Shield of Three Lions (26 page)

“A great honor,” I agreed humbly.

“Yes.
Ars longa, vita brevis.
And you may still dally a bit, for such skills are most refining
in-preux chevaliers.
”

Like the Rules of Love, I thought, hardly following what he said. I was determined to get my writ, and then let Richard speak of learning verse if he wist.

“But now that I know those arts which you must learn, I think that working in my own household would be appropriate.”

And Fortune’s Wheel inched in my favor at last! If I could learn how to manage Wanthwaite alone! And from the king!

“I can take a personal interest in your welfare.” Once again his powerful hand fell on my curls, stroking.

Better and better. A terrible enemy, this king, but perhaps a fierce monarch would be best for retrieving my home from the equally fierce Northumberland.

“Therefore I will make you my personal page until you reach your majority.”

I knew not what “majority” signified, but I kenned well what an honor had been bestowed and what it could mean to my future. Part of the royal household!

“Oh thank you, Your Majesty, I don’t know how to show my gratitude. How may I serve? What should I do?”

He smiled at my delight. “Well, first you must prepare yourself. Get properly outfitted, then a horse.”

A horse? To be a page? Mayhap I didn’t ken the assignment after all.

“What should I do with a horse?”

“God’s feet, child, you will ride your horse unless you want to walk.”

“Ride it where?” I asked, cautiously this time.

He laughed aloud. “Where do you think, boy? I’m taking you with us to Jerusalem!”

“Jerusalem!”
I howled with the wind and would have fallen in a heap if the king hadn’t swept me up in his arms.

“I thought you would be pleased.” He pressed my head into his muscular shoulder where I whiffed deeply of sweet woodruff. “’Tis the most glorious quest of all time, better than the search for the Grail, for it affects all living Christians.”

I shuddered and he held me tighter, one hand under my hips, one on my back as if I were a babe. Then he gently leaned me away from him, but our faces were still close.

“Sealed with a kiss,” he said, and his features approached, the
eyes like blue pearls, his breath smelling of wine and fresh mint. “I look forward to hearing the details of your romantic odyssey in our leisure.”

His lips pressed mine in the courteous kiss of peace but they were surprisingly warm and tender so that my mindless liver leaped in pleasure.

“You have little time to prepare. Go to Sir Roger tomorrow and he will assign you your vestments, then to my page Sir Gilbert for further instructions.”

Somehow I went through a ritual of thanks which must have satisfied, for as I bowed my way out, he stood with a secret smile, pleased as a graymalkin watching a fallen bird.

I SHOUTED OUT MY TALE OF WOE to Enoch in competition with the rain which beat our leather tent like a drum. His black hump didn’t move, his mouth was dumb.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” I beseeched, hoping for some miracle to reprieve me from my fate.

“Jerusalem,” he said in disbelief. “Bairn, I canna say nothing. I’m dungin as a serpent without his stang. Jerusalem!”

I huddled miserably in the dank air which had suddenly turned cool.

“Do I have to go, think you? Suppose I told him I was sick?”

He didn’t reply.

Suppose I told him I was a girl
, was what I was really thinking and another sort of shudder shook me.
Laudatur, Maria
that I’d heard about Alais and her prison, also that Zizka had warned me unequivocally about the king’s attitudes, for I saw clearly that I couldn’t admit that I’d lied and still hope mercy from Richard. Furthermore, ’twas no doubt easier to survive or escape the Crusade than it would be to escape a bad marriage. Ee’n so, how could a female child travel with such an army?

“Puts my teeth on-char,” Enoch said morosely. “Jerusalem, a pot of hell fer a wee bairn.” Then he requested that I repeat the interview again which I did, word for word.

“Air ye certain ye’ve told all?”

“Aye, every word.”

“Then I con assume that ye didna mention that we war brothers.”

“I said we traveled together.”

“That we war brothers!” he roared. “That we share Wanthwaite!”

“There wasn’t time,” I whimpered.

He grabbed my shoulders. “Aye, there war time to sing about Alexander, but none to protect our estate. Ye canna fool me for all ye tried to make a beard. The king may think ye’re a sweet pigs-eye but I know ye for a scorpion. Only this time ye’ve stung yerself with yer own tail. Jerusalem! Tell me, who owns Wanthwaite?”

