The Devil's Diadem (25 page)

A servant suddenly loomed behind the earl, carrying a pitcher of small beer. I closed my eyes momentarily, wondering at my fate that the servant had not arrived earlier and could have helped me to my bed, and the earl could then have ignored me as usual when he strode through to his privy chamber.

The earl turned, took the pitcher from the servant, thanking him, then walked toward me.

I looked down, trembling in my fear.

I heard the rattle as the earl took two pewter cups down from the hearth mantle, then the gurgle of the beer.

I had to look up. He was standing before me, his expression as unreadable as ever, holding out a cup. I took it from him, thanking him in a soft voice.

He sat in a chair a little apart from mine. ‘Tell me about Rosamund and John,’ he said.

I licked my lips, not knowing what I could say, what words I could use. ‘Tell me!’

‘They were suffering, my lord. The fungus had grown over their faces. They could hardly breathe. Stephen —’

‘Ah, so it was just “Stephen” then, eh?’

‘My Lord Stephen did not want them to suffer. He suggested that —’

‘
He
suggested?’

What did he want to hear? ‘If you want me to take the blame for this, my lord, then I am willing. I do not care. If you would like me to fabricate a tale for you in which I bear all the sin for what happened in this castle, then let me know. Otherwise I will tell you merely what happened.’

‘Then just tell me, mistress, but save me your outrage.’

I told him, in bare, stark words, how Stephen and I had held the pillow over John’s and Rosamund’s faces. ‘It was such a time of horror, my lord. What any of us did, it was only done under the most extreme of circumstances. We will all carry the guilt for the rest of our lives.’

I waited, unsure and fearful of the earl’s reaction.

He looked at me a long moment, then gave a simple nod. ‘Owain told me that he took the life of Emmette so that she did not suffer in fire, and I am glad of it. If Stephen suggested the same for Rosamund and John, then I am glad of that, too. If you assisted, then I thank you for it.’

I could barely believe the words. I had expected angry recrimination, not thanks.

‘And Stephen?’ said the earl. ‘Will you tell me what happened?’

I did, again in as few words as possible. Not to save the earl his grief, but to save mine.

‘At least he did not burn,’ the earl said softly when I was done. ‘My God, if only I had arrived sooner. If only …’

‘What could you have done, my lord?’

‘I could have done
something
!’ the earl snapped, and I looked down at the cup in my hands, avoiding the anger in his eyes.

‘Did you know that I have received word Ancel and Robert also succumbed?’ the earl continued. ‘Summersete told me they died not three weeks after joining his household.’

The twin boys were dead, too? Sweet Mother Virgin! He had lost his entire family. I raised my eyes, and thought he looked so old and haggard slumped in his chair that I felt more sorry for him than I had ever thought possible.

He drank the last of his beer and poured himself another, offering me more which I refused.

‘Why did you survive, Maeb?’

More guilt knifed through me. All his family had died.

I had not.

‘I don’t know, my lord. Owain says that maybe the plague had lost its force, or —’

‘Owain is a fool if he says that. You took hemlock as well. Both Evelyn and Owain told me this. You were in the final stages of the plague, choking on the fungus, and you took a dose of hemlock that was three times what would kill a strong man. So why did you live?’

‘I don’t know, my lord.’ I fought not to add
I am sorry
because I was suddenly sick of saying that.

‘Did you dream?’

That question surprised me. ‘I had many hallucinations, my lord. I thought I
had
died, but then …’

‘But then?’

‘But I dreamed that I was pushed back, by a massive horse … and wolves snapped at my heels.’

The earl looked at me, one end of his mouth twisting in what could have been either amusement or scorn. ‘The hemlock, indeed,’ he said.

There was an uncomfortable silence. ‘How does the king fare?’ I said stupidly, grasping at something to say. He looked at me quizzically, one eyebrow raised. ‘Edmond? How does he fare? Full of care, as am I, but his wife and sons live, whereas mine … ah, but I must talk of
Edmond
, for he is the focus of your concern. He is well enough, Maeb. Still well enough to lust after a pretty face. As is Saint-Valery, your betrothed.’

Saint-Valery? How many weeks, months, had it been since I had thought of him?

