Passage to Pontefract (3 page)

He was delighted by his marriage. Blanche was enchanting. He had long heard of her beauty, though he did know that a bride’s charm was invariably measured by the size of her fortune, but this was not so in the case of Blanche. With her long fair hair and her very white skin and that air of vulnerability, she was irresistible and that she was a great heiress was just an additional attraction. Moreover had she not been rich and of such noble birth she would never have been chosen for him. He could not complain. He was in love with her already. It was a different sort of love from that he had had for Marie St Hilaire and he was deeply aware of the difference. It did not mean that he loved either of them the less. Blanche was the romantic lady, the kind of whom poets sang; Marie was the earthy mistress who knew how to satisfy him, how to soothe him, at all times. She did not complain. She understood that a man in his position could only come to her rarely. She knew that no great titles would come her way. Yet she had given him a deep and satisfying love.

He had talked to her as he never talked to anyone except Isolda Newman. Isolda – that staunch Flemish woman who had been his nurse – was a mother to him. It was to Isolda that he could reveal his innermost thoughts – even more so than to Marie, for Marie would never have understood entirely. Isolda did. He was aware in his Flemish nurse of a similar resentment which he himself felt.

When he was a little boy she had called him her little king and it had been a secret name for she had never used it before others.

Once she had said: ‘’Twas a pity you were not the first. What a King you would have made.’

He had been quite young when he had begun to feel the resentment because he was the fourth son. Edward and Lionel came before him. Young William had died. He had seen the adulation given to his brother Edward, the great Black Prince. When they had ridden out together people scarcely looked at him, and he had been very conscious of being only the little brother, while the people always shouted for the mighty Black Prince.

Lionel did not mind being the second son. Good-natured, lazy, stretching his long legs before him, stroking his handsome face, Lionel shrugged his shoulders. Lionel did not want to rule a kingdom. ‘Rather you than me,’ he had said to Edward. ‘I would not be in your boots, brother. Go on living, there’s a good fellow. Produce as many healthy sons as our parents did. Make sure that there is no way for me to come to the throne.’

How differently John felt! When he saw the crown his fingers itched to take it. He often thought: there are Edward and Lionel before me. And Lionel does not want it. What if …

He dismissed such thoughts. He was fond of his eldest brother. When he was a boy he had thought he was some sort of God and had joined in the general worship. But Edward was now twenty-nine years of age and he did not show any desire to marry; he was a fighter and one who liked to be in the forefront of the battle. If he did not marry; if he did not produce an heir; if he were killed in combat, there would only be Lionel before him. It was true Lionel had a four-year-old daughter Philippa – named for her grandmother the Queen – but a girl.

He must not think of these things. He could imagine the horror of his parents if they knew he did. He had a beautiful wife; passionately he wanted sons. It might well be that one day his son …

No, he must stop. There was an important matter to settle. He must see Marie. He must explain to her. He wondered if she had been among the spectators at the joust. Poor Marie, how had she felt to see the fair Blanche seated beside the Queen, to see him go forward and take her hand and kiss it fondly and ride with her into Westminster?

Blanche and he must have sons. It might well be that already she was with child. He hoped so. She seemed over fragile for much childbearing – unlike his mother – stolid, firm, Flemish wide-hipped, ample-bosomed, born for motherhood.

He must slip out of the palace unnoticed. It was well that he was not as easily recognised as his father and elder brothers were – for while the visage of the Black Prince was well known throughout the land, Lionel’s excessive height made it impossible for him to remain incognito. John himself was tall but not as tall as his brothers; his hair was less fair being more of a tawny shade; he was clearly Plantagenet, but that cast of features did appear here and there in the land, due no doubt to the lustiness of some of his ancestors.

He left the palace alone and made his way towards the City. Riding along the Strand past the noble palaces he saw the Savoy towering above the rest and he thought exultantly, one day that might well be mine. It belonged to his father-in-law and Blanche with her sister Matilda was his heir.

It was a pity that Blanche had a sister – and an elder one at that. Never mind the fortune was vast and when Duke Henry died it must pass to his daughters.

His fair bride could bring him more than her beauty.

He made his way into the City and rode along by the Water of Walbrook which came from its source in the heights of Hampstead and Highbury and flowed through swampy Moorfields to empty itself into the Thames. He came to a house near St Mildred’s Church close to Bucklersbury and here he paused. He rode through an arch at the side of the house and as he entered a courtyard a man ran out to make a sweeping bow. John dismounted and the man took his horse. He pushed open a door in the courtyard and was in the house.

Marie was waiting for him. She did not rush into his arms as was her custom. She stood back waiting for him to give some sign of what was expected of her. It was her indication that she realised there was a marked change in their relationship.

He thought: She was at the joust. She saw Blanche there …

He caught her hands and kissed her passionately.

‘Oh my lord …’ she murmured.

They went together into the room with the leaded windows that looked out on the courtyard. How often had he been here and found solace with Marie. It had been a satisfying relationship. He was not a promiscuous man. He had had one mistress at a time and Marie had held that position for more than two years. She was older than he was but he had been very young when he had first come to her.

They did not go to her bed as they would have done had this been an ordinary occasion. Marie was aware of this. She had set out on a table wine and the wine cakes she liked to bake for him. She knew that he had come to talk.

‘You were in the crowd?’ he asked.

She nodded. ‘I saw your bride. She is very beautiful. She looks … kind and good.’

‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘I know she is.’

‘You will love her well and she will love you.’

