The Queen's Pawn

by Christy English

  I felt his eyes on me as I drew on my shift and tied it loosely at my throat. My fingers lingered in his favorite places, at my throat, over my breasts, over the curve of my hips. I stepped into my gown and pulled it closed around me, taking my time to lace the side, drawing the red silk ribbons closed, as Henry had drawn them open, slowly, his eyes always on me.

  Henry knocked on his outer door, and a man-at-arms came in and bowed low, first to Henry, and then to me.

  “Matthew will take you a back way to your rooms.”

  I stepped toward Henry and met his eyes. I stood close, but did not touch him. I kept my voice soft, with a touch of servility, now that we were no longer alone.

  “My lord king, I would walk the main corridors unencumbered. I am ashamed of nothing that has passed between us.”

  Henry’s gray eyes examined mine, and he saw once more that I was not lying. I think he began to love me in that moment, when he knew my courage and saw it reflected in my eyes.

  He drew me close, and kissed me. “Indeed, Princess. And so you should not be.” Henry handed me my veil, as if he were my lady’s maid. Once I pinned it to my hair, he placed my gold filet on my head.

  He lowered his voice, and pressed his lips to my ear. “Give me until tonight. I will take care of you. You will see.”

  “I trust you, my lord. I will wait.”

  I curtsied, bowing low, so that my head rested at the level of his thigh. He chuckled, and raised me up. “You had better go, Alais, before I forget that there is a kingdom to see to.”

  I said nothing, but smiled back at him over my shoulder before following his man into the darkness of the hidden corridor. I walked away from the king then, and I did not look back.

  I found Marie Helene alone in my rooms, dressed in the same gown she had worn the night before, my little dog drawn close on her lap. She set Bijou down as soon as she saw me, and my puppy ran to me, jumping on my knees. I knelt to pet her ears. She licked my face, happy to see me, and happy to catch the scent of Henry on my hair.

  “I did not sleep, for fear of you,” Marie Helene said.

  “You should have,” I answered. “All was well with me. I was with the king.”

  “I know, my lady. I thought you might return, and need me.”

  I crossed the room to her, and took her hand in mine. “I would have woken you.” She still would not meet my eyes. “Are you ashamed of me?”

  Her eyes flew to mine at once, and I saw the truth in them. “No, my lady.”

  “Then you fear the queen.”

  “No, Your Highness. I fear for you.”

  I squeezed her hand, then let it go. “Do not, Marie Helene. As I said, all is well with me. I am with the king.”

  “My lady, what of your father?”

  I felt shame pressing on me, calling to me from behind the closed door in my mind, where all the teachings of my childhood lay. But the door stayed locked. I would see to my father’s welfare. I would see to the kingdom of France, as was my duty and my right. My shame was my own business.

  “Do not trouble yourself for my sake, Marie Helene. I have all well in hand.”

  She did not question me again, but went to fetch my bathwater. I saw on her right hand a ring, gleaming in the sunlight of my bedroom. It was an emerald set in gold. The queen had given it to her, to secure her loyalty, perhaps to spy on me.

  “Marie Helene, I see her ring on your hand. Do you serve the queen?”

  “No, my lady. I serve you.”

  Without looking down at her hand she reached for the ring, and drew it off. She moved to my window as if to cast it from her, out of my sight. I caught her hand in mine.

  “No, Marie Helene. Keep her ring, and wear it. But if news of me comes to the queen, I will know it came from you.”

  She knelt, and her face crumpled, tears on her cheeks. “My lady, I swear, she will learn nothing of your doings from me.”

  I felt the sharpness of my own words pricking me, but I would not have my rooms divided against me. I raised Marie Helene and kissed her, for I saw how deeply she had been hurt by what I had said. I repented the pain I had caused. She was simply a pawn, as I had been, as I would still be had I not struck out on my own, and made a bargain for myself.

