Gifts of the Queen by Mary Lide

Author:Mary Lide
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-07-02T04:00:00+00:00

8

There were other consequences after the crushing of the conspiracy, so well remembered, that in future years learned men should debate them, each scholar arguing for this interpretation or that. Womanlike, I shall tell you first those that concerned us at Sieux, certainly those that affected me, and eventually so entwined with other larger ones that it would take a more skilled mind than mine to sort them through. I speak of matters of state, you understand, strategy and policy by which the great of the world rule and control; but since the main effect of Boissert Field was to bring fame and wealth to Sieux, that was what I noticed most. Sieux regained its rightful place of importance in France. Each day, it seemed men came to offer their services, soldiers of fortune, younger sons, vassals from Auterre and Chatille, looking for adventure and reward. The castle began to hum with life. Master Edward hastily hammered up a second floor to the gate tower, and hiring more men, began to raise up the outer walls and build on the foundations of the keep; a year ago, we could have prayed for half as much. Best of all, or worst, depending on the point of view, Raoul's triumph gave him freedom to act as he saw fit; and since Sieux's control of central France was assured, he could strike out on his own. And that I saw as most dangerous. But I rush ahead. For first of all, the things that took place before and after that mêlée had to be discussed, and as soon as Raoul returned to Sieux he surprised me into speech.

I had come hastily at noon that day into the new upper chamber of our tower. It was still damp and smelled of whitewash and lime, and I was laughing at something the men had said, a bunch of flowers swinging at my side, for in these peaceful times I used to dig in the herb gardens, once justly well-known that the ladies of Sieux had planted; overgrown these many years. Raoul was sitting there, long legs stretched out, boots on hearth, for even on a fine day like this he enjoyed a fire and was staring into it in his brooding way. I remembered how he used to sit in another world, in Sedgemont, long ago. It was seldom one found him indoors; he usually was with the men in stable or tilting field.

‘Is aught wrong, my lord?' I asked him worriedly.

His boots crashed to the ground. 'Nothing,' he said, unless the way your smile fades on seeing me.'

‘What, my lord?' I asked, puzzled by his tone.

He said, still in the same brooding way. No cause for alarm. Merely a message from Louis of France. Oh, it seems he too has heard of Boissert Field and is beside himself with fear and rage, mostly that the conspirators thought to take that piece of land known as the Vexin away from him—a sorry place it is, too—along the border between Henry's lands and his and so coveted by both.

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