragon you had to flee.’

The girl laughed. ‘Come,’ she beckoned, and this time I hopped down from the table. I had to step quickly to keep up with her as she ran from room to room. Her skirt flapped, as if she were blown along by a secret wind. Up close she smelled of something sweet and spicy, underlined with sweat. Her mouth moved as if she were chewing something.

‘What do you have in your mouth, beauty?’

‘Toothache.’ The girl stuck out her tongue — on its pink tip lay a clove. The sight of her tongue made me hard. I wanted to plough her.

‘Ah, that must hurt.’ I will suck it better. ‘Now, why does your mistress want to see me?’

The girl looked at me, amused. ‘I expect she'll tell you herself.’

I slowed down. ‘Why rush? She won't mind, will she, if you and I have a little chat along the way?’

‘What do you want to talk about?’ The girl turned up a round staircase.

I leapt onto the stair in front of her to stop her from climbing. ‘What sorts of animals do you like?’

‘Animals?’

‘I don't want you to think of me as a dragon. I'd rather you thought of me as something else. Something you prefer.’

The girl thought. ‘A parakeet, perhaps. I do like parakeets. I have four. They eat from my hand.’ She ran around me to stand on the stairs above me. She didn't go higher. Yes, I thought. I've set out my wares and she's coming for a look. Come closer, my dear, and see my plums. Squeeze them.

‘Not a parakeet,’ I said. ‘Surely you don't think of me as a squawker and an imitator.’

‘My parakeets make no noise. But anyway, you are an artist,
non
? Isn't that what you do — imitate life?’

‘I make things more beautiful than they are — though there are some things, my girl, that cannot be improved upon with paint.’ I stepped around her and stood three steps above. I wanted to see if she would come to me.

She did. Her eyes remained clear and wide, but her mouth was twisted into a knowing smile. With her tongue she moved the clove from one cheek to the other.

I will have you, I thought. I will.

‘Perhaps you're a fox instead,’ she said. ‘Your hair has a little red in among the brown.’

I pouted. ‘How can you be so cruel? Do I look devious? Would I cheat a man? Do I run sideways and never straight? Rather I'm a dog who lays himself at his mistress's feet and is loyal to her forever.’

‘Dogs want too much attention’, the girl said, ‘and they jump up and muddy my skirts with their paws.’ She stepped around me and did not stop this time. ‘Come — my mistress waits. We must not keep her.’

I would have to hurry — I'd wasted too much time on other animals. ‘I know which animal I want to be,’ I panted, running after her.

‘What's that?’

‘A unicorn. Do you know of the unicorn?’

The girl snorted. She'd reached the top of the stairs and was opening the door to another room. ‘I know it likes to lay its head in maidens' laps. Is that what you like to do?’

‘Ah, don't think of me so coarsely. The unicorn does something far greater than that. His horn has a special power, you see. Did you know that?’

The girl slowed down to look at me. ‘What does it do?’

‘If a well is poisoned — ’

‘There's a well!’ The girl stopped and pointed out of a window to the courtyard. A younger girl was leaning over the edge of a well and looking down into it, the sun bathing her hair in gold light.

‘Jeanne always does that,’ the girl said. ‘She likes to look at her reflection.’ As we watched the girl spat into the well.

‘If your well there was poisoned, beauty, or sullied such as Jeanne has just done, a unicorn could come along and dip his horn into it and it would become pure again. What do you think of that?’

The girl moved the clove around with her tongue. ‘What do you want me to think of it?’

‘I want you to think of me as your unicorn. There are times when you're sullied, yes, even you, beauty. Every woman is. That is Eve's punishment. But you can be made pure again, every month, if you will only let me tend to you.’ Plough you again and again until you laugh and cry. ‘Every month you will go back to Eden.’ It was that last line that never failed when I was hunting a woman — the idea of that simple paradise seemed to snare them. They always opened their legs to me in the hope that they would find it. Perhaps some of them did.

The girl laughed, raucously this time. She was ready. I reached out to squeeze her and seal our exchange.

‘Claude? Is that you? What's taken you so long?’ A door across from us had opened and a woman stood staring at us, her arms folded across her chest. I dropped my hand.

‘
Pardon
, Maman. Here he is.’ Claude stepped back and gestured at me. I bowed.

‘What's in your mouth?’ the woman asked.

Claude swallowed. ‘Clove. For my tooth.’

‘You should be chewing mint — that's much better for toothache.’

‘Yes, Maman.’ Claude laughed again — probably at the look on my face. She turned and ran from the room, banging the door behind her. The room echoed with her steps.

I shuddered. I had just tried to seduce Jean Le Viste's daughter.

In the times I'd been to the house on the rue du Four I had only ever seen the three Le Viste girls from afar — running across the courtyard, leaving on horses, walking with a group of ladies to Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Of course the girl by the well was one of them too — if I'd been paying attention I would have understood when I saw her hair and how she held herself that she and Claude were sisters. Then I would have guessed who they were and never have told Claude the story of the unicorn. But I had not been thinking about who she was — I'd been thinking about how to bed her.

Claude had only to repeat to her father what I'd said and I would be thrown out, the commission taken from me. And I would never see Claude again.

I wanted her more than ever, and not just for bedding. I wanted to lie with her at my side and talk to her, touch that mouth and hair and make her laugh. I wondered where she had run to in the house. I would never be allowed in there — not a Paris artist with a nobleman's daughter.

I stood very still, thinking of these things. Perhaps I did so for a moment too long. The woman in the doorway moved so that the rosary hanging at her waist clicked against the buttons on her sleeve, and I stepped back from my thoughts. She was looking at me as if she'd guessed all that was going through my head. She said nothing, though, but pushed the door open and went back in. I followed.

I had painted miniatures in many ladies' chambers — this one was not so different. There was a bed made of chestnut and hung with curtains of blue and yellow silk. There were oak chairs in a semicircle, padded with embroidered cushions. There was a side table covered with bottles and a casket for jewels and several chests for dresses. An open window framed a view of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Gathered in the corner were her ladies-in-waiting, working on embroidery. They smiled at me as if they were one person rather than five, and I chided myself for ever thinking Claude could be one of them.

Geneviève de Nanterre — wife of Jean Le Viste and mistress of the house — sat down by the window. She had clearly once been as beautiful as her daughter. She was still a handsome woman, with a wide forehead and a delicate chin, but where Claude's face was heart-shaped, hers had become triangular. Fifteen years as Jean Le Viste's wife had straightened the curves, set the jaw, lined the brow. Her eyes were dark currants to Claude's clear quinces.

In one way, at least, she outshone her daughter. Her dress was richer — cream and green brocade, intricately patterned with flowers and leaves. She wore fine jewels at her throat and her hair was braided with silk and pearls. She would never be mistaken for a lady-in-waiting — she was clearly dressed to be attended to.

‘You have just been with my husband in the Grande Salle,’ she said. ‘Discussing tapestries.’

‘Yes, Madame.’

‘I suppose he wants a battle.’

‘Yes, Madame. The Battle of Nancy.’

‘And what scenes will the tapestries display?’

‘I am not sure, Madame. Monseigneur has only just told me of the tapestries. I need to sit down and sketch before I can say for certain.’

‘Will there be men?’

‘Certainly, Madame.’

‘Horses?’