Day of Judgment: The Janna Chronicles 6
Page 5
“I shall give you a lotion to cleanse your wound, and also a healing salve for it. If it is left untreated it will continue to fester. It may even prove fatal,” she told him, not hesitating to stretch the truth if it would serve her cause.
He blinked, and touched his forehead once more, then scrutinized fingers that now bore a trace of the yellow pus. “I would be grateful, my lady,” he muttered.
“These are dangerous times to be on the road,” she prompted. “Who was responsible for the trouble you encountered? Outlaws? Or supporters of the king? Or the empress?”
He shot her a swift glance.
“Who stole from you and left you wounded almost to death?” Still the man didn’t speak. “My father is in a position to help you if you can give a description of the culprits and where you encountered them.” Janna didn’t know if this was true, but hoped her promise would prompt him into speech. “Did you get in the way of the king’s barons?”
He made a growling noise in the back of his throat. Encouraged, Janna questioned him further. “Or is it the empress’s supporters who are preying on innocent travelers?”
“She would never permit such a thing!”
Janna wasn’t so sure about that, but was not about to cast doubt on his statement. “Outlaws, then? Where are you from?”
“Oxeneford.” The man hesitated, perhaps understanding the significance of what he’d just admitted. “I was attacked soon after I left the town,” he added quickly. “Thereafter I traveled only at night, and took care not to attract attention.”
Janna nodded thoughtfully. “Wolvesey Palace is the Bishop of Winchestre’s residence. Will you speak to him instead of my father?” she asked, deliberately omitting to mention that the bishop wasn’t home.
“No, my lady,” the man answered quickly.
Janna took a deep breath. She was already at odds with her father, and risked widening the rift if she couldn’t convince him of the justice of the empress’s cause. So now she must make a choice: she could stay safe or once again risk everything for the sake of the empress. If she miscalculated, she would face her father’s wrath and a possible charge of treason. But she’d come this far; she could not give up now. “You must tell me the truth about your message for my father. Will it help if I tell you that I have ever been a supporter of the empress?” She watched the man’s reaction to her words. Had he relaxed slightly? Did he look a little less anxious? She couldn’t be sure.
“If the empress has sent a message to my father, you would do well to give it to me first,” she urged. “I don’t know where my father’s loyalty lies, and it would be best to find that out before giving him your message. I would not jeopardize the empress’s safety by letting it fall into the wrong hands.”
The man stared down at his feet as if he could read there the answer to the quandary in which he found himself.
“Is the message written, or will you tell it to me?” Janna hoped that the outlaws had not robbed him also of the letter, for if so, the empress was doomed. But, after what seemed like an eternity, he reached into the neck of his tunic and untied a leather thong. Silently, he passed the thong, and the small pouch attached to it, to Janna.
At once she undid the drawstring, found the parchment enclosed within and quickly unfolded it. With an exclamation of annoyance, she realized that the message was written in the language of the church. “I shall have to show this to my father, for I cannot read it,” she told him, “but first, can you give me any sense of what it might say?”
The man threw up his hands. “The empress is trapped in the castle, my lady, and looks set to stay there until she surrenders to the king, for there is no escaping the guards he has posted around the castle walls. I am one of the empress’s grooms, and I was only able to escape because I – ” He paused, and his face turned a dusky shade of red, making him look suddenly much younger and very ill at ease. “I have a young woman in the town and I sometimes broke curfew to visit her at night. So I was able to creep away in the first early confusion of the king’s siege of Oxeneford. I waited quite some time before departing the town, hoping that the empress and her entourage might follow in my footsteps. I’d told her tiring woman the route to take, you see, but I finally realized that all ways had been barred to them and they were trapped within the castle. And so I came to deliver the message, as instructed. But the ambush has delayed me, and so has my need to travel at night and stay hidden. I fear what may have happened to the empress in my absence.”
“What does the message say?”
“I know not. All I know is that when I left Oxeneford, the empress’s most loyal supporter, Robert of Gloucestre, was out of the country helping the empress’s husband secure Normandy, while most of those barons the earl left to protect her in his absence had fled to their own demesnes. The empress had no-one on the outside she could trust. Her tiring woman told me as much. This message may be to ask your father to send word to the earl to let him know of her plight, or to muster troops to come to her defense before they all starve or are forced into submission. I believe the empress hopes for your father’s help, my lady, but I cannot know for certain. All I know is that the message has been made far more urgent because of the delay.”
Janna nodded thoughtfully. Her father had property in Normandy, he was known there. It made sense for the empress to call on him – so long as her father could be trusted to support her cause.
“I will talk to my father and see what we may do to aid the empress,” she said, and pointed in the direction of the kitchen. “Go there and ask for food and drink. Tell no-one what you have told me, but you can tell them Mistress Johanna sent you. Have a rest while you may, for this will take some time. I shall call for you when I have prepared the medicaments to treat your wound. What is your name?”
“Osbern, my lady. And my thanks to you.”
