Chapter 31 #2
Jeanette was rigid, for the scenario was almost a repeat of the time she had come upon Alice leaning over her own Edward like a succubus.
The King smiled indulgently, a mischievous gleam in his eyes like a child besting an adult.
At the other side of the bed, sitting on a stool, was Alice’s son, John de Southray.
Looking tense, he bowed to Jeanette and his gaze flickered between the adults before fixing on Richard, slender at his mother’s side in his black velvet mourning tunic and hose.
‘I did not realise you had visitors, sire,’ Jeanette said, her voice giving no indication of her disgusted fury. ‘I would have postponed my visit if I had known. I should not like to tire you out.’
‘I am not tired at all, my dear,’ he answered benignly. ‘Alice is caring for me as you can see, and I am already much improved for her company. I have the most attentive nurse in the world and the tenderest companion feeding me a delicious custard. What more could I wish for?’
Jeanette almost ground her teeth. Alice modestly lowered her head, but beneath her eyelids triumph glinted.
‘Then I wish you a most swift recovery, sire,’ Jeanette managed.
The King smiled. ‘Thank you, my dear. I shall grow in strength daily I am certain.’ He beckoned to Richard. ‘Ah, my little prince.’ Richard kissed his grandfather with reluctant duty and received a playful pinch on the cheek. ‘You look exactly like your father when he was your age.’
‘I have been praying for you, sire,’ Richard said. ‘And so has my mother.’
‘And see, your prayers have had an effect – look how much I have been restored!’
‘Does this mean you will be returning to Westminster, sire?’ Jeanette enquired.
‘I may in due course, but not yet. Alice and I have just been talking about the Christmas festival, and we have decided to spend it at Eltham with the court, haven’t we, my dear?’
‘As my lord wishes,’ Alice said in a sweet voice. ‘I am sure everyone will be glad to gather and celebrate your return to health.’
He beamed at her. ‘Just so.’ He gestured to Richard and Southray. ‘Why don’t you boys go and play chess or dice and get to know each other?’
Richard turned to his mother with a question in his eyes. Jeanette narrowed her own but nodded. ‘Of course,’ she said. Alice’s son was three years older than Richard, but Richard was an excellent chess player.
The King smiled and watched the boys walk over to the board set out on the window seat.
Through force of will, Jeanette continued to wear a polite, courtly mask.
Why this woman? What did he see in her? She was attractive, but no more than any other lady he could have had.
Perhaps it was her manner – a combination of mistress, mother and adoring supporter in one.
God alone knew what she would be wheedling out of him while playing the nurse!
‘I don’t mind Alice’s son,’ Richard said to Jeanette later in their chamber. ‘He might be a bastard, but he is my kin, like Roger of Clarendon.’
Jeanette had gained quiet satisfaction at seeing Richard roundly defeat John de Southray twice at chess, but to be fair, the youth had taken it in his stride and accepted the loss with good grace.
Richard did not easily like people – he loathed John’s son Henry – but when he did take to someone, his friendships could be fierce.
‘He is going to be married at Christmas,’ Richard said. ‘There’s going to be a big wedding here.’
‘What?’ Jeanette was suddenly alert.
‘To Mary Percy.’
She stared at him, dumbfounded. Young Mary Percy had been given to Alice Perrers in wardship some time ago as one of the King’s many lucrative gifts to his mistress.
The grant gave her the right to administer the girl’s lands, cream off the profits from them, and approve her marriage to someone of her choosing.
Mary was heiress to the great earldom of Northumberland, and such a marriage would raise Alice’s bastard son to high estate when he came into his own majority.
‘He doesn’t want to marry her, and she doesn’t like him, but they have to do as my grandfather says.’
Jeanette was catapulted back to the time when she had been forced into a bigamous marriage with William Montagu, now Earl of Salisbury.
They had both been very young and unwilling but were coerced by their ambitious families.
Marriages to secure wealth and lineage were common but could be utterly miserable when the couple involved had no rapport or, as in some cases, actively disliked each other.
‘Your grandfather is the King and will do as he chooses,’ she said.
As Mistress Perrers chooses. She pressed her lips together.
‘Will I have to marry someone I don’t like?’
Jeanette shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I promise you will not.’ None of her own children had married for love, all had been matched for dynasty, but with awareness and consideration too.