‘Ah,’ said the earl, ‘see your surprise.’

‘Saint-Valery and I were not betrothed,’ I said. ‘The marriage was mooted, only. I had not yet agreed to his proposal.’

‘Good, thank you for reminding me of the fact. This suits my purpose admirably. Saint-Valery might have raised objection due to pre-contract.’

‘My lord?’

‘To our marriage, Maeb. I need a new wife and a new family and you can provide me both.’

I could only stare, not believing I had heard his words a-right.

‘Think of it as a way to assuage your guilt, Maeb. Achieve absolution, if that is what you need. Three of my children died by your hand, including my beloved son. However noble and merciful your motives, still my children are dead. You owe me a family, and you shall deliver me a new one. Now, drink your beer. You need to regain your strength, for I do not have the heart to take a cripple to my marriage bed.’

With that, he put down his cup and left the solar.

Chapter Three

E
velyn came to help me back to bed, happily prattling about some gossip she had heard in the kitchens. She did not notice my silence. Once I was settled in bed, she sat down beside me. Her face, alive with amusement not a moment ago, now sobered.

‘Maeb,’ she said, ‘now that you are getting better, we will need to think on our future.’

I said nothing. I was still in shock at what the earl had said, and was starting to think I had misheard him.

‘The earl will take a new wife, soon enough,’ Evelyn said. ‘He has lost all his children. He needs heirs.’ She sighed. ‘There must be heiresses and wealthy noble widows a-plenty to choose from. Apart from Edmond’s sons, and maybe even more than them, the earl is the most marriageable man in England. He has such wealth and power. He will choose an illustrious wife, to be sure.’

I just looked at her numbly.

‘Maeb,’ Evelyn said, in a tone that suggested she needed to explain as if to a small child — and maybe she did — ‘such a woman will already have her ladies attending upon her. She will not need us. Indeed, if it were not for your illness, we should already have been required to leave Pengraic.’

‘Evelyn …’

‘I think I can obtain a position for myself within de Tosny’s household. My daughter shall speak for me. But, Maeb, what will you do? Perhaps the earl can find you a household.’

‘Evelyn …’

‘What is it?’

I did not know what to say. What the earl had said was so preposterous that it now seemed unspeakable.

‘The earl …’

‘Yes?’ Evelyn was growing impatient with me. ‘Evelyn … I may have misheard it. Surely, I could not have heard a-right. The earl …’

‘
Yes?
’

‘The earl has said, this morning, while I sat out by the fire … the earl said that we should marry.’

Evelyn clearly did not know what to make of my words. ‘You and me?’ she said, incredulous.

‘No! The
earl
and myself.’

Evelyn’s mouth dropped open, and then I saw in her eyes a flash of pity. Poor, delusional Maeb. The sickness must have scarred her mind.

‘Maeb,’ she said, gentle as a mother, ‘that could not be.’

‘I do not think so, either. But … he seemed so insistent.’

‘Maeb, the earl will choose a woman of great rank, wealth and alliances. He must.’

I knew what she was thinking. I had set my heart on Stephen, and now that he was dead I entertained childish dreams of the earl.

I began to resent the earl for putting me in this position. ‘I know that, Evelyn. I do not know what … he must have been making a cruel jest, I think.’

‘Perhaps you misunderstood,’ said Evelyn. ‘He spoke of his new bride and perhaps said you might have a place in her household? If so, then you have good luck, for your future is assured.’

That wasn’t what the earl had said. Was it? Now I could not believe any of my memories. Nothing made sense. Nothing.

Maybe I was still delusional from the hemlock.

I frowned, wondering if I had misheard the earl’s entire conversation. ‘Perhaps,’ I began, then stopped as the earl, d’Avranches, Ivo Taillebois — the new castle steward — as well as two knights, entered the solar. They walked to the grouping of benches and chairs about the fire, although they did not sit down, and engaged in animated discussion about the reorganisation of castle defences with the limited numbers of soldiers and knights currently in residence.

Evelyn and I fell silent as we always did when the earl conducted his daily business within the solar. And, as always, the earl and his men ignored us completely … until the moment Taillebois turned to leave the grouping. He had walked some three or four paces away when the earl called him to a halt.

