Wolf Wood (Part Two): The Dangerous years (18 page)

'I have invited you here so that I can have the pleasure of meeting two people who are renowned throughout Normandy for their kindness. Alice will long be remembered for her work with the midwives. You, Harald, are respected as an honest man who refused to show
favour
, sometimes at great risk to yourself.'

His eyes wandered from one to the other.

'You will perhaps have wondered why you were summoned to Westminster.'

'We have indeed,' Harald said pointedly.

'I recommended your wife to my daughter, Harald. Margaret is with child and I am concerned that she should be in expert hands during the last crucial months of her confinement. Alice is renowned for her skills as a midwife.'

'And for her skills with the mentally ill,' John Arundel added.

'Yes.' Count René nodded. 'My daughter's husband, King Henry, has a history of mental illness and it is best that you hear of it from me. Henry's mother, Katherine, and I are cousins. Her father, Charles, was unable to cope with the burdens of high office when he became king and his mind left him. The kingdom of France fell apart as royal cousins fought amongst themselves. I am sure you would not wish a similar fate to befall England.

'I vividly recall making a visit to the royal palace as a small child,' Count René continued, My parents were horrified by what they found. Katherine and her brother were dressed in rags and filthy. Their mother had abandoned them and was with her latest lover. Their father was shut up in a corner of the palace. His mind had left him and he was eating off the floor like a dog. Neither he nor the children were receiving the care that a normal descent society would have provided. My father took possession of the children and they lived with us for a while. Both showed none of the mental instability that afflicted their parents ... but it has returned.'

A silence ensued. Alice followed Harald's advice and said nothing. In the end, John Arundel spoke.

'The seigneur wishes you to know that His Majesty is similarly afflicted. The symptoms are not as severe as those of his grandfather but they are serious. We are concerned that he be treated in a rational manner without reference to devils and demons as frequently happens. The seigneur has been informed that Alice's approach is to search out causes.'

'I seek to lessen the traumas of mental instability,' Alice interjected. 'I have never claimed to cure the underlying condition.'

She spoke without thinking and Count René replied immediately. The conversation was entirely in French. Harald sat back and was content to let his wife speak. The queen's father evidently had a high regard for his wife. They were about the same age and had similar interests. By royal standards, René was not a rich man but he exerted a considerable influence as an advisor to his cousin, Charles VII of France.

Whether Margaret took as much notice of her father's advice was an open question. Harald had the impression that the relationship between father and daughter was far from smooth. He was learning a lot about the royal court. Steven would be intrigued by what he had found out but was far too young to be
entrusted
with such sensitive information. Harald looked forward to the day when he and his son could talk freely on important matters.

Edward

L
udlow castle had rarely been so packed. Munitions were piled in the forecourt and the meadows were crammed with tents. Robin had made special arrangements to bring in extra fodder and drinking water. The Earl of Salisbury and his son, Warwick, had arrived with a force of heavily armed men.

Henriette climbed the stairs to the battlements and looked out onto the meadows. By a strange twist of fate, they were welcoming the Earl of Salisbury. Twelve years ago, she had fled from him. That was when Alice was being hunted as a witch.

She was sixteen at the time and had led a sheltered life with Alice and Harald in their manor house in Wolf Wood. Four months later, she had grown used to her new life as a fugitive and was pregnant with Maud. The father was Robin. She seduced the one man who could protect her and had lived with him ever since.

The charges against Alice were entirely false. She had become a pawn in the dangerous game of court politics. One side of the royal family was fighting the other for control of the king. They couldn't accuse a duke of using sorcery to kill his nephew the king so they accused his wife and his wife's friends. That was one of the perils of being too close to royalty.

When whales fight ... little fish get crushed.

It was one of Robin's
favourite
expressions. He often repeated it to the children in case they got conceited about living in a castle and having a father who wore a smart uniform. They had to remember that they might be important in some people's eyes but they remained very small fry in the eyes of others. They could easily get crushed when the gauntlet was thrown down and the fighting began.

They nearly got crushed last year. York got together an army to challenge the Lancastrians in Westminster. They marched south and looked very impressive until their followers drifted away. Robin described the outcome as humiliating. That put it mildly. If the Lancastrians had pushed home their advantage, they could have marched on Ludlow and seized the castle. Only the fear of civil war saved them from that calamity.

The Lancastrians made a total mess out of everything. Their followers were all the time clambering for handouts from the king. Since he no longer had much to hand out, that meant taking from some and giving to others. Earlier in the year, they had tried to take land from The Earls of Salisbury and Warwick.

The idiots made enemies of two of the most powerful men in the land. As Robin said, they could have raped their wives and daughters and not caused such an uproar. The nobility value nothing more than land. Everything else takes second place.

York had the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick on his side. Robin believed they were now strong enough to sort out the Lancastrians once and for all. One concerted push was all that was needed. The problem was to make it work first time.

