The Devil's Diadem (37 page)

We were clattering under the gate now, guards standing back and saluting with their long-handled axes and lances, and then we were in an outer bailey. Most of the area was grassed, with two stands of trees, but I saw several large wooden buildings to one side that were likely barracks for soldiers as well as falcon mews and hound kennels.

I looked up at the tower, which we now approached.

This close it was massive, its huge walls punctuated by the slit windows, and corner towers rising even higher than the walls connected by battlements and parapets. I could see guards, their weapons glinting in the sun, pacing slowly along the parapets.

We rode toward an inner wall — not such a massive construction as the outer curtain wall — and yet another gateway.

And then we were in the inner bailey, and a richly dressed man was striding forth to greet us.

‘Chestre!’ Raife said, and I could hear the false cheer in his voice.

Chestre, a man to be careful of, then.

We reined in, and Raife dismounted, leaving a groom to assist me. I tried to remember where I had heard the name before. Chestre … ah, yes. Ranulf de Gernon, Earl of Chestre, close kin to d’Avranches … and the man who had seized Madog’s wife and son … yes?

For a brief moment I remembered that the Welsh princess might well be secured somewhere close by, then I put all thought of her to one side as Raife brought Chestre over to meet me.

He was a big, dark burly man, reminding me of a bear, with a beard so bushy it kept catching in the fine embroidery of his tunic.

‘Lady Maeb,’ he said, surprising me by leaning forward to kiss me on the lips. ‘The court is happy to welcome a Countess of Pengraic back into the midst of its pleasures. Lady Adelie was always so shy.’

‘My lord earl,’ I said, almost dipping in courtesy until Raife’s fingers tightening about my arm stopped me just as one knee began to bend.

‘Edmond has asked to see you both privately,’ Chestre said, ‘before court commences.’ He glanced at me. ‘He is keen to re-make the countess’ acquaintance.’

Raife slid his arm through mine as we walked toward a wide wooden set of stairs that led from the grass up to an enclosed porch on the first floor of the Tower’s southern wall. We talked of inconsequential things as we walked … the brightness of the sun, a knight who had died yesterday by toppling off the parapets while drunk, the wife of a baron who had just given birth to twins — a remarkable event.

‘I have heard you are breeding yourself, my lady,’ Chestre said as we reached the top of the stairs.

‘Yes, my lord,’ I said.

He glanced at my belly. ‘Well, you are not yet far enough along to keep you from courtly sport,’ he said, and waved us through the doorway ahead, leaving me wondering what he meant.

We entered a great hall running north–south (I discovered later that this was known as the lesser hall). It was a large chamber, easily taking up one half of the entire level, and with twin rows of columns running down either side, creating shadowed aisles. There were several score people inside: knights, guards, serving men, and many nobles and noblewomen. But even this number could not fill the hall, and they were scattered about in groups, talking, playing at dice, drinking, or just sitting on the benches that ran along the walls, looking and noting. There were several fireplaces in the hall, two of them with fires burning, and both of these with small groups standing before them, chatting and laughing.

It did not seem so intimidating after all, and I relaxed a little. Chestre led us down the hall, our way lit by thin shafts of light from the narrow windows and torches on the walls. As we proceeded, individuals and groups stopped chatting and turned to us, bowing and dipping in courtesy as we passed.

Their eyes were watchful, careful.

Raife occasionally acknowledged someone with a nod of his head, but otherwise we passed silently and steadily down the centre of the hall to the end, where Chestre indicated a doorway in the eastern wall of the hall. Just as we reached it I noticed two men standing to one side.

One was Saint-Valery. I had a start of surprise, and he smiled at me, bowing graciously.

I wondered what he was truly thinking, seeing me now as Raife’s wife. Perhaps that I had my sights set far higher when he had asked for my hand and that was why I had hesitated over him?

Another man was standing with Saint-Valery. He was very tall, with short-cropped, thick dark hair and a hard face. Unlike everyone else in the hall, he was dressed plainly in a simple white tunic with no embroidery or decoration of any kind.

He stared at me, his eyes hard and uncompromising, and I looked away quickly, grateful for the door.

