The Palace Library

by Steven Loveridge

  Eleanor took the book gingerly and far from being disappointed, she became quite worried about what she realised was a responsibility. Sophie seemed to sense her anxiety and the deerhound put a paw on her shoulder and licked her face. Eleanor smiled.

  Edgar crossed the room to a great wooden cabinet and brought out two items.

  To Eleanor, he gave a short dagger in its own scabbard. “This is for your protection. The dagger can also be used to cut plants. Do not try to fight with it, unless absolutely necessary. Look to Harry to be your warrior and champion if needed.”

  The dagger was mounted on a leather girdle, which Eleanor buckled around her waist. As she did so, she noticed an engraving of a tiny dragon on the buckle. She began to pull the dagger from its case and noticed a strange dim greenish glow, but Edgar stopped her, saying, “You do not need weapons in The Palace Library.”

  To Grace he gave a golden pocket watch on a long gold chain. He put it over her neck and showed her how to open one side to tell the time. The other side was a compass. “With the watch and the compass and your book, you can navigate. Don’t forget to wind the watch every day.”

  As he finished, a different bell began to toll with long steady strokes and Edgar looked alarmed. “We must hurry! That is the final bell for Compline.”

  Eleanor and Grace looked at each other quizzically, wondering which one of them was going to ask what Compline was, but fortunately Edgar continued, “It is the last church service of the day and is calling the great gathering of the Court to the chapel. These bells are not ringing in The Library, but we can hear them through the Great West Door. Once the bell stops ringing, the door will be locked and you will not be able to reach Harry. Come! We have no more than five minutes.”

  Edgar did not appear to be moving that quickly, but the girls had to run to keep up with him and Sophie followed at Eleanor’s heels. As they went he pulled some books from the shelves. Grace saw the title on one said Plantagenet Fashion. Another seemed very plain and thin.

  They turned a corner and walked up to the Great West Door. Unlike the small door they had used to enter The Library, this was a pair of double doors which a giant could walk through. There was a smaller door set into the left hand one, a wicket gate. When they got there, Edgar turned the pages of the first book and seemed to flick things off them towards the girls. They suddenly realised their clothes had changed. They were no longer in their nighties. They were in deep purple gowns and long cloaks made of fur, quite unlike anything they had seen outside of history books at school.

  “Somehow, I didn’t think you’d look quite right in your night-clothes,” chuckled Edgar. Then he added seriously, “You need to remember this. This door is not a door into The Library. It is a door out of The Library to somewhere else. You may need to find another way back into The Library. You must go and find Master John and ask for the Queen’s help. Now! Hurry! Go and help Harry.”

  “But where are we going?” said the girls in unison.

  “Haven’t I told you?” replied Edgar with a frown. “How very careless of me. It’s not so much a matter of where as when.”

  “When?” asked the girls, finding this all quite hard to follow. Even wrapped up in their furs, they were both starting to shiver with cold and anxiety.

  “Yes, when. If I’m not mistaken, January 1164, for this is the Great West Door of Clarendon Palace and the most important men in the kingdom are gathered there.”

  As Edgar spoke, the rhythm of the bells changed and the girls asked more and more questions.

  “Silence!” said Edgar. “The Library has chosen you, so you must go and join Harry. There is no more time for questions. Give Harry this book. It will give him wisdom at a time of need and perhaps when he least expects it, but warn him it will be cryptic. His clothes will do. At least he was not in pyjamas!”

  With that, the final stroke of the bell began to fade and Edgar held open the small wicket gate set into the main doors. A blast of much colder air hit them. Sophie nudged both girls into a Great Hall. Then when the girls looked around through the open gate, they could not see The Library, but only the rain coming down on the sodden grass of a dark winter night at Clarendon Palace in January 1164.

  They felt very lonely, but Sophie seemed to know where she was going. They followed her.

