The Queen's Spy

by Caroline Newark

  He looked me straight in the face. I knew exactly what he was doing. I’d seen animals look at other animals this way. He was assessing my strength as an adversary. Eventually he smiled.

  ‘Now my lady, the items on your person if you please. Those rings and the jewelled clasp.’

  I kept my hands where they were. He took a step towards me. One of my men made a move and was struck a blow to the head. He collapsed on the floor.

  ‘Order your household to behave, please, my lady. It really would be best for everybody. Don’t forget, this is an order given under the king’s seal. Resisting such orders can be seen as treason.’

  There must have been at least a dozen of them crowded into the room; all armed and clearly ready to use violence if necessary. The king’s clerk, the man in dusty black, looked mild enough, but I was sure Master Langeford would delight in ripping the rings off my fingers if I didn’t surrender them quietly. Slowly I twisted the little emerald from the middle finger of my left hand. The flesh had become swollen these past weeks but whatever it took I would not allow Master Langeford the satisfaction of laying hands on my person.

  ‘That’s better, my lady. Now the other one.’

  The twisted gold band studded with sapphires came off more easily. Then I unfastened the pearl and ruby clasp on my shoulder. As I dropped it into the hand of the clerk’s assistant, my maid returned silently, holding the silver coffer.

  I waited. I would offer them nothing. They would have to ask for every single thing. Master Langeford tried to open the lid. It was locked.

  ‘The key, if you please, my lady.’

  I smiled at him. ‘The key?’

  ‘A pretty little box. I doubt my lord would be pleased if it got broken. So, please, the key.’

  Slowly I raised my gaze to the hanging at the far end of the hall. I stared at it as if contemplating a problem.

  With frightening speed his face was thrust into mine. His filthy boots brushed the folds of my skirts and his rough soldier’s jacket pressed hard against my body. I could smell the sweat on him.

  ‘Don’t play games, my lady. Give me the key or I’ll rip your fancy clothing apart.’

  I had no doubt he would do just that. Slowly I lifted up the purse I kept fastened to my girdle and removed the small key which opened the coffer. I handed it to the clerk’s assistant.

  ‘That’s better.’

  The rage I felt at seeing them count out my treasures was enormous. How dare they put their dirty hands on my beloved jewels? As the heavy gold and ruby ring was removed I felt a stab of pain. Edmund’s mother’s ring, the one he had given to me as a token of his love. Every one of these jewels had been a gift from Edmund; all except for the little garnet ring given to me by John on the day we were wed.

  While the clerk and his assistant busied themselves with my valuables, Master Langeford was looking round the room, his eyes pausing at each sign of wealth.

  ‘Right my lady, we’ll deal with this later. In the meantime, tell your women to get the children ready. I’ve ordered a cart. You can have two women to travel with the children. You will ride alongside me.’

  Oh how sweet it was to defeat a man like Master Langeford. I put on my most docile face and unwrapped my mantle so that he could see the vast extent of my swollen belly.

  ‘I think you might be making a mistake. Unless, of course, you are skilled at midwifery. I don’t recall how many days journey it is to Salisbury but giving birth in a roadside ditch is, I think, a strong possibility. I cannot imagine the king meant you to subject me to that.’

  He looked in disgust at my belly.

  ‘How soon?’

  I smiled. ‘One day, two days, a week. These matters are in the hands of God but I would wager a jolting ride will hasten matters along. Have you ever seen a birth, Master Langeford? Bloody affairs. Not for the faint-hearted.’

  He had a hurried conversation with one of the other men, then turned back to me. My thoughts were darting around in my head. If Edmund had been taken did that mean the whole plot had been discovered? What of the others? Could the rescue from Corfe go ahead without Edmund? What if men arrived at Arundel bringing Edmund’s brother?

  Whatever else, I must strive to remain here and to remain calm. The children would be better cared for at Arundel. I knew nothing of Salisbury, but whatever the castle was like I doubted my accommodation there would be comfortable. Perhaps two rooms, like Eleanor. Two rooms, and for how long? And where would they put Edmund? The Tower in all probability, or a cold northern castle, like Pontefract. My poor Edmund.

  ‘You are to remain here under guard until your child is born, my lady. Then we shall travel to Salisbury. I have sent a man to pick suitable accommodation for you and your children. I regret it may not be what you are used to but that is the way for those imprisoned by royal command.’

  ‘I am certain you will have a care for my comforts. It’s never wise to incur the enmity of those who appear to have fallen as men and women can rise high again. Fortune’s wheel turns for us all, Master Langeford.’

  We were locked in two of the smallest and meanest rooms in the castle, at the top of one of the towers. Master Langeford’s man must have taken great delight in selecting them. There was one small window in the larger room, too high to give me a view of anything other than the sky. And it was cold.

  Our comforts were meagre and the guard on the stairs ensured that nobody could smuggle in any luxuries. The maids shared a small pallet while the children and I took the bed. Food and ale were brought to us once a day by one of Master Langeford’s men. There was precious little meat or fish; it was mostly bread, and a bucket of indifferent pottage.

