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Catherine looked her mother directly in the eye. “You and I both know, madam, that France will be ruined if Charles ever takes the throne. He is truly his father’s son.”
Isabeau hesitated, then nodded. “Aye, he is that. I regret the day I ever let that breathing lump of insanity get him on me.”
“Ah, the truth of the matter. Not the Master of the Hawks, then?”
Isabeau waved her hand dismissively. “A subterfuge only. Over the years I have made good use of my reputation for harlotry.”
“And so you sold Charles to Richard for … how much, madam?”
“A castle here, a castle there, a stableful of lusty lads … you know the kind of bargain I drive, Catherine.”
Isabeau stood up, pacing to and fro in front of the fire before she stopped and looked at Catherine.
“My dear,” she said, in a voice so gentle Catherine could hardly believe it was her mother speaking. “You and I have never been close and we have never talked as we do now. You were always so much the child.”
“I have grown in the year since last we spoke.” Isabeau had never taken much interest in her children, and Catherine had been raised in a succession of castles and palaces far from her mother’s side.
“Oh, aye, that you have. Catherine, I have sold Charles because I want France to live. I—as you do, I suspect—want France to have a king who can lead it to glory, not some pimple-faced toad afraid of his own shadow.”
“And so you want to hand it to Richard? I have heard but poor reports of him.”
Isabeau sank down to a pile of cushions on the floor before Catherine. The firelight flickered over her face, lighting her eyes and silvering her hair.
“I have opened the door, my dear, for the right man to fight his way through to the throne,” she said very quietly. “And I do not think that man will be Richard.”
Catherine stared at her mother for what seemed a very long time.
“You have come from the English court,” she said eventually. “What news?”
Isabeau dropped her eyes and fiddled with a tassel on her wrap. “I have a message for you from a Margaret Neville,” she said.
Catherine leaned forward. “Margaret? What message?”
Isabeau raised her head and looked her daughter directly in the eye. “She told me to make certain that I passed on to you the latest gossip.”
“Yes?”
“Hal Bolingbroke is to take Mary Bohun, the flush-faced virgin heiress to the Hereford titles and lands, as his wife on … why, on Michaelmas. Tomorrow.”
Catherine reacted as if she’d been struck. She reeled back, her face paling save for two unnaturally bright spots in her cheeks. “I cannot believe it!” she whispered.
“But you must,” Isabeau said, “for I spoke with the little Mary-child myself.” She grinned. “Poor Mary. She dreads her wedding night whereas you would have lusted for it more than Bolingbroke.”
Catherine’s eyes had filled with tears, and Isabeau regarded her with suspicion. “I did not know you had lusted for him, Catherine. Why so shocked?”
“There had been talk … some time ago … of a marriage between us.”
“There is always talk and there are always negotiations that never eventuate into actuality. You know that as much as any other noble-bred girl. And, truth to tell, Bolingbroke did not fight very hard to ensure the success of the negotiations. He was somewhat indifferent. But I can see that you managed to take a fancy to him, at the least. A shame, for you shall never have him.”
Catherine’s face tightened in anger, and Isabeau smiled, well pleased.
“You shall never have him,” she said again, “unless you fight for him, and make him want you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I know the Plantagenet princes very well.” She smiled. “Very, very well. Well, at least the older generation of them. But, come what may, all the Plantagenet princes are the same—they lust for power—and for the women they cannot have. I do not think Bolingbroke any different.”
“And …”
Isabeau shrugged elegantly. “Mary will not suit him. All can see that. She has not the fire to earn his respect. One day, Catherine, he will regret very, very much not having fought for you.
“My dear,” Isabeau leaned forward and took her daughter’s hands in hers, “make him fight for you now!”
“But he will soon have a wife!”
“Ah! You tie yourself down with such pettinesses! God above, Catherine, you can bring him France!”
“But with Mary as wife—”
“A wife? Of what matter is that? Wives come and go … and I have a feeling that Mary Bohun is so vapid she will catch a chill and die with the first touch of an autumn fog. Mary can be disposed of when the time comes, but in the meantime, she will provide a good power base so that eventually Hal’s lusts and ambitions can straddle the Narrow Seas.”
Isabeau’s teeth glinted momentarily. “And while you wait, there is no reason why you can’t make him sweat … and further our own cause to dispose of this Joan.”
