And yet ... she could not like him. There was something about the man that repelled her, something she could not define, which was strange, because Becket was exceptionally good-looking, with his proud, finely chiseled features, and she usually responded warmly to handsome men. But there was a coldness about him when he was in her presence, a coldness that was never apparent when he was in Henry's company, and she sensed also an aversion to herself, for all his courtesy. Maybe he was aware of her resentment, which would not be surprising, for she found it hard to unbend to him as she did to most other people. But she felt it was more than that. It was almost as if they were rivals.

It soon seemed to Eleanor that Becket stood with the King as Joseph had with Pharaoh.

"He is too smooth in his dealings," she'd said carefully to Henry. She had to tread cautiously because he would hear no criticism of his friend. She forbore to add that she suspected Becket of also being self-seeking and manipulative, and that-the antipathy between them aside-there was something about him that repelled her, something she could not explain, even to herself.

"Is that a fault?" Henry had asked. "He has great talent and boundless energy, which he is willing to expend in my service."

"He is vain and ambitious," Eleanor persisted. "The good Archbishop looks to him as a champion of the Church, but he is far too worldly in my opinion."

"I want him to champion me," Henry had said defiantly.

Since then, that was exactly what Becket had done, serving his new master in every way he could, and making himself indispensable. And Henry had quickly grown to love him, this man who was fifteen years his senior; indeed, he had become increasingly in thrall to him, treating him as a brother and an equal-and, Eleanor wondered, perhaps finding in him a subst.i.tute for the father he had loved and lost.

"If you ask me," Henry's real brother, the obnoxious Geoffrey, had said, scowling, "there's more than is seemly in this friendship."

They had been seated late at the dinner board at Bermondsey, watching Henry and Becket chatting animatedly with a group of young barons. The King's love for his new friend was evident in his open countenance, his warm regard, and his bodily demeanor. Eleanor, who did not shock easily, rounded furiously on Geoffrey.

"That is preposterous," she hissed. "The King is a paragon of manhood in every respect-and I should know!"

Yet alone in her chamber that night-for Henry was still carousing with Becket and their cronies-Geoffrey's words had played on her mind, despite her ready dismissal of them. Could the virile young man who had bedded her pa.s.sionately no less than three times the previous evening, and on countless occasions before-and who had boasted of his previous affairs with women-have suddenly become unnaturally attracted to a man? To this pernicious Becket? It was inconceivable.

Inconceivable or not, she'd lain there torturing herself. She'd heard of men who were so l.u.s.ty, and so lacking in morals, that they would f.u.c.k anything that moved, women, men, children, even animals. She could not believe that Henry, lecherous as he was, was so mired in filth that he could stoop so low. But if one listened to the teachings of the sterner clerics, men who indulged in this kind of fornication were irrevocably d.a.m.ned for all eternity, condemned both in Heaven and on Earth. People were not as tolerant these days as they once had been, and she'd even heard of some poor wretches who had committed such grievous sins being burned at the stake for heresy. She could not imagine her husband being one of their kind, or doing anything to merit such punishment.

But the doubt would not be stilled. When Henry finally lurched into bed, drunk and smelling of wine, she'd turned to him in what had become desperation.

"Henry, have you been staying up late with Becket again?" Her voice sounded shrill, shrewish.

"What if I have?" he muttered, slurring his words slightly. "Thomas is my friend. He is witty c-company. We have some good times together."

"You spend too much time with him," she accused him. "People are beginning to talk."

"They're just envious," Henry grunted.

"No, it's not that," she said slowly.

"Then what?" His jaw jutted forward.

"They are saying that it is not seemly, this friendship."

"What?" Henry roared. "Who is saying this? Who has such an evil mind? I'll have him strung up, I'll-"

"It's Geoffrey," Eleanor told him.

"By the eyes of G.o.d, what gets into that Devil's sp.a.w.n?" Henry spat, still outraged. "How dare he say such things, and to you, my wife? He will pay for it, by G.o.d, he will pay for it."

