Read Online Margaret the Queen by Nigel Tranter - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Nigel Tranter
Tags: Historical Novel
Ads: Link
mailed fist slammed down on a table.
Maldred and the two young women had been on a visit to Loch Leven, some fifteen miles to the north, to inspect the vast flocks of waterfowl which wintered there, rowing around the loch in a boat supplied by the Keledei of the cashel of St. Serf on the largest of the islands. The King was already returned when they got back. They found him pacing the hall floor, still clad in his metal-scaled leather tunic and long riding-boots, a beaker of ale in one hand and a leg of cold mutton in the other, jerking out mouthful questions, comments and disapproval as he paced, clearly in no good humour. The Queen sat, stiffly, frozen-faced, at the table, half-turned away from him. Edgar stood nearby looking uneasy and depressed; whilst his mother and sister all but cringed beyond the central fireplace, as though to keep its protection between them and their host. The Earls of Angus and Strathearn waited, to the side, travel-stained, watchful.
"... I tell you no single Saxon was raising a hand against him," he was almost snarling. "What are your devil-damned people? Mice, slugs or men? This William has all cowering before him, stricken as though with the palsy. And you, you cower here!"
"What else could I have done . . . ?" Edgar protested.
" You sent the prince and his ladies here, husband," the Queen said, coldly. "Now do you blame them for coming?"
"If you have not better to say than that, keep silence!" the King snapped. "You could have sent on forces to my aid. Spurred on that idle oaf MacDuff! I was faced with William's full strength. In Cumbria. With a bare two thousand men ..."
"Highness," Maldred put in, from the doorway. "You ordered me to tell my lord of Fife to muster men, but to hold them here until you sent for them. They are at Forteviot and Scone. Another two thousand and more ..."
"Silence, fool! Speak when you are spoken to!" Malcolm snouted. But he paused, as his pale angry eyes went past Maldred to Margaret Atheling, and for a moment he faltered both in his denunciation and his pacing. "I sent messengers, whenever I heard of the Norman's march into Cumbria," he ended shortly.
"No messenger came here," Ingebiorg said. "And if one had reached MacDuff he would have acted. Your messengers must have failed you, or been intercepted."
"As to that, we shall see." Malcolm Canmore bit into his mutton, and spat some of the skin into the fire. He swung on Angus. "Get you to Forteviot and have MacDuff march for Tweed forthwith," he commanded. "With all his strength. We shall hold Tweed and Esk, if the Norman seeks to drive north into Galloway or the Merse or Lothian. Then on with you to your Angus and the Mearns, aye and on to Mar and Buchan also. To muster more men. Every man capable of bearing arms, I want. Horses too. And quickly. Hang such as will not aid you. You, Strathearn — to your own parts, then to the Lennox and Monteith and Alclyde. Raise me a sufficiency of men — or suffer for it! The Duke William has had to see my back — a thousand curses on him and on all who forced it on me! But he shall see my face and my fist if he seeks to step a yard over my border, I swear by Christ God!"
"Husband," the Queen declared evenly, "if this is to be a council-of-war, I pray that you hold it elsewhere than in my hall. You have guests, ladies, whom you sent here. Have you forgot?"
Maldred for one held his breath at that, in fear for the outburst that Ingebiorg would bring down on her head. She was not normally thus bold. But before the King opened his chewing mouth, a new voice spoke, Margaret Atheling's, quiet, firm, yet soothing.
"The lord King must not allow us weak women to incommode him, Highness. We rejoice to see him safe returned, whatever trials he has had to bear and dangers to overcome. But we should relieve him of our presence meantime, when he has much on his mind. Do not you agree, Mother? If His Highness will permit our retiral?"
"Yes. Yes, indeed," the Princess Agatha
Maldred and the two young women had been on a visit to Loch Leven, some fifteen miles to the north, to inspect the vast flocks of waterfowl which wintered there, rowing around the loch in a boat supplied by the Keledei of the cashel of St. Serf on the largest of the islands. The King was already returned when they got back. They found him pacing the hall floor, still clad in his metal-scaled leather tunic and long riding-boots, a beaker of ale in one hand and a leg of cold mutton in the other, jerking out mouthful questions, comments and disapproval as he paced, clearly in no good humour. The Queen sat, stiffly, frozen-faced, at the table, half-turned away from him. Edgar stood nearby looking uneasy and depressed; whilst his mother and sister all but cringed beyond the central fireplace, as though to keep its protection between them and their host. The Earls of Angus and Strathearn waited, to the side, travel-stained, watchful.
"... I tell you no single Saxon was raising a hand against him," he was almost snarling. "What are your devil-damned people? Mice, slugs or men? This William has all cowering before him, stricken as though with the palsy. And you, you cower here!"
"What else could I have done . . . ?" Edgar protested.
" You sent the prince and his ladies here, husband," the Queen said, coldly. "Now do you blame them for coming?"
"If you have not better to say than that, keep silence!" the King snapped. "You could have sent on forces to my aid. Spurred on that idle oaf MacDuff! I was faced with William's full strength. In Cumbria. With a bare two thousand men ..."
"Highness," Maldred put in, from the doorway. "You ordered me to tell my lord of Fife to muster men, but to hold them here until you sent for them. They are at Forteviot and Scone. Another two thousand and more ..."
"Silence, fool! Speak when you are spoken to!" Malcolm snouted. But he paused, as his pale angry eyes went past Maldred to Margaret Atheling, and for a moment he faltered both in his denunciation and his pacing. "I sent messengers, whenever I heard of the Norman's march into Cumbria," he ended shortly.
"No messenger came here," Ingebiorg said. "And if one had reached MacDuff he would have acted. Your messengers must have failed you, or been intercepted."
"As to that, we shall see." Malcolm Canmore bit into his mutton, and spat some of the skin into the fire. He swung on Angus. "Get you to Forteviot and have MacDuff march for Tweed forthwith," he commanded. "With all his strength. We shall hold Tweed and Esk, if the Norman seeks to drive north into Galloway or the Merse or Lothian. Then on with you to your Angus and the Mearns, aye and on to Mar and Buchan also. To muster more men. Every man capable of bearing arms, I want. Horses too. And quickly. Hang such as will not aid you. You, Strathearn — to your own parts, then to the Lennox and Monteith and Alclyde. Raise me a sufficiency of men — or suffer for it! The Duke William has had to see my back — a thousand curses on him and on all who forced it on me! But he shall see my face and my fist if he seeks to step a yard over my border, I swear by Christ God!"
"Husband," the Queen declared evenly, "if this is to be a council-of-war, I pray that you hold it elsewhere than in my hall. You have guests, ladies, whom you sent here. Have you forgot?"
Maldred for one held his breath at that, in fear for the outburst that Ingebiorg would bring down on her head. She was not normally thus bold. But before the King opened his chewing mouth, a new voice spoke, Margaret Atheling's, quiet, firm, yet soothing.
"The lord King must not allow us weak women to incommode him, Highness. We rejoice to see him safe returned, whatever trials he has had to bear and dangers to overcome. But we should relieve him of our presence meantime, when he has much on his mind. Do not you agree, Mother? If His Highness will permit our retiral?"
"Yes. Yes, indeed," the Princess Agatha
Similar Books
