The Devil’s Diadem. Sara Douglass

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СКАЧАТЬ rose hastily from the rickety stool on which I had waited and dipped in brief courtesy. I kept my eyes down, and surreptitiously pressed my hands into my skirts so that they may not betray my nervousness.

      I prayed my French was gentle enough to sound sweet to his ears. I had spent too much of my childhood practising my English with the village children, and not enough perfecting my courtly French with those of more seemly rank.

      ‘What have I found hiding in the doorkeeper’s alcove?’ he said, and the warmth in his voice made me dare to raise my eyes.

      He was of my age, perhaps nineteen or twenty years, and therefore must be the oldest son, Lord Stephen. His hair was light wheaten gold, his fine beard similar, his eyes a deep cornflower blue. His clothes were of a richness I had never seen before, his tunic all heavy with gold and silver embroidery that his noble mother must have stitched for him.

      ‘Rumour has it that doorkeeper Alaric has only rats in here for company, not beautiful young maidens.’

      ‘My lord, I am Mistress Maeb —’

      ‘Mistress Maeb Langtofte!’ he said, and I was amazed that he should know of my name. ‘My mother told me she expected a new woman to attend her. But what do you here? In this dark hole? Has no one announced you yet?’

      ‘The man at the door —’

      ‘Alaric.’

      ‘Yes, my lord. Alaric. He asked me to wait here while he sent word to your lady mother.’

      ‘Alaric has always been the fool … or maybe not, for if I had found you suddenly at my door I, too, might have secreted you away in my bedchamber.’

      I glanced at the tiny cramped bed nestled into a hollow in the thick stone wall — the alcove had not the floor space for both bed and stool — then met Stephen’s eyes.

      And then, the Virgin help me, I flushed deeply at the import of his words.

      ‘I only jest, Maeb,’ he said gently, and at the care in his voice, combined with my overall awe at his presence and kindness, I felt my heart turn over completely. ‘My mother has been resting this afternoon and thus you have been kept waiting, for foolish Alaric must not have wanted to disturb her. Had he told any of us you were here, we would have seen to it you were welcomed far more warmly, and far sooner. Alaric is a fool, indeed.’

      Lord Stephen paused to study me, and the gentleness in his eyes and face increased even more, if that were possible.

      ‘You cannot wait here,’ he said. ‘I shall escort you to my mother myself —’

      ‘Stephen,’ said a voice, and we both jumped.

      ‘My lord,’ Stephen said, and half bowed as he turned.

      A man stood in the alcove doorway — he could not have entered unless he had wanted to completely fill the tiny space of this alcove with the crush of our bodies — an aged and wearied form of the youthful vitality which stood before me.

      It could only be Lord Stephen’s father, Raife de Mortaigne, the Earl of Pengraic.

      Unlike his son’s, Lord Pengraic’s tone was hard and devoid of compassion, and my eyes once more dropped to the floor while my hands clutched within the poor woollen skirts of my kirtle.

      ‘You have no time to waste in idle chatter,’ Lord Pengraic said to his son. ‘The bargemen await and we must be away. Have you said your farewells to your lady mother?’

      ‘I have, my lord,’ Stephen said.

      ‘Then to the barge,’ the earl said.

      Stephen inclined his head, managing to shoot me an unreadable look as he did so, then stepped past his father and disappeared from my sight.

      The air felt chill and the world an emptier place without him close. I was amazed that so few moments in his company could have made so profound an impression on me.

      To my consternation the earl did not turn immediately and follow his son.

      ‘Who are you?’ he said.

      I dipped again in courtesy, and repeated my name.

      ‘Langtofte …’ the earl said. ‘Your father was one of the sons of Lord Warren of Langtofte, yes?’

      ‘Yes, my lord. Sir Godfrey Langtofte.’ A son left poor, with little land, who left me yet poorer in worldly goods and hope when he gave what he had to the Templars at his death five months ago. My mother, might the Virgin Mary watch over her always, had long been in her grave. My father had left me with the name of minor nobility, but nothing else of any worth, not even brothers and sisters to comfort me.

      ‘And so now you are here,’ the earl said, ‘waiting upon my wife, which doubtless you think a prettier life than one spent at your devotions in a nunnery, which must have been the only other choice available to you.’

      His tone hurt. I kept my eyes downcast, lest he see the humiliation within them.

      ‘Mind your ambitions do not grow too high, Mistress Langtofte. Do not think to cast the net of your aspirations over my son —’

      ‘My lord!’ I said, now stung to look at him too directly. ‘I did not —’

      ‘He would think you nothing but a dalliance and would ruin your name yet further, and you would grace whatever nunnery I banish you to with a bawling infant of no name whatever, for do not expect me to allow it the de Mortaigne —’

      ‘My lord! I —’

      ‘Think not to speak over me!’ he said, and I took a step backward, pushing over the stool, so wary was I of the contempt in his face.

      Pengraic was one of the greatest nobles in England, not only the most powerful of the Marcher Lords, but also close confidant of the king. He could destroy my life with a word.

      ‘Be careful of your place here, Mistress Langtofte,’ he said, now very soft, ‘for it rests only on my sufferance.’

      With that he turned on his heel and was gone, and a moment later I heard shouting as the earl’s party moved down to the great barge I had seen waiting earlier at the pier on the Thames.

      I stood there, staring at the empty space which still seemed to me to throb with his anger and contempt. My heart thudded in my chest, and I bit my lip to keep myself from tears.

      The earl’s unfairness knifed deep, particularly since it contrasted so brutally with the warmth of his son. I eased myself with the notion that Lord Stephen must have received his gentleness and kindness from his lady mother, and that she would keep me under a similarly gentle and most noble wing, and shield me from the unjustified anger of her lord.

      Thus began my life in the Pengraic household.

      CHAPTER TWO

      I waited in that wretched little alcove for what felt like hours. I felt its cold and dampness seep into СКАЧАТЬ