"Oh, leave him be," Eleanor said, relief flooding through her, for Henry's reaction had convinced her that her irrational fears were groundless. "He is just jealous. Perhaps he thinks he should be your chancellor."

"Heaven forbid," fumed Henry. "That's it. I'm packing him off to Normandy tomorrow. Our revered Lady Mother can keep an eye on him. And for now, Eleanor, I intend to prove to you just how wrong that wh.o.r.eson Geoffrey was!"

"You are too good to me, sire," Becket protested, looking up from the doc.u.ment he had just read.

"Think nothing of it," Henry said. "Those revenues will help you to live in the style to which my chancellor should be accustomed."

"I am not worthy," his friend declared. "I have not merited such largesse from you."

"Nonsense!" Henry snorted, getting up to pour himself more wine. They were in his solar and had just finished going through the day's business. It was after the final account parchments had been rolled away that Henry had presented Becket with his gift. It was a grant of several manors with a good yield in rent-and it was not the first such grant that Becket had received.

"You know your courtiers grow envious of me," the chancellor said slowly, relaxing his lean frame in his chair. "I've heard them complaining that there is none my equal save the King alone."

"Bah!" Henry scoffed. "None of them have half your talent, or your energy. Do you want some of this?" He came over and handed his friend a jeweled goblet.

"I see you are using my gift," Becket said.

"Splendid, aren't they," Henry observed, holding up his own goblet to the light.

"I had them sent especially from Spain," Becket told him. "It was the least I could do, given how generous you have been to me." He was regarding the younger man with obvious affection.

"Thomas, you have earned it a thousandfold!" Henry retorted. "I want no false modesty."

Becket smiled, absently fingering the sumptuous silk of his tunic. "I cannot tell you how much I value your friendship, my prince."

"That makes two of us." Henry's voice was gruff. Truth to tell, he could not have said, even to himself, what it was about Becket that drew him, and he often asked himself how, in such a short time, he had come to love this man. He could explain it only by telling himself they were kindred spirits, that they shared the same interests, and that Thomas's company was enormously stimulating.

"We must plan another feast," he said, as an idea was born. "We'll have it at your house and invite my jealous courtiers. Let them see me giving you all the honor and favor that you merit."

"Would that be wise?" Becket wondered. "It might be a better idea to hold the feast here, in the palace, since your barons are always grumbling that there is little enough pomp and ceremony at court, and it would look as if you were doing them an honor too."

"I'm bored by pomp and ceremony," Henry retorted. "Still, you have a point. And there won't be much pomp and ceremony when the n.o.bility of England are in their cups!" He chuckled at the thought. "Do you remember them last time, sprawling in the rushes and groping the wenches?"

The chuckle became a belly laugh, and Becket smiled too.

"You plan it, Thomas," Henry said. "You're good at these things."

"What of the ladies? Shall I invite the Queen?" Becket asked.

Henry grinned at him.

"Better not! We'd have to be on our best behavior, and she'll only complain when we all get drunk."

"When you get drunk, my prince," Becket corrected.

"I'll make a man of you yet, my friend!" Henry jested.

-- Eleanor no longer worried that there might be anything more than friendship on Henry's part for Becket, but she knew that they were unusually-and disturbingly-close. This was not the kind of comradeship that flourished between fighting men thrown together on military campaigns, but a sort of thralldom, in which Henry hung upon Becket's every word and preferred his advice to everyone else's. She had gradually become painfully aware that she was being supplanted, that her husband no longer sought her counsel first, and that he was spending more time with Becket than he did with her. He came to her bed frequently enough, though, and paid her every courtesy out of it, and on the surface all was well between them, but she sensed, more strongly than ever now, that in every other way that counted, Becket was her rival.

It seemed he was deliberately trying to usurp her place in Henry's affections-and in the affairs of the realm. There had been that crucial matter of patronage. From the time Eleanor had first come to England, she had been deluged with pet.i.tions and requests by those who knew her to be influential with the King, and it pleased and flattered her to know that she had the power to change the lives of others for the better. But only a month ago it had been made plain to her that her enjoyment of that power was under threat.

