Chapter 12 Poitiers, Aquitaine, November 1363 #3
Alys nodded and pressed her lips together in a single line, and Jeanette noticed a fresh glistening in her eyes.
‘It is good you weep for your family. It shows you love and care for them as they love and care for you. If you are worried about anything, and I mean anything, bring it to me and I will do my best to help. I am here in place of your mother, but not to replace her, and I do not expect you to call me by that title. But I want you to know that I do understand. I was once your age, and I hid my tears from the world too.’
Alys gave a watery sniff. ‘I am sorry, madam,’ she said.
‘What for? Everything will seem better in the morning. Come, let us turn over your pillow so you don’t have to sleep in a puddle!’
‘Did you cry when you had to leave your home and your family?’
‘No, but my life was very different from yours. I was raised at court almost before I could talk, and Queen Philippa’s household was my family.
But I did cry for many other reasons, none of which shall ever worry you.
I promise we shall treat you well – you have no cause for worry.
’ Jeanette kissed her brow. ‘Sleep now, and we shall speak again in the morning.’
Jeanette checked on Joannie, slumbering with her nurse, then retired thoughtfully to her own bed where Edward was sitting in his nightshirt drinking a last cup of wine.
‘Has our new daughter settled?’ he asked.
‘A little homesick and tearful,’ Jeanette replied. She poured herself some wine and clambered into bed beside him. ‘And so very young.’ She pounced on the platter of marchpane comfits lying on top of the bedclothes. ‘I know I was once that age in years, but I am not sure I was ever that innocent.’
He chuckled softly. ‘What a thing to admit to a husband.’
She nudged him with her elbow. ‘Well, not in that way. What I mean is that I was raised at court and accustomed to constant change. I was forever running errands for your mother that took me from cellar to turret. Alys has been sheltered from the world by her own family. Her life has been golden and unchallenged – thus far.’ She bit into the almond-paste sweetmeat with its spicy date stuffing and closed her eyes in momentary bliss.
‘You think she lacks backbone or resilience?’ he asked, speaking like a battle commander assessing one of his knights.
Jeanette shook her head and swallowed. ‘I think nothing just now because I do not know what she carries within. She conducts herself well in public and saves her tears for private, and that tells me she is both dutiful and strong – but time will tell. She will be a good older companion for Maud and Joannie, and in the meantime, we can watch and guide.’
‘Yes, that is good.’ Edward nodded agreement and drank his wine.
‘Was there news from England?’ She gave him a meaningful look.
Plenty of news from England had been laid out for public consumption in the hall earlier.
Jeanette had been brought up to date on current fashions – men’s tunics were growing ever shorter to the point of being scandalous in the eyes of older, more staid courtiers.
She had learned of the most recent betrothals, marriages, births and deaths.
The general political situation and even fiscal news had been discussed openly.
But there was other information that came under cover of Edward’s private seals.
He made a face. ‘There was, but you will not like it. John writes that Alice Perrers has borne my father a son and that her influence at court continues apace while my mother’s diminishes.’
‘No! Oh, that is too much!’ Jeanette was appalled.
Edward leaned across to the chest and picked up a piece of parchment. ‘Read for yourself.’
Jeanette grabbed it from him and quickly scanned the letter before raising her head. ‘How do we stop this woman?’
Edward shrugged. ‘My father refuses to listen to any form of reason. All we can do is hope that the attraction tarnishes.’
‘His attraction to the Countess of Salisbury never tarnished,’ she said grimly. ‘It was only ended by her death from the pestilence. Indeed, the Order of the Garter was created in her honour.’
‘What?’ Edward’s hazel eyes widened.
‘When she died, I discovered one of your father’s garters among her personal effects, and it wasn’t there by chance, I promise you.
I saw many things while I was with her household, and I knew what was going on.
So did your mother, but she had more power then and put a stop to it.
Now your father has another woman, and she does his bidding to gain influence, and he in his turn does hers because he is in thrall to her wiles.
Who knows what she whispers into his ear when they are in bed together?
She will promote her favourites to him and acquire wealth and influence while she can – and now she has a son she will be working for her child too, and any others she may bear.