Catherine, who had been fighting despair and hope in equal amounts in the last minutes, now eyed her mother warily. “Explain.”
“You said that Joan will ruin all our lives should she be allowed to prattle on for much longer. But I do not think myself wrong to say that most in this castle think her a mouthpiece of God?”
Catherine made a wry face. “I think most follow her about sweeping up the discarded skin she scratches off her neck and ears to keep as holy relics. Men flock to this castle as news of its saint spreads. And of all within this house of fools, Charles is the greatest fool of them all!”
“But what of Philip?”
“What of Philip?”
“What does he think? Does he have a collection of sacred dandruff tucked away under his pillow?”
“Who knows what he thinks?”
“I think we must learn what he thinks,” Isabeau said carefully, “for he might yet prove our greatest ally. And I think you the perfect woman to secure his secrets.”
“No,” Catherine whispered, trying to pull her hands out of her mother’s grip.
But Isabeau was surprisingly strong for her seeming fragility, and she kept tight hold of Catherine. “Don’t be such a fool! I said before that you should control your own destiny. Don’t let others do it for you! Bolingbroke uses people as he wants for his own devices, Catherine. Don’t let your womanhood stop you from doing the same.”
“Philip will think to use me to gain the throne for himself.”
“Of course! I would expect no less from him. But, Catherine, don’t you see? If Philip thinks he might have a chance at the throne through you then he will turn against Joan! One day, somehow, we can use him to destroy her, and once she is gone …”
“Then Charles fails.”
“Aye. He will never have the strength to fight for his inheritance on his own.”
Catherine took a deep breath. “I would have liked to have saved myself for—”
“Oh, stop prattling on about saving yourself!” Isabeau laughed in genuine amusement. “You’ve been listening to those pious priests and dimwitted nursery maids again. Enjoy Philip, for he will be good for you and to you.”
“Are you sure this is not a task you want to take on yourself, mother?”
“I think it is time for you to take wing and fly, child. Besides, yours is the body and womb that will gift a strong man the throne of France, not mine. Not any more. I have bequeathed you that power, Catherine. Use it.”
When Catherine had gone, Isabeau sat back and let her thoughts drift.
In many ways Catherine disconcerted her, but most of all Catherine disconcerted Isabeau because she should not exist.
Catherine was conceived one winter when Isabeau was being held captive in a stronghold of the Duke of Burgundy’s—the duke had thought to ransom her back to King John until he’d realised after four months that John would not pay a single gold piece to have his daughter-in-law returned. Finally, the duke had been forced to release Isabeau with much grumbling and cursing.
Catherine was not Louis’ daughter. Indeed, everyone assumed that Isabeau had consoled herself during her capture with a guard, or perhaps a cook.
But only Isabeau knew the truth. During those four months she had bedded no man. When, some two weeks before the Duke had finally released her, Isabeau had realised she was pregnant she was beside herself with fear.
What sprite had fathered this child on her? What imp would she give birth to?
Not wanting to know the answer to either question, Isabeau had taken every potion and herb she knew of to try and rid herself of the child in her womb. But it would not be shifted. Isabeau had gone into her birthing chamber terrified, thinking the child would kill her in its release from the womb.
But the birth had been easy, surprisingly painless, and Isabeau had recovered quickly. The child, Catherine, had been as any human child, and gradually Isabeau had convinced herself that perchance she had imbibed too much wine one night and had consoled herself with a foul-smelling guard after all.
And yet sometimes, as she did this day, Isabeau felt strong enough to admit to herself the truth.
Catherine was not the child of any mortal man, and she had not been put in her womb through any mortal means.
XI (#ulink_f8650324-1482-5093-b47c-94b82e56277c)
The Feast of St Michael
In the first year of the reign of Richard II
(Thursday 29th September 1379)
—Michaelmas—
—i—
Neither Mary’s mother, Cecilia, nor Bolingbroke, had spared any expense to adorn Mary in the finest garments possible.
And yet what a shame, Margaret thought as she carefully buttoned Mary into her wedding dress, that they did not pick something more suitable for Mary’s shy and subtle attraction.
The dress was of heavy damask, deep red in colour, and weighted down with pearls and gems that encrusted its bodice and cascaded down its full skirts and fancy sleeves. Its colour and decoration was too overwhelming for the modest Mary, and its cut too close and too cruel, for it served only to further flatten Mary’s small breasts and boyish hips.
