Chapter 31 #4
Jeanette thanked him, and turned to John.
‘Now is your chance to show the Londoners how amicable you can be,’ she said.
She had arranged this gathering ahead of the opening of Parliament to bring the two sides – Commons and nobles – into cordial company together with Richard, the acknowledged heir to the throne.
‘Rest assured I shall be as cheerful as a May morning,’ John replied, so blandly that Jeanette tapped his arm in reproach and received a sardonic smile in return.
She went to find Richard and discovered him with his Lancastrian cousins playing dice. John’s eldest son Henry had been winning, and Richard’s face was flushed with annoyance because he felt he ought to be the winner, and Henry was being Henry and teasing him about his loss.
Jeanette stepped between them before that annoyance turned to temper. ‘Leave that,’ she said. ‘Come away, come and look!’
She took the children to the window and a servant opened the leaded casement so they could see into the park, while the adults, goblets in hands, gathered behind.
Through the misty blue dusk, twining between the trees from the direction of Cheapside and London Bridge, the sound of trumpets and naker drums beat the air.
Torches flickered, not so much to illuminate the way as for effect.
To the eerie throb of the drums, a procession appeared through the late winter light, clad in fantastical costumes.
Knights in silver armour on prancing horses adorned with unicorn horns and ribbon streamers.
Priests dressed as demons, jesters in stripes and motley, jingling with bells, and men disguised as maidens, wearing chaplets and blond wigs.
Wild men of the wood in leafy green. One of them had a pet monkey on a chain.
‘Mummers!’ Richard cried joyfully, his face brightening as he looked round at his mother to share the moment.
‘Yes,’ she said, smiling. ‘All here to celebrate your year day now you are ten, and about to open Parliament.’
The throng advanced through the park, swaying in time to the music, some dancing, some capering and somersaulting.
As they drew closer, everyone donned cloaks and hastened with much laughter and chatter to greet the arrival of the revellers.
The array drew to a halt in the courtyard and spread out. Those on horseback dismounted and the animals were taken away to the stables. Each man knelt and, at a gesture from Richard following a gentle prompt from his mother, rose again.
‘Welcome all!’ Jeanette cried. ‘Welcome to my hall! May it please you to enter and partake of refreshment!’
The current mayor, a mercer named Adam Stable, was resplendent in white and gold leather, dagged at the hem. He accepted the invitation on behalf of the company, and as the twilight darkened everyone returned to the hall, accompanied by a flourish of trumpets and the thumping of drums.
Master Adam bent his knee again to Richard and asked if he would play at dice with him.
Richard, having recently lost to his cousin Henry, looked dubious, but realising what was expected of him, nodded assent.
The mayor produced a gilded shaker, and some bone dice decorated with golden dots.
‘If you win, sire, I shall give you a fine jewelled brooch for your cloak,’ he said.
‘And if I lose?’ Richard asked.
The mayor spread his arms and grinned toothily. ‘I do not think you shall lose, sire, but if you do, you shall give me a badge for my own hat instead.’
Richard thought about it. ‘Are the dice loaded?’
The mayor puffed out his ruddy cheeks in a show of indignation and reared back. ‘My prince, I would not dare! Throw them and see!’ Over the top of Richard’s head he smiled at Jeanette, for they both knew the answer.
Richard threw the dice for a high score of two sixes.
‘Hah, you have bested the odds!’ Stable declared. ‘Throw again and I will give you a golden belt if the score is high.’
Richard eyed him with a frown, but threw again, and once more he won. And then a third time, for a gold circlet enamelled with white roses.
‘Ah, your good fortune is too powerful for me!’ Master Stable threw up his hands in mock despair.
‘Never have I known anyone as lucky as you, sire. I have nothing left, save perhaps . . .’ He delved in his pouch, screwed up his face as he felt around, and finally produced an ivory comb carved with a kneeling doe and inset with small spinels and sapphires.
‘But this is for your lady mother.’ He presented it to Jeanette with a low bow, and she accepted it with an inclined head and a smile.
‘Your generosity on this day will be long remembered,’ she said. ‘We both thank you with all our hearts.’
Master Stable bowed and placed his hand over his breast. ‘Madam, my own heart and service are yours.’
Richard gave his gifts to an attendant to put in his chamber and cast a triumphant look at Henry of Bolinbroke, who returned it with a superior shrug as if to say he did not care, although clearly he did.
The evening continued with feasting and dancing, and entertainments from the mummers, including acrobats, jugglers and tale tellers.
Jeanette laughed and enjoyed the moment, holding Richard’s hand in the dances, and joining with other members of her family.
Her shoes tonight were of fine red leather and, even if her gown was of mourning black and her figure well expanded from the willowy days of her youth, the evening was reminiscent of times gone by and she entered fully into the spirit.
John of Lancaster danced with the mummers and Londoners, and although his smile was fixed, at least it remained on his face, and for tonight that was all Jeanette asked.
Later, Richard tossed his new dice across the gaming table in his chamber, caught them up and tossed them again. ‘They are loaded,’ he said.
‘Yes, that was part of the entertainment,’ Jeanette replied. ‘It was like giving you a gift but with an additional bit of gilding.’
‘So, I didn’t really win.’
‘You did, because the odds were in your favour,’ she replied. ‘You won’t always win when all things are equal, as you know.’
He looked thoughtful. ‘But I will always win if the dice are loaded in my favour, just as my opponent will win if they are loaded in his.’
‘Yes,’ she said, and wondered what was going through his mind. ‘But tonight was about bringing us together and enjoying the moment, and that too gives nurture to advantage.’