  I dried her tears with Eleanor’s handkerchief, then slid that bit of linen back into my sleeve. Even now it was dear to me, the dearest of all my possessions. The king might give me a dozen gowns in cloth of gold, and have his own people embroider his crest on my sleeves. Still, that bit of cloth would be the dearest thing I owned, because once it had been hers.

  I bathed, and dressed in a dark blue gown. I strung my father’s rosary about my waist, but I did not kneel to pray as I usually did in the morning. Marie Helene called for picnic things, and for a man-at-arms to carry them. I would not walk out alone, with only one woman to accompany me. I would be careful of my honor, and protect it, now that I was the king’s mistress.

  I set aside all thoughts of Richard and of Eleanor. I set aside all thoughts of my father. I still had a good deal to play for, and I could not do it if I thought of them. Henry was drawn to me, but I did not have him yet. I would have to secure him, and hold him fast, before I took the next step toward my chosen future.

  We walked out of the castle, Bijou in my arms. It was still early, so we saw no one from the court, which was just as well. Our man cast down a blanket for us at the riverside, and we spent the day eating bread and cheese, and watching Bijou pretend to hunt in the tall grasses that grew there. She was small, but like her mother, she had the heart of a lion.

  When we came back to the palace, night had begun to fall. The shadows grew long in the corridors at Windsor, and our man had to lead us by the light of a torch back to my rooms.

  As we passed the courtiers in the hallway heading downstairs for the evening meal, they met my eyes. I thought they might simper or laugh at me behind their hands, pious Louis’ daughter, the princess of France who had fallen into disgrace. But they did not. Instead, they all stopped as soon as they saw me. Each bowed low to me, almost as if I were queen.

  We came into my rooms, and Marie Helene went to fetch new shoes for me to wear into the great hall that night. Eleanor’s woman knocked almost as soon as I closed my bedroom door behind me. The queen must have known where I was, and had kept watch for when I would return.

  Margaret entered my rooms when I gave permission, but she did not come close, as she once would have done. At the sight of her, my anger rose once more, and I almost ordered her from my presence. But Eleanor had sent her. It was a blow intended for me, and I stood under it.

  The girl’s face was pale beneath her veil. No doubt she had heard that I knew of her affair with my betrothed, and of my fury But now I had no stones to cast at her. I was a mistress, too.

  She curtsied deeply, and spoke to me with respect, fear shining from her clear blue eyes, as if I were an adder that might bite.

  “Your Royal Highness. The queen requests your presence in her rooms before supper in the hall. If you would see her there, she would be most obliged”

  I thought she would leave then, her message delivered. As Margaret stood watching me, I realized that she waited to take my answer back.

  Marie Helene shifted behind me. I heard her hush Bijou, who had begun to bark, angry at not being allowed to run and sniff the new woman standing there.

  I saw in Margaret’s fear-filled eyes that the whole court knew of my fall, and that it did not make me less in their eyes. By taking my maidenhead, Henry had raised me in the esteem of this court, if nowhere else on earth. That would work to my advantage in the days to come. I still had everything to play for.

  “Please tell the queen that I will come to her directly”

  The woman curtsied again, this time with her eyes downcast. “As you wish, Your Highness.”

  Marie Helene looked at me, and I saw the fear on her face. I went to her, and kissed her cheek. Bijou leaped up between us, as if to free herself from Marie H
elene’s arms. I stroked my little dog’s head.

  “Shall I come with you, my lady?”

  I saw that no matter how I reassured her, she would always fear for me.

  “No, Marie Helene. Dress for dinner. I will see you in the great hall.”

  She curtsied as I left, Bijou in her arms. Even Marie Helene respected me more now that I was Henry’s lover. We would see how much else I might gain, if all the court found respect for me after only one night.

  Chapter 21

  ELEANOR: THE QUEEN

  Windsor Castle

  July 1172

  When Alais came to me, she did not knock, for the door was open and my women saw her coming. The tallest of my ladies beckoned her in with a smile, as if to welcome her into the ranks of the wicked.

