the entire house. Hounds ran up and down the great staircase, snapping and growling as servants and men-at-arms hurried this way and that. As I stood just inside the door of the children’s chamber, watching, I saw William the steward hastening to and fro, barking orders, having bedding rearranged and taken from this chamber to that to accommodate the influx of a score or more men, while stools and benches, trestles and boards, were hurried into the great hall below me.
The earl was home and with a king to entertain.
‘What should we do?’ I said to Evelyn.
‘Remain here,’ she said. ‘Lady Adelie will send when she requires us, and I think we’d do best at keeping the children out from under this hubbub. Poor Rosamund and John would be crushed if they ventured beyond the confines of this chamber!’
At that very moment, John, who had recently learned to toddle, managed to slip between both of our legs and totter toward the dangerous mayhem on the staircase.
‘John!’ Evelyn and I cried at the same time, bending down to reach for him.
He tried to evade us, gurgling with laughter, and only after a small scramble did we manage to retrieve him and stand upright again, John now safely in my arms.
I felt Evelyn go rigid, and I looked up.
The earl and the king were standing not half a dozen feet away, on the last rise of the staircase before they would step onto the wooden planks of the flooring.
Both were looking right at us.
I managed to register that the earl was furious, and that the king had an expression of some amusement on his face, before I dropped my eyes and sank down into the deepest courtesy I could manage.
My heart was pounding, and I couldn’t think. I was terrified, not merely of the earl, but of the fact that not a few feet away stood the King of England.
Naturally, in such a state I compounded both my terror and my utter mortification by slipping just as I reached the lowest depths of my courtesy and thumping onto my bottom with an ungracious thud.
I was trying hard not to let John drop (could I manage to deepen my mortification? Yes, I could, if I sent John rolling away toward the king’s feet), and from my bottom I slid onto a shoulder with a hard thump, making me cry out in pain.
Out of the corner of one eye I saw Evelyn bending down to snatch John from my hands and, as she raised him up, another hand appeared before my face.
‘Take it,’ a quiet voice said, and I did, and allowed the king to help me to my feet.
I couldn’t look at him. I hung my head in misery, appalled that I could have so embarrassed the earl before the king.
And humiliate myself before the both of them.
Sweet Jesu, perhaps even little John would remember this all the days of his life, and chortle over my misery to his children.
‘It is no indignity to save a child from harm,’ the king said, and I finally raised my eyes to his face. I did not think it remarkable and was surprised that a king could look so like an ordinary man. He was olive-skinned, with dark wiry hair cropped close to his skull over a strong face. His eyes were brown, and surprisingly warm, and his sensual mouth curved in a soft smile. I supposed he was of an age with the earl, and from my youthful perspective, that seemed very old indeed.
‘Your name?’ he said.
‘Mistress Maeb Langtofte,’ the earl said in a flat voice, coming to stand at the king’s shoulder. ‘Recently joined my house to serve Adelie.’
‘Then allow me to apologise for having upset your day, Mistress Maeb,’ Edmond said. ‘It has been most discourteous of me.’
I thought he must be laughing at me, but there was no malice in his eyes, only that shining, compelling warmth.
I could not speak, still too awed and humiliated. I realised Edmond continued to hold my hand and I tried to pull it away.
He held on to it a moment too long. It would not have been noticeable to anyone else, but both he and I knew it. Something in his eyes changed, just briefly, and then Edmond gave a small nod and he and the earl turned away and walked into the solar.
Evelyn, John still in her arms, and I stepped back into the chamber. Evelyn closed the door and I burst into tears.
I think my tears humiliated me almost as much as my foolishness before the king and earl. I hated to weep and show weakness, but at that moment everything was too overwhelming for me to do anything else.
I would not ever be able to show my face again within the household. The earl would despise me, and Lady Adelie too, and it was her contempt that I feared the most. Maybe life in a nunnery might not be so bad after all … surely I would be better suited to it than a noble household. I could not ever show my face again. I …
Evelyn, having handed John to the nurse, wrapped her arms about me and hugged me close.
‘Come, come,’ she teased, ‘did you really need to throw yourself at the king’s feet in such a fashion?’
I began to laugh, even as I was crying, and after a few moments Evelyn dried my tears, and I straightened my back and determined that I would stay out of sight of the king lest my treacherous legs threaten to wobble me to the floor again.
CHAPTER FIVE
Naturally, fate and Lady Adelie conspired to make me break my promise within the hour.
Mistress Yvette arrived in the chamber, all bustle and busyness, and said that the countess wished Evelyn and myself to bring the children to greet their father and the king. I sent one frantic look to Evelyn, but she was no help, having turned away to speak with Alice and Emmette, so I swallowed my nerves, settled John on one hip — Sweet Jesu let me not drop him — and took Rosamund by the hand.
She was a sweet girl and gave me a happy smile, and I reminded myself that all I needed to do was escort the children into the solar, perhaps hand John to his mother, then step back and wait silently in the shadows.
Ancel and Robert were back with us by this stage, and Evelyn took them in hand, straightening their tunics and hair, and positioning them on either side of her, one hand on each boy’s shoulder as if that might actually restrain them.
So, with Mistress Yvette leading the way, we progressed toward the solar.
Two men-at-arms stood either side of the closed door. They were weaponed and wary, and as good an indication, if any were needed, that they protected someone of immeasurable worth beyond the door. I did not know them, nor did their stern faces relieve my nerves. Mistress Yvette looked at them, then nodded back at us. One of the men relaxed enough to stand down from his guard and open the door into the chamber.
We filed in and I kept myself as far as I could in Mistress Yvette’s shadow. Evelyn caught my eye, giving a small smile of reassurance.
I was surprised at how uncrowded it was. I had expected the same bustle and chaos in the solar as was in evidence everywhere else, but there was only a group seated in chairs and benches about one of the open windows.
Light spilled in the window and over the group, and I had to blink in order to make them out.
There was Edmond, seated in the imposing chair that was normally the earl’s.
Pengraic sat next to him, leaning close as they murmured quietly.
Lady Adelie sat on a chair opposite them. She was packed about with pillows and cushions, and I thought she looked weary.
Beside her sat Stephen, his hair gleaming in the sunshine, leaning in to the service of his mother as the earl did to the king. Two other men — great nobles by their dress — completed the circle; I soon learned they were Walter de Roche, Earl of Summersete, and Gilbert de Montgomerie, Earl of