  6. Harry’s Story

  The Great Hall had a vast wooden roof. The hall was crowded and it was probably a good thing that no one seemed to pay them any attention. Sophie led the girls around the edge of the hall and out of a side door. The girls noticed they were now under some sort of gallery. A roof above their head protected them from the worst of the weather, but the side was open to the elements and they both felt the cold, so they pulled their fur cloaks around them. Rain dripped off the edge of the roof and blew into their faces.

  Sophie paused at the corner before putting her nose in the air and sniffing. She smiled, just like the first time Grace had met her, although back then she had mistaken it for a snarl. Then she moved off and the girls were both hard put to keep up with her. Sophie pushed at a door and went through it. There was a warm glow coming from the room inside and a delicious smell of roasting meat.

  In the room, in front of a huge fire, there was a whole hog roasting on a spit. A large man and a short fat woman stood with their backs to them. The man was wearing a long green coat with leather trousers and braid on his sleeves. The woman was obviously a cook and was tending to the meat. Sophie came up behind the man and put her nose into his side. He was clearly used to dogs as he put his hand down to stroke her nose and carried on his conversation. Sophie was a bit more insistent before he turned around to look.

  Then he turned and she put her feet up and licked his face, really smiling again, in that funny way that only special dogs do. That surprised the man a lot and he said sharply, “Get down now,” before he took more notice and said with surprise, “Sophie! Is that you? How did you come to be here? You look so well and so healthy. The Queen had said we were unlikely to see you again.”

  At that, Sophie dropped down and went behind the girls and pushed them towards the man, wagging her tail. They were both terrified, but he looked down at them and said, “So who are you? Sophie seems to know you so I guess you can’t be all bad.”

  At that moment, there was a loud shout. The cook noticed them and said, “Master John. You’re bad enough bringing a dog into my kitchen, but you know I won’t have children here! Remove them at once!” The girls stared at her and their eyes opened wide at what they saw. “Now!” shouted the woman, waving a long iron ladle at them.

  The man shooed them out the kitchen into the cloister. “Mistress Comely, the cook, has a wicked mouth but a heart of gold. Don’t you worry about her.” The man was like a giant, but gentle and made the girls feel a little more comfortable and at ease. Then they caught each other’s eye. They were nervous and they giggled.

  The man looked at them a little strangely. “Now what is that all about? The girls glanced at each other knowingly and Grace whispered to Eleanor, “You tell him. You’re older.”

  So Eleanor did, rather shyly, but smiling. “It’s just that she looks exactly like Horrible Hair Bun, but half the height and as if she’d been blown up with a bicycle pump. And they’ve both got funny little hairs growing on their face.” They giggled again.

  The man looked at them carefully. “You’re mighty cheeky for ones so young.” The girls looked crestfallen, as if a joke and a shared confidence had gone badly wrong, but he continued, “I know nothing about Mistress Hair Bun, nor what a bicycle pump is. But Mistress Comely has a heart of gold, however bad her temper seems, and her cooking is divine.” It might have been a telling off, but suddenly he smiled. He pointed to his beard, and added, “There are a fair few funny hairs on my face too, but you’re right about one thing; there a great many things I’d think of doing before I wanted to kiss Mistress Comely with her prickly hairs!”

  He roared at the joke and they laughed together, the
girls relieved that they seemed to have found a friend. Then Eleanor looked a little more serious and asked, “We’re looking for Master John. And we’re also looking for Harry. Do you know them?”

  Now to a grown-up, these questions might have seemed strange, especially since the girls had just come through a magical library and stepped back in time over 800 years, but to Eleanor it seemed to be the most natural question in the world.

  “You seem to be in luck now. I guess that’s thanks to Sophie. I am Master John and you must be Eleanor and Grace. Wait a moment now and I’ll take you to Harry.”

  He stopped and thought for a moment before adding, “Are you hungry?”

  Until then, the girls had not thought about food, but they had eaten nothing since waking that morning and they were starving.

  “Yes!” they shouted together. Then Eleanor remembered her manners and said, “Please may we have something to eat?”