Henriette crossed to the other side of the battlements and looked down into the courtyard. Some children were playing amongst the equipment that had been unloaded from the carts. She saw the duke's son, Edward, amongst them. He was the same age as Maud and a year older than her son, Simon. Maud wore a paper crown and was gesticulating wildly.

***

M
aud liked the games that Edward made up. He was always good fun and she wished he could stay at the castle all the time. Others called him March
.
That was the sort of name you got if your father was a duke. It wasn't a surname like hers was Perry. His surname was Plantagenet so his name was really Edward Plantagenet and his father's was Richard Plantagenet. But people called his father Duke Richard or just York. Edward didn't mind the girls calling him Edward but got mad when the boys did. They had to call him March.

Today, the game was about a wicked French Queen who went around shouting "
Chop of their heads!”
Maud spoke French so she got the part. Simon was her chamberlain. He spoke French but not as well. Her brother was eight when they left France three years ago and didn't like to speak the language. Edward said he mustn't forget it because languages are best learnt when you are young.

Her father liked Edward. He said he was generous and warm hearted. Her mother agreed but said people can change a lot when they grow up and become adults. That would start to happen to them soon. Edward would find life very different when his voice changed. People would no longer think of him as a little boy. He would be expected to behave like a man and that was not easy when your father was a duke who wasn't liked by the king and his French wife.

Maud wondered if Edward was thinking about what would happen to him. His games seemed fun. Perhaps there was more to them. When you are worried it helps to think things though. That's what her mother had told her. You can make a game of it. Perhaps Edward's mother had told him that. She was a nice lady.

They would soon be growing up. Her mother had told her what would happen. Girls periods start and boys produce seed. Some of the mothers in the garrison were angry when she told their daughters about it and she stopped. Maud had learnt not to upset people. She wondered what to expect as they grew older. One thing was certain. Edward wouldn't change. He would always be her friend.

***

R
obin stood in the gallery at the end of the hall and surveyed the people dining at the high table. The duke and the two earls were there with their relatives. Apart from the duke, everyone was a Neville. Strip away the titles and Salisbury became Richard Neville. His son, Warwick, was another Richard Neville. York's wife was Cecily Neville. Cecily and Salisbury were sister and brother, and Cecily was Warwick's aunt. The two other people at the table were also Nevilles. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, was outnumbered five-to-one.

People had rejoiced when the two earls came in on York's side. To Robin, it looked more like a Neville takeover. Warwick's loud voice resonated throughout the hall. People on the lower tables were listening to him rather than the duke. Guests were expected to show more restraint but Warwick didn't care. He continued to dominate the proceedings.

It had been the same earlier in the day when Warwick inspected the duke's troops. A formal occasion developed into a social gathering and only came to an end after a large quantity of ale had been consumed. Warwick said it had been brewed in his Castle of Warwick and he was anxious to have it drunk before it went off. The troops
recognised
the barrels as coming from a local brewery but that merely added to the fun.

Robin supported the duke because he believed he could be trusted to run the country for the good of the people. York was a straightforward man who believed rules should be obeyed and honesty mattered. Now it looked as if he was being compromised by someone like Warwick. The man was already trying to take over and the partnership had hardly begun.

The two earls were on their way north to sort out a land dispute. After that, it would be a matter of waiting to see what happened in Westminster. King Henry hadn't appeared in public for weeks and Queen Margaret was expecting a baby.

People said the baby's father was the Duke of Somerset. It was even
rumoured
that he and Margaret had murdered the king. If Henry didn't put in an appearance soon, there could be plenty of excuses for marching south and taking control in Westminster.

Sister Alice

S
teven stepped back from the alcove and returned the cow horn to his pouch. He had heard breathing on the other end of the listening tube and it had suddenly gone quiet. Someone had either put a cover over it or had blocked it with their ear. The second possibility seemed the more likely. His parents were due back from their walk. One of the queen's spies had probably seen them crossing the courtyard and had returned to his post.

The cow horn had become one of his props. He had learnt to blow it like a hunting horn and amused his friends by making rude noises down it. He didn't care that some people thought he was a bit of a dill for carrying it around so long as they didn't know what it was really used for.

He went to the door and slid back the bolt. Earlier that morning, someone had tried to open it. He suspected they were spies but couldn't be sure. Not everyone who had a key was a spy. The pipes had burst in the cold weather and the plumbers were going around trying to fix the problem. He had listened to them complaining about not being paid.

As far as he could make out, no one was being paid. His father hadn't received a brass farthing in the four weeks they had been there. They had free accommodation in the palace and received food and clothes but no one paid them. His father had pawned gifts to buy things that weren't supplied free. It was totally crazy. People gave you presents but no one gave you money.

He wondered if his mother would be paid when she went to serve the queen as a midwife. That was about to happen. He had heard Queen Margaret and her toadies talking about it in her chamber at the other end of the tube.

Margaret called mother
Sister Alice
and the men called her
Lady Gascoigne
. Half the time they were talking at cross purposes. They seemed to have a lot of difficulty with the queen's French accent. Steven suspected they were too scared to ask her to repeat things. She had such a foul temper.