Janna turned away. She quickly folded the parchment and replaced it in the small pouch, clutching it tightly in her fist to hide it from prying eyes, and hurried off in search of her father. She hoped that this recent calamity would not prejudice him against her. She also prayed that he would prove sympathetic to the empress’s cause and be able to come up with some plan to help Matilda escape.
Escape. A smile twitched the corners of Janna’s mouth as a memory came back to her – and with it the beginnings of an idea. It was a mad idea, but was yet so daring that it might even succeed. Her thoughts raced ahead. She would not confide all that was in her mind to her father, but if she could get him to agree to just the first part of her plan, not only might she help the empress to escape the king’s cordon, she would be able to protect herself from harm at the same time.
*
She found her father, grave-faced and alone, in the solar. Blanche must still be having hysterics over her pet dog in their bedchamber. To Janna’s relief, there was no sign of her siblings either.
“I have a question for you, Papa,” Janna said, going straight to the heart of the matter, while keeping the small pouch carefully hidden in her fist.
“And I have a question for you, Johanna,” he said sternly in return. “Blanche is right about one thing. I cannot have this continuing conflict between you and my family. If this cannot be resolved I shall be forced to send you away and make other arrangements for your welfare.”
A flash of rage swept through Janna that he was so quick to judge her. “I’ve already sworn a solemn oath that I had nothing to do with poisoning the pastries,” she said hotly. “Why do you take your wife’s side against me, when all the evidence points to her, not me?”
“I’m trying to get to the truth of the matter,” John defended himself, “but I also have your safety – and my family’s safety – to consider. I have asked Blanche where the lotion is, and she tells me she stopped using it some days ago. She believes the phial was thrown away. She says she knows nothing of it.”
“Have you asked the servants to look for it?”
“Are you asking me to doubt the word of my w
ife?”
Janna didn’t answer, but made a private resolution to look for the phial herself. She would know the contents instantly by the smell. And she also had a very good idea where to start looking.
“I apologize, Papa,” she said icily, making an effort to calm herself. “I seek only to find out the truth so that I can clear my name in your eyes.” She knew she would get nowhere if she was at odds with her father; she must do all in her power to keep his good opinion. Yet it seemed her father no longer trusted her. How, then, could she trust him with the groom’s message? But the situation was serious and time was running out for the empress.
“I have spoken to the man who brought you the message,” she ventured.
John made a dismissive gesture. “I have more important things on my mind at present, Johanna. I will deal with him later.”
“This is important,” Janna insisted. “Much more important even than what is happening within our own family. But I need to ask you a question first.”
John raised his eyebrows, clearly annoyed by her persistence.
“The empress and the king. Who do you support in this war for the crown?”
“I support the king, of course. After all, he is still the king, and anointed as such by the Pope. Plus, we are staying at the home of his brother, the bishop.”
“But the empress is your own half-sister,” Janna said desperately. “Just as you want me to become part of your family and befriend my half-brother and half-sisters, don’t you feel any loyalty to the Empress Matilda? Or to your half-brother, the Earl of Gloucestre? Or to the empress’s husband who, even now, is bringing Normandy – and your estates – under his control? You’ve talked of sending Giles to serve under him. Forgive me for speaking so plainly, Papa, but surely you have some loyalty to your own family?”
John’s eyebrows rose higher. “You are remarkably well-informed on affairs of state. Have you been listening to the servants’ prattle?”
Janna kept silent. She had, but only out of a desire to keep abreast of the changing fortunes of the empress.
“Why are you so interested in the plight of my half-sister?”
“Because…” Janna’s mouth went dry. By confessing to her father, she was taking an even bigger risk than in speaking freely to the groom. Yet it seemed she had no choice. “Because I have always supported the empress, ever since I met her while living as a lay sister at Wiltune Abbey.”
She waited to gauge her father’s reaction, but he made no comment.
Janna drew a breath and ploughed on. “I was the one who alerted the Earl of Gloucestre to the bishop’s treachery after I found and read a letter from the bishop to his brother. The letter bid the king be of good cheer in his imprisonment and stated that he and the queen were working to secure the imprisonment of the empress – and this at a time when the bishop had sworn his support for the empress in her bid for the crown.”
“Jesu, Johanna, was that you? But…” John blinked as he tried to come to terms with Janna’s revelation. “Your friend in the tavern said something about your bringing my half-brother a message, but I’m afraid I didn’t believe him at the time,” he said slowly. “But I remember now that Robert told me the girl bore a marked resemblance to our sister. He couldn’t understand it, for the girl claimed to be a poor peasant of no consequence.”
“And so I was, at that time,” Janna said. Nevertheless, she felt encouraged by her father’s admission that he knew what had happened over the business with the letter. It meant that he and the earl, and possibly the empress too, had communicated with one another. It must mean that they were close and that they trusted him, for otherwise her father would never have known so much.