We walked through into another, smaller chamber and from there Chestre led us to a narrow, dark stairwell in the north-eastern tower. We climbed slowly, emerging into a lovely gallery that overlooked the northern fields. Here we turned almost immediately into a doorway on our left, entering a large chamber that was clearly the king’s privy quarters.

There were perhaps a score of people in this chamber, and, with another start, I recognised Prince Henry among them. He had not seen either Raife or myself, and was standing with another man dressed in a plain white tunic, laughing with him as they drank wine.

Then two of the noblemen in the room moved, and I saw Edmond, sitting in a chair by the fire.

He was looking directly at us, as if he had intuited our entrance the moment we’d stepped through the door.

He rose immediately, waving aside the nobleman he’d been talking to and those who turned to him as he moved toward us.

‘My lord earl,’ he said by way of greeting to Raife, then he turned to me. I dipped low in courtesy, remembering how I’d fallen that day I’d first met the king, and praying my balance would not give way again.

‘My Lady Maeb,’ Edmond said, once more extending his hand to me that I might rise safely.

I looked at him fully, then, the first time I had done so since entering the chamber. He was much the same as the last time I’d seen him, with the short-cropped wiry hair — now with a little grey in it — and the olive-skinned face more suited, I remember thinking from my first glimpse of him, to a more ordinary man. But, as at that first meeting, it proved to be those warm brown eyes that were so compelling.

He was dressed in good but serviceable clothes — not the magnificence I had been expecting.

‘Pengraic said you were not well from your journeying to London,’ the king said, as he stepped forward and, as Chestre had done, planted a kiss on my mouth. ‘He said that you were with child, and early in your breeding. I pray you are recovered now?’

It amazed me that Edmond actually appeared to be genuinely concerned, and, of course, I wondered at the reason behind that concern.

‘All I needed was a little rest, my lord king,’ I said. ‘I am quite recovered now.’

He still had not let go my hand, as he had also lingered over my hand that first day we’d met, and his eyes still had not let go of mine, as also on that first meeting.

‘You look well as a countess,’ he said, ‘but I sorrow at the reason for it. I have heard that you suffered deeply.’

I was aware of everyone else in the room staring at us, silent in their regard, waiting for every word that they might discuss it later.

‘I lived,’ I said, fighting to keep the tears from welling up at the warmth and apparent sincere care in his voice.
Damn him
. ‘Many others, much beloved, did not. I sorrow for my lord,’ I glanced at Raife, ‘who lost so many.’

There was a soft grunt of amusement from someone, and to my horror I realised it was Henry.

I saw Edmond’s eyes flicker to his son, then they were back on me. ‘We will talk more,’ he said, ‘when we dine this afternoon. But for now,’ he finally let go my hand, and addressed Raife, ‘your lord husband looks as though he needs some exercise and fresh air. Come, my lord,’ he gave Raife’s chest a hard slap, ‘we must lose those fine garments of yours, and ride to the hunt. My valet will find you something of more durable wear for the chase … I cannot have you looking finer than me.’

Edmond sent me a faint wink at that, as Raife gave a small bow.

‘The exercise will do me good, my lord,’ he said, and I thought him the liar, for we’d had nothing but exercise this past three weeks to reach London, and I think we were both heartily sick of it, ‘but if I may have a moment to leave Maeb in safe hands?’

‘There are
un
safe hands at my court?’ Edmond said, giving a chuckle, then he waved us away. I dipped again, and Raife bowed, and then Raife led me across the chamber, passing Henry, who gave us a sardonic nod, toward a woman standing against a series of archways that looked as if they led into a chamber mirroring the hall below in size and scope.

‘Alianor,’ Raife said, ‘this is my wife, Maeb. I pray that you shall be careful of her amid this vast nest of vipers.’

Lady Alianor dipped in courtesy to him before switching her gaze to me.

I liked her instantly. She was some fifteen years older than me, of warm beauty and with a ready smile. She dipped — I was overcome with yet another deep sense of unreality seeing this aristocratic lady humble herself before me — and then reached out both her hands to take mine.

‘We shall be friends,’ she said, her smile so amiable I found it hard to believe it had any artifice behind it at all. And yet, as I squeezed her hands, I wondered how deeply I might trust that smile and the woman who wore it.

Chapter Five

‘A
re you quite overcome yet?’ Lady Alianor said to me as we moved to one side, allowing a trio of noblemen to pass through the arch into the great hall beyond.

