Chapter Sixteen #2
Gorsedd cleared his throat softly. “He has a mighty army,” he said. “He has the best stable of knights in the south of England.”
“I have heard that,” Kevin said. “But where are they? None of them accompanied him to London.”
Gorsedd shrugged. “When you reach Ilchester, you will see for yourself,” he said. “It is the biggest military compound outside of Kenilworth or Windsor. His knights run the place. Dorset oversees his empire as a Caesar would oversee Rome.”
Kevin pondered that a moment. “And the duke himself?” he asked. “What is he like personally? I have heard rumor that he and Roger Longespee were lovers.”
Gorsedd grunted uncomfortably. “Of that, I have seen evidence,” he admitted. “I would say that it is true. But I have heard that Dorset has had many male lovers, although I’ve not seen the truth of that personally.”
Kevin lingered on thoughts of Victor and the effeminate young lord he’d been forced to kill.
“I fear the duchess is in for a lifetime of misery in her new marriage,” he said.
It was as closed as he could come to speaking sympathetically about Annavieve to anyone other than Thomas or Adonis.
“But I appreciate your candor and honesty. I will take the information with me to my grave. If I can ever return the favor, you will let me know.”
Gorsedd eyed him. “Your willingness to take my son as your squire for the games puts you in my favor,” he said.
“Cortez is too good to remain with Salisbury. He needs to learn from a man who can teach him more than we can. You are such a man, my lord. If Cortez performs well enough in the games, mayhap you will consider taking him back to Ilchester with you.”
Kevin nodded. “If he proves himself worthy, I will plead for the chance to do just that.”
Gorsedd smiled faintly. “You have my thanks,” he said. “But… one more thing.”
“What is that?”
Gorsedd took a deep breath, as if having difficulty bringing forth the words. He struggled for a moment before speaking.
“Keep him away from Dorset,” he finally said. “The duke likes young men… I do not want his eye to fall upon my son. Cortez would probably kill the man if the duke forced himself upon him and I do not wish to see my son ruined.”
Kevin understood. “You have my vow,” he said. “I will keep your son safe.”
Gorsedd’s shoulders drooped, as if he were greatly relieved. “Again,” he said quietly, “you have my thanks.”
“And you have mine.”
With that, they proceeded into the armory tent where more Salisbury knights, along with Adonis and Thomas, were preparing for the coming games.
The mood was wrought with anticipation of what was to come and as Kevin donned his armor, pieces of mail and plate that he’d worn for six years in the Levant, his thoughts inevitably turned back to Annavieve.
More and more, it was clear that the situation they were both in was becoming increasingly dark.
The character of the man they were both sworn to was becoming increasingly twisted. Kevin wondered just how much further it would twist.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
*
Annavieve had never seen anything like it in her entire life.
She didn’t even know such things existed.
Crowds upon crowds of people filled the lists to watch two opposing teams of knights face off against each other and the gambling on who would win was rampant.
Money was exchanging hands at an alarming rate in the minutes leading up to the event.
Of course, that was only some of what Annavieve had seen.
Still depressed and smarting from Magda’s demise, it had been difficult for her to summon any enthusiasm at all for the games in spite of her natural curiosity towards it.
Escorted to the tournament field by William, the Earl of Salisbury, who was one of the patrons of the games, and a collection of Salisbury soldiers, she held on to William’s arm as they were paraded through the streets as people lined up to wave at them and throw flowers. The mood was very festive.
Victor was particularly singled out, as the Duke of Dorset and cousin to the king, and he received the accolades from the peasants with his usual arrogance.
Annavieve, on the arm of the earl because Victor would not touch her, was not acknowledged as the duchess at the beginning of the parade.
Finally, William started introducing her to the crowd as the Duchess of Dorset and people went mad for the beautiful young woman in the glorious crimson gown.
Unfortunately, she began to take the attention off of Victor.
Children were running up to her and giving her bouquets of flowers and, very quickly, her arms were full of fall blooms, mostly daisies or other little white flowers that would grow wild in the cool fall months.