  Master John bellowed with laughter and said, “Of course you may. I’ll ask Mistress Comely for something for Harry as well and now you shall have dinner for three - with something for Sophie too, I think.

  “The Palace is busy tonight,” he added. “Everyone is occupied and I’ll have to leave you on your own with Harry, but I’m sure you’ll have much to talk about. You shall come back and sleep in the kennels with me.”

  Master John leant down and confided, “Many would baulk at staying in the kennels with all the hounds, but it’s one of the warmest and pleasantest places to be. You’ll be undisturbed there until the Queen decides what to do with you. Sophie will be amongst old friends. Follow me!”

  Grace and Eleanor were relieved that they had found Master John and Harry so soon, but were not too sure about the kennels and rather scared of even hearing about the Queen. The kennels were in a huge barn and it became clear that Master John lived on a gallery on the first floor, with all manner of hounds and dogs on beds on the ground floor.

  It smelt very, very doggy, but as he said, it was warm and comfortable. Master John showed them to a corner of the gallery under wooden beams where they met Harry again. It seemed quite natural to them all that Sophie came upstairs with them and wasn’t asked to go down with the others. She just curled up underneath the simple table.

  “Now you three stay here for now. Your arrival has caused enough trouble as it is. Keep out of sight and I’ll be back later,” Master John told them as he banged down a tray with three steaming bowls of meaty soup and a great big bone for Sophie.

  Then the three of them hugged each other before wolfing down the bowls of soup and telling each other what had happened to them.

  Harry started telling his tale with a sincere apology, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe what you said about The Library, Grace. It was very rude of me.”

  Grace was so relieved to see Harry that she had rather forgotten how mean he had been. “It’s all right, Harry. It doesn’t matter anymore. Tell us how you got here.”

  “I was woken up at about five o’clock this morning. At least I think it was this morning… coming back in time is very confusing. It was Horrible Hair Bun. She told me that Great Uncle Jasper needed to see me in his study at once and that I was to be dressed in these clothes. The trousers are very itchy.”

  Harry was wearing a pair of old-fashioned plus fours and a tweed jacket with a leather waistcoat. There was an old wax jacket next to him on the floor and he had some heavy leather boots on his feet.

  “I was very worried. I thought something dreadful must have happened. Even Horrible Hair Bun didn’t have time to be strict. She gave me a kiss goodbye.” Harry touched his chin absent-mindedly and rubbed it.

  “Anyway, Great Uncle Jasper was all kindness, but he said I needed to hurry…”

  “‘Harry,” Great Uncle Jasper had said, “I have to confide in you. What I’m about to tell you is a secret which you may share with only those who need to know. I am a member of The Witan. The Witan has been the Great Council of England for over 1,000 years and its role is to preserve the ancient freedoms of Old England. Once, before the Norman Conquest, The Witan appointed the kings of England, but since the conquest, it has stood apart and protected the peoples of England and their ancient freedoms. Often, this means working with kings and queens. Sometimes it doesn’t. The Witan is a link with a much older and mystical past that few people in the modern world know about.

  “‘There is an old prophecy, but what I know of it is incomplete. It tells of three children who help protect the kingdom. I believe you, Grace and Eleanor are these children, but I have woken you first as the time has come for you to start your journey immediately.’“

  “What do I need to do?” Harry had asked.

  Then Great Uncle Jasper had carried on, “There isn’t enough time to tell you everything. You must go to The Palace Library now and then leave through the Great West Door. Follow your instinct and The Library will guide you. I will try to send Eleanor and Grace after you and Edgar the Librarian will supply the books you need to help you.

  “‘Listen carefully, as soon as you have found the Great West Door, go through it! The Library has a way of letting The Witan know when we need to act and the time is now. Right now. Do not let anyone delay you. Turn back through the door and find Queen Eleanor. You must trust her and you must ensure she learns to trust you equally. You’ll have to be brave and quick to avoid being arrested. Tell her that you’ve been sent by The Witan to fulfil the Prophecy. If she doubts you, tell her you’ve come through The Palace Library and that the librarian’s name is Edgar. Trust her. Now go!’”