* * *
On their return from Havering, Jeanette went directly to the Savoy to see John and discovered him busy at work with his scribes.
‘This is a surprise, and an unlooked-for pleasure,’ he declared as she was ushered into his chamber, but his expression was guarded.
‘As it was a surprise to me to visit your father and discover Alice Perrers sitting on his bed spooning broth into his mouth!’ she retorted. ‘What a very strange banishment. As we left, merchants were piling into the courtyard with bolts of cloth for new gowns and furred robes!’
John looked down, avoiding her gaze, and she swallowed bitterness. So much for trust.
‘My father begged me to let Alice come to his bedside, and I did not have the heart to deny a dying man that pity.’
‘Well, he was most certainly not dying when I saw him!’ she snapped. ‘Indeed, he was planning a Christmas celebration at Havering, and a marriage between John de Southray and Mary Percy!’
John recoiled in surprise but quickly rallied. ‘My father may have improved, but he is still unwell, and I suspect his days are numbered. Alice can be contained. For pity, would you deny an old man’s need?’
‘A need she is exploiting with all her might!’ Jeanette said furiously. ‘She can whisper heaven knows what into his ears and he will do her bidding.’
John sighed heavily. ‘This recent Parliament has seriously damaged my father’s authority and must be rebalanced.
He was in his full faculties when he commanded she be restored to him.
’ He pushed one hand through his hair. ‘I cannot be all things to all people. If my father is well enough to give instructions, then he is still the King, even if I am the one to implement his will – and the one who receives the blame. He regards the last Parliament as a humiliating stain on his prerogative.’
Jeanette’s breathing quickened. ‘But many were rightly cast into prison and fined for their deceit and embezzlement. I know the extent of it because your brother spent his last months looking at the evidence.’
John’s complexion flushed but he said steadily, ‘My father desires everything to be restored as it was before that Parliament was held – before Edward died. The men arrested are to be released.’
She felt sick. ‘And what of you, John, will you do his bidding because you desire it too?’
‘I must do what is best for the Crown. My father is right: our authority has been weakened. A new Parliament must be summoned to restore order and balance – not for my benefit, but for my father’s, and eventually for Richard’s.
The men who have perpetrated deception on the Crown have been punished and they know they will be arrested again at the first scent of scandal.
Since they have been in gaol all summer, they understand it is no idle threat.
Mistress Perrers might have returned to my father and have a few new gowns to show for it, but she too knows she is not off the hook. ’
‘So, she will spend that time grabbing what she can from him – such as marrying her son to Mary Percy and storing up property, gold and jewels,’ Jeanette said furiously. ‘And secure herself a pardon into the bargain I have no doubt. I warn you, John, you are sailing very close to the wind.’
‘I am not a fool,’ he said curtly. ‘When you say I am sailing close to the wind, well, it is because I have a ship to guide into calmer waters and will not see it driven on to the rocks. Alice Perrers can whisper in my father’s ear all she wants, and yes, she may garner a few victories because he will follow her desires, but she dare not step too far after what has happened. ’
‘And marrying her son to Mary Percy is not a step too far?’ Jeanette shook her head at him in frustration. ‘I am concerned and angry. Do not ignore my warning or my counsel. I am fighting for Richard every bit as much as you are, and there is nothing as fierce as a lioness defending her cub.’
‘Jeanette—’
‘I will argue no more. Be careful not to sink your ship, for I will not sink with you.’ Turning on her heel, she swept out, her heart hammering with anxiety and anger.
At Christmas, the court gathered at Havering to celebrate the season and witness the wedding of young John de Southray to the heiress Mary Percy.
The bride was pale and fighting back tears, the groom obedient but purse-lipped.
Jeanette’s heart ached for both youngsters, for she had been in that position herself.
Alice Perrers dominated the proceedings, magnificent as a queen in robes of scarlet silk and white ermine fur.
Her elaborate headdress was embroidered with pearls and draped with diaphanous gold silk as finely spun as a spider’s web.
The King’s smile was vapid as he watched the proceedings and he repetitively tapped his fingers, once more adorned with Alice’s rings, on the arm of his chair.
He kept glancing indulgently at her, and periodically she came to sit at his side, touch his hand and kiss him.