Becket had come upon her as she sat with her clerks, going through the latests pleas from her pet.i.tioners. They had made two piles of the parchments-one for those to be ignored, and one for those the Queen would lay before the King, with her own recommendations. But suddenly, almost symbolically, a shadow loomed over the table and the doc.u.ments, and when she looked up, she saw Becket standing before her. In the fleeting second before he made his bow, she had seen the contempt in his eyes.

"What can I do for you, my Lord Chancellor?" she had asked courteously.

"I think, Madame the Queen, that it is more a case of what I can do for you," he answered, refusing to meet her gaze, but fixing his eyes on the parchments. "With your leave, I will look after these pet.i.tions."

She was shocked, outraged! The pet.i.tions were addressed to her, and it was her privilege, as queen, to deal with them. How dare this upstart deacon insult her so?

Even the clerks were gawping at Becket's presumption. One man's jaw had dropped in horror.

Fury blazed in Eleanor's eyes as she rose from her chair. "My Lord Chancellor, you are new to your office, and quite obviously have much to learn," she said in clipped tones. "You will not be aware that these are pet.i.tions meant for the King, and that they have been sent to me, his queen, by right, in the hope that I can persuade him to grant them."

Becket's response was infuriating. He merely smiled and held out his hand. "On the contrary, Madame the Queen, I think you will find that the King wishes me to deal with them. If you would like to ask him, I'm sure he will confirm that."

She was speechless. Never had she been so slighted, not even by those dismissive old clerics at Louis's court.

"Leave them here," she said, her voice steely. "I command it. I will indeed speak with the King. Now you have my leave to go."

Had she imagined it, or had Becket actually shrugged before he withdrew, bowing and giving that maddening, contemptuous smile? He would not get away with his insolence, she vowed, as she hastened in rage to seek out her husband.

She found Henry soaking in his bath, humming to himself as he was washed by his valets. As she burst into the chamber, almost breathing fire, he waved the men away, frowning.

"Sweet Eleanor, what is wrong?" he cried as he rose and reached for a towel to cover his nakedness. But she wasn't interested in his body at that moment.

"It's your Lord Chancellor, that insolent man Becket!" she seethed. "He has dared to demand that I turn over my pet.i.tions to him. He says that you wish it!"

Henry's face flushed, and not with the steam from the tub. There was an awful silence. Eleanor stared at him, horrified.

"It's true," she accused him, unable quite to believe it. "You do wish it."

Henry found his voice. Tying the towel around his waist, he came to her and put his arms around her. His skin was damp and he smelled sharply of the fresh herbs that had scented his bathwater.

"Forgive me," he said. "Thomas suggested that he might be of help with the pet.i.tions, and I thought it a good idea, especially since you have the children now, a royal household to run, and many other duties."

"A queen's role is not all domestic!" Eleanor flared. "It is my royal privilege to exercise patronage and use my influence, and you know how much I value that."

"It is of no matter," Henry hastened to rea.s.sure her. "I will thank Thomas for his thoughtfulness, and tell him that you will continue to deal with the pet.i.tions as before." He bent and kissed her, clasping her face in his hands. "There-does that pacify you, my beautiful termagant?"

It was easy to say that it did and so end the quarrel, but Eleanor had come away with the feeling that Henry had been a fool in allowing Becket his head in this matter, and the even greater conviction that she was now-willingly or not-engaged in a power struggle with the chancellor, who was clearly out to subvert her influence, supplant her in the King's counsels, and have her relegated to the domestic sphere, where he obviously thought women belonged. And the awful truth was that Henry could not see it! He thought Becket was merely being kind. She could have howled with frustration.

But she had won the first round in the contest, and at least she knew her enemy, whose smile was rather more forced when they next came face-to-face; and she was resolved to fight him with all the subtle weapons at her disposal. She'd known it would be a secret struggle, no doubt of it, because Henry did not understand subtlety, and she would be fighting Becket on his own terms. It had not been long, however, before she realized, to her dismay, that she was losing the battle.

