The Lion of Justice - Plaidy Jean - Страница 22

William stared at her. ‘Not wish to marry!’

‘I have grown accustomed to my life here and I have come to the conclusion that I cannot leave here to marry you.’

‘You would bury yourself for the rest of your life in this place? I cannot believe that you are serious.’

‘I am in earnest,’ she told him. ‘I know full well that I cannot marry you.’

He could not believe it. What was wrong with him? He was young and women found him attractive. He had thought he pleased her. So it had seemed on the first occasion. Henry had been with them on the second and had taken the centre of the scene but she had given no indication that she was displeased by his attentions.

‘You cannot mean that you wish me to look elsewhere for a wife?’

‘I do mean that.’

‘I will not give up hope.’ he cried.

‘That is for you to say, but I must tell you that you waste your time.’

‘It is impossible.’

‘Nay ‘tis so. I wish you Godspeed and may you find a wife more to your taste than I could ever have been.’

‘I had made up my mind to marry you.’

‘My mind is made up also,’ she told him.

‘So you choose to spend your life here...to waste the years before you!’

She bowed her head.

The two figures rose from the seats.

They spoke gently to Edith.

‘You wish to return to your cell, to meditate?’ whispered one.

‘I do,’ she answered.

‘Then, my lord Earl, we will conduct you to the gate.’

‘Good-bye,’ said Edith. ‘May God go with you.’

* * * * *

The nuns could not resist going to the Abbess’s cell. She lay on her straw, weak but improving. Before her was a book of devotions and her eyes were closed as they entered. She opened them in outraged surprise and glared at the intruders.

‘Reverend Mother,’ they said, ‘the Earl of Surrey has been.’

She was alert. Her eyes stony, her mouth thin with suppressed anger.

‘And so?’ she demanded.

‘He has gone, Mother.’

‘And the Princess has seen him?’

‘She has sent him away. She says she does not wish to marry. She will take the veil.’

The Abbess raised herself on one arm. ‘She has said this! She has said it of her own free will!’

‘Yes, Reverend Mother, we heard and saw her rejection of him.’

The Abbess sank back on her bed. She was smiling grimly to herself.

She believed she had won the battle for Edith’s soul.

* * * * *

Mary was taking a farewell of her sister which was tinged with sadness.

‘Oh, Edith,’ she said, ‘how I wish that you too were leaving this place to marry!’

‘I could not take William Warren.’

‘I thought he was so handsome.’

‘He was not ill-favoured.’

‘So it is true then that you have made up your mind to take the veil and become like Aunt Christina?’

‘I do not think that will come to pass.’

‘Edith...it was Henry. You changed after he came.’

‘Yes, it is Henry.’

‘He is the King’s brother. Does he wish to marry you?’

‘He wishes it.’

‘Then what should stop his making an offer for your hand? I believe our brother and uncle would accept it, for, although Eustace says he has no lands and very little money, he is the son of the Conqueror.’

‘He will offer for me, Mary.’

‘Have you told Aunt Christina?’

‘No. How can I? There is nothing to tell as yet...except that I shall never take the veil.’

‘She will be furious.’

‘I know. She will hate me and be harsh with me. I am no longer a child to be beaten but I doubt not she will attempt to do so. I fear her, Mary. She is so powerful in this little world and she hates any who challenge her power. She will try to trick me. I know. Do not whisper a word of what I have told you. I shall lead her to believe that I have a taste for the sequestered life but that I cannot even yet make up my mind. I shall pray every day that Henry will come for me.’

‘But the King has promised you to William Warren.’

‘That is why I must feign to be preparing myself to take the veil.’

‘He could insist, Edith.’

‘I know. Oh, Mary, sometimes I am afraid. There is the King and Aunt Christina. One would force me to marry, the other to take the veil. But when Henry becomes the King he will claim me.’

‘Edith, how can he become the King while Rufus lives? Rufus is not an old man. He may live for ten more years or twenty. Are you going to defy the King and Aunt Christina all those years? In any case at the end of them you will be too old.’

‘I don’t believe it will be long.’

‘Why does he not storm the Abbey and carry you off?’

‘Without the King’s consent? We should have to leave the country. And where should we go? To Normandy? That is in the King’s hands now. To Scotland! Nay, I know I must be patient. And I know, too, how well worth while the waiting will be. Do not grieve for me, dear Mary. I rejoice that you are free and that your future husband pleases you. That is a great comfort to me.’

The sisters embraced; and a few days later Mary left Wilton for her marriage to Eustace of Boulogne.

* * * * *

Flambard, who was constantly in the King’s company, came to him to announce that his brother Henry was at Court.

‘Ha! said Rufus. ‘Depend upon it he wants something. If I were a soft man, Ranulf, I’d find it in my heart to be sorry for him. All that learning and hardly a mark or two to call his own. Nothing but the hope of what will one day come to him.’

‘He’ll have to wait a long time to see those hopes fulfilled. My hope is never.’

‘It would go ill with you, Ranulf my dear, if he ever took my place. He’d have little time for my friends.’

‘That’s another reason why your friends will guard you with their lives.’

‘Let’s see the fellow and hear what he has to say.’

Henry came into the King’s chamber, and Rufus regarded him appraisingly. Seeming young in comparison with himself, lusty, sturdy with a wealth of good dark hair, a handsome fellow—but not of the kind he admired. Too virile, all man. Why did our father get two sons so different? wondered Rufus.

‘Well, brother, how fares it with you?’

‘Poorly.’ said Henry.’ He glanced significantly at Flambard and the King intercepting his gaze said: ‘Ranulf has become my chief minister and my body-guard. I keep him with me at all times.’

Henry glared distastefully at Ranulf who returned the look insolently.

‘Do you think it fitting that your brother should roam the countryside so poor that he has but three or four attendants, no money to provide himself with horse to ride, and no land?’ asked Henry.

‘Alas.’ said Rufus, ‘we all need so much more than we possess.’

‘You are rich, William. Our father left you England and now Normandy is in pawn to you. I do not think you know the meaning of poverty.’

‘Do I not? Continually I must impose taxation to provide me with the money I need to rule this country.’

‘You are fortunate to have people to tax.’

‘There is a limit to what one can do in that direction. Oh, I sympathize with your poverty. It matches my own.’

Henry was aware of a snigger from Ranulf. He thought: When I am King that man shall pay for his insults to me.

‘I wonder what our father would say if he saw his son reduced to such poverty?’

‘He would doubtless say it was what you deserved. You know what a hard man he was. He left you five thousand pounds in silver. What has happened to it?’

‘You know that I lent Robert almost the whole of it.’

‘Ay, in exchange for the Cotentin. Of which he cheated you. And yet you gave your assistance to him. But for you Rouen would have fallen to me. You held the town for Robert, did you not? I remember what you did to Conan, the leader of those who would have put the town into my hands. You will remember too. You had him flung from the castle turret. You would be a hard ruler, Henry.’

‘I would be just...as our father was. It was the first law we learned from him. Normandy then belonged to our brother.’