The Emma of Normandy 2-book Collection: Shadow on the Crown and The Price of Blood. Patricia Bracewell
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Название: The Emma of Normandy 2-book Collection: Shadow on the Crown and The Price of Blood
Автор: Patricia Bracewell
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Приключения: прочее
isbn: 9780008134990
isbn:
Yet surely her fears were as nothing beside his. Æthelred, it seemed to her, feared everyone. That he mistrusted her did not surprise her. She was a foreigner, and in spite of her marriage vows, he could not be certain of her allegiance until she bore him a son, and perhaps not even then. She understood this. But Æthelred mistrusted and feared his counsellors, and even his own sons. He perceived Athelstan, in particular, as a dangerous rival and a threat. Had there been some warning about Athelstan in the missive that she had burned? She could not believe it. Athelstan had a pure heart, and God knew, there were any number of enemies who might threaten a king.
Must every ruler keep himself so separate from those around him, even those whom he should be able to trust? Or was there something in Æthelred’s very being that set him apart? It seemed to her that there was some fissure in this king’s soul from which suspicion rose like a malevolent cloud, working on him like a poison – and it was well-known that when a king waxed ill the entire realm suffered.
Like a cold fog, the stories she had heard about the death of Æthelred’s brother crept unbidden into her mind. A king had been murdered, and since that death England had been cursed with ill fortune. If Æthelred bore the blame, guilty or not, for the death of that king – and thus for the troubles that threatened the land – how many enemies he must have! And because she was bound to him body and soul, her fate wrapped within his, they were her enemies too, for all the years of her life.
She covered her face with her hands, and it seemed to her that the king’s own fear still blanketed the room, and that its essence settled upon her like a suffocating mist.
The final details for the queen’s removal to Exeter were all but completed. On the morning before her departure the ladies of Emma’s household sorted feverishly through her wardrobe, debating among themselves which items would be necessary for the journey. Emma, seated nearby at her work-table, was absorbed by a map that Father Martin had found for her, its surface smooth beneath her fingers. Far older than she was, it had been commissioned by King Alfred over a hundred years before to show the royal holdings in Wessex. With her index finger she traced a line from Winchester to Exeter, wondering at the distance that she must cover in the next few weeks. Her finger paused, though, when she spotted the royal manor of Corfe marked near the southern coast. Corfe – where Æthelred’s brother, King Edward, had met his death.
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