So with a lighter step I made my way towards Master Fleete’s rooms next to the armoury.
As I crossed the outer court, someone shouted my name.
Alys was hurrying after me.
‘Matt, stop! Wait for me.’
Although worried about any delay, I paused. I owed her a great deal, after all – possibly even my life.
She couldn’t have looked more different this morning. Her hair was tucked demurely in her morning cap, and a sky-blue gown had replaced the torn and bloodstained one of yesterday.
‘Are you going to Master Fleete’s for your punishment?’
I nodded. Then a horrible thought struck me.
‘You’re not too?’
‘Me? Of course not.’ She shuddered. ‘They don’t beat girls. They find other ways of punishing us. But I don’t understand why you have to be beaten. I told the Duchess what happened about the knife. Surely the Duke has let you off?’
I walked on, not wanting to be late.
‘Oh, Matt, you did tell him yourself, didn’t you? What Hugh did.’
‘I hit him first.’
‘But only after he goaded you. You did tell the Duke about him taking my letter?’
‘Of course not. Then I would have had to say about —’
‘About what?’
‘About Elen.’
‘Elen? What about her? That she was stupid enough to be sweet-talked into giving it to Hugh?’
‘She’s not stupid,’ I protested. Alys’s face hardened.
‘She said she was last night. When she was crying at having got you into trouble. She said she should never have listened to Hugh, when he pleaded with her to show him the letter. He said he was just interested in news from court. Then, when she took it from her pouch, he snatched it, and threatened to tell me she’d given it to him freely. She’d have done better to tell me everything straight away. I can deal with Hugh.’
Seeing her eyes flash, I had no doubt she believed that.
‘She should have known he was planning something,’ she railed on. ‘And she knew our letters were private, just for the Order.’
And I remembered how I had never written to Elen in all the time I’d been away. To Alys, to Ed, to Roger – never to Elen.
‘So you didn’t tell the Duke everything. To protect her. Hugh will think you’re weak, not willing to speak up against him.’
‘Well, maybe I am. Small and weak. I’m not a noble or a knight, after all. I—’
We had reached the door to Master Fleete’s rooms. It was ajar.
Knowing there was an antechamber before the inner office, without thinking I pushed it open. Alys, in her anger, followed me as I stepped over the threshold.
My words died away as we saw the scene within.
Master Fleete was standing watching, his arms folded and face grim. One of the apprentice armourers, his sleeves rolled up to reveal his sinewy arms, was bringing down a thick switch hard on the bare buttocks of someone bent over a bench.
It was Hugh, of course. His white backside was streaked with deep red weals from the blows, like the trails of blood on yesterday’s snow-covered cobbles.
I raised a hand to push Alys back out of the room, but she had already seen. Her hand flew to her mouth, too late to stifle a gasp.
All three in the room turned towards us. Hugh’s face, his eyes bulbous, drained white at the sight of us, then flushed scarlet.
Master Fleete strode across the room and hustled us out, closing the door behind him before we could see any more.
‘Wait your turn,’ he ordered me, then, to Alys, ‘And you, my lady, be off with you. This isn’t for your eyes.’
Alys dropped a curtsey, squeezed my hand, whispered ‘Good luck’, and rushed off back across the courtyard.
Master Fleete grunted once, then let himself back into his anteroom.
I waited outside, fear rising within me. Why on earth had I chosen to be ‘chivalrous’?
Though a door was between us, the sound of the switch struck my ears again and again – thwack, thwack, thwack – each time echoed by a muffled groan.
Chapter 19
‘De Cifris’
It was my turn to seat myself with care in the great hall at breakfast, but perhaps I got away lightly. Hugh didn’t turn up for meals that day, or to lessons, and I spotted Lionel sneaking food away from the table at dinner.
The last I’d seen of Hugh was when he pushed past me on leaving Master Fleete’s rooms. By then I was so terrified I was barely aware of the knifing glare he threw my way, let alone the stiffness of his movements, as the weapons tutor beckoned me inside.
Master Fleete’s face was stern as he listened to me and took the Duke’s note. He said not a word to me, but as the apprentice bent me over the bench, fully clothed as I was, he uttered a single number. It was fewer than half the strokes I had heard Hugh endure.
For all that, the beating battered both my body and my pride. It would be days before I could ride Bess again without pain.
Roger eyed me with sympathy as I lowered myself beside him.
‘A hearty welcome back to the castle,’ he said.
I grunted and helped myself to my first food since early the previous day.
Not easily deflected, Roger tried again.
‘Alys said you were to be beaten, but that Hugh was to be too. I wonder that he took his revenge in so public a way as to bring a beating on himself as well.’
‘What do you mean – revenge?’
His face was all puzzlement.
‘Didn’t I write of it in one of my letters?’
‘Roger, you never wrote a letter to me – not a whole one. At most all you ever did was add a few lines on one from Alys or Ed.’
‘Didn’t I? Well, perhaps I should have. But then you weren’t away so very long. It’s just that while you were gone I overheard Hugh say one day that he would get his own back on you and the Duke.’
‘The Duke?’
