"You heard what he said, my uncle." Her face was serious. "I pray you, keep a wise distance. And please don't speak for me in future!"

"Eleanor, I would die to serve you!" Raoul protested.

"You might well, if Henry gets word of this!" she told him with a grim smile.

27.

Bredelais Castle, the Welsh Border, 1165

Henry slowed his horse to a trot. He had far outgalloped his companions, who were some way behind with the huntsmen, carrying with them the game they had caught that day. Ahead, in the distance, loomed the castle of Bredelais, the home of their host, Sir Walter de Clifford, whose services in the so far unsuccessful campaign had nevertheless been admirable. But the tide seemed to be turning, thank G.o.d, and, flushed with success, both in the field of battle and in the chase, Henry was in a holiday mood, looking forward to a merry supper with his genial host and his lordly companions.

Behind him, he could hear faint shouts and guffaws. Close by, a cuckoo called. It was the early evening of a glorious summer day, with the sun sinking to the west in a blaze of gold and roseate hues. G.o.d, but it was warm. He had long since stripped off his tunic and stuffed it in his saddle bag, and wore only his shirt and hose. He trotted along whistling, feeling as if he had not a care in the world. He even thought he might ask for a bath to be prepared on his return. That should set them scuttling!

He steered his mount through some woodland, keeping the castle always in his view through the trees, and emerged onto a gra.s.sy meadow, a vast green expanse that swept up to the moat. There was a girl there, kneeling in the long gra.s.s, her tight-laced dress a vivid blue against the emerald sward. She had her back to him, so he could not see her face. Long fair tresses rippled unbound and uncovered over her shoulders, proclaiming her a maiden as yet untouched, and her fine raiment bore testament to her gentle birth. She was gathering flowers, and made, in all, a pretty, fetching sight.

His eye roving on the slender lines of her body and hips, Henry felt the familiar upsurge of l.u.s.t. He had not been so aroused by a woman in a long time. Rohese he had abandoned months before, tired to satiety of her all too familiar charms. Eleanor was in Angers, pestering him with demands for aid against some rebellious va.s.sals, and no doubt b.i.t.c.hing about Becket to anyone who would listen. Try as he might, he could not recapture the happiness he had once shared with her. There had been a fleeting resurgence of it, back in the spring, but it had as briefly waned, at least on his part. He could not forgive Eleanor her hostility to Thomas, her searching questions, her neediness. He loved her still, and knew he always would, but not in the way she wanted. It grieved him, but there it was. Something that had died could not be brought to life again.

He was thirty-two, a man in his prime, even if he was putting on a bit of weight, and naturally there had been women, plenty of them, conquered, used, then as quickly forgotten. But now that he had seen this exquisite young girl, it came to him in a blinding instant that something precious had long been absent from his life, and that he needed far more than a quick roll in the hay with any easy trollop.

But this was no hoyden to be pursued for his gratification: this, he guessed, must be one of the daughters of his host, who had a large brood that included five strapping sons. He wondered why he hadn't seen her the night before, when Lady Clifford presented her family to her king.

The girl had heard his horse approaching. She turned around suddenly, and the flowers spilled from her lap, scattering in a riot of delicate colors over her gown and the gra.s.s. She was utterly enchanting. Her skin was like cream, her lips full and round like dark cherries, her cheeks flushed with surprise, her eyes the blue of cornflowers. As she rose, her gown settled becomingly; the jeweled girdle wound around her waist and hips revealed a slim figure, the low, scooped neckline and tight bodice accentuated small, high b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Henry felt his erection harden. He must have her, G.o.d, he must have her!

Of course, she would have no idea who he was. She had not met him the night before. As he slowed his horse to a standstill, she was already backing away, the flowers forgotten.

"Fair maiden, have no fear!" he called gently. "I am your king, and your father's guest. I wish you no harm." I wish you in my bed. That was what he really wanted to say to her.

The girl looked fl.u.s.tered. Her creamy cheeks blushed strawberry red, and she sank into a curtsey. "Sire, I beg your pardon!" Her voice was low and melodious, with a delightful Welsh accent. Henry heard it and was utterly lost.

