The Passionate Enemies by Jean Plaidy

Author:Jean Plaidy [Jean Plaidy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2012-06-28T04:00:00+00:00

Hugh Bigod

RIDING IN FROM the hunt, Stephen, who was in Boulogne with his wife, saw a man on horseback galloping towards the castle.

Stephen paused and waited. There was one piece of news which had been expected for some time and he had been on the alert for these many weeks. The purposefulness of the rider, the speed with which he galloped and the fact that he was making straight for the castle implied that he had news of the utmost importance for Stephen.

Could it be? The King had been ill for some time. The news had been that he was visibly declining. His breathlessness had increased; and his temper deteriorated day by day as did his desire for penitence. The number of good deeds he had performed in the last year was ominous. The messenger was slowing down. He had recognized Stephen.

‘My lord,’ he gasped. ‘The King is dead.’

‘You are certain of this?’

‘I have been sent to you by those who have seen his corpse. He died of a surfeit of lampreys.’

‘Ay,’ said Stephen, ‘but it was more than that. He has been slowly dying these last months.’

‘The lampreys finished him, my lord. His base-born son Robert of Gloucester was with him at the end. He has given his orders to him.’

‘I thank you,’ said Stephen. ‘You shall be rewarded. Now go and refresh yourself.’

Stephen went at once to his wife’s apartments. She was pregnant, a fact which delighted him.

‘The King is dead,’ he said.

Matilda looked at him with dismay; she could see the excitement in his eyes.

‘What will you do?’ she asked slowly.

‘I must go to England at once.’

‘To support Matilda?’

He was silent.

His wife looked at him sadly. She had been at peace in Boulogne; she could never be happy when that other Matilda had been near. She thought of the arrogant handsome Empress and how pleased she had been when she had left England with her young husband and her children had been born. She knew of course that Stephen had been bemused by the Empress; she suspected that they had been lovers; she knew that there was some close tie between her husband and his arrogant cousin but she did not quite understand what it implied though she did know that it was stronger than any other relationship either of them felt – Matilda for Geoffrey, her husband, or Stephen for her, his wife.

And his first thought was that he must go to England; he must stand beside Matilda. He must be at her side when she claimed the throne.

But Matilda did not understand her husband. Nor did he entirely understand himself.

A wild exultation had seized him and it was not because he was going to help Matilda take and hold the crown.

His wife said: ‘You are eager to go back to England. You want to be with your cousin Matilda. You want to serve her. I have understood for so long your feelings for her.’

Stephen looked at his wife intently; then taking her by the shoulders he said: ‘I am going to England not to put my cousin Matilda on the throne, but to take it myself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.