  I raised one hand, and my women withdrew from the room.

  The door closed behind them. Amaria lingered, to see if I would have her stay, but my hand remained raised, so she withdrew as well. Alais and I were alone, but for Richard, who stood behind me. If she was affected by the sight of my son, her face showed no sign of it.

  I stood before my daughter, before the woman who had betrayed me with my own husband in my own house. I looked for the little girl I had known, the little girl I had taken under my wing when she first came to me from France. As I looked into her eyes, a woman stared back at me, a woman of my own devising. Had I not been so miserable, I might have laughed at the irony of Fate. As it was, I simply offered her a chair.

  “Will you join me, Alais? Will you take some wine?”

  “I thank you, Your Majesty. No”

  Alais continued to stand, and continued to look at me. She did not glance at my son or acknowledge his presence.

  It had been a long day for me. I had endured scenes with Richard, who came back to court when I sent word, who now stood behind me in sullen silence, having refused to leave the room. I had suffered the silent consternation of my own ladies, which no doubt turned to amusement when they were out of my sight. I still had the meal in the great hall to face. I hoped to settle with Alais now, and to make the best of what had happened.

  “Alais, you must deny the king.”

  She stared at me, the daughter of my heart, and I saw her strength as I had always seen it. Now I saw not only her strength but also the will behind it.

  I had thought to control this girl. She was only fourteen. But then I remembered: I had been only fifteen when I first became queen of France. I had asked no one’s leave, either.

  Alais held my eyes when she answered me. “I deny nothing.”

  I sighed, and sat down, raising my goblet of wine to my lips. It was my silver goblet, the one that had gone missing the night before. I found later that it had been brought to Alais in the king’s rooms, at her request, so that I had to drink my wine from another. I kept my silver ewer and goblet in my own chamber now. No one would be fool enough to take them from there, not even Henry’s chamberlain. Henry’s people were allowed nowhere near my rooms, though no doubt he had spies among my women, as I had among his men.

  “Alais, you have put me in an untenable position. You have slept with my husband, and all the court knows it. You must deny that it happened. If we stand together, we can save your reputation and our treaty with France. If you stand with me, I can protect you, even from yourself.”

  “I have the king’s protection. I have no need of any other.”

  I felt my temper rise, and I clamped my jaw down on it. If we both gave up our reason, neither of us would get anywhere. I did not look to Richard. He stayed silent behind me, as he had promised me he would. I knew he did not trust himself to speak with her, that, even now, his heart bled as if she had stabbed him with his own knife.

  My eyes moved to the hourglass and saw that there was little time left before the evening meal. I would have to secure her assent, and quickly. There was no more time for niceties.

  I saw the stubborn set of her lips, and remembered where I had seen that stubbornness before. Louis had always looked like that when he was determined to get his way Louis had given me that same look when I asked to be left with Raymond in peace. No doubt he would have worn that look the whole time he laid siege to Antioch, if I had not walked out of that city, and agreed to come home with him. The stubborn look sat strange on my daughter’s face, but she had been Louis’ daughter before she was mine.

  “You are making a fool of me in my own court, Alais. I will not allow it.”

  She stared at me without answering. I saw that she had not forgiven me for handing over her letter to the king. Behind her fury, I also saw her pain. She felt Richard had betrayed her, simply because he was a man. She felt I had betrayed her. She was furious with me for acting against her, for handing over her letter to Henry. But she was my daughter. I could bring her back to me.

  Richard stepped forward then, and came to stand at my side. Finally, Alais looked at him, at the man she had claimed so fervently to love before she cuckolded him with my husband.

  When she saw his face, the pain in his eyes pierced her fury. Alais took a step toward him, as if drawn by a higher force, as if she could not stop herself. She moved only one step, for Richard flinched away from her as if she were a leper and might infect all who came too near.

  “How could you?” he asked her, his own fury rising to fill the blue of his eyes. “How could you be so faithless, and with him?”

  Alais drew herself up as if he had struck her. I saw the tears in her eyes, tears that I knew she would not shed.

