The Queen's Choice

I touched John’s arm, which was all that was needed. Using his bulk and a degree of charm, he pushed between the audience, while I flattened the fullness of my skirts and followed, until we came to the front ranks. The delegate was still speaking, a flat measured delivery, in perfect, uninflected French. Some puissant lord then. Perhaps an ambassador from the east, but ambassadors rarely attracted so much commotion. The petitioner was still hid from my view but he was flanked by the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy. Such personal condescension on their arrogant part indicated a visitor of some merit.

Charles was in the process of rising to his feet, smiling vaguely in our direction as if he might eventually recall who we were, before returning his limpid gaze to the man who stood before him. Smile deepening, Charles raised both hands, palms up, in acceptance of what had been offered.

‘We are pleased that you decided to come to us in your extremity, sir.’

‘I am honoured by your invitation to find refuge here, Sire.’

‘You were at Calais?’

‘I was, Sire, but briefly. His Majesty King Richard pronounced that I might spend only a week there, with a mere twelve of my men. I had, perforce, to leave.’

The direction of this conversation had little meaning for me; but the visitor had, and my heart registered a slow roll of recognition. Henry, Earl of Derby, returned to France. No, Henry, Duke of Hereford now, I reminded myself. Henry, heir of Lancaster. Duke Henry who had once, many months ago now, stirred some novel emotion to life in my heart, when I wished he had not. I had wished that persistent longing a quick death. It was inappropriate, disloyal.

Had it died?

I thought it had. Absence could deal a death blow to the most rabid of passions, or so I believed. Standing to the side as I was, my regard was fixed on his flat shoulders, the hawk-like outline of his profile, simply because he was an acquaintance and this was an event that spiked the air with danger. I was a mere onlooker, with more interest than good manners.

‘We welcome you, my lord of Hereford.’ Charles beckoned to one of his many minions, who approached with a cushion bearing a livery collar. ‘I would present you with this note of our esteem.’

Duke Henry knelt at Charles’s feet and the chain was cast over his bowed head to lie, glinting opulently.

‘I am honoured, Sire.’

‘Good. Good. That’s how it should be. We give you use of the Hotel de Clisson during your residence in Paris. It is close to us, here at the Hotel de St Pol. I wish you to feel at home as you take your place at my Court.’ Charles beamed.

Henry, standing again, said, ‘I would return to England soon, Sire.’

‘As I know. Your family ties are strong. But I think it will not be possible. Make yourself at ease with us, until you see in which direction the English wind will blow.’

‘My thanks, Sire. And my gratitude for this haven in a time of storms.’

Everything about him was familiar, yet I acknowledged the difference from the man who had asked my advice and, I presumed, had acted on it and bought Isabelle a doll, only two years ago. Now there was a rigidity about him that I did not recall, his shoulders tense under the livery chain. Magnificently groomed, clad as befitted an English prince, his voice was smooth and cultured yet lacking any emotion. There was none of the vibrancy of the Earl who had ridden to hounds with such panache, or who had shone in gilded Italian armour at the tournament. It was as if he was applying the demands of courtesy because it was inherent in a man of his breeding, but it seemed to be a bleak response, with little pleasure in it. How could that be when Charles had offered him a house for his own particular use in Paris? But what was this extremity? Why would Duke Henry need to test the English wind? My curiosity was roused, even more when I realised that Charles was continuing his extravagant welcome, that did not match the troubled frown on his brow.

‘My brother Orleans will see to your comfort, my lord. And here is the Duke of Brittany and his fair wife, well known to you.’ Charles gestured, with a hint of desperation, for us to step forward. ‘You will not lack for friends here, however long or short your stay. We will make it our priority that you pass the time agreeably with us.’

‘My thanks, Sire. I do not have the words to express my gratitude.’

The royal frown might mean nothing of course. Charles was not always in command of his reactions. And there was Duke Henry coming to clasp hands with my husband and salute my proffered fingers. The expression on his face could only be described as engraved in flint.

I smiled, murmured suitable words of welcome to cover my alarm. Now that I could inspect his face I could see that the passage of time, not of any great length, had for some reason taken its toll. There was a new level of gravity beneath the perfect manners, a tightening of the muscles of his jaw. He might smile in return but there was strain too in the deepening of the lines beside eye and mouth. They were not created by laughter or joy. Here was a man with trouble on his brow.