  For our personal use we had a covered pail in one corner. I had never lived in such conditions and found it utterly disgusting. Even when fleeing from Paris, our rooms in the inns and hostelries on the road had been better than this. I was not allowed to leave my prison rooms so had no way of discovering what had happened to Edmund. There were always travellers and someone must have had news from Winchester but shut away like this, I was helpless. My maids made occasional visits to the laundry but were always accompanied and not permitted any conversation.

  Each evening as it was getting dark, Master Nicholas Langeford came to see me. He would sit himself down on a stool, fold his arms and wait for me to speak.

  ‘You have news of my husband?’ Every evening I asked and every evening the answer was the same.

  ‘No.’

  I might have wanted something from my gaoler, however he wanted something from me.

  ‘No child yet?’ He eyed me suspiciously.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Tonight perhaps?’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  The conversation never varied.

  After two weeks Master Langeford had had enough. Infuriated that he could not just order this birth, I could see him wondering if it was just a pillow beneath my gown.

  He usually found me lying on my bed which is where I spent most of the day trying to rid myself of the pains in my ankles. At first I would spring up, unwilling to be found at such a disadvantage but as the days passed I became too weary to move.

  ‘Still nothing?’

  I smiled sweetly, although I was feeling anything but sweet.

  ‘No.’

  ‘I have my doubts you have a child in there. I think I shall send a woman to examine you, then we’ll get to the bottom of this. And if I find you’ve played a trick on me, my lady, I’ll make sure you regret it.’

  ‘Would you not rather place your hand on my belly, Master Langeford?’ I fixed his eyes with mine, challenging him. ‘I’m sure you know the difference between a woman’s flesh and a feather bolster.’

  He was tempted. Oh how he was tempted. I read it in the flicker of his eyes and the moistening of his lips.

  ‘We can settle this matter
here and now. You’ve degraded me in practically every other way. Why not go one step further and violate my person? Would you like me to draw back my robe? I’m sorry I cannot actually show you the child but I would imagine that once you see my belly in the flesh you will be satisfied I am telling you the truth.’

  His eyes slid away.

  ‘I shall send a woman.’

  But he never did.

  Eight days later my son was born. Mercifully it was quick. In that stinking little room, with no herbs to numb the pain and no midwife to help me, I could not have endured a lengthy birth. My maid did her best while the younger girl kept the children in the other room.

  I screamed. What woman does not scream at a time like this? I hoped the whole castle could hear me scream. I particularly hoped Master Nicholas Langeford could hear me scream.

  ‘It’s a boy,’ said my maid busying herself with the child.

  John, I thought. I shall call him John. Edmund would be happy because it was my father’s name and therefore entirely suitable. But I also named him for my first husband, for the young man who had left me long ago. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I wondered why I was crying when, despite everything, I should be joyful. I had a live child - Edmund’s child.

  That evening Master Langeford returned. He brought with him a small wooden object.

  ‘For the child,’ he said awkwardly holding out a little carved animal.

  I lay there, cradling the baby in my arms and felt generous. If he was making amends then so could I.

  ‘Thank you,’ I said, as graciously as one can, lying propped up on a single pillow, covered by a grubby coverlet.

  ‘I have arranged for a priest, my lady’

  A hasty baptism and some furtive questions! At last there was hope of news. A priest, however miserable a man he might be, would know something of what was happening outside the walls of his church.

  ‘My lady. The matter of the child’s godparents. As there is no-one suitable, if it is agreeable to you, I myself would …’

  What! A low-born man like my gaoler! I shuddered.

  ‘Master Langeford, a man like you is not worthy to kiss the hem of my child’s swaddling cloth. My son and my daughter will carry out this duty.’

  He flushed and it occurred to me, too late, that he was simply trying to be kind.

  But his kindness did not extend to allowing me a conversation with a priest. On his orders, the baby was carried by one of my women while the other took the hands of my older children and led them away. I was left utterly alone.

  ‘It was the priory church, my lady,’ whispered my maid on her return. ‘The prior himself named and blessed the babe and laid him in the arms of young Lady Joan. I were that worried she’d drop him.’

  The days passed slowly. I had nothing to do but attend to my child. He was a puny little thing, not strong like Mondi, and it was a strange experience to put him to my breast. I had no wet-nurse so needs must feed the child myself. At first I was shocked by the visceral tugging at my nipples and the way he pummelled my flesh, but gradually I began to enjoy it. It was a strangely satisfying feeling. I watched the tiny fuzz of hair on top of his head as he sucked greedily and admired the way he always knew where to find my breast. Yes, I thought. In many ways he is quite lovely.

  Mondi and Joan were fascinated by the baby, always hovering over the bed, wanting to touch him. Eventually, tired of the fuss, I snapped at them and then wept because I had been unkind when there was no need. The maids stared at me fearfully, unused to this strange tearful woman.

  I expected to be ordered to Salisbury Castle at any moment but Master Langeford said nothing. The days dragged by with unbelievable slowness and with each one, my hopes of release diminished. I had been forgotten by everyone except by my gaoler who still visited daily.

  It was getting warmer. Summer must be here. I tried to keep a tally of the days but without the rhythms of the church to remind me, each day was like the one before and the one after. I could hear bells but it was hard to know one from the other and gradually, without my even realising, the days lengthened into weeks and the weeks into months.