"Up!" he instructed, with a winning smile, dismounting beside her. "No need to stand on ceremony, fair maiden. What is your name?"

"I am Rosamund," she told him. "Rosamund de Clifford."

"Rosamund," he repeated. "Rosa mundi. The rose of the world. A beautiful name, in English or Latin."

She said nothing, but just kept on blushing. Henry held out his arm to her and, leading his horse by the reins, proceeded to walk with her toward the castle drawbridge, where the sentries could be seen dozing at their posts in the heat. The touch of her small hand on his skin was heaven.

"Tell me, Rosamund, why were you not here to greet me last night?" Henry probed.

"Lord King, I returned only this day from the good nuns of G.o.dstow, with whom I have lived these past three years."

Henry was intrigued. "Am I to understand that your parents intended to make a nun of you?"

"No, Lord King, they wished me to receive a virtuous education that would serve me well when G.o.d sees fit to send me a husband."

"Very wise, very wise. You are far too pretty to spend your life in a cloister!" Rosamund blushed becomingly again.

"How old are you, my little nun?" Henry teased.

"I am fourteen, Lord King."

"And have you come home to be married?"

"I know not, sire."

Henry was captivated-and dismayed. He had l.u.s.ted before after virgins from good families, and it always ended badly, with irate fathers summarily shoving their daughters into convents or hastily marrying them off. Most of the women he had bedded over the years were either married women, or wh.o.r.es-or his wife. He knew very well that Rosamund was virtually beyond his reach-unless he proved himself the monster he always claimed jokingly not to be. He knew very well that no decent man worthy of his knighthood-or his kingship-would so dishonor a maiden of n.o.ble birth, for that would irrevocably ruin her chances in the marriage market and sully her reputation forever. Men who were not as decent might not scruple to do so, but Henry now had daughters of his own, and would have cheerfully run through any b.a.s.t.a.r.d who ventured to compromise their honor. He told himself he could not do such a thing to sweet Rosamund, or to her father, his loyal and likable host.

But just then he glimpsed Rosamund peeping coyly at him from under her lashes. Her artless look betrayed her. She found him attractive, he would swear to it! She might well be amenable ... In which case he would not, could not, feel so guilty about robbing her of her maidenhead. He realized-for he was, as he liked to boast, a plain man, always brutally honest with himself-that, dismally soon, all his chivalrous scruples were falling by the wayside. It could only be Rosamund's fault: with that shy glance, she had disarmed him. By the eyes of G.o.d, he wanted her!

Of course, he had to relinquish her arm when he brought her to her father's castle, and let her lady mother-gushingly grateful to her king for escorting the girl home safely-cart Rosamund off to her chamber so she could wash and change her clothes for the feast that was planned for the evening. It was painful for him to let her go, but he murmured a few gracious words, then retired to submit to the attentions of his valet.

Later, seated at the place of honor at the high table, he selected a chicken leg from a proffered platter, gnawed upon it absentmindedly, then turned to Sir Walter.

"I met your daughter Rosamund today," he said, striving to make himself heard above the chatter and laughter. "I thought her a most virtuous young lady."

Sir Walter looked along the board, beyond his great, strapping sons, to where Rosamund sat with her sisters. Henry's eyes followed; they had been straying in that direction all evening. The girl's eyes were modestly downcast as she ate her food daintily, but her golden tresses fanned over her shoulders and breast like a burnished cape, and her lips were ripe for kissing. She looked a picture of beauty, and Henry found himself aching with desire-yet again.

"Aye, sire," Sir Walter said complacently. "She's a good girl. The nuns have done well with her. I'll have to find her a husband soon."

"She is not yet spoken for?" Not that it made much difference. She soon would be. Any man worthy of the name would snap her up in a trice.

"No, sire. I have many children to settle in matrimony."

"I know all about that!" Henry smiled. "I have many of my own." But the recall of them did not act as a deterrent, and he paused for a moment, plotting frantically. "How would it be if Rosamund came to court to wait upon the Queen? She would be well looked after, and I myself would take an interest in finding a suitable match for her." Never a truer word had been spoken, he mused.

