The Squire’s Tale (8 page)

Katherine looked up from her horse’s ears toward Lady Blaunche’s back. “Master Fenner says so, but Lady Blaunche”—Katherine dropped her voice even lower than it had been—“holds to her own way of seeing things.”

Held to it come what may and in despite of everybody, Frevisse silently suspected and had the regretful thought that she was probably not going to like the trouble into which she was riding; but since there seemed no help for it, she might as well know more and asked, “Have you met this Allesley heir they’re thinking of for your husband?”

‘No.“

A flat and simple statement that invited no other questions that way. Frevisse tried instead, “Is it much land in question?”

That Katherine answered readily enough. “The smaller of the Northamptonshire manors.”

‘Master Fenner has others, then?“

‘One other in Northamptonshire and Brinskep where we’re going in Warwickshire. The one the Allesleys claim is the least of the three.“ Katherine hesitated, then said on a rush, ”And Master Fenner says it would be worth being rid of it for him not to be bothered over it anymore.“ Katherine turned her head to look at her, still remembering to keep her voice low as she went on, as if glad to say it out, ”The mother of Lady Blaunche’s second husband was married first to an Allesley. She had the manor of Northend for her dower from him. When she was widowed, she married again and had her only child, Sir Ralph, and inherited everything from his mother. But when she died, the dower land should have gone back to the Allesleys and instead Sir Ralph kept it and gave it to Lady Blaunche as her dower when they married and she’s kept it ever since, declaring it’s hers and that the Allesleys can go hang before they have it from her.“

‘She’s not pleased that her husband is trying to settle with them, then?“

Katherine gave Lady Blaunche’s back a worried glance. “Not pleased in the least.”

‘But she brought the token from Master Fenner and you’re certain he’s sent for you?“

As soon as she had asked it, Frevisse wished she had not because there was nothing to be gained by alarming the girl. But come to that, why had it even crossed her thoughts that there might be cause for alarm?

But Katherine said without worry, “Oh, yes.”

‘Look!“ Mistress Avys exclaimed behind them. ”Blue sky!“

There was a patch of it indeed and when that diversion was done, neither Frevisse nor Katherine took up their talk where it had been but rode silent save when Lady Blaunche or either of the waiting-women passed comments to them that must needs be answered, until somewhat late in the morning the road passed through Banbury’s south gate, became a street and opened out among the houses and shops into the marketplace with its finely wrought Eleanor cross and, more to the present necessity, a choice of inns for their dinner. Lady Blaunche had been happy enough with the Green Lion on her way to St. Frideswide’s to return there now and the meal they were served at one of the long tables in its main room justified her choice though Frevisse and Dame Claire perforce made do with ale and bread and a simple pease pottage meant for servants. But it was a new brewing of ale, and the bread, though rye, was satisfyingly crusty outside and soft—for rye bread—within. They had to refuse butter on it and as the tormenting smell of the other women’s mutton stew reached them Dame Claire said aside to Frevisse, “This is not going to be easy”; but no one had stinted on the herbs in the pease pottage and it was savory enough that all in all they did none so badly.

Trouble only came at the meal’s end, when Lady Blaunche was paying the host and he asked where they were bound for and she answered, “North into Warwickshire.”

To that he frowned worriedly and asked, “By the direct way, my lady?”

She frowned back at him. “Of course by the direct way. Why?”

‘The northward bridge into Warwickshire is out. Yesterday’s rains did for it, seems like.“

‘It’s out?“ Lady Blaunche’s voice rose. ”I crossed it yesterday. It can’t be out!“

‘It is, my lady. Two different carters have been in here today, not half angry about having to turn back and take another road.“

‘But I have to go that way,“ Lady Blaunche said. ”That’s the road I want to take!“

‘I can’t help you there, my lady.“ The man was regretful but too used to travellers and their upsets at what he could not change to be much bothered by this present one.

‘What about fording anywhere that way?“ one of the men asked.

‘Shouldn’t have much hope of any ford,“ the host said. ”Not if the water’s been bad enough to take that bridge out. Your best hope is east over the Cherwell bridge here. It’s—“

‘I don’t want to go east!“ Lady Blaunche protested.

‘Or else try westward to the first bridge upriver. There’s no trouble that way that I’ve heard.“

He withdrew across the room then, leaving Lady Blaunche speechlessly near to distraught and no one knowing what to say, until she sat herself abruptly down onto a bench and said at no one in particular, “I don’t want to go that way.”

‘My lady,“ Mistress Avys tried soothingly, ”it’s not that great a matter to be upsetting yourself for it.“

‘I
have
to go that way,“ Lady Blaunche repeated.

‘But you can’t,“ one of the men dared. ”There’s not point in even trying, what with the bridge out. Best we can do is go straight for the first bridge upriver and be done with it.“

Lady Blaunche shot angrily to her feet. “But that puts us on a whole different road to home!”

‘It makes no odds, my lady,“ Mistress Avys said, beginning to be distressed with her. ”We’ll be a little later home is all. Isn’t that so, Jack?“

‘By tomorrow eventide, sure. Only a little more riding that would have been,“ the man Jack agreed.