‘Yes, at what he said were all the times the Duke had humiliated him. The last and worst was being made to serve the grooms after the hunt. He blamed you for that – I’m not sure why. But I don’t see how getting himself yet another beating would help him.’
I shook my head, not understanding it myself.
‘It’s not even as though there was anything interesting in that letter. Well, not really.’ I thought hard. ‘Nothing to get beaten for, anyway. Just a description of what happened at York and something about the journey from London. Oh, and about the goldfinch, I suppose. And —’
I stopped.
‘Yes?’
‘There was a bit of nonsense for Alys. I’d copied it from a book at Master Ashley’s – a romance – it made me think of her. A speech made by a knight wooing his lady. It was so exaggerated – all flowery French – I thought she might enjoy it. You don’t think Hugh —’
‘Took it seriously? I’m not sure his French is good enough for that. Besides, I don’t see him as the jealous type. You and Alys – I mean, really!’
He clutched at his heart as though lovesick, and I punched him gently on the shoulder, hissing, ‘Stop that! Everyone will hear.’
One or two of the pages had glanced his way, but soon turned back to their meal.
‘Well, I want to know how he found out I’d left York in disgrace. That wasn’t in the letter.’ It was lucky, perhaps, that my meeting with John Burton had been only the day before, after I had sent the letter.
‘Perhaps he just guessed,’ said Roger airily. ‘Or, you know, word gets around.’
‘Does it?’
‘Maybe Elen told him.’
I searched back through my memory.
‘I’m not sure Elen knew. And, anyway, why would she tell him?’
‘Why did she give him the letter?’ he asked in reply. ‘Never mind, what’s done is done. You’re home again now, and all can go on as before. Spring’s almost here, soon the hawking will be good, and surely even Ed will be allowed to ride now.�
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Over the next few days everything did seem to return to normal. Normal, that is, as far as life had been during the autumn, before I’d travelled to London. Ed had so far recovered from his illness that the Duchess allowed him to join us in all we did after lessons ended. Before long we were riding up on to the moor tops or along the dale to put Lady through her paces once again. Even the torture of sitting on Bess’s saddle passed. Alys was sharp with Elen for some time, but as Elen rarely joined us on our outings, I soon forgot there had been any cause for complaint between us.
Alys, though, did not forget so easily.
One afternoon, as the four of us were wending our way back down to the water meadows, she spoke up.
‘We must have some way of keeping our letters private if one of us goes away again.’
Roger, who had been riding slightly ahead, scouting for rabbits for Lady, reined his horse back so we could all catch up.
‘We could seal them with wax like the Duke and Master Guylford do.’
‘That’s no good,’ said Alys. ‘If it’s not an official seal, pressed with their signet ring or stamp, anyone could open the letters.’
‘There’s a special book in my father’s library,’ piped up Ed. ‘He told me once he uses it to send coded messages to my uncle when he is at war. Perhaps we could get some ideas from that.’
So that evening, after supper, he brought it to us. It was a small volume of handwritten pages bound in dark red leather, the title ‘De Cifris’ pressed in gold letters on the spine.
‘I’ll have to take it back before bed,’ he said, casting a glance over his shoulder as though he was being followed. ‘It’s from my father’s private shelves.’
‘No matter,’ said Alys, taking the book from him, her face determined. ‘I’m sure we won’t need very long. How difficult can it be to make a code?’
Not very, it seemed, once Alys got the hang of it.
She knew Latin better than the rest of us and her number learning equalled my own, even after my years with my father’s account books. But while she and I enjoyed ourselves discussing the various forms of ciphers in the book, Roger and Ed were soon playing with Murrey and Shadow.
Seeing this, Alys paused, then said in very rapid French,
‘But we must keep it simple. Ed is only young and must not be left out.’
So we went back to the beginning again.
Before long we had a straightforward code in which one letter replaced another in sequence throughout the alphabet. It was the sort that the book called ‘Caesar’s code’ after the great Roman general. But while it was simple, Alys suggested we make it trickier for any enemies to guess by changing the starting letter depending on the day of the week we were writing it. So we started with U replacing A on a Monday, and the start letter moving back three on each day.
I collected my writing things, and by the time Ed had to return the book, we each had a square of parchment bearing the code in my neatest handwriting.
a b c d e f g h I j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
u v w x y z a b c d e f g h I j k l m n o p q r s t Monday
r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h I j k l m n o p q Tuesday
o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h I j k l m n Wednesday
l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h I j k Thursday
i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h Friday
f g h I j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e Saturday
c d e f g h I j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b Sunday
Ed squinted at his.
‘It’s Tuesday today, so my name is –’ he spelt each letter out laboriously, ‘V – u – n – r – i – u.’
‘And mine is I – f – x – v – i,’ said Roger.
‘That’s right,’ said Alys, after checking.
‘It’ll take forever to write a letter,’ said Roger, unconvinced.
‘Not that you ever write letters anyway,’ I said.
He smiled.
‘Well, it’ll take ages to read one, then.’
‘Perhaps you can just write certain words or important parts in the code,’ Alys suggested. ‘Either way, it gives us a chance to keep things secret from Hugh if ever he steals another letter – or from anyone else.’