  One day, when I despaired of things ever changing and thought we would be shut away like this for ever, I had a visitor. I heard a commotion from down below, a man’s voice shouting, a clatter and some more noise. I’d not heard horses but my heart leapt. Edmund had returned! He would throw out these interlopers and rescue me.

  ‘Make haste!’ I said to the maids. ‘Take the children into the other room in case there’s violence.’

  I stood with my back to the wall furthest from the door to the stairs and tried to calm myself. Edmund wouldn’t want me to be cowering in fear, he would expect me to be brave.

  But it wasn’t Edmund. It was my cousin.

  The door swung wide open and he walked in: tall, commanding, magnificently dressed, and looking distinctly annoyed.

  ‘Lady Margaret, I didn’t expect to find you here.’ His voice was rough with irritation.

  ‘I didn’t expect to be here.’

  I wasn’t going to let him frighten me. I pushed to the forefront of my mind the fact that he was my cousin and had once cared for me.

  ‘They tell me you’ve birthed that inconvenient child you were carrying.’

  ‘I have.’

  ‘And are you enjoying your new living quarters? I’m sorry if they disappoint you but I told the men you were a resourceful young woman and needed locking up well if you weren’t to escape.’

  Anger rose in my throat. ‘Have you come to tell me what you have done with my husband or have you come merely to gloat?’

  He began to walk round the room looking at my few meagre belongings. He picked up a pair of hose which needed mending, turning them over in his hands as if he had never seen such things before. What a change from the magnificence of his own existence this must be? All that finery, all those silver goblets, all those embroidered silken sheets!

  ‘You don’t have to stay here, you know,’ he said casually. ‘I could arrange for you to be released.’

  I was immediately suspicious.

  He tossed the hose back onto the table. ‘The Lady Eleanor used to live like this with no warmth, no light, just the most basic of comforts. I expect her gaoler fed her; they don’t like their prisoners to die, it spoils their fun. But I decided to make it possible for her to leave. She has returned to conjugal bliss with Lord Zouche, much good may it do him.’

  So Lord Zouche had not been taken. My heart leapt. There was hope for us yet.

  ‘Where have you put my husband? What have you done with him?’

  He ignored my question.

  ‘The Lady Eleanor proved very sensible. She took some persuading but in the end had the wit to see that my solution was for the best. She had no greater desire to spend the rest of her days locked up in the dark than I had to keep her there. So we came to an accommodation.’

  ‘What did she give you?’

  ‘Give me? My dear Margaret, you must think I have no sense. And before you ask, I didn’t lay a finger on her. She didn’t look too pretty when I saw her but I understood she had been unwell.’

  He pulled the stool over with his foot and sat down, hitching up the fur trimming on his cloak so that it didn’t brush the floor. He thrust out his legs and leaned back against the wall, half closing his eyes.

  ‘The Lady Eleanor agreed to return her lands to the crown - all those lovely fertile acres in Glamorgan.’

  He smiled, relishing the thought.

  ‘I don’t believe you,’ I said. ‘Lady Eleanor would never give up Glamorgan, least of all to you.’

  ‘But I was very generous; she can have it all back one day.’

  ‘How? What terms did she agree to?’

  He smiled. ‘Oh you are quick, Margaret. How I like your mind. I was never much attracte
d by your body, you’ve not enough flesh on you for my taste, but I’ve always admired your intelligence. Fifty thousand crowns and she can have her lands back.’

  ‘She’ll raise that. You won’t keep them.’

  ‘I haven’t finished. Fifty thousand crowns to be paid all on one day.’

  He smiled. ‘You should have seen her face when she realised what that meant, but by then I had the release order in my hand. So, admittedly with a certain degree of reluctance, she signed.’

  It was obvious he had come to bargain with me but what did I have that he could possibly covet?

  ‘I suppose you want my manor.’

  He laughed.

  ‘Mansfield? That dog-hole? What on God’s earth makes you think I’d want that? No, no, Margaret. I don’t want your lands.’

  I started to shiver. Despite what he had said, surely he wasn’t going to violate me? Not here?’

  ‘You’ve taken my jewels.’

  ‘Indeed I have. Isabella was pleased to receive them; you know how much she appreciates trinkets. She was greatly taken with your gold and ruby ring. Perhaps she’s wearing it this very moment.’

  He gave me an assessing look, weighing something in his mind.

  ‘What I want from you, my dear cousin, is information.’

  ‘I’ll tell you nothing.’

  ‘Oh I think you will. I know how much you care for your husband.’

  ‘What have you done with him?’

  ‘All in good time. First, the name of the man who told you about my prisoner.’

  So he didn’t know about Pecche. I wondered if he knew anything at all or if he was just guessing. He must have discovered something or he wouldn’t have risked arresting Edmund and imprisoning me. But Edmund would not have talked. Edmund was far too loyal to have betrayed his friends.

  ‘You are so transparent, dear Margaret. You are thinking your husband told me nothing but I can assure you he sang like a little bird.’

  ‘You’re a liar.’