‘Marie,’ he said. ‘I am sorry. It had to be.’

She smiled bravely. ‘I always knew it would be thus. I never forgot that you were the King’s son and some day there would be a bride for you. Sometimes I thought that might not be the end.’

‘It must be the end,’ he said.

She nodded. ‘I knew you would wish it so.’

‘I could not deceive her,’ he said.

‘I understand.’

‘Dearest Marie, you have always understood. It is not that I do not love you. I shall for ever be grateful to you …’

‘You owe me no gratitude,’ she answered. ‘It was my pleasure to give and to take as it was yours. Suffice it that we have been happy together.’

‘It is a new life. I shall be sailing for France with my father ere long.’

‘So she, too, will be alone.’

‘It is the way our lives go. I must not stay. They will miss me.’

‘She will miss you,’ she murmured.

‘Marie. Before I go. The child …’

She rose. ‘She is sleeping.’

‘Let me see her.’

She led the way into a room, where lying on a pallet was a child a little over a year old.

‘How lovely she is,’ he said.

‘She has a look of you. The same tawny hair … the blue eyes. I shall have her to remind me.’

‘She shall never want. Nor shall you.’

‘I know it,’ said Marie. ‘She must never want, because she is your daughter.’

‘You may trust me to make all arrangements. It is to assure you of this that I came.’

He knelt by the pallet and bending kissed the child. She smiled in her sleep.

They went back to the table; he drank a little of the wine and ate one of the wine cakes. He explained what arrangements would be made for her and the child.

Then he took his farewell. They stood facing each other, both deeply moved. She had meant so much to him; he had trusted her. Here in the dark room when he had lain beside her after making love he had talked of his dreams, of how he resented being born the fourth son instead of the first, of how he longed to be a king. He could talk to Marie as freely as he could talk to Isolda and no one else. ‘I have the blood of kings in my veins,’ he had said. ‘I was born to rule, but born too late.’

And she listened as Isolda had listened; and she commiserated and soothed him and understood.

It was over now. They had always known it must be some day. Once he had thought Marie would always be there in his life and so she would have been if they had married him to anyone but Blanche.

Blanche filled his thoughts. There was something in her which appealed to his manhood. Soft and white and vulnerable. That was it. Heiress as she was, stem of a royal tree, she needed to be protected.

He said goodbye to Marie and he chided himself because he felt less sad than he should. Marie and her child should always be cared for. But he was in love with Blanche.

Those summer days passed delightfully for the young married pair. Each day it seemed they were more and more in love. The King and the Queen watched with pleasure and continued to sigh because the Prince of Wales still avoided the same happy state.

It was with great joy that Blanche at length discovered that she was pregnant.

John was exultant. In an unguarded moment he cried, ‘If this child is a boy, he may one day be King of England.’

Blanche was a little shaken. ‘Oh, my dear husband, there are many before him.’

‘Many,’ agreed John. ‘But who can see into the future?’

She said nothing, but she knew of his great ambition and it gave her a certain apprehension. She accepted the fact that he was bold and ambitious but her father had taught her that duty and honour were greater blessings than titles and lands and she knew her father was right. There had been a strong bond between them, because she supposed she was the only child who was near him, Matilda being far away.

She prayed each night that her child would be a boy, for she could not bear to disappoint her husband.

In October of that year John went to France with his father. The truce which had been made two years before with the capture of the King of France was coming to an end and as the Dauphin of France refused to recognise the treaty his father had agreed to in captivity it was clear that Edward would have to attempt to enforce it. Preparations had been going on during the summer months and the King, in accordance with the custom at such times, had made a tour of the holy shrines accompanied by members of his family with their households.

The great cavalcade made its way through the country and it was cheered wherever it went. The people were certain that great Edward could not fail and soon these wretched wars with France would be over and Edward would attain the crown which for so long he had made such determined efforts to get. It was true all had thought the war was over when the King of France had ridden into England with his captor the Black Prince; but now it seemed there was a wicked Dauphin who was determined to cling to the crown for himself.

So it was war again.

In the household of Lionel and his wife Elizabeth was a young man who interested Blanche. He was about the same age as her husband – bright-eyed, intelligent; seeming different from other pages. He was in favour with Elizabeth and Lionel and looked quite elegant in his parti-coloured breeches of red and black – the fashionable colours at the moment. He even had a silk paltok, the new kind of coat which was very elegant.

Blanche would find his eyes on her whenever he was near. She was amused and asked him why he stared at her.

He told her that he had never in his life seen anyone as beautiful as she was.

Such a comment might have been impertinent from one in his lowly position but it was given with an air of dignity and Blanche graciously accepted it.

She asked her sister-in-law who the young page was and Elizabeth laughed and said, ‘Oh, he is an interesting boy. He writes clever verses. Both Lionel and I encourage him. He is the son of a vintner who distinguished himself in the wars. His name is Geoffrey Chaucer.’

Blanche found herself watching for the young man and she always had a smile for him when they met.

His admiration gratified her. There were plenty to admire her of course, but there was something rather unusual about the young page.

In due course the army left and Blanche must say farewell to her husband.

The Queen was sad. She hated these wars. ‘Would to God the King had never got it into his head that he had a claim to the throne of France,’ she confided to Blanche. ‘How much happier we should all be if there were not this continual fighting. I never sleep peacefully when the King is away because when he is he is always engaged in battle. My dear Blanche, you will condole with me for alas, John is with him.’