“I do. I’m the heir,” I said more bravely than I felt.

“Wrang. Try again: Who owns Wanthwaite?”

“You want me to say that we own it together but I won’t. Never! Never!”

“Niver?” His laugh was a hollow bray. “I dinna want nothing but the truth. And ye canna tell me because ye don’t know.”

There was something beyond threat in his statement that made me pause.

“All right,
you
tell
me.
Who owns Wanthwaite?”

“King Richard the Ferst of England, that’s who. I mun learn ye the law, I see. Yif ye present yerself as sole heir, the estate goes to the king automatically.”

I yelled before I thought. “Aye,
if I
were a female!”

“Sex makes no difference when ye’re only nine years old. Ye’re under age and Wanthwaite is therefore Richard’s fief. He can do as he likes with it. Mayhap he’ll give it to ye; most likely yell fall in the field or from his grace long before that. Kings air known to turn surly when heirs come of age.”

“But my father said…. My father thought …”

“That King Henry were alive and would recall ye. Mayhap. I believe most men found it otherwise with Henry, but it doesna signify that Richard will do likewise in any case. Yif I were presented as yer brother with just claims, then a writ could be used. Aye, Alex, yer greed hae doon ye in.”

And he released me.

The truth of his accusation cut deep, for I now remembered King Richard saying, “I don’t suppose you have a guardian.” If I’d claimed that Enoch was my blood brother, I would at least have gotten half a loaf instead of no loaf at all. And I’d forgotten that I was a child as well as a female. Since boys don’t have to be assigned wives when they’re so young, and in any case wives could hardly abuse them, to pass as a boy had seemed such a triumph.

But what guarantee was there that Enoch would share? Hadn’t he already claimed my title? No doubt I would dwindle to a landless younger brother in his hands and be no better off than I was now. If he permitted me to live at all.

With these heavy thoughts, I slept fitfully.

After Haute Tierce the next morning Enoch went to keep his own appointment with the king, his face the most serious I’d e’er seen it. No sooner had he gone than Zizka called me to the main tent. Grimly I went to confront him for his perfidy. The hot words died on my tongue, however, when I saw that Ambroise and Zizka stood together. Zizka appeared piqued, Ambroise amused.

“Well, Lord Alex, you certainly fooled us all!” said Richard’s troubadour. “What a clever boy you are truly, what a loss to the troubadour world. However, I’m hoping that I may have the pleasure of coaching you a little in the craft, for certes the arts of music and poetry befit your station. Knew you that King Richard was a master in the new harmonics? Aye, he can sing the Gregorian chants as well, but then can counterpoint to make an organist envy. Furthermore, he composes poetry in both French and Provençal.”

“I ken that he’s a talented lord,” I said, glaring at Zizka. “I had no idea that I would be so honored as to accompany him on his Crusade.”

Zizka glared back, his spade jaw waggling furiously. “Nor would you have if I’d known from the first that you were a lord. You deceived me!”

Ambroise glanced sharply at Zizka, then me.

“But surely you’re pleased to be going,” he protested. “Rarely does King Richard take young boys into his care, though I believe King Henry raised several. The old king was fond of children.”

Knowing that this exchange might be reported to the king, I forced myself to pretend eagerness until Ambroise seemed convinced. He then patted my shoulder and went to make his own preparations for the long ride ahead.

“You’re a fool, Alex,” Zizka almost snarled. “’Twas foolish to dissemble, even more so to confess your identity. Ambroise would have taken care of you, trained you well, kept you out of battle, protected you! Knowing what I told you about Richard, you still put yourself at his mercy! Frankly I doubt you can survive! Do you have any knowledge of fighting? Of what Richard expects?”

“You dare speak to me of dissembling?” I shot back. “Or of the dangers of the Crusade? You who cold-bloodedly committed me without a word! And you too knew the king—you could have warned me of his plans. If I die, ’twill be on your head. As for Richard, he will be fascinated at your treasonous remarks!”

And I ran from the tent. Knowing I must go to Sir Roger, I nonetheless dashed first to seek Isabelle, for I had to see her at least once more, my only friend. We almost collided at the gate to the women’s court for she was coming in equal haste to find me.