Becket was clever. He was unfailingly faultless in his manner toward Eleanor and took care never to scant the respect due to her as his queen. She was always invited with the King to his house in London, a splendid establishment provided and maintained by Henry, and as palatial as any of the royal residences. In fact, the first time she saw it, she felt indignant that this upstart chancellor should be living in even more regal state than his master. But she had sat there with a smile fixed on her face, dining off gold plate laden with the finest fare, drinking from crystal gla.s.ses encrusted with gems that glittered in the flickering light from the great silver candelabra, and served by the sons of n.o.bles, who had been sent to Becket's household to be schooled in courtesy, martial arts, and those things that befit fledgling aristocrats. She had graced the table, holding her own in the lively and witty conversation that flowed around it, yet aware that her opinions counted for very little with her host, whose courtesies belied his shut-off look whenever she ventured to hold forth.

She watched him covertly all the time, this tall, slender clerk, with his dark hair, his finely chiseled features, and his aquiline nose, watched him charming barons and prelates alike, talking of anything and everything from hawking and chess to the business of the kingdom, his eyes alight with zeal as he spoke of his plans for the future. And Henry was captivated, hanging on every word. Seeing them together, you would have thought that Becket was the King, in his magnificent robes of silk and brocade, not Henry, in his plain woolen cloth tunic and short mantle, or his accustomed hunting gear. Eleanor thought Becket's vanity and taste bordered on effeminacy, and she was inexplicably repulsed by his small, tapering hands, which were like a woman's. She did not want those hands to touch her, and tried not to recoil when the chancellor bowed before her on greeting and took her hand in his own to kiss.

Not that Becket's hands would have touched women very often, she thought. It was well known that he had taken a vow of chast.i.ty in youth, and that he avoided encounters with the fair s.e.x if he could. She had sensed his aversion to herself, and noticed that he kept his converse with the ladies to a courteous minimum. She often wondered if he did prefer his own s.e.x, as rumor had covertly speculated. But one thing was certain-he was not promiscuous in the least, and that was something she did not have to worry about: Becket, unlike many other courtiers, would never seek to be Henry's accomplice in fleshly pleasures, encouraging him to go whoring or to frequent brothels. It was a small thing to be grateful for.

At the moment when Eleanor was dancing with her ladies at Westminster, Henry and Becket were riding south from Oxford, talking animatedly of yet another hunting trip they were planning, this time to the New Forest; it was to take place as soon as Henry and Eleanor had returned from their coming great progress through England, to see-and be seen by-their new subjects.

"We will stay at my hunting lodge at New Park, near Lyndhurst," Henry declared. "Perhaps you would like to come too?" he jested to the little boy who was perched before him on his saddle. He winced as he remembered Joanna de Akeny's tears as she had given up young Geoffrey into his father's care; he never had been able to deal with a weeping woman. Anxious to escape, he a.s.sured her that he would look after the lad well, and that a great future lay ahead of him as the King's b.a.s.t.a.r.d son, for sons, whichever side of the blanket they were born, could be great a.s.sets to a king. Joanna had wept again, this time tears of grat.i.tude.

"Sire, have you considered how the Queen might react when you arrive with Master Geoffrey?" Thomas had inquired gently as soon as they were on the road. He had not antic.i.p.ated this hunting jaunt encompa.s.sing a visit to Henry's former leman, and was astonished to find that Henry intended it as cover for taking custody of his son. He could only deplore Henry's morals-or lack of them. His king had no self-control!

Henry had considered it, briefly, but it had not occurred to him that Eleanor would be offended by a b.a.s.t.a.r.d child conceived and born before they had even met.

"I doubt it will concern her very much," he replied. "The boy is no threat to her or the children she has borne me."

"Women can be sensitive about such things," Thomas said. "She might take your acknowledgment of Master Geoffrey as an insult to herself." He forbore to add that Eleanor might react even more violently were she to find out about Henry's covert dalliance with Avice de Stafford, one of her damsels. Henry had boasted of this conquest to Thomas while in his cups one night-although now he probably had no recollection of ever mentioning it. Thomas shuddered at the thought of Henry and Avice together, much as he had shuddered several times during the past months whenever Henry casually referred to other amorous exploits, all of them casual encounters, and none of them troubling his conscience. Becket was well aware, as Eleanor was not, that the King's reputation was already such that the barons had taken to keeping their womenfolk out of his way.

