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Authors: Sara Douglass
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activity as the household prepared to leave. I think both the earl (indeed, all three of them) and the king were greatly impatient with this necessary delay, but they bore it well, and spent the best part of the day out hunting for venison with many of their entourage, including Stephen and Saint-Valery. I spent my time between the children’s chamber and the solar, at one moment helping Evelyn and the nurse pack for the children (and keeping the younger ones from under everyone else’s feet), at the next hurrying to Mistress Yvette’s impatient call that I aid her and the countess. In other parts of the house, servants packed plate and linens, barrels of wine and salted meats, tapestries and hangings.
I had not realised so much of the earl’s house travelled back and forth between Pengraic Castle and Rosseley.
‘Normally,’ Evelyn remarked to me at one point during the day, ‘much of the household would be sent on ahead of the earl and his family, to be waiting for them at the castle. But now …’ She shrugged, and moved back to folding linens and ribbons.
I was glad to be so busy with the packing, and running this way and that.
My mind continued to spin with all that had happened yesterday. I had met a king, and sat in on a privy meeting between him and three of his highest nobles. I had heard of great terror approaching, and yet could speak of it to no one. I had attended a great feast of court and had the king’s own man sit next to me.
I had caught a king’s eye.
As had, once, Evelyn.
I found it difficult to reconcile all of this, and what it might mean for my future. Of everything to be afraid of, it was Edmond’s interest which truly unsettled me. His interest would be a passing fancy, little else, and yet it might well ruin my life. I would be discarded as had Evelyn, and as had many others. My only security in life at present was my place within the Pengraic household. There was nothing else. My only future security would be a good marriage to a man with enough estates to ensure I would not lack, through any circumstance. Without that marriage I was truly most vulnerable.
Yet such a marriage rested only on Pengraic’s tenuous goodwill, for I had no dowry to attract interest. I could do nothing to threaten that goodwill if I wanted any future security in life. Pengraic had warned me against his son Stephen. What did he think now, knowing of the king’s interest? That I had deliberately aimed my ambitions higher than Stephen?
I worried and fretted all through the day. News of the plague slipped into the dim recesses of my mind. It was Edmond’s interest that represented my most immediate threat.
Despite what Lady Adelie had said about Pengraic, I could not wait to reach the castle within the Welsh Marches.
The king would be far distant then, and I could relax.
We would be leaving very early the next morning. Lady Adelie had said to me that the first two days would be hard riding, but then, having left behind the king and Pengraic with the greater part of their retinues at Oxeneford, we could travel in more leisurely a fashion to our destination. It was late in the night, and Evelyn and I were readying ourselves for sleep (there had been no feast tonight; merely grabbed food from a platter a servant had brought round), when Evelyn turned abruptly to reach for a shoe she had left to one side of the stool.
Suddenly she cried out in pain, both hands reaching for her back.
‘Evelyn! What has happened?’
She was white and biting her lips. ‘I have wrenched my back, Maeb. Oh, such stupidity! Why could I not have been more careful? And tomorrow we must travel. With this !’
I helped her to bed, Evelyn again crying out with pain as she lowered herself down. I wrapped a shawl about my chemise, and went down to the kitchens to get her a warm poultice for her back.
When finally I, too, went to bed, I cuddled up close to Evelyn, desperately tired, but not able to sleep. I wished for those long,
I had not realised so much of the earl’s house travelled back and forth between Pengraic Castle and Rosseley.
‘Normally,’ Evelyn remarked to me at one point during the day, ‘much of the household would be sent on ahead of the earl and his family, to be waiting for them at the castle. But now …’ She shrugged, and moved back to folding linens and ribbons.
I was glad to be so busy with the packing, and running this way and that.
My mind continued to spin with all that had happened yesterday. I had met a king, and sat in on a privy meeting between him and three of his highest nobles. I had heard of great terror approaching, and yet could speak of it to no one. I had attended a great feast of court and had the king’s own man sit next to me.
I had caught a king’s eye.
As had, once, Evelyn.
I found it difficult to reconcile all of this, and what it might mean for my future. Of everything to be afraid of, it was Edmond’s interest which truly unsettled me. His interest would be a passing fancy, little else, and yet it might well ruin my life. I would be discarded as had Evelyn, and as had many others. My only security in life at present was my place within the Pengraic household. There was nothing else. My only future security would be a good marriage to a man with enough estates to ensure I would not lack, through any circumstance. Without that marriage I was truly most vulnerable.
Yet such a marriage rested only on Pengraic’s tenuous goodwill, for I had no dowry to attract interest. I could do nothing to threaten that goodwill if I wanted any future security in life. Pengraic had warned me against his son Stephen. What did he think now, knowing of the king’s interest? That I had deliberately aimed my ambitions higher than Stephen?
I worried and fretted all through the day. News of the plague slipped into the dim recesses of my mind. It was Edmond’s interest that represented my most immediate threat.
Despite what Lady Adelie had said about Pengraic, I could not wait to reach the castle within the Welsh Marches.
The king would be far distant then, and I could relax.
We would be leaving very early the next morning. Lady Adelie had said to me that the first two days would be hard riding, but then, having left behind the king and Pengraic with the greater part of their retinues at Oxeneford, we could travel in more leisurely a fashion to our destination. It was late in the night, and Evelyn and I were readying ourselves for sleep (there had been no feast tonight; merely grabbed food from a platter a servant had brought round), when Evelyn turned abruptly to reach for a shoe she had left to one side of the stool.
Suddenly she cried out in pain, both hands reaching for her back.
‘Evelyn! What has happened?’
She was white and biting her lips. ‘I have wrenched my back, Maeb. Oh, such stupidity! Why could I not have been more careful? And tomorrow we must travel. With this !’
I helped her to bed, Evelyn again crying out with pain as she lowered herself down. I wrapped a shawl about my chemise, and went down to the kitchens to get her a warm poultice for her back.
When finally I, too, went to bed, I cuddled up close to Evelyn, desperately tired, but not able to sleep. I wished for those long,
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