Read Online The Winter Crown by Elizabeth Chadwick - Free Book Online

by moment, hour by hour, and day by day. Each mark of time took her further away from his death, but also distanced her from the time when he was alive, and she clung to his memory and painted it in her mind anew each day, knowing it would fade in slow increments until his bright presence dwindled to a shadow on her soul.
    The Empress had greeted her with a tender embrace and tears in her eyes – and this from a woman who never wept. Alienor had feared that Henry’s mother would blame her for Will’s death, but Matilda had been compassionate and concerned for her welfare.
    ‘You look tired,’ she said. ‘You should not be about so soon after childbirth, and your terrible loss.’
    Alienor shook her head. ‘Had I stayed in England, I would only have spent my days mourning things I cannot change.’ She bit her lip. ‘I have to talk to Henry and he has his daughter to greet.’ She was dreading that moment. Not only was there the death of their son to be navigated, but she feared his response to the new baby because it was a daughter, and not a boy to stand in the place of the one they had lost. She reasoned if she went to him now that she was churched, she might conceive again swiftly, and perhaps if she did bear another son, Henry would forgive her, although she was not sure if she could forgive herself.
    ‘But you will stay here for the rest of the week at least.’ The Empress patted Alienor’s knee with her free hand.
    ‘Yes, madam, of course.’
    ‘Good.’ She jogged the baby for a moment. ‘It is fitting that you chose Reading Abbey for the burial, and at my father’s feet. He was a great king; my grandson would have been one too had he lived.’
    ‘I did everything I could.’ Tears scalded Alienor’s eyes. ‘But it was not enough.’
    The Empress gave her a sharp but not unkind look. ‘I said that to myself on the day I sailed away from England. I spent nine years striving to win the throne that was rightfully mine. There were times I thought I would die in the attempt or be broken forever. Whatever your grief you must absorb the blow and continue because it is your duty.’
    ‘Yes, Mother, I know.’ Alienor tried not to feel resentful. Matilda meant well and offered sound advice, but she did not fully understand. She was the patronising matriarch showing a younger subordinate how much she still had to learn despite the fact that the younger one had been ground through just as many mills.
    ‘I shall write to Henry and tell him to be gentle with you.’
    ‘Thank you, Mother, but I do not need your intervention.’ Alienor had been going to say ‘interference’ but changed the word in time. ‘I can speak for myself.’
    The Empress’s lips pursed as if she was going to take issue, but then she too hesitated and modified her words. ‘I know you can, Daughter,’ she said. ‘But you should consider carefully what you say. My son is like my father and expects the world to do his bidding without question. But he has much of my husband in him too, and that means he will not always deal directly when faced with the needs of others. You must not let him push you too hard, especially when you are not yet in full health.’
    Alienor inclined her head. ‘Thank you for your concern, Mother.’ She knew Matilda would probably still write to Henry. ‘I do want to ask your advice on another matter.’
    Her mother-in-law immediately sat up a little straighter. ‘Indeed?’ Her eyes brightened.
    ‘It is about Henry’s bastard-born son.’ Alienor indicated the small boy sitting with his nurse at the side of the room. She had to steel herself to look at him because he so resembled Will, and was a constant living reminder of what she had lost.
    The Empress nodded. ‘I had heard rumours that my son had a child born of a common whore. I thought the tale unreliable – who knows the father in those circumstances? But I can see with my own eyes that whatever her occupation, the boy is of my son’s