It was enough to cause her to forget her grief, at least for the moment, and Annavieve was quite embarrassed by the attention but William laughed and encouraged it, yelling to the townsfolk lining the road to love the new duchess.
Victor, trying to drum up his own love from the crowd, was clearly underwhelming.
It made a frustrated man even more frustrated.
But the parade ended when they reached the lists and climbed up to their seats.
More nobles followed them and then came the parade of competitors for the coming mass competition.
Annavieve could just catch a glimpse of the grand knights and their decorated horses as they made their way up the road to the tournament field.
So many houses and so many colors; it was all quite a grand spectacle with the townsfolk cheering wildly for their favorite knight.
Tossed daisies filled the air, landing on horses, knights, squires, other peasants, and on the muddy ground.
Annavieve saw quite clearly when the Salisbury and Dorset knights moved down the road and it was very easy to pick out Kevin in the crowd.
He was in full armor and his great white horse with the black mane and tail was doing an excitable dance down the road.
Kevin rode the dancing horse with great ease, seemingly ignoring the crowd that was screaming and throwing flowers in his direction, but to see the man brought swells of joy to Annavieve’s heart.
He looked so proud and powerful. Her thoughts were only, and ever only, of him, and adoration and admiration for the man grew.
“Quite a spectacle, is it not?”
William had asked the polite question and Annavieve turned to him, smiling. He seemed like a genuinely kind man and she was coming to like him.
“I have never seen anything like this,” she said, awed. “Are all tournaments this grand?”
William nodded, his gaze lingering on the approach of the knights.
“Nearly all of them,” he said. “Some are more riotous than others. I attended one in Gloucester where people were throwing cakes at the knights. It was lovely if they caught one to eat it but messy if they did not. The day after the parade, it looked as if the entire population of the town had vomited all over the road. It was a great mess.”
Annavieve giggled. “How awful!”
William nodded in agreement. “It was,” he said. “But my knights ruled the day so it was not too terribly awful for me. I would expect that my knights will rule today as well.”
A smile played on Annavieve’s lips. “I am sure the Dorset knights will have something to say about that,” she said, wondering if Victor, on William’s other side, was listening. The man didn’t even have the courtesy to sit next to her. “Dorset fields three very powerful men.”
William made a face. “He fields three men who have been in the Levant for six years,” he sniffed. “Fighting barbarians and fighting civilized knights are two entirely different things.”
“Nonsense,” Victor chimed in; he had indeed heard what was being spoken. “You forget that I have the offspring of three of the most impressive knights who have ever lived – de Wolfe, Hage, and de Norville. They will wipe the competition from the face of the earth.”
William cocked an eyebrow. “Would you care to make a bet on that?”
Victor’s eyes gleamed. Much like Roger the son, William the father also had a love of gambling. “Indeed I would,” he said. “What shall we bet?”
William cocked his head thoughtfully. “I have an old manor home at Sedghill,” he said. “You have been there before, Victor. It has good land about it. I will pit Sedghill against Hage. If you win, you get to keep both. If I win, I get to keep both.”
Victor was mildly stumped by the proposal. “You want Hage included in this bet?” he asked. “I am not willing to part with him. I will put up de Norville, however. If you win, you may take him.”
Annavieve listened to William and Victor barter over land and knights.
Is this the way the men who control England really treat lives?
She thought. For men to be bartered about so easily, as if they were commodities, didn’t set well with her, especially given the fact that Salisbury seemed to want Kevin.
For once, she was on Victor’s side when the man denied such a bargain.
As the pair of them bickered back and forth, the lists around them began to fill up.
Men in fine clothing and their equally fine wives began to take their seats.
Annavieve watched them all with great interested, smiling when some of the women would meet her eye.
A few smiled in return, a few didn’t. Wildly curious, as Annavieve had never seen such fine people all gathered in one place before, she watched it all with the inquisitiveness of a woman who had hardly been out of a convent her entire life.
This was all so new and fascinating to her. It was a different world.