‘Taillebois,’ the earl said, lifting a ring of keys from his tunic pocket and thumbing through them. ‘There is a large chest in the lower storage chambers, to the left of the door, pushed hard up against the wall.’

He handed the key to Taillebois. ‘Take Mistress Evelyn down with you and let her sort through it. Mistress Evelyn, the chest is full of fabrics that I had imported for my Lady Adelie’s pleasure. She never used them, but now …’

He paused, sent me a glance, then looked at the group of men. ‘Now they may be used for Mistress Maeb’s pleasure. We are to be betrothed, when she is well enough to stand before witnesses and speak the vows, and I have had the necessary binding contracts drawn up. I have a family to replace, as soon as I might.’

Everyone, including myself, stared at him.

‘Maeb will need more gentle kirtles and gowns than she has now, Evelyn,’ the earl continued, apparently unbothered by the stunned regard of his listeners. ‘Select some fabrics that suit. Take whatever is useful … the chest has ribbons and baubles enough besides fabric. Make sure you have at least one bright kirtle stitched by the end of this week. I do not wish to delay this betrothal. Taillebois, what women are there in the castle or village, left alive and well, who might be trusted with the stitching?’

‘I shall find out, my lord,’ Taillebois said, and with a half bow to the earl and a look of enquiry to Evelyn, who somehow managed to rise and follow him, left the chamber.

D’Avranches and the two knights stared at me with undisguised speculation.

I could only imagine the rumours racing about the castle by the end of this day.

The earl dismissed the three men, thankfully bringing to an end their speculative attention, then strolled over to my bed.

‘I need to move apace, Maeb. God alone knows when the king will demand I return to court. I would like to have the formalities of the betrothal concluded soon. When might you be well enough to attend dinner in the great hall?’

‘Perhaps a week, my lord.’

‘A week. Good. Now, we need to discuss the terms —’

‘My lord,’ I said, prompted by the conversation I’d had earlier with Evelyn. ‘Surely you cannot want me to wife. You have the flower of English and Norman nobility, and beyond, to choose for your wife. You cannot want
me
!’

He regarded me a moment, then sat down on the end of the bed. ‘I do not have the time to conduct lengthy negotiations, Maeb. I cannot be bothered. I am too tired, and there is much else I need to be doing. All I need is a woman to wive.’

‘But you despise me,’ I said, remembering that conversation we’d had on the day we’d first met.

‘I distrusted you,’ he said. ‘You would have made Stephen a bad wife, but you will do well enough for me. For sweet Christ’s sake, Maeb, the world is turned upside down, and what mattered once now weighs little. I have no patience for your protests. Do as I ask, or face the uncertain cold holloways and byways beyond the gates of this castle.’

I was silent. The earl always had such a way with words.

The earl grunted, as if he had known I would raise no more objection. ‘I will settle three or four manors on you, Maeb, as jointure enough should I die before you, as surely I will. It is protection and price enough to silence your doubts.’

He stood. ‘You have just made a noble marriage, Maeb. Wasn’t that what you’d always wanted from your place in my household?’

Chapter Four

I
lay awake for much of the night. I felt lost, adrift. Everything about me felt false. The plague should have killed me. I should have died. I had wanted to die.

But I had not died. Instead I had reawakened into, as the earl had put it, a world turned upside down.

Nothing was as it should be. All was false.

So false.

In the morning, I woke with Evelyn, and demanded she help me dress. She did as I asked, as she had since last night. Everything I asked, she did without question.

Everything felt false with her, now, too.

‘I want to go to the chapel,’ I said, as soon as I was dressed.

I did not stand, for fear I would wobble alarmingly. My head swayed with lack of sleep and weakness, but more than anything I wanted, needed, to go to the chapel.

I wanted to see where the earl had interred Stephen. Maybe there I might find some truth.

‘But you are so weak,’ Evelyn said. She hesitated at the end of that sentence, as if she had wanted to add either ‘Maeb’, or ‘my lady’. But neither suited. Both of us were lost in some halfway land of indecision. ‘You cannot walk.’

Now even our friendship was blighted.

‘Then find me a strong man, if any should remain within the castle, and he can carry me there.’