"Lord King, I would be honored!" effused a surprised Sir Walter. "And my daughter too, depend on it."

"Queen Eleanor is in Anjou just now," Henry said, "but some of her English ladies are at Woodstock, awaiting her return. I myself am bound for there when my Welsh rebels have been taught some respect." It was a lie, but Sir Walter was not to know that. "I and my men would happily escort your daughter to Woodstock, or you could arrange for her to travel in the company of your own men-at-arms later on."

As Henry had antic.i.p.ated, the proud, ambitious father jumped at his offer, and so it was decided that Rosamund should go to Woodstock.

It had been that easy.

That night, Henry lay awake, aware that what he was about to do was a great sin and an even greater wrong. Yet he was unable to help himself: he could not resist the allure of Rosamund. He had to have her-he was mad to have her. His p.e.n.i.s throbbed insistently at the very thought of her. He could think of nothing else.

A little voice at the back of his mind warned him there would be a reckoning. He did not doubt it, but he did not care. The devil in him, that diabolical legacy of his heritage, was driving him on, urging him to take what he wanted. He would defy the world, if need be, to have this girl. It was as bad as that.

When the time came to leave for Woodstock, early in September, there were no tearful good-byes, unlike three years before, when Rosamund had first gone to G.o.dstow; she had now grown used to being apart from her family. Like a lamb borne to the proverbial slaughter, she went meekly with Henry, her manner trusting and respectful. If she suspected there was more to this than her going to serve the Queen, she gave no sign.

28.

Woodstock Palace, 1165

Rosamund looked around the sunny, whitewashed stone bower with delight. It occupied the top floor of a turret, and at the bottom of the spiral stair a low wooden door opened onto a pretty pleasaunce, or garden, made colorful with violets, columbines, and roses around a lush greensward, shaded with hornbeam, hazel, and ash trees. She had beheld that with wonder, and when she saw the chamber that had been prepared for her, her cornflower-blue eyes widened even farther. This was a bower fit for a queen. In fact, although she was not to know it, it was the Queen's. The bed had silken drapes, bleached cotton sheets, and a bright checkered coverlet. There was a window seat cut into the thickness of the wall, a chest supporting great golden candlesticks of an intricate design, a fine oak chair and two stools on the tiled floor, and carved pegs on the wall for her gowns.

Henry watched with pleasure from the doorway as his desired one exclaimed at her good fortune.

"Lord King, do all the Queen's ladies live in such luxury?" she asked. Her manner toward him was always deferential. His gaze lingered on her.

"No," he said at length. "This is especially for you, because you are beautiful."

"But what will the other ladies say?" She looked frightened.

"Nothing, my sweet. There are no other ladies!" He grinned at her.

"I don't understand." She looked at him in puzzlement.

Henry hesitated. One false move now and all might be lost. Was it best to be honest with her? Or to keep up the charade a little longer, and give her feelings for him more time to grow and flourish?

He did not think he could wait that long. Already, people were looking askance at them both and whispering. On the way here his retinue had apparently a.s.sumed that he was escorting her back to G.o.dstow-or so he had gathered from remarks he overheard. There had been genuine astonishment, followed by dark and disapproving looks, when he brought her to Woodstock. But he was beyond caring. He was the King, and his actions were not to be questioned.

His conscience told him he could give up the idea now and send the girl back, unsullied in body and reputation, to her father. It was not too late to do the honorable thing. But that devil, the devil that ruled his s.e.xual impulses, was rampant in him, and not to be gainsaid. He crossed the floor and put his arms around Rosamund.

"I want you to stay here with me," he said hoa.r.s.ely, as he felt her body stiffen. His own was stiffening too, not out of alarm, but from l.u.s.t. He felt he was in paradise, holding her so close. He had not wanted a woman so much since he first set eyes on Eleanor. He thrust the thought of Eleanor away quickly.

"Lord King, I beg of you ..." Rosamund whispered, her breath coming in little gasps. "It would be wrong!"

"Is loving someone so very wrong?" Henry asked. "I think I have loved you since the moment I saw you. Your father gave me permission to bring you here-and here we are." And may G.o.d forgive me the deception, he thought. The devil in him stirred again.