Her father stared at her intently. Unexpectedly, he gave a short laugh. “You are your mother’s daughter, even if you do resemble our side of the family,” he said then. “She was a brave one, my Emanuelle. And clever. She would try anything, do anything. Nothing daunted her spirits, even when it meant defying the abbess of Ambresberie in order to come away with me.”
Janna was always happy to hear his reminiscences of her mother. But there was a more pressing question to be dealt with right now. “I have confessed where my loyalty lies, Papa, but you say you are on side with the king. Can that really be true?”
“My wife and family support the king,” John prevaricated. “It doesn’t do for a family to have divided loyalties.”
Janna gave a sigh of frustration. Surely her father was not so weak that he would allow his wife to form his opinions for him? She was about to say as much, but John forestalled her.
“Nevertheless,” he said, “and for your ears only, Johanna, I am fond of Matilda. We were friends as children, and I thought it wrong of Stephen to usurp her throne, especially when he had been among the first to swear allegiance to her in front of our father, the old King Henry – as we all did at the time.”
Hearing his words, Janna felt a huge wave of relief. Her way was open after all; a way that might solve her own problems as well as those of the empress. “I think you should read this,” she said, and handed over the pouch with its precious contents.
John quickly scanned the letter and then held it out to Johanna. “Have you read this letter?”
“No, Papa. I cannot understand the language of the church. But I do know that the message comes from the empress. It was brought by a groom in her employ.”
“It says…” John quickly translated the contents, which were much in line with what the groom had told Janna. “In fact, Robert has already been informed of Matilda’s captivity and is trying to reach her,” he added.
“But I understood all ports are barred to him now.”
“So they are, but I’m told that Robert was able to recapture Wareham. He is now in England, along with his supporters from Normandy, and is busy gathering together all those who still remain loyal to the empress – and all without the aid of Geoffrey of Anjou who, in the end, has let him down once again.” John’s expression hardened for a moment. “But Robert will have a fight on his hands to reach Oxeneford, for the king is determined to prevent any attempts to rescue her. I only pray he’ll reach the empress before they are forced to surrender.” John gave a deep sigh. “If I only knew more about the English barons, I could try to rally them myself,” he mused. “But Matilda warns me that they are not to be trusted, and I dare not take the risk. So in truth, my hands are tied.”
“Not quite.” Janna was tempted to tell her father of the plan forming in her mind, but suspected that he would forbid it if he knew of the part she intended to play. “You said that you planned to go to Oxeneford to see the king about legitimizing your family,” she said, thinking to lead her father to her way of thinking one step at a time. “While you are there, surely you can talk to him, appeal to his better nature, for it is said that he let the empress go free when first she landed in England. Could you perhaps persuade him to let her go free once again?”
She could tell from John’s skeptical expression that he knew he’d have no chance of success. Janna agreed, but at least she’d put that thought into his head. It might encourage him to agree to a further plan – once she’d had the chance to think it through properly. But first she needed to ask for a favor, for without her father’s consent she could do nothing to help the empress. “If you go to Oxeneford, Papa, please will you take me with you?” She waited in some trepidation for her father’s reply.
He frowned as he considered her request. “Why do you want to accompany me?”
“Because…” Janna swallowed against the sudden constriction in her throat. “Because it’s my future you wish to discuss with the king.” She could tell from John’s expression that he was not convinced by her argument. It seemed she would have to trust him with a little more of the truth. “And because your wife and children hate me,” she added huskily. “Because I fear how they will treat me if you are not here to protect me.” It hurt Janna to admit how fearful she felt.
“Dame Blanche wants
me to leave, she’s already asked you to send me away,” she continued. “Surely it would be for the best if I’m no longer here to upset your family. And it would be safer for me to be away from them.” She waited a moment, giving her father time to ponder her words. “That pastry was meant for me,” she reminded him. “Whoever was responsible for its contamination may well try again to harm me, not having succeeded the first time.” She wondered if she’d gone too far as she noticed John’s face darken into a scowl.
There was silence between them. Janna longed for some acknowledgment, some gesture of affection from her father. But it didn’t come. The silence continued.
“Please take me with you to Oxeneford,” she begged, knowing that her plan would fail unless she could convince her father. Unless he’d changed his mind about her after what had just happened? Perhaps her father was no longer planning to bequeath anything to her? In which case, he should inform his family so that the threat to her safety would no longer exist. She waited for him to speak. But he remained silent, frowning down at the letter in his hand.
“Very well,” he said at last. “We shall both go to Oxeneford, although I shall not tell my family about this message or my intention to intercede on behalf of the empress while I am there. Nor shall I tell them of your accusations, for that would only provoke another scene. I shall merely explain that you’ll accompany me because I wish to consult the king about your marriage.”
Janna felt a slight easing of tension. It seemed he’d not given up on her quite yet.
But John hadn’t finished. “Remember that we’ll be traveling into a highly dangerous situation,” he warned. “You are to keep out of sight, and obey my instructions for your safety. Any hint of trouble and I shall have to send you back to Winchestre.”