‘Come and dine with us when we are settled,’ John invited, offsetting a similar attempt by the Duke of Orleans to commandeer Duke Henry’s company. Which was interesting in itself, for Orleans was never without self-interest. ‘And then you may tell us why you are to stay as an honoured guest in France. My wife is, I believe, bursting with curiosity.’

‘I was too polite to mention it,’ I said, supremely matter-of-fact. ‘I endorse my husband’s invitation, but I promise we will not hound you if you do not wish to speak of it.’

Henry’s smile was sardonic. ‘I will, and with thanks. You deserve to know the truth. But you may not like the hearing. And I will not enjoy the telling.’

And I would discover what it was that had drawn the line between Henry’s brows, deep as a trench, and invited his mouth to shut like a trap, as if to speak again would allow the truth to pour out and scald us all. Whatever it was that had driven Duke Henry to take refuge at the Valois Court had hurt him deeply.

And no, the attraction was not dead at all. Merely dormant. Now it was shaken most thoroughly back into life.

*

The following day the Duke came to dine with us, a roil of temper all but visible beneath the Valois livery that he still wore out of deference to his host. In the meagre chambers found for us in the Hotel de St Pol, while our servants supplied us with platters of meats and good wine, we spoke of inconsequential matters, of family, of friends, even though Duke Henry’s mind was occupied elsewhere, and not pleasantly. I prompted him to talk of his sons and daughters. He asked after our own.

It was a good pretence. Some might have been led to believe that the Duke was troubled by nothing more than the discovery of some high-bred prince whom he considered a suitable match for his daughters. Some might have thought that I had no more than a desire to know of the health of Duchess Katherine.

Such ill-informed persons would have been wrong on both counts.

Servants dismissed, the door barely closing on their heels, the Duke cast his knife onto the table with a clatter. ‘You will have heard by now. I warrant the Court is talking of nothing else.’

So we had, and the Court was rife with it. The astonishing behaviour of the English King; the slight to his cousin who sat at our board with little appetite. We knew exactly why the Lancaster heir had found need to throw himself on the mercy of King Charles, and was detesting every minute of it. The heir to Lancaster had no wish to beg for sanctuary, here or at any other Court of Europe. I felt his shame, while John launched into the heart of the matter.

‘So you have been banished from England?’

Any relaxation engendered by the meat and wine vanished in the blink of the Duke’s eye, which became full of ire. Duke Henry placed his hands flat on the table with a flare of baleful fire from his rings and took a breath.

‘I have, by God, and for no good reason.’

‘Then tell us. What’s in your royal cousin’s mind?’

‘A false accusation of treason against me, which Richard chooses to believe for his own purposes.’

‘How long?’ John asked, the one pertinent question.

‘Ten years. God’s Blood! The Duke of Norfolk and I played magnificently into Richard’s hands, without realising what vicious calumny he had in mind. We fell into his trap as neatly as wolves into a hunter’s pit.’ Duke Henry’s explanation was clipped, almost expressionless in its delivery, but it was not difficult to read the underlying abhorrence. It positively simmered over the folds of his fashionable thigh-length tunic. ‘There was no reasoning with Richard. He would not even consider what might be owed to Lancaster, for our support and loyalty from the day he took the Crown as a boy of ten years. He owes my father so much, but there was no compassion in him.’ Now Duke Henry smoothed the fair cloth beneath his hands with short angry sweeps. ‘He banished Norfolk, who made the accusation of treason against me, for life. There was no leniency at all for him in Richard’s black heart.’

‘It will soon pass.’ I tried to be encouraging, but could see no encouragement in the vast expanse of ten years. ‘Could he not be persuaded to reconsider? Richard’s anger might grow cold as the weeks pass.’

‘I don’t anticipate it.’ Duke Henry’s regard was fierce as it rested momentarily on my face. ‘Do you see what he has achieved in this neat little strategy? Richard has rid himself of the last of the two Lords Appellant with one blow. Norfolk and I were two of the five who stood against him, and forced him to accept the advice of his counsellors. Three of the five are dead. Norfolk and I are the only two left, and so Richard struck, hard and sure. Richard will not go back on it. It’s not Richard’s way. There was no treason, simply an opportunity for Richard to take his revenge. I imagine he’s rubbing his hands with royal glee.’

