Chapter 27 #2
The comment was met with a look of horrified astonishment.
William folded the parchment in four and grinned.
“Of course I’m answering it, you dolt. Do you think I’d do anything else?
” He glanced down at the letter which he had memorised as the scribe read it to him.
It was a summons to join the King as soon as he could.
King Philip of France had seized Henry’s fortress of Chateauroux.
War was brewing up faster than summer lightning and Henry needed experienced, stalwart men to stand in the storm.
“The King wants me to bring as many knights and experienced men as I can.” William clasped his shoulder.
“You can start by passing on the news and mustering the men. I’ll need to talk to those here and send out fast riders to the rest. I want to be ready to leave by the morrow dawn. ”
Heloise looked at William, her puppyish manner now decidedly hangdog. “I knew you would not stay,” she said with a drooping lower lip.
It was late at night and they were sitting in his private chamber, supposedly playing chess, but neither of them had taken a turn in a while. William’s mind was far away, already with the King, and Heloise’s had been glued to the thought of his imminent departure.
William toyed with a stubby ivory pawn, turning it between his fingers. “I cannot,” he said. “The King has need of me.”
“And it is what you have been waiting for.”
William looked across the board at her and adjusted the focus of his thoughts. “Yes,” he said.
“What of your duties in the north?”
“I have able deputies to leave in my stead.”
Her eyes filled with accusation. “So all you have been doing is marking time and milking the cow.”
He looked at her steadily until she dropped her gaze.
“I have been doing both of those, but I am sorry if you believe that has been my entire purpose.” William leaned back in his curved chair and folded his arms. “When I take on a task I do my best and I don’t renege,” he said softly.
“You will not suffer under my wardship, I swear to you.”
“I suppose you are thinking it a godsend that you did not marry me,” she said in a small voice.
William smiled. “I am thinking that it is a privilege to have you for my ward.” He took her hand in his.
There were gold rings on two of her fingers, but carelessly worn, the claw setting on the one with a stone was damaged.
She had been biting her nails again and there were grazes on her knuckles where one of the hound pups had chewed her hand.
He lifted it to his lips and kissed it in the fashion of the court, and then he turned it over and kissed her palm and folded her fingers over the kiss.
He had done it a hundred times before with different women, sometimes in flattery, occasionally as a prelude to more intimate embraces, and sometimes, like this, in a spirit of affection, compassion, and regret.
“You do not need to humour me,” she said with wounded dignity.
“I am not. I may dress words in courtly language, but you have my honesty.”
Heloise studied her hand, still folded over the courtesy of his kiss. “What of Denise de Chateauroux? Will she have your honesty too?”
William frowned. Henry’s plea for aid had arrived with a bribe.
Only let William come to his aid, bringing as many knights as he could muster, and Henry would give him the fortress of Chateauroux to hold by right of marriage to its young heiress, Denise, lady of Berry.
He shrugged. “In the end she may have nothing of me at all.” Stretching, he rose from the chessboard, abandoning all pretence at playing the game.
Heloise toyed with her braid, winding it around her forefinger. “I do not understand,” she said in a puzzled voice.
“Chateauroux is in the hands of the French King. Henry has promised me something for which I will have to fight tooth and claw to regain. He is never generous unless forced to be.”
“Can you do it?”
“It remains to be seen how hard the King of France wants to hold on to it and how deep the distrust between Prince Richard and his father has etched.” He rumpled his hands through his hair and sighed. “God forbid that I should ever raise sons the like of Henry’s.”
Heloise eyed him curiously. He was usually smilingly reticent about the royal masters who played their tunes from a distance and expected lesser mortals to dance to them. “You dislike them?”
“No,” William said, “but I am glad that they are not mine. They will tear their father and each other to pieces in their seeking after power. If Richard has to trample over his father’s body to take what he sees as his due, then he will do so, and John will follow the direction of best advantage to himself.
My young lord was the same. He wanted power to wield, and in the end his wanting and his discontent were the end of him—God rest his soul. ” He crossed himself.
“And yet you still desire Chateauroux for yourself?”
“I am not certain that I do,” he said thoughtfully, “but I am hoping that the King is open to negotiation.”
Heloise eyed him. “Then what do you want?”
“My bed for the moment,” he said with a finality in his tone that told her the questions had gone far enough.
“What about our game?” She indicated the chessboard.
“I concede,” he said. “There’s no shame in yielding to beauty.”
Heloise gave a small, forlorn smile. The shield of the courtier was firmly back in place and there would be no more getting round it tonight—or perhaps ever again.
For a moment she hesitated, and then she ran to him, threw her arms around his waist, pressed her head to his chest, and hugged him fiercely. “Don’t forget me,” she said.
“As if I could.” His tone was wry, but his arms came around her and he returned her hug full measure.