“Oh, Alex, have you heard about Princess Alais? Is not the king a monster? She may be an old sop, but prison! My lady Marie is fair besotted with anger, for you know they’re half-sisters.”

“I heard it first.” And I told her about my interview. She sank to a bench and gazed at me with eyes wide, flatteringly impressed.

“You are a
baron?”

“Aye.” It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her I was a baroness, a twelve-year-old maiden the same as she was, but I refrained.
Not until I told the king
, my father’s instructions recalled.

“Where is Wanthwaite? Is it a large holding?”

“The largest barony in Northumberland, soothly a wonderful estate. I wish I were returning right now.” My voice shook a bit.

“Oh no, I’m sure you don’t. To go on the Crusade in the king’s personal service, why, ’tis an honor to dream upon.”

“Do you know much about the Crusades then, Isabelle? Except that King Richard goes now and his mother went in her youth, I know naught of their purpose or how they’re conducted.”

Her pearly teeth took her lower lip as she thought. “’Tis not a subject that ladies speak much of, but I believe Jerusalem be fearsome far away, close to the original Paradise, I trowe. A priest once described the Holy Kingdom to us: ’tis on a verdant plain bright as emeralds, and trees bloom there with strange sweet fruits which grow as quickly as you pick them. Rivers flow with honey instead of water and cows give forth only the richest cream. The city itself can be seen from afar and you must remember to shade your eyes lest you be blinded with its splendor, for God makes it to shine like diamonds and the streets be paved with gold.”

“In sooth?” I asked, awestruck.

“So said the priest and he would not lie.”

We sat silently a short while more.

“In the king’s personal service. La!” she said at last. “You’ll be a great man someday.”

“Aye. I really should go see to my outfitting.”

“Wait, I have something for you.” She held out a soft vellum book of a few pages.
“Tractus de Amore
, writ by my Countess Marie and her queen mother.”

I took it, much awed. “Thank you, but it’s so valuable.”

“I hope you benefit from its instruction,” she said archly.

She took me in her arms and kissed me, I think passionately for it hurt my teeth, though did nothing to my liver.

“God be with you,” she whispered.

“And with you.”

I left her finally to see Sir Roger about my appointment.

SIR ROGER KEPT ME WAITING A long time at his desk as he served several ahead of me. When he finally gave me his attention, ’twas in a surly manner.
“So you’re to be a page. I wish the king would tell me when he takes someone new. Gilbert and the others are pages enough in my opinion, and Gilbert’s served the king long. And at such short notice. There be no way to put you in his chamber before Vézelay; I can’t train you nor can Gilbert. Get properly outfitted at once; go to the keeper of the horse where two mounts have been put aside and ride close to the household through Tours. I can’t give you room there, for the city is tiny You’ll have to camp alone.”

He waved me aside and I left with sinking heart. To ride alone with the rabble, to camp in the wilderness of tents. Where would I e’en get a tent? Was food provided or was that up to me? I went to collect Plantagenet garb and my steed.

Back in our leather tent, I donned the smaller of my two scarlet-and-gold outfits and rolled the other into a bundle. Later I planned to use the padded vests to make a new harness for my treasure. Then I went out to care for my sweet dappled stallion, giving him of Twixt’s grain to eat. I would call him Thistle because of his gray color.

Enoch found me fast asleep when he returned in late afternoon. The tent was muggy hot and my head felt to be in a vise.

“Waesucks, bairn, come outside. There be not enough air in here for a flea.”

Groggily I stumbled after him.

He put his hand to my forehead. “Be ye with fever? Or is’t the tent? Be ye hungry?”

“Aye,” I said, thinking I’d best gorge to prepare for the fast ahead.

“Haly St. George, whar cum that purple horse?”

“He’s not purple,” I cried, stung to anger. “He’s dapple gray and his name is Thistle.”

“Best call him Stem, for the prickly Thistle rides on top.”

We both busied ourselves preparing our fowl while the Scot whistled cheerily. Aye, he was pleased to be rid of me, even if the price were foregoing Wanthwaite, I thought with a pang of self-pity. I wondered if anyone would ever like me just for myself again, or if my estate would always be the lure. Then I remembered that Enoch had just seen the king.

“What did you talk about?” I asked cautiously.

“The castles he returned to the Scottish king, somewhat of my family which he remembers.”