‘What of your children?’ I asked, because I knew it would be a concern.

‘I don’t fear for them, if that’s what you mean. Hal, my heir, has been taken into the royal household, a hostage for my good behaviour. I despise Richard for that, but I don’t believe Hal’s in any danger except for being bored out of his mind by the never-ending ceremony of Richard’s Court. Besides, there’s nothing I can do about it other than have my brothers—my Beaufort half-brothers—keep a watchful eye.’ A pause grew, lengthening out as Duke Henry took up his cup and contemplated the wine in it, and I exchanged a hopeless glance with John. ‘I think it does not need saying—my real fear is for my father. Lancaster’s health is not good. My banishment aged him ten years overnight, so my fear is that he’ll not see out the length of my banishment before death claims him. It is in my mind that we will not meet again this side of the grave.’

It was a desperate cry that echoed beneath the formidable control. All I could do was leave John to make the only possible response:‘We must hope you are wrong. We will assuredly pray for a swift resolution and a speedy return for you.’

Duke Henry drained his cup. ‘It is in my mind to return to England, with or without royal permission.’ And seeing some reaction from John’s raised hand—a brusque denial of such a plan, of what the consequences might be—he looked towards me, with something approaching a scowl. ‘Will you offer advice again, Madam Joanna, to remedy this parlous state in which I find myself?’

Yet something in his request, polite as it was, suggested that Duke Henry did not want advice from me. Or from anyone. I raised my chin a little, detecting an underlying aggression. If he was humouring me, there was no need. I barely recognised this brittle individual from whom all the joy and the laughter had been stripped clean. Understandable of course, but I would be the target of no man’s ill-humour.

‘I will if you wish it,’ I said. ‘Although it had no good effect last time. As I recall, I advised the building of bridges and pleasing Isabelle. Which either failed—or you ignored.’

The heavy brows twitched together. Perhaps the dart had been unkind in the circumstances.

‘I worked hard to mend any quarrel with Richard. It failed, but that doesn’t mean your advice was flawed. What do you say now?’

I thought for a moment, weighing what I might say. Here was a man whose self-esteem had been damaged. How much he must resent having to bend the knee before Charles of Valois to beg for protection, to accept the condescending invitations of Orleans and Burgundy. To accept that he no longer wielded authority over his own lands and his own people. Even worse, to have the taint of treason hanging over him.

‘I would say…’ I began.

Before I could expand Duke Henry placed his cup, which he had been turning and turning in his hands, quietly onto the table, and quite deliberately let his gaze drop away from me.

‘No,’ he said, silencing me with a shake of his head. ‘No. There is no need. I know what I must do. My heart might pull me to return to England where I should cast myself on Richard’s mercy and hope for restoration so that my father will not be alone in his final years. Who’s to say that the climate in England might not change, so that I can return with the promise of a pardon?’ He grimaced, pushing the cup beyond his reach. ‘A pardon for something I had no hand in. Before God, it would stick in my gullet like week-old bread to have to beg for Richard’s forgiveness.

‘But we all know it would be to no avail. So, rejecting what my heart tells me, I know in my mind that it would be a fatal step to put myself in Richard’s hands. All my instincts tell me that I must stay clear of the shores of England until I have the chance of returning with more than a hope of redemption. As it is, I am declared traitor. If I went home, my life would be forfeit.’

‘It is what I would have advised,’ I said briskly, not a little ruffled, ‘if you had allowed it.’ Thinking that I might add: ‘Why ask, if you did not want to listen?’

But out of propriety I did not, and Duke Henry did not look at me but studied his hands, now loosely clasped.

‘And you have the right of it. I must not return. As long as my father continues in good health, I remain here in banishment.’

‘And I would say—stay in Paris,’ John added. ‘If things change in England, it’s not far for you to hear and take action. If you have to return fast, it can be arranged.’

‘I have no choice, do I?’

‘No. I don’t think you do.’

