Read Online Candle in the Window by Christina Dodd - Free Book Online Page B

the
stars predict a son.”
    “Then the young stallion will produce what
the old saint could not.” William settled back with a grin.
“So Henry has the funds to continue his battles until the
tide turns his way?”
    “He has the funds to buy England, should he
desire it,”Raymond said.
“Eleanor’s eleven years older than Henry, of course,
but she’s an attractive woman.”
    “Age has no bearing on a royal wedding so
long as the woman is fecund,” William said. “Queen
Matilda was fifteen years older than Henry’s father, and
he’s preceded her in death.”
    “’Twas a wise marriage for
Henry,” Nicholas concurred. “It gives him a great deal
of power.”
    “Does Stephen hold him off?” William
asked.
    Raymond said bitterly, “Stephen wavers in the
breeze, as uncertain as ever.”
    “Stephen’s your cousin,” Charles
pointed out.
    “So is Matilda,” Raymond agreed.
“I’d support either one of our sovereigns, or their
sons, if they’d just settle the country.”
    “There’s profit to be made with the
chaos,” Charles said thoughtfully.
    “Profit! What kind of man destroys his honor
to cull profit from his country’s disaster?” William
asked, his scorn palpable as he filled another cup and pushed it
toward Nicholas. “A man without honor crawls on his belly
like the worms of the earth.”
    “’Tis a way to gain lands.”
    “By theft!”
    “Or chicanery,” Nicholas interjected
smoothly.
    “Stephen has plunged the country into
disaster with his vacillating.” William poured one last cup.
“Were he backed against a wall, think you he would declare
Henry his rightful heir?”
    “That’s the question, is it not?”
Raymond laughed. “And what will Stephen’s sons say
about such a dismissal?”
    “A new generation of war.” Nicholas
sighed. “To burn the earth and bring pestilence to the
land.”
    Charles said, “We should have kept our oaths
to—”
    “To whom?” William flashed. “My
only oath of fealty is to the sovereign of England, and I know not
who that is.”
    “Perhaps God has abandoned us,” Raymond
said with sardonic dismay.
    A heavy silence fell as they contemplated the
chaos, then Nicholas roused. “That’s why I like to
fight.”
    “You, Nicholas?” William queried.
“ You like to fight?”
Nicholas was a large man, quiet, jocular when it suited his
purposes. He was not an accomplished knight, yet as an
administrator none could surpass him. What others did with brawn
and might, he did with his clever brain and ability to read others.
If William felt a bit of contempt for Nicholas’s cowardice,
he held it firmly in check. He’d seen Nicholas, as a newly
dubbed knight, return to his older brother’s home to serve
him. He’d seen the brother carried off by the bloody flux
almost immediately, seen Nicholas take control of the estates with
a steady hand that never faltered.
    “Come, William, I’m not so
clumsy,” Nicholas protested.
    William took refuge in a sip of ale, and
Nicholas’s voice smoothed and thinned. “Perhaps I am,
but I like to watch. Fighting keeps my mind off these weighty
matters over which I have no control. I’m hosting a
tournament on Whitsunday, and William, I wish you could
participate. No knight in England holds himself in full good honor
unless he defeats you.”
    William’s voice filled with eagerness.
“A mêlée?”
    “Aye,” Nicholas said. “Remember
the time in Chichester your lance broke in the first charge and
your horse was wounded? And you fought on foot and won ransom from
five different knights?”
    “I just utilized the first rule of
combat,” William said smoothly, and the others laughed as if
they’d been told amarvelous joke. William
grinned at their relish. “I equipped myself and my retinue
handsomely that day.”
    “But the span of your shoulders measured so
large no hauberk you won could fit you.” Charles chuckled,
easily turned to reminisce.
    A voice called from the doorway. “Remember
the time