‘Should we start straight away?’ asked Ed. ‘With any notes we have to send each other?’
I remembered who our main messenger within the castle was.
Maybe Alys had the same thought. Her eyes flicked towards me.
‘I suppose we should. Best to get into the habit of using it. We’ll soon have learned it off by heart if we practise with it.’
‘Shouldn’t we give Elen a copy too?’ I asked.
‘I don’t think so. She’s not really one of the Order. And if she’s caught with one of the letters, she can truthfully say she doesn’t know what it’s about.’
For me, this wasn’t a good reason for excluding Elen, but as Alys still seemed upset with her, I didn’t object. So we all began to use the cipher whenever we sent messages.
Not that we often had a need to. While I was away, Roger had been admitted into the Duchess’s room from time to time to keep Ed company and that didn’t change with the Duke’s return. So the four of us had more chances to be together outside of lessons. And with Hugh and Lionel becoming squires, we now had less reason to be wary from day to day.
But for all I was glad to see them less, I envied Hugh and his friend their promotion. I longed to take that next step towards becoming a knight, although I knew it would be at least two years before I would be considered. Yet it spurred me on to work harder in all my lessons, particularly weapons training. I felt I had even more to prove to Master Fleete after my beating.
As the early signs of spring appeared, the Duke was called away again on business. That evening was the first I had spent in the family’s private chamber without him there.
No business was done while I sang – courtly songs of the Duchess’s choice. She sat sewing with Elen and one of her ladies, often looking across to me and smiling. Alys, Ed and Roger played a game that I didn’t know, moving wooden pieces around a board. When, from time to time, they quarrelled over it, the Duchess would hush them, pointing at me.
After half a dozen songs, she laid down her work and, as the Duke always did, handed round cups of wine. Taking mine, I moved to join the others by the hearth, but she placed a hand on my arm.
‘Bide a while with me, Matthew. I would speak with you.’
As on my first evening with her, I seated myself on a footstool by her chair and waited while she arranged her grey fur rug about her. It was early April, but the evenings were still chill.
‘Well, Matthew, how did you enjoy your visit to London?’
‘Very well, Your Grace. The city was all my father said, and so much more.’
‘It is a remarkable place. And your time at court? What did you make of that?’
I was silent, unsure what she was asking me. I fear I may have appeared rather stupid, but the Duchess simply smiled.
‘It’s so long since I was at court, Matthew. My husband remembers only official matters. I thought perhaps you could tell me more than that.’
‘Your Grace?’
‘About the people there, for instance. Don’t stand aghast – I don’t mean gossip. We are all family. But we see one another so rarely. Young Elizabeth now. Richard tells me her betrothal to the French prince was called off while you were in London. How did she seem after that?’
I shook my head.
‘I’m sorry, Your Grace. I’m afraid I know nothing about that.’
‘Richard was full of what it must mean for the King’s diplomacy, whether it might lead to war with France. But I wonder how my niece feels about it. After all she must be a young woman now.’
‘Yes, she is, and a very fair one.’
In my memory she shone again as she had at the dance on Twelfth Night – lighting up the festivities in her flame-coloured g
own.
‘She is like her mother then?’
‘In some ways, yes, Your Grace. Her hair is long and golden, and she has the grace and face of an angel. But in other ways – well, she seems more like the King.’
‘Indeed?’
‘The Queen has a cool beauty, while Princess Elizabeth’s is warmer, more like the sun than the moon.’
I stopped, hearing myself as though through her ears – a low-born page speaking of the Queen.
But the Duchess only said, ‘Do not worry, Matthew. You are not the only one not to have warmed to the Queen. I wonder whether the Princess Elizabeth will not regret losing this chance to get away. And her brother, Edward? I understand he was there too for a while.’
‘Yes, until Twelfth Night. We rode out together that day.’ The thrill of that ride came back to me now. ‘He was a little reserved at first, but Murrey won him round.’
‘As she would anyone, of course.’
The Duchess reached down to fondle my hound’s ears as she lay curled up at our feet.
‘And you spoke together?’
‘Then, and at the evening festivities. Though he spent much of his time with his uncle Woodville and the Marquess. He barely spoke to his younger brother, Richard, at least when I saw them. It’s as though he hardly knew him.’
‘I think perhaps he has few children for company at Ludlow, poor boy. The royal children are rarely all together in one place. You were lucky to see them at the palace. I wish some of them could visit with us here and meet our Edward. But I fear the Queen would not permit it. The King, they say, allows her to rule on family matters. And many of her own family look after Prince Edward at Ludlow.’
‘I think I saw several of them at court for Christmas, but… well, there were so many lords and ladies, I didn’t find it easy to remember who they all were.’
‘No matter, Matthew. I have little enough interest in the doings of the Woodvilles. If the paths of my family and theirs were never to cross again it would be no loss to me. Indeed I would count it a blessing.’
Casting my mind back to what Roger had told me of the Queen’s family, I wasn’t surprised at her words.
The Order of the White Boar Page 18