With no lightening of his countenance Duke Henry made his departure to his new residence, but not before a forthright explosion of his disillusionment.

‘How long will it be before King Charles decides that having a traitor in his midst is not good policy? Traitors are too dangerous to entertain, even visiting ones. I doubt I can rely on the friendship of Berry and Burgundy.’ He settled the velvet folds of his chaperon into an elegant sweep and pulled on his gloves with savage exactness. ‘I will be turned out of the Hotel Clisson and forced to make my living at the tournament.’

‘If such comes to pass,’ John remarked calmly, ‘you will come to us, of course.’

Which generated, at last, the semblance of a smile. ‘Only after I have apologised for my crude manners here today. Forgive me, Madam Joanna.’

His bow was as courtly as I could have expected, his salute on my hand the briefest brush of his lips. His final glance at me barely touched my face.

Alone, John wrapped his arm companionably around my waist as we walked through to the space that masqueraded as a bedchamber.

‘Although where we should put him I have no idea,’ he said as I sank onto the bed so that John could reach the coffer at the foot. ‘Do we support him, Joanna? It is a hard road for a young man with so many expectations. How fortunate that he did not remarry, in the circumstances.’ He sat back on his haunches, elbows resting on knees. ‘Treason leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Many here—your uncle of Burgundy for one—will take the line that there’s no smoke without a real conflagration. Officially he is accused of treason to the King of England, judged and banished. Many would question his right to be here at all. It’s a dangerous policy to support a traitor against a rightful king. Do we hold out the hand of friendship, or do we turn a cold shoulder?’

‘I suppose it all depends on if we consider him to be guilty,’ I said. ‘Do we?’

John did not take any time to consider. ‘No. I cannot think that. His sense of duty was engrained since birth. But what I do think is that we have to protect him from himself. He’ll not accept this lightly, and might be driven to some intemperate action.’

‘He’ll make his own decision.’ And found myself announcing, when I had sworn that I would not, because it sounded petulant even to my ears:‘He did not want my opinion, did he?’

‘Not every man is as foresighted as I.’ John smiled at my displeasure and, as he rose, patted me, neatly, on my head, forcing me to laugh. ‘I see your worth. One day Henry might too.’ He turned a book in his hand. ‘Now, what do you wish to do before the next interminable royal audience?’

‘Walk in the gardens. This place has no air.’

*

We fell into a pattern. Duke Henry came to us, formality abandoned. And when he did, John and Henry discussed politics: the uneasy stalemate between England and France, the dire situation of English and Breton piracy. They played chess, rode out to hunt, sampled some of John’s best wines, talked about Henry’s extensive travels in the east.

With me Henry also played chess but with less harmonious results.

‘You let me win.’ Indignantly I snatched up my knight that had cornered his king after a clumsy move by one of his pawns, a move a man gifted in the art of warfare, even if only on a chessboard, should never have contemplated.

‘I did no such thing.’ His regard was disconcertingly innocent.

‘You will never win a battle,’ I pronounced. ‘Your strategy is atrocious.’

‘Then I must learn, before I take to the battlefield,’ he pronounced gravely.

‘You walk a narrow path between truth and dissimulation, sir.’

Henry smiled.

‘And frequently fall off the edge,’ I added.

Indeed there had been no need for him to sacrifice his pawn. I was a match on the chessboard for any man. But he was chivalrous, impressive in his good manners, his mouth was generous when he smiled, and he was gifted in more than warfare. I discovered in him a love of the written word as he leafed through the pages of our books. Music moved him, and poetry. He tuned a discordant lute of mine to perfection.

So Henry and John took pleasure in each other’s company. But did I?

It was a bittersweet experience, driving me to my knees in repentance. Henry of Hereford took up residence in my thoughts once more and I could not dislodge him. He was there, like the annoyance of a bramble thorn beneath the skin. There were too many times when his entrance into a room where I sat or stood caused my heart to jump like one of our golden carp in our fishponds at Nantes. Or my blood to surge with the heat of mulled wine. Well, I would have to tolerate this discomfort until it passed me by, like the annoyance of a bad cold in winter. I could achieve that with equanimity. I would achieve it. I never held my breath when a man walked into the room.

