gave a nod and pushed her horse forward.
Stephen smiled. ‘And now I have my chance to dally a little while with the lovely Mistress Maeb.’
‘You should not,’ I said, ‘for your father will be angry with me. He thinks I have unseemly ambitions.’
‘For me?’ Stephen said. ‘I am indeed flattered, mistress.’
‘My lord, my only security is this household, and —’
‘I understand Maeb. I will stay only a moment. After Oxeneford, however …’ He smiled, and I could not help but return it.
After Oxeneford Stephen would lead this column, the earl left far behind and with no chance of seeing how often we talked.
‘When you attended us in the solar the day before yesterday,’ Stephen said, ‘you heard some dark things, yet you have been unable to talk of them since, nor seek any reassurance. When there is a chance, after Oxeneford, I will talk more openly and fully with you of those things. I wish I could do it now … but …’
‘Is it truly as bad as it sounded, my lord?’
‘Yes. I am sorry. There will be dark days ahead, Maeb. I pray we have left Rosseley in good enough time, that …’
His voice drifted off, but I knew what he meant. That we have avoided the plague.
Then the good humour returned to his face. ‘You looked so beautiful that night in the great hall,’ he said. ‘My father ought to be more worried about my ambitions. Not yours.’
With that, and a final wicked smile, he booted his horse into a canter and moved forward to rejoin his father.
That evening, as the sun was setting, we rode through Craumares then across the arched stone bridge over the Thames into Summersete’s castle of Walengefort. It had been a long day, very tiring, and I was glad enough to hand Dulcette over to a groom and aid my lady (and Evelyn, who was still in great pain) to their beds for the night. When I lay down by Evelyn, we exchanged only a few words before I slipped gratefully into sleep.
We rose early again the next day, mounting our horses and carts just after dawn to ride northward to Oxeneford. We followed the Thames now, riding a wide and well-kept road by the riverside. I kept Dulcette behind my lady’s cart, with the two older girls, Alice and Emmette for company. We did not talk much, for the pace was even faster than the previous day, and several times I saw either the countess or Evelyn wince as the cart rattled along.
Both the earl and Stephen stayed out of sight at the head of the column with the king. We had left Summersete in his castle, together with the twins Robert and Ancel (joining his household earlier than expected), but I’d overheard two of the knights saying he might be joining the king at Oxeneford within a few days.
I did, however, have another companion for part of the ride. After our break for the noon meal, and as Stephen had yesterday, Saint-Valery joined myself and the two girls for a while. I was more than cautious of him after what Evelyn had told me, and answered his questions as briefly as I might.
‘Have I said anything to offend you, mistress?’ he asked eventually, keeping his voice low that Alice and Emmette on the other side of me might not hear.
‘I worry only to whom you might repeat what I say,’ I said.
‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Mistress Maeb, you are far beyond your rustic childhood now. For better or worse, you have become part of a noble household, and thus will inevitably be drawn into the dealings of the court. Treat everyone with suspicion if you must, but be courtly and gracious in the doing, or else soon your enemies shall outnumber your allies.’
‘Forgive me, my lord,’ I said, stung by his rebuke. ‘It is just that I feel adrift within a dark marshland, where each and every word might sink me to my doom. To me it appears that silence is the greater safety. I fumble. I am sorry for it.’
‘Perhaps I also should beg forgiveness, for I have been peppering you with questions and allowed you to ask none. What would you know? This,’ he waved a hand at the column containing all its knights and lords, ‘must appear so strange to you.’
‘Oh, it does, my lord.’ I thought for a moment. ‘My lord, I am curious as to why the king, together with the Earls of Summersete and Scersberie, came to Rosseley with my Lord Pengraic. I know of the reason why they travel to Oxeneford, as must you —’
‘Elegantly put, mistress. For that you have my admiration.’
‘— but why did they accompany my Lord Pengraic? Surely they could have ridden straight for Oxeneford? Allowed my Lord Pengraic to collect his household and join them there?’
We continued in silence a brief while, Saint-Valery looking to the road ahead while he thought. Eventually he glanced over to ensure that Alice and Emmette were not close — they were chatting between themselves and had fallen back a little — before he spoke.
‘Matters are difficult,’ Saint-Valery said, ‘as well you know. There is the … sickness … and there is also increasing unrest.’ He paused again, picking his words carefully. ‘Pengraic is a powerful Marcher Lord, Maeb. He is the most independent and powerful of Edmond’s nobles. He controls great wealth and land and thus men-at-arms. He is, in effect, a king in all but name. Edmond, as well Scersberie and Summersete, accompanied him to Rosseley to ensure that Pengraic did, in fact, come to Oxeneford and not make straight for the Welsh Marches where he might collect his mighty garrison and … well … Edmond merely wanted to make sure Pengraic was at his side as an ally and not at his back like … well …’
I was horrified, and more than a little angry on my lord’s behalf. I did not like the man, and feared him, yet I felt intensely loyal to him if only for my lady’s sake.
‘Has not Edmond enough enemies and evils at his door,’ I said, not thinking that the words might go straight back to the king, ‘that he needs to start inventing new ones?’
Saint-Valery looked at me, then he burst into laughter as he had when I’d snapped at him during the feast. He calmed somewhat. ‘You are so much the —’ he began.
‘Saint-Valery,’ snapped a voice behind us, and we both swivelled in our saddles.
Pengraic was directly behind us, his horse’s head nodding between the rumps of Saint-Valery’s horse and Dulcette.
Sweet Jesu, I thought, how long has he been there?
Saint-Valery evidently thought the same thing, for he had gone white.
‘To the front, if you will,’ Pengraic said to Saint-Valery, and the man gave a nod and kicked his horse forward.
Pengraic drew his bright bay courser level with Dulcette, graced me momentarily with one of his expressionless looks, then moved forward himself.
I sat Dulcette, shaking as badly as a leaf in a storm. Pengraic had almost certainly overheard what Saint-Valery said, and then my reply. I was not so foolish as to congratulate myself for saying what was, as it happened, precisely the right thing at the right moment. Instead I realised again how close I had come to losing my place in the Pengraic household and embracing penury. I could just as easily have nodded and smiled at Saint-Valery. Even agreed with him, simply to appear gracious to a man who had so recently accused me of ungraciousness.
My shaking grew as I thought that, on the other hand, Saint-Valery might believe that I had known Pengraic was there, and had thus structured my outraged response for the earl’s benefit — and Saint-Valery’s (and through him the king’s) discomfort.
And how had Pengraic come to be so close behind us? I had thought him at the head of the column. I did not remember seeing him ride past us to the rear.
I was glad I was going to Pengraic Castle. The court and its treacherous eddies were too frightening and dangerous for me. I could not wait to escape them — and Pengraic himself.
Dark and damned the castle might be, but I thought it would