The costume was too alive for her. Margaret could almost hear the sly whisperings of that sickening imp deep within Mary’s being. Surely the blood-red vitality of this gown would tempt it forth the sooner?
Margaret shuddered, then regretted her lapse instantly.
“Is something wrong?” Mary asked, trying to twist her head about to see what Margaret was doing.
“No. There, you are fastened in. Now, let me see that your hair is properly secured.”
Margaret sat Mary down on a stool and busied herself with the woman’s elaborate hairstyle; that it had taken Cecilia, Margaret and two other women half the morning to fix properly. Mary’s long, thick honey hair had been bound in two plaits which had been wound above her forehead. A veil, of the same rich colour as her dress, had then been laid over the crown of Mary’s head, and painstakingly pinned in place with jewelled hairpins. Then a broad circlet woven of gold and silver wires, with beautiful pale-green peridot stones gleaming within its twists and turns, was placed over both plaits, dropping low about Mary’s head to cover both her ears and holding the veil in place. The lower length of the veil was left to flow freely to halfway down Mary’s back.
The effect of both dress and headdress was stunning—or, at least, it would have been had Mary both the colouring and the regal bearing to set it off.
But Catherine would have worn it perfectly …
Margaret forced all thought of Catherine from her mind. Isabeau would have told Catherine by now—but what could Catherine do? Nothing … nothing.
And Hal. Margaret could understand the why of this marriage. It would serve him well in terms of power. But could he truly afford to alienate Catherine in this manner?
“My ladies?” A page appeared in the doorway. “It is time.”
Bolingbroke had chosen to be married not in the Savoy’s chapel, nor in either the abbey or St Stephen’s chapel in Westminster, but in St Paul’s in the west of London. It was a calculated choice, for Bolingbroke meant this to be a marriage in which the people of London could participate. The marriage would be a union between Mary Bohun and Hal Bolingbroke, and a cementing of the already strong marriage between Bolingbroke and the English commoners.
In that the Londoners loved Bolingbroke all the more for choosing St Paul’s, it was a fortunate choice. In another aspect, however, it was an appalling one.
Richard (accompanied as always by Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford) would also be attending.
At noon a great procession started from the Savoy; leading the way were Bolingbroke and Mary, Bolingbroke seated astride his great, prancing snowy destrier, Mary seated far more demurely on a chestnut palfrey mare led by a page.
Behind them rode, side by side, John, Duke of Lancaster, and Richard, who had arrived at the Savoy from Westminster by barge some hours earlier that morning. Behind them rode several peers of the realm, the Earl of Westmorland, Ralph Raby (who had made the trip from Sheriff Hutton the week previously), and Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, among them. In the group behind the great nobles rode Thomas Neville with several other of the noble attendants of the leading dukes, earls and barons.
It would be a relatively short ride from the Savoy to St Paul’s, taking perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes at a walk. From the Savoy’s gates the procession turned north-east on the Strand. A cheer went up from bystanders, for the Strand was a busy highway, and Bolingbroke smiled and inclined his head, acknowledging the cheers of the crowd.
From his vantage point just behind the leading riders, Neville could see Richard’s back stiffen.
They proceeded slowly along the Strand, passing the Inns of Court on the right. These, the great legal schools and courts of England, occupied the old buildings of the Knights Templar.
Then another, greater building arose like a great black crow hunched over its piteous prey: Blackfriars, the home of the Dominicans in London. Indeed, the analogy with the ravening crow was apt, because Blackfriars had grown so large that it had actually consumed that part of London’s wall which stretched from Ludgate down to the Thames.
Neville had to repress a shiver. Was the Prior General of England, Richard Thorseby, in there somewhere, still plotting his downfall?
A shadow fell over Neville, and he started before realising that it was the gloom cast by the height and breadth of Ludgate. He looked up at it looming above him and imagined he could hear the cries for mercy from the prisoners held within its dank dungeons.
He shook himself. What was he doing? This was a joyous day!
The instant he’d thought that, Bolingbroke and Mary, leading the procession, passed from under Ludgate’s shadow onto the wide street that led to St Paul’s, directly ahead.
The cathedral’s courtyard was crowded with Londoners, and as Bolingbroke and Mary appeared a great roar went up.
Hal! Hal! Fair Prince Hal!
And Neville, watching closely, saw Richard tense even further before shooting de Vere a dark glance over his shoulder.