  “You keep a mistress, and sit in judgment on me?”

  Richard blinked, stunned. No woman in his life had ever thrown his infidelity back in his face. No other woman would have dared. But Alais stood before him, her dark eyes blazing with an inner fire.

  I saw in that moment that she refused to accept what I had understood all my life: men are unfaithful ever. She thought to hold the men she loved to a higher standard. I could have warned her to look elsewhere if she expected faithfulness from Henry

  “I thought better of you,” Richard said.

  Alais swallowed her tears, for they had risen once more, and vied with her fury for supremacy. Her fury won, if only barely. Her eyes grew calm, her voice cold, as if we were dead to her already.

  “I will deny nothing, for I am ashamed of nothing, except that I called you beloved and meant it”

  I did not know if she was speaking to Richard or to me. Perhaps she was speaking to both of us. I know I felt the pain of her words, and I saw my own pain mirrored on Richard’s face.

  She left us gasping. She walked away as if she had never known us, as if she might never see us again. I thought I might weep, for my heart was bleeding. Richard came to me then, and took my arm.

  My strength flowed back at his touch. Alais loved me still, I knew that she did. I need only continue to chase her; I would run her to ground. What lay between us could not be undone.

  Richard escorted me into Henry’s hall, his eyes shadowed and his face grim. I smiled brightly for all to see, and greeted by name each person who called to me, with a graceful sweep of my arm.

  Alais was there before us, seated at Henry’s right hand. She shared his trencher, lifting a morsel of squab to her lips as her eyes turned to look at me. They had started the feast without us.

  Henry saw the breach and regretted it. I was still his wife and queen. He smiled at me and bowed, first to me and then to Richard. My smile did not leave my face, though the knife twisted in my heart. The sight of my daughter seated next to my husband, as if her place were there and not with me, was almost my undoing. But I would not think of that. Instead, I pressed my hand down hard on Richard’s arm until he bowed to his father, and drew out my chair for me.

  “Welcome, wife,” Henry called, sitting down once more and raising his glass to me. I thought at first he meant to rub my face in his triumph, but I saw soon that he meant only to make the peace. I was mollified. God knows, I had seen such mistresses come and go before.
Never before had one of them been my daughter, fed from my own heart’s blood. But I would not think of that, either.

  Alais said nothing, but when I raised my glass to her, she bowed her head to me. I wondered if we still might play it off, for if Henry favored her only, but did not acknowledge her as his mistress, all public knowledge of this business could still be avoided. But little did I know her, and her plans.

  Henry rose once more but gestured for the court to sit. He raised his tankard of mead to the whole company, and the idle talk fell silent.

  “I am happy to announce that I will be going to my hunting lodge at Deptford. There I will see to the needs of the kingdom while indulging in some much-needed respite. While I am gone, Eleanor, my queen, will sit in state at Windsor, and keep you all in fine spirits, until I return.”

  I raised my glass to him as if I had known of this all along, as if he had consulted me, as indeed he once would have done. My dissembling was so skilled that even Richard was taken in, and glared at me until I pressed his hand beneath the table.

  “My lady Alais, Princess of France, will accompany me into my self-imposed exile. She will give me comfort while I withdraw from public life, to deal with the affairs of state in private.”

  Alais stood with him then, and the hall applauded her. I was a beat behind, but as always, I was quick to pick up the tune. I set my goblet down and applauded her also, the knife twisting where she had stabbed me the night before. Still I smiled, while Richard glowered, but even he showed restraint. He did not stalk from the hall as he once would have done.

  They sat down, and the king leaned close to fill her glass with wine taken from my own barrels. While he poured my wine for her with his own hand, Alais smiled at him, and rewarded him with a kiss. She did not give him a demure peck as a daughter might, but opened her mouth over his, welcoming his tongue, as he no doubt had taught her to do the night before. One of the younger men let out a whoop to see her do it, then turned pale as he looked at me.