desert.
CHAPTER
5
Gabrielle had a
fortnight to convince herself that she would respond differently to Lucien de
Aubric the next time she saw him. Like all the nobility in Jerusalem, she had
been invited to the celebration for the king's birthday at the palace. No one
dared to ignore the summons, especially after all the dissent and rancor that
had followed the recent coup. While many would have tolerated Sibylla on the
throne, few liked having Guy of Lusignan. But now that he was king, few wanted
to incur his disfavor by shunning him.
Gabrielle dreaded
the occasion because it brought her husband and father into town. They arrived
the day before the scheduled event and took over her home like they owned it,
which of course they did. But Gabrielle seldom saw either of them anymore, and
she felt invaded. All of her small handpicked household staff was immediately
set upon; bullied and shouted at and ordered around relentlessly by her demanding
father and husband.
She seethed with silent fury over the degrading way both men
treated her Arabic staff, for each one of them had become more family to her
than servant. All she could do to protect them was to keep them out of sight as
much as possible, which meant she saw to many of the needs of the two men
herself. Their maltreatment was nothing new to her, but it was hard not to
retaliate after she had enjoyed so much freedom these past five years.
Moving away from Kerak and finding such personal fulfillment
in her work with the orphans had healed her and made her stronger. As a result,
her greatest fury came from her renewed feelings of impotence. Yet it would
have been foolhardy to challenge her husband. She did not dare invite his heavy
hand, for herself or her staff. So she held her tongue and reminded herself
that both men were only here for a couple of days.
On the day of the birthday celebration, she arrived at court
with Reynald and Armand, praying for a swift conclusion to the event.
Knowing how the royals liked to dress in the Oriental fashions
of the Byzantine empire, Gabrielle chose to wear a sleeveless gold damask
surcoat over a simple ivory chainse with long wide sleeves, banded above her
elbows, trimmed in bright gold thread. Instead of being girdled at the hips as
was the fashion in the West, her outer garment fell in slender tapering lines
to her silk slippered feet, with long armholes cut to her waist. Her headrail,
worn over a wimple of sheer ivory silk, was wound and interwoven with braided
gold cord into a turban.
Neither Reynald, nor her father had remarked on her
appearance, though Hazir’s daughter, who acted as her maidservant, had
pronounced her lovely enough to rival the queen. Secretly, Gabrielle knew she
had taken such care with her appearance simply in the hope of seeing a certain
dark-haired Templar.
The palace where the Christian kings and queens of Jerusalem
had resided since King Baldwin the II had moved out of the Temple Mount and the
al-Aqsa mosque, leaving it to the Templars, was a newly erected building next
to the Tower of David. Designed with a Byzantine influence, it was a sprawling
complex, which rose four stories high and covered an entire block. Fortress
walls surrounded the entire structure, with a double gatehouse, bridged by a
heavy oak and iron gate at the primary entrance.
In the center of the square structure, there was an enormous
open-air courtyard, bordered on the outer edges by opulent Mediterranean
gardens that provided a cool buffer between the interior and exterior of the
palace. A wide variety of potted palms and stately trees shaded the marble
benches lining the edges of the rectangular court. And in the center, a huge
multi-tiered fountain rose two stories high, spilling water in a shimmering
cascade to the large circular pool at its base.
Latticed balconies and long porticoes rimmed the upper levels
of the palace, all looking over the flag-stoned courtyard below. As Gabrielle
walked across the square to the
CHAPTER
5
Gabrielle had a
fortnight to convince herself that she would respond differently to Lucien de
Aubric the next time she saw him. Like all the nobility in Jerusalem, she had
been invited to the celebration for the king's birthday at the palace. No one
dared to ignore the summons, especially after all the dissent and rancor that
had followed the recent coup. While many would have tolerated Sibylla on the
throne, few liked having Guy of Lusignan. But now that he was king, few wanted
to incur his disfavor by shunning him.
Gabrielle dreaded
the occasion because it brought her husband and father into town. They arrived
the day before the scheduled event and took over her home like they owned it,
which of course they did. But Gabrielle seldom saw either of them anymore, and
she felt invaded. All of her small handpicked household staff was immediately
set upon; bullied and shouted at and ordered around relentlessly by her demanding
father and husband.
She seethed with silent fury over the degrading way both men
treated her Arabic staff, for each one of them had become more family to her
than servant. All she could do to protect them was to keep them out of sight as
much as possible, which meant she saw to many of the needs of the two men
herself. Their maltreatment was nothing new to her, but it was hard not to
retaliate after she had enjoyed so much freedom these past five years.
Moving away from Kerak and finding such personal fulfillment
in her work with the orphans had healed her and made her stronger. As a result,
her greatest fury came from her renewed feelings of impotence. Yet it would
have been foolhardy to challenge her husband. She did not dare invite his heavy
hand, for herself or her staff. So she held her tongue and reminded herself
that both men were only here for a couple of days.
On the day of the birthday celebration, she arrived at court
with Reynald and Armand, praying for a swift conclusion to the event.
Knowing how the royals liked to dress in the Oriental fashions
of the Byzantine empire, Gabrielle chose to wear a sleeveless gold damask
surcoat over a simple ivory chainse with long wide sleeves, banded above her
elbows, trimmed in bright gold thread. Instead of being girdled at the hips as
was the fashion in the West, her outer garment fell in slender tapering lines
to her silk slippered feet, with long armholes cut to her waist. Her headrail,
worn over a wimple of sheer ivory silk, was wound and interwoven with braided
gold cord into a turban.
Neither Reynald, nor her father had remarked on her
appearance, though Hazir’s daughter, who acted as her maidservant, had
pronounced her lovely enough to rival the queen. Secretly, Gabrielle knew she
had taken such care with her appearance simply in the hope of seeing a certain
dark-haired Templar.
The palace where the Christian kings and queens of Jerusalem
had resided since King Baldwin the II had moved out of the Temple Mount and the
al-Aqsa mosque, leaving it to the Templars, was a newly erected building next
to the Tower of David. Designed with a Byzantine influence, it was a sprawling
complex, which rose four stories high and covered an entire block. Fortress
walls surrounded the entire structure, with a double gatehouse, bridged by a
heavy oak and iron gate at the primary entrance.
In the center of the square structure, there was an enormous
open-air courtyard, bordered on the outer edges by opulent Mediterranean
gardens that provided a cool buffer between the interior and exterior of the
palace. A wide variety of potted palms and stately trees shaded the marble
benches lining the edges of the rectangular court. And in the center, a huge
multi-tiered fountain rose two stories high, spilling water in a shimmering
cascade to the large circular pool at its base.
Latticed balconies and long porticoes rimmed the upper levels
of the palace, all looking over the flag-stoned courtyard below. As Gabrielle
walked across the square to the
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