  At this stage in his story, Harry looked at Grace. “I’m afraid to say that I asked Great Uncle Jasper how to get to The Library then. That was when he looked at me severely and said, ‘Trust Grace too. She is younger than you, but she is wise and does not tell lies. You know where to go. One last thing. You will be in a different world and time. Do not boast about your knowledge or they will think you’re a magician and arrest you!”

  “…I did as Uncle Jasper told me,” Harry continued. “I just seemed to know where I was going and found myself in front of a huge wooden door with a smaller wooden door set into it. I opened it and found a really dark room inside. It was the Great Hall, but I didn’t wait. I turned straight round and went back through the little door.”

  Harry took another huge mouthful of soup and chewed on the meat in it. “This is really good.” His mouth was not empty as he spoke and soup dribbled down his chin.

  Neither of the girls noticed, but both looked at him and said, “Don’t stop. What happened next?”

  “I didn’t go back into The Library. It was as if the door had changed and I’d entered into a different world. I was in a field and ran straight into one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen, but dressed in the strangest clothes. Then I was immediately grabbed by two men who picked me up by my shoulders and held me tight. The woman looked straight at me with piercing blue eyes.

  “The men were dressed in chainmail down to their knees and they seemed to be guards, but there was someone else with them. He was entirely dressed in black and he had a black triangular goatee beard.

  “He leant towards me and I could smell his horrible breath, ‘Who are you, boy? How dare you run into Her Majesty like that?’

  “I guessed that the lady must be Queen Eleanor, so I did just what Great Uncle Jasper told me and said, ‘I’ve been sent by The Witan to fulfil the Prophecy.’

  “She looked startled at that and then she was silent for a moment. I could feel the man with the goatee beard staring at me and his mouth tightened as he said, ‘Let me deal with him, Your Majesty. I can take the brat away and have him beaten for insolence.’ That made me realise I was right and it was the Queen, but I certainly didn’t want to be beaten.

  “Then the Queen broke her silence. ‘No thank you, Sir Guy. I think I can look after myself from one so young.’ Then she said to one of the guards, ‘Find Master John and tell him to take care of this boy and keep him in his
kennels. I’ll deal with him later.’

  “One guard tightened his grip on me and looked at the Queen. ‘Wouldn’t he be safer in the dungeon?’ he said.

  “‘No,” replied the Queen. Then she stared at me intently and leant down and whispered, ‘Wait with Master John until you’re called for. Speak to no one else of this. I will summon you.’

  “That was only about two hours ago. I can’t tell you both how happy I am to see you.”

  Harry gobbled the rest of his soup in double-quick time, while the girls chatted to him and tried to ask him all sorts of questions about where they were and what they were doing here. This time, he did not try to talk at the same time, but when he had finished he answered in the only way he could.

  “I don’t know what adventure we are on. We need to find out, but I promise to look out for you and to try not to let you down again.”

  Reaching across for Grace’s hand, Eleanor answered him, “You’re right, Harry. We’re all in this together and we don’t know who we can trust other than ourselves, but we all have to look out for each other, as family and friends. Let’s make that our pact.”

  Harry reached out for Grace and Eleanor’s other hands and looked at them. “I agree.” At that moment, Grace felt more than ever that she had a proper family and she just nodded, too moved to speak. Then Sophie had her front paws on the table between the girls and gave a gentle whine and Grace spoke up. “Yes, Sophie. You too. We can trust you.”

  Master John came back to see them. He looked serious, too serious to reprimand Sophie for having her paws on the table, and said, “You must stop eating and talking now. The Queen wants you. She waits for no one and Sir Guy of Caen is downstairs waiting to escort us.” More quietly, Master John added, “Sir Guy is not a man to cross or keep waiting. Come now.”