"My father? I thought I was to serve the Queen, sire?" Her eyes were wide with incomprehension.

"And so you are, in due course. But your father knows that royal favor and preferment can be won in many different ways," Henry said. "He has entrusted you to my care, and I have undertaken to find you a husband in due course." Perish the thought! "But for now, all I want is to serve you, and make you mine. Will you be mine, Rosamund?"

He saw, to his consternation, that she was weeping.

"Do not cry, sweeting," he murmured, stroking her hair. "All will be well, you have my word on it. I will cherish and protect you, never fear."

He tipped her chin up with his finger and looked down into her wet blue eyes. G.o.d, how lovely she was!

"Could you love me a little?" he asked her. "I think you do!"

She stared at him as if drinking him in. "I do not know," she whispered. "I cannot. It would be wrong. I find it hard to believe that my father meant for me to become your leman, Lord King. I cannot bring dishonor on my house. It would be a sin, and we would both burn in h.e.l.l for it."

"Fairy tales for children!" Henry scoffed. "But even if there were a h.e.l.l, I would gladly burn in it for all eternity for just one night with you."

"There is a h.e.l.l!" she a.s.sured him, with some spirit.

"What a little nun they have made of you," he teased, pressing her closer to him. "Listen, Rosamund, the only h.e.l.l is the one we make for ourselves on this earth. The rest is just a myth put about by the Church to frighten us into being good."

She recoiled from him, and he let her go.

"I fear that is blasphemy, Lord King," she whispered.

"It's one of my many vices," he replied cheerfully.

"I must not gainsay you, sire, but I think you are in error." She looked like a terrified rabbit. Henry roared with laughter.

"There speaks the abbess in the making!" he chuckled. "Well, virtuous maiden, I will leave you to your chaste bed. We will talk some more tomorrow." In truth, his desire had subsided with his laughter, but he knew when to leave well enough alone. He raised her hand and kissed it in courtly fashion, then gazed up into her incredible eyes.

"Until then, fair Rosamund," he said, and was gone.

Rosamund had not known until now what it was to want a man. In fact, having been living in a convent since she was eleven, she was more or less ignorant of what pa.s.sed within the marriage bed; she only knew that it was rather naughty, and that you had to let your husband do this naughty thing without complaining or resisting. This she had learned from the whispered confidences of the other girls of gentle birth entrusted to G.o.dstow's care.

She had grown up knowing that a suitable husband would one day be found for her, and always imagined-if she thought about it at all-that he would be around the same age as herself, which was nonsense, really, because plenty of her kind ended up with older-or even aging-spouses.

But here was the King, old enough to be her father, a loud, rough, brisk, and in some ways alarming man, and something inside her was responding strangely and powerfully to him. He was not handsome like the knights in tales of chivalry, but stocky and thickset, with a tousled head of red hair, a rough man, but attractive in that foreign, Gallic way, with an overpowering physical presence. Like Eleanor, fourteen years before, Rosamund had looked once and fallen headily for him.

If this wanting feeling, this uncontrollable tension between her thighs, this sudden sweet awareness of her body, was desire, then all of a sudden she could understand why people did mad things for love: why knights fought dragons, or maidens languished in towers ... or convent-educated girls compromised their virtue as, yes, even she was tempted to do.

She had said all the right things, all the things that a virtuous girl should say to an overbold, predatory male. She had put up a convincing display of maidenly modesty. Yet underneath it all there had been the urgent and enchanting dictates of her body, compelling her to surrender, and the excited response of a young mind flattered that a king should say he loved her. It was an irresistible combination. She did not delude herself that she loved the King in return; immature though she was, she suspected that he might well have used the word "love" merely to cozen her. She had no idea what love really felt like. Certainly it did not appear to exist between most of the married couples she had seen. She had been taught that it was a wife's duty to love the husband chosen for her, but that was not the kind of love that drove men to distraction, or sent them on quests, or made them fight duels.

Her mind was in a ferment. What if this were the only opportunity she would ever have of knowing that kind of love? Should she not seize it with both hands, and follow the demands of the flesh?

She fell asleep wondering what it would be like to lie in the arms of the King of England.

29.