Read Online Knight's Honor by Roberta Gellis - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Roberta Gellis
Tags: Fantasy
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hit home. "What more do you want me to say? I suppose that you could guess without my telling you that I expect to hear from the others so that we can meet to plan in the future. You have changed too if you now need every little thing to be explained."
"I need very little explained. I have good eyes and good ears, but I did not think to need to use pincers to get information from my son-by-marriage."
"What information do you want?" Hereford asked irritably, his voice now so loud that Elizabeth checked in the middle of the instructions she was giving and hurried back to them. "I have told you everything I know myself that you had not already heard. Do you want me to make up tales for you?"
"You have avoided mentioning Henry and what befell in France, as though the topics were sacred."
Elizabeth drew breath to speak, but caught the flicker of relief on Hereford's face and just stood listening.
"Oh, Henry." He shrugged. "There is nothing to tell."
"You have grown very cool since I last heard from you. What happened?"
"Cool toward Henry, you mean? No, not at all, but he has no part in the immediate future and my mind has been so taken up with— He will come when it is safe for him to do so, and we will be knighted together by David of Scotland. I can do homage to Henry then, as the heir to England, with perfect propriety since Stephen has not yet openly repudiated the arrangement that Henry should succeed him. That is neat, I think. I do homage to England without pledging my honor to Stephen."
The look of relief had been caught by Chester as easily as by his daughter, even though it had been quickly hidden. Nor did the slip Hereford made about his thoughts being on some immediate action go unnoticed, but Chester was too clever to press the young man when his temper was plainly on edge. He would have opportunity to discover all he wanted to know in the next few days, he thought, believing that Hereford was still too transparent and honest to be a good keeper of secrets.
Chester, however, knew nothing of the training his friend had undergone in the last two years; he was closer to right when he said Hereford had changed. He took the goblet of wine Elizabeth was holding out to him and drank, seeking a new approach.
"Do you still think Henry is the man for us? He is young. Will he be able to hold the barons of England together?"
"Hold them?" Hereford laughed. "He is likely to mash them together if they do not behave. By God's bright eyes, Rannulf, it is a man! It is a man such as we have not seen in this country since the first Henry died. Yet in all, perhaps, he is better still for, though he has the old king's fierceness and determination, he has his father's disposition. He is free completely of his mother's and grandfather's sourness. You never saw a man easier of laughter, nor more willing to laugh and talk. It is as well that I am no great talker in little things because that one's tongue is never still. You should see him. He talks in French and writes in Latin at the same time. Ay, and like as not, the other eye is on another letter or set of accounts."
"Then the young king is perfect?"
"Nay, I did not say that. Some faults he has, being a man, but they are not such as make a bad king. He has a temper—he will say anything and do anything in a rage—but the heat cools as fast as it rises, and, when cool, he is just. Also, and this he takes, without doubt, from his mother, he is close-fisted as a usurer. He does not ask for much, but what he gets and what is his, he holds hard. This matter is something we must talk over well, Father, and not carelessly or in haste. Do you be very certain you know what is yours and what more you wish to have of him before he comes. Then write it all down, and many copies also so that if one be lost there will be others. Be sure you have written one grant for what is already your own, another for what you desire from him. When he comes, make him sign every copy and take one for
"I need very little explained. I have good eyes and good ears, but I did not think to need to use pincers to get information from my son-by-marriage."
"What information do you want?" Hereford asked irritably, his voice now so loud that Elizabeth checked in the middle of the instructions she was giving and hurried back to them. "I have told you everything I know myself that you had not already heard. Do you want me to make up tales for you?"
"You have avoided mentioning Henry and what befell in France, as though the topics were sacred."
Elizabeth drew breath to speak, but caught the flicker of relief on Hereford's face and just stood listening.
"Oh, Henry." He shrugged. "There is nothing to tell."
"You have grown very cool since I last heard from you. What happened?"
"Cool toward Henry, you mean? No, not at all, but he has no part in the immediate future and my mind has been so taken up with— He will come when it is safe for him to do so, and we will be knighted together by David of Scotland. I can do homage to Henry then, as the heir to England, with perfect propriety since Stephen has not yet openly repudiated the arrangement that Henry should succeed him. That is neat, I think. I do homage to England without pledging my honor to Stephen."
The look of relief had been caught by Chester as easily as by his daughter, even though it had been quickly hidden. Nor did the slip Hereford made about his thoughts being on some immediate action go unnoticed, but Chester was too clever to press the young man when his temper was plainly on edge. He would have opportunity to discover all he wanted to know in the next few days, he thought, believing that Hereford was still too transparent and honest to be a good keeper of secrets.
Chester, however, knew nothing of the training his friend had undergone in the last two years; he was closer to right when he said Hereford had changed. He took the goblet of wine Elizabeth was holding out to him and drank, seeking a new approach.
"Do you still think Henry is the man for us? He is young. Will he be able to hold the barons of England together?"
"Hold them?" Hereford laughed. "He is likely to mash them together if they do not behave. By God's bright eyes, Rannulf, it is a man! It is a man such as we have not seen in this country since the first Henry died. Yet in all, perhaps, he is better still for, though he has the old king's fierceness and determination, he has his father's disposition. He is free completely of his mother's and grandfather's sourness. You never saw a man easier of laughter, nor more willing to laugh and talk. It is as well that I am no great talker in little things because that one's tongue is never still. You should see him. He talks in French and writes in Latin at the same time. Ay, and like as not, the other eye is on another letter or set of accounts."
"Then the young king is perfect?"
"Nay, I did not say that. Some faults he has, being a man, but they are not such as make a bad king. He has a temper—he will say anything and do anything in a rage—but the heat cools as fast as it rises, and, when cool, he is just. Also, and this he takes, without doubt, from his mother, he is close-fisted as a usurer. He does not ask for much, but what he gets and what is his, he holds hard. This matter is something we must talk over well, Father, and not carelessly or in haste. Do you be very certain you know what is yours and what more you wish to have of him before he comes. Then write it all down, and many copies also so that if one be lost there will be others. Be sure you have written one grant for what is already your own, another for what you desire from him. When he comes, make him sign every copy and take one for
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