"The Queen is a woman of the world," Henry declared confidently. "She is not easily outraged." Thomas knew this too; he had not forgotten what he had heard in Archbishop Theobald's household, from his friend John of Salisbury, who had worked for the Papal Curia when Eleanor was trying to obtain a divorce from Louis. John had confided to him several interesting, even scandalous, pieces of information that he could never repeat. And there had been colorful rumors going the rounds for years. Becket had heard them repeatedly, from many people. If ever a man needed evidence that women were frail creatures, what Thomas had learned of Eleanor would suffice.

"Do you think me a fool to acknowledge my son?" Henry asked, fixing his steely gaze on his friend.

"I should have advised discretion," Thomas said candidly. "But it is a private matter for my lord himself to decide."

"I intend to advance the boy. He could prove useful to me in time. I remember my b.a.s.t.a.r.d uncle, Robert of Gloucester. He was a rock of support to my mother in her quarrel with Stephen."

Becket glanced down at the child; the boy was listening intently. He had intelligent eyes. A child to watch, certainly. Henry was right.

"Might I suggest a career in the Church?" he ventured. "Although his b.a.s.t.a.r.dy might be a bar to high ecclesiastical office."

"Popes can be bought," Henry said. "I could make young Geoffrey here Archbishop of Canterbury! Or even chancellor, when you are in your dotage, Thomas!" He winked, then began chuckling. "My barons won't approve, of course!"

"Then they will have to do as the Queen must, and put up with it," was the apposite rejoinder. The King smiled ruefully. As ever, Thomas had got his measure.

"I think the Queen does not like me," Thomas said.

"Nonsense!" Henry replied. "You have been a staunch friend and a great support to me. How could she not like you?"

"I fear she resents my influence. I suspect she would like to be first in your counsels."

"I dare say she would," Henry said, "but she is a woman, with a woman's limitations, although she is more able than most. She has no need to be jealous. I sleep with her, don't I?" Becket winced, but Henry did not notice. "And I allow her considerable power. I trust her to rule in my absence, and even when I am here, she can issue writs and official doc.u.ments under her own name and seal. I've even told her she can sit in my courts and dispense justice if she wants, and settle disputes on request. So why should she resent you?"

"Then mayhap I have imagined her resentment," Thomas conceded, keeping his doubts to himself. He suspected that Eleanor already regarded him as a rival. G.o.d knew, that was how he regarded her.

"The Queen knows you are invaluable to me," Henry went on. "Where else would I find a man of such diligence and industry, experienced in affairs, and able to discharge the duties of his office to the praise of all? Who else is such a staunch friend to me? Thomas, I tell you, you are my right-hand man. I put all my trust in you. Together, we will make this kingdom great!"

"My lord flatters me," Thomas said, with that slow, gentle smile that was so endearing. "I am ever happy to be of service with my small talents."

"You speak like a courtier!" Henry scoffed. "Accept praise where it is due, man. You earned it by your merits."

They rode on companionably for some time, past the peasants toiling on their strips of land, and beasts grazing in the fields, with Henry pointing out b.u.t.terflies, cows, and pigs to the inquisitive Geoffrey, and answering his persistent, incisive questions.

"This child is clever!" he announced delightedly. "He wants to know everything. Young William is all bombast and will make a great warrior, but this one has a brain."

"I shouldn't let the Queen hear you saying that!" Thomas warned.

Henry laughed, then drew his habitual short mantle around him. It was unseasonably cold for June. He felt a momentary yearning for the warmer climes of Anjou and Aquitaine.

Presently, the sky darkened and it began to rain. Soon it was sheeting down, and fearful of being soaked to the skin, they tethered their horses under a tree and sought shelter in a church porch, huddling in their cloaks. Suddenly, they realized that they were sharing their sanctuary with a beggar, shivering in his meager wet rags. He regarded them hopefully, as if he had guessed they were persons of some importance.