Read Online The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick - Free Book Online Page A

Yet he could be sweet and charming. He was knowledgeable about nature, loved the trees and the sky, and enjoyed being on the road in merry company where he would shed his solemnity and find his smile, which was winsome and tender. She found him physically attractive too, with his lean, graceful physique, his shining fair hair and dark blue eyes.
    Today he had been invested with the coronet of Aquitaine and the look of pride and satisfaction on his face as the diadem was placed on his brow had filled Alienor with resentment and misgiving rather than pride. It was as if he was taking it for granted that it should be his because God had willed it. Receiving her coronet at his side, she had been politically astute enough to show nothing on her face, but seeing him sitting in the ducal chair with that superior look in his eyes had brought to the fore all her feelings of grief and loneliness over her father’s death, together with the certainty that Louis was never going to fill his shoes.
    ‘There you are!’ Floreta came hurrying down the garden path. ‘People are looking all over for you; it is almost dark.’
    ‘I was thinking of my father. I wish he was still here,’ Alienor said wistfully.
    ‘We all wish that, mistress,’ Floreta said, her tone compassionate, but added, practical and brisk, ‘Yet we must make the best of what we have. He did his best to make sure you would be safe and secure.’
    Alienor sighed and stood up, dusting the back of her gown. The first stars had begun to twinkle over the battlements, but it was still no cooler. ‘I was also thinking of my mother,’ she said. ‘I miss her too.’
    ‘You were named for her.’ Floreta gave Alienor a hug. ‘She will always be with you. Assuredly she is watching over you from heaven.’
    Alienor turned with the nurse to go back to the palace. Heaven was all very well, but it was her mother’s physical presence she craved. She wanted to feel her arms around her, and to be tucked up in bed like a child. She wanted someone to lift the burdens from her shoulders, and let her sleep without worry. Floreta for all her caring would never understand the true depth of her need. No one would.
    Louis was enthusiastic in his lovemaking that night, keen to do his duty and continue the great success of the day following his investiture as Duke of Aquitaine. Alienor answered him fiercely, because it seemed to her that unless she replied with assertion she would lose her identity, and they finished in a sweating, gasping tangle, which left her feeling as if she had been dragged through the heart of a thunderstorm. Certainly Louis behaved as if he had been struck by lightning, and when they prayed afterwards, he knelt at his little altar for a long time, his damp silver hair falling forwards, hiding his face, and his hands clenched so tightly that his knuckles were bloodless.
    ‘I was thinking we should visit the abbey at Saintes,’ Alienor said when eventually they returned to bed. ‘My aunt Agnes is the Abbess there. She is my father’s sister and could not attend the wedding. I wish to make a grant to the abbey now I am Duchess in full.’
    Louis nodded drowsily. ‘That is a seemly notion.’
    ‘I desire to visit my mother’s grave also, and make her chapel into a proper abbey.’
    Again he murmured agreement.
    Alienor kissed his shoulder. ‘Perhaps we could stay in Aquitaine a little longer.’
    She felt him tense. ‘Why?’
    ‘Some of the vassals have not yet sworn allegiance. If we leave without their oaths, they may think they can do as they please. We need their allegiance, and the longer we stay, the more loyal people will be.’ She pressed small, seductive kisses to his collar bone and throat. ‘You could always send Suger and the others back to France and then you would be able to make your own decisions without them telling you what to do all the time.’
    He was silent, absorbing this, and then he said, ‘How long were you thinking?’
    Alienor