I gave a wan smile. ‘I dare hardly speak, lest I betray my unease.’

‘You will become used to it.’ We had our arms linked, and she patted my hand. ‘Do not fret about it. Every young girl is overcome when first she arrives here. But you … my dear,
everyone
was agog at the news of the earl’s marriage! The loss of Adelie and her children, especially Stephen, may the saints hold him close, was the most dreadful news, but to have Henry return to court with the news that Pengraic had wed again, and so quick —’

‘And to someone of no name and no dowry.’

She chuckled. ‘And that, too. Well, the court has been hot with rumour and conjecture ever since. What Henry did not tell us was that you were so beautiful. And the king, too, has been keeping such knowledge close … for I believe you have met prior?’

I nodded.

‘Now that I see you, and now that all of court can see you, there will be no more reason to wonder. Sweet Jesu, Maeb, you shall set all the tongues here a-wag!’

Her tone became more serious. ‘And you must learn to use that, as you must use the fact that most will think you a country naïf.’

‘I
am
a —’

‘As of this moment, no, you are not, Maeb. You are the Countess of Pengraic. Apart from Queen Adelaide, and apart from any of the princes’ ‘ wives, you are now one of the highest-ranked women in this land. Your husband stands among the most wealthy and powerful. You will find both flatterers and assassins fawning at your feet. Use them both, but do not allow yourself to be used by them.’

‘There is so much to learn.’

‘Aye, and that is why the earl asked me to care for you. Do not worry, Maeb. I shall not leave your side today, and shall guide you through whatever treacheries occur.’

Any fears I’d had about court mostly evaporated during the morning. Alianor proved a pleasant and reassuring companion. From the king’s privy chamber she took me out to the gallery, where we lingered to enjoy the view. In the far distance, to the east, where spread light forest, we could hear the shouts and horns of the hunting party, although we could not see them.

‘If the king returns with a good boar, he shall be happy,’ she said. ‘If my husband returns with his life intact, then I shall be happy,’ I countered.

‘Why do you fear so, Maeb?’

I told her what I’d learned from both Saint-Valery, Summersete and Henry — that Edmond feared my husband’s power.

‘All kings fear their high nobles’ power,’ Alianor said. ‘They fear their wealth, and the armies they can raise from their lands, and yet most high nobles still walk about with their heads attached to their shoulders. Henry and Summersete?’ She gave an elegant shrug. ‘They are most likely envious of your husband’s easy grasp of power. It makes them dangerous, yes, but they are unlikely to move against him.’

‘And Edmond?’

She thought, looking out over the expanse of green that ran east. ‘Edmond may well worry about Pengraic, but Pengraic has never done anything to threaten the king. Pengraic appears a man happy with what power and wealth he has, and does not covet more.’

She ended that last with a questioning lilt to her voice, and I merely raised my eyebrows slightly at her.

She gave me a little nod, as if approving, and carried on. ‘I think that, rather than fear him, Edmond is oft frustrated by Pengraic. Your husband rarely jumps to Edmond’s will like other noblemen and that irritates Edmond.’

‘Yet Raife agreed happily to the hunt today, when
I
think he would have rather desisted.’

‘That is such a small thing, Maeb. It is in the larger matters that Pengraic oft acts on his own behalf. Not against the king, just on his own behalf.’

I glanced back inside the privy chamber, where I could see Henry continuing his talk with the man in the white tunic.

‘Henry bothers me,’ I said, low.

‘Henry bothers many people. He will be your most dangerous opponent at court, for he hates your husband and covets his power — and his independence from Edmond. Come, let us descend to the lesser hall, and we shall parade along its length, and gather you admirers.’

We carefully traversed the narrow spiral stairs to the lower level — Alianor showing me, unasked, where the privies were on the way (she had borne seven children, she told me, and understood the needs of the woman carrying a child) — and into the lesser hall. Here we spent the next few hours, taking seats before one of the fires, sipping small beer and picking at the tray of fruits and cheeses presented for our pleasure, as one by one or two by two, the noblemen and women of the court came over to introduce themselves. I felt as if I were holding court and I would have been ill at ease, save that Alianor’s presence gave me courage and her continuous whispered commentary gave me the knowledge to deal graciously and easily with the never-ending procession.