I held it when Duke Henry visited and bowed over my hand. I held it when, his sleeve brushing against mine as we set up the chessmen once again, his proximity destroyed all my assurance. I held it when he took my lute, making it sing with bright joy or heart-wrenching grief, drawing his battle-hardened fingers across the strings. Duke Henry could sing too, effortlessly, without reticence, quick to be charmed into a rendition of Dante Alighieri’s song that could enflame any woman’s heart.

‘Love reigns serenely in my lady’s eyes,

Ennobling everything she looks upon;

Towards her, when she passes, all men turn,

And he whom she salutes feels his heart fail…’

Uninvited I joined my voice to his in counterpoint, so that he smiled:

‘All sweetness, all humility of thought

Stir in the heart of him who hears her speak;

And he who sees her first is blest indeed.’

It was sung with commitment, with delight in the words and music, but with no wilful treachery. We were not lovers exclaiming over our enchantment. Henry was not moved by the same yearning as I, that undermined with desire every lightly offered melody, and nor was I capable of such deceit. John, an indulgent audience, was tolerant but music moved him less than his gardens and the tales of travellers. He retreated into plans for planting aromatic shrubs at Nantes, leaving me awash with the seduction of music and shared passions. More breathless than ever, and not from the singing.

I stowed away the chess pieces in their box, placed my lute in my travelling coffer. It seemed to me to be a wise move.

And then my royal cousin King Charles, in his innocence, intervened.

‘So what is Charles doing to entertain you this week?’ John asked with more slyness than necessary as we finished off the crumbs and sweetmeats of a desultory supper. ‘Any more theological arguments to exercise your mind when you have nothing else to think about?’

‘This week it’s marriage,’ Henry announced, his expression carefully austere.

‘Whose?’

‘Mine.’

‘You are to be wed?’ John was obviously amused.

‘King Charles, in a fit of sanity, sees a means of chaining me to his side, whatever the future might hold. He seeks a bride for me. A French lady of some distinction.’

John might be amused, but did I find amusement in this clever strategic manoeuvring? I could understand it well enough. Whatever the outcome of this temporary isolation for Duke Henry, since one day he would assuredly regain his inheritance it might be good policy to make him a friend of France through a desirable marriage. Good policy indeed. And yet my hands stilled on my lap, my knuckles as white as the sun-bleached linen that covered the table. A new bride. Was that not what we had all expected? I should wish him well.

‘And who is the fortunate lady?’ I sounded to have a genuine interest.

‘A cousin of yours. The Duke of Berry’s daughter.’

I allowed my brows to rise gently. ‘A powerful match. An important bride. King Charles values you highly.’

‘Even though I am banished, my reputation tarnished beyond repair.’

‘You will not always be.’ His cynicism was difficult to bear, particularly when he spoke nought but the truth.

‘It seems a lifetime.’ Henry promptly adopted a bleak stoicism. ‘So the Valois would condescend to me, and I must accept. Tell me about her. Should I seek it? After all, I have nothing to lose.’

‘And much to gain.’ John waved his hand in my direction. ‘Joanna will tell you all you need to know about the lady. She has the convoluted relationships of the Valois family at her fingertips.’

‘Yes, indeed,’ I replied immediately. ‘You should snatch at it.’

I would have dragged him away from such a marriage. From any marriage.

How can you be so selfish? His future is not yours to direct.

I forced an astonishing depth of approval into my voice. She would make him an exemplary wife. And as I did so, became aware of John beaming at me. My lord and husband. My dear friend. He did not deserve my disloyalty, not to any degree. Morality decreed that I turn my thoughts to him, not to Duke Henry. Was I not a woman of high principle?

Never had I known such inner conflict. When a woman knew nothing of love-lorn longings, she did not yearn for them. Now my heart was sore with them, wretched with jealousy.

‘She is a widow, I understand,’ Henry was observing.

‘Twice over,’ determined, in atonement, to paint Cousin Mary in the best of lights,‘but she married very young and was widowed within five years. She has four children by her second husband. She administers the land for her son with considerable aplomb.’ I took another breath and began to dig a grave for my own sharp desire as my fingers picked apart the tough skin of a late fig. ‘Mary would make an excellent wife for a man of rank.’