Dear God, Edward, you have a baby half-brother . . .’
He shook his head, looking sick. ‘It can only last so long, surely, even so.’
‘Your poor mother.’ Jeanette grimaced. She had great respect and affection for Queen Philippa and was horrified to think of Alice Perrers taking advantage because it had implications for other women too, including herself.
Indeed, it was a strong part of her dislike.
‘Having to tolerate her among her own ladies,’ she continued, ‘because your father is being led by that great affair between his legs. Would you do that to me? Discard me for another woman because I had become old, and my body no longer pleased you?’
Edward drew back, looking appalled. ‘Sweetheart, I would never do such a thing. Do not think it for one moment!’
‘So you say, but why should I not think it? We have been wed for two and a half years, and I have not quickened with child. How long before you set me aside for another who will give you offspring? How long before others tell you to do so if you would have an heir because I am a barren furrow?’
‘They would not, and I would never allow such a thing.’ Edward’s complexion suffused with colour. ‘I swear on my soul I would never set you aside, and I will never stop loving you. Besides, there is plenty of time.’
‘Is there? For you perhaps, but not for me.’
‘Have no doubt . . . it will happen in due course.’
The way he was avoiding her gaze made her suspicious, for usually they talked eye to eye. She wondered if he was just paying lip service. ‘I think we should go to church and ask for a blessing,’ she said. ‘Surely something should have happened by now unless we have incurred God’s displeasure.’
‘God will bless us when the time is right. Perhaps He has granted us this space together to cement our own love and to make us ready for that moment.’
‘Why would God do that when it is His wish that His children on earth should procreate?’ she asked, frowning. ‘His command is fecundity for those that cannot live chastely.’
He looked at a point beyond her head. ‘Yes, but God must have His own plans for us – besides, I have four brothers to follow in my stead . . . Look, if you wish, we shall go to mass in the morning and pray for God’s grace in the matter.’
She narrowed her eyes. Edward was certainly pious, but not always eager to go with her to prayers when he had his duties and his men.
The way he was still avoiding her gaze was disconcerting.
A thought surfaced, one that had been brewing in the depths for a while but now given buoyancy by his remark about the time being right.
‘Have you been doing anything to prevent us conceiving an heir?’
A bright flush rose from his neck into his face. Jeanette felt a horrible sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach, which swiftly turned into anger.
‘You have, haven’t you?’
She saw his throat work as he swallowed.
‘What is the point of a blessing if you are defying God and being false to me!’
‘Sweetheart, it is not like that.’
‘Do not “sweetheart” me!’ She sprang from the bed and glared at him.
‘I have thought for a while that all is not right. You anoint yourself before you come to me. I thought it was to ease the way into my body or to cleanse yourself, but now I wonder if you were preventing the seed from planting. Sometimes you do not give me your seed at all. Do you think I am an innocent virgin not to notice? Do you want rid of me so that you can take a younger wife? Is that it?’
‘No, never that, I swear to you! It is just . . .’ His throat worked.
‘Just what?’ she demanded.
He palmed his face. ‘Ah, God, I have loved you all my life. I have wanted you as a woman ever since I was old enough to know what such matters were about, but you only had eyes for Thomas – he was your North Star, and your reason to be, and nothing else mattered. And then he died, God rest his soul, and my dream of having you became possible, and then a reality. I wanted you at my side always as my companion. I thought we had time to be with each other alone before we begot children.’
Her anger deepened. ‘How do you think it looks to the rest of the world, Edward? Soon they will begin agitating in England, saying you made the wrong choice – that you chose a mare who was past her breeding age and that they were right to object. Already people must be thinking such things, even if they do not speak. How many more years of childbearing do you think I have left? Do not insult me by saying you have brothers who can provide your father with heirs. You are the eldest son, and I shall be queen with you. I want our son to sit on the throne – ours! Not Lionel’s, not John’s, not the others. How dare you!’
Leaving the bed too, he knelt at her feet. ‘In truth, it is because I love you too much, not too little.’
‘You have a strange way of showing it. I think you love your own comforts too much to think of others, or of the future.’