Mistress Avys made to pat Lady Blaunche’s arm. “See? There’s naught—”

Lady Blaunche flung her hand aside, exclaiming at her, “That isn’t the point! That…”

‘What
is
the point, my lady?“ Katherine asked in an oddly careful voice.

Lady Blaunche spun around to face her but stopped short of answering and after the barest pause said instead of whatever she had been going to, “The point is where are we going to stay tonight? I don’t know anywhere on the way you’re all wanting me to go. What will we do if there’s nowhere?”

‘There’ll be somewhere,“ Jack assured her. ”There’s always somewhere.“

Between one moment and the next Lady Blaunche had turned to piteous, her voice rising with desperation. “But what if there isn’t? I can’t just sleep in a ditch! I can’t…”

Jack started to protest that and Mistress Avys to flutter toward her with soothing sounds but Dame Claire came in her way, going to take Lady Blaunche by the arm and turning her back toward the bench, saying firmly, “You know no one is going to let you sleep in a ditch, my lady.”

‘My baby—“

‘Will do well so long as you do well. Upsetting yourself over what can’t be helped is not the way to do well. Now sit.

‘We have to be going—“

‘We will. Sit you down, I pray.“

Perforce, guided by Dame Claire’s strong hand, Lady Blaunche sat as Dame Claire raised her voice to order, “Host, warmed cider well spiced with cinnamon for my lady, please. Dame Frevisse, would you bring my box, please?”

Frevisse went willingly, one of the men with her, knowing which hamper it was in, and in the innyard while he undid the bag’s straps, she asked him, “Does Lady Blaunche often fret herself this way?”

Sounding long resigned to it, the man said, “Aye, she does and not just when she’s bearing, either.”

Frevisse had been afraid of that. If all it was with her was the unbalance of humours that so often came on a childing woman as her body resorted itself to the growing child, making her feelings as changeful as her body, then mayhap Dame Claire could balance them again, but if Lady Blaunche commonly flung about this way…

The man pulled out Dame Claire’s box of medicines and made to carry it himself but Frevisse held out her hands to take it from him, aware as he gave it to her that Katherine was coming from the inn, Mistress Dionisia following her in rather flustered haste, as if Katherine’s going out was sudden, and in truth the girl moved sharply aside from the doorway and Frevisse coming back toward it, only stopped from going farther by Mistress Dionisia catching her by the sleeve and turning her around to bring them face-to-face.

What Katherine said then, Frevisse did not catch except that she seemed angry. Or maybe frightened. Of what? Of rain-swollen rivers and washed-away bridges? That was all there had been to distress her unless Lady Blaunche being upset had upset her, too. But she must be used to Lady Blaunche’s ways by now. Everyone else around the lady seemed to be.

Dame Claire took the box from her with thanks as the host brought a cup of the same spiced cider Katherine and Mistress Avys had had with their dinner and set it beside her.

‘Baby’s drink,“ Lady Blaunche said with distaste.

‘And you’re drinking it for your baby,“ Dame Claire said crisply, choosing two little packets from among the other packets and small stoppered jars packed in the box.

‘What are those?“ Mistress Avys demanded.

‘Don’t be so suspicious, Avys,“ Lady Blaunche said impatiently. She handed the innkeeper a coin for the cider and asked as if maybe he could be persuaded to change things if only he’d change his mind, ”Master host, you’re certain there’s nowhere near that’s a sure crossing northward?“

‘I’m sure as can be, my lady.“

On that, he bowed and withdrew again and Lady Blaunche said grimly to the wall across the room, “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

‘Here, my lady.“ Having crumbled and stirred some dark, dried leaves into it, Dame Claire held out the cider to her. ”Drink while it’s still warm.“

Lady Blaunche took it, sipped carefully, made an appreciative sound, and drank deeply, Dame Claire, Frevisse and Mistress Avys watching in silence. All the men were gone out now and Katherine and Mistress Dionisia not come back in, and when Lady Blaunche had finished and set the emptied cup aside, she stood up and said, calm and determined, though it was too soon for the herbs to have begun to work on her, “Well, if change roads we must, then change roads we will and we’d best be about it. Let’s be on our way, shall we?”

Chapter 5

That afternoon’s riding had an unease the morning’s had not, even though before they were far out of Banbury Lady Blaunche had given over being outwardly upset and was keeping up an almost constant talk to Dame Claire riding next to her again. It made Frevisse grateful for Katherine far more silent beside herself; but somehow Katherine’s silence was not a comfortable silence, no more than Lady Blaunche’s talk was easy talk, mostly about her ailments and her children with occasionally other things thrown in as they came randomly to mind and none of it of any interest to Frevisse. But just as Katherine’s quiet and few brief, stiff words came, after the first while of riding, to seem like a guard wrapped around thoughts she was keeping to herself, so Lady Blaunche’s almost ceaseless rattling began to have the feel of things said to hide thoughts.

What things? Frevisse wondered.

Or maybe it was simply her own and everyone’s unease at the weather that instead of settling was shifting from rain to not to rain again but never one or the other for very long; and the riding was less easy than it had been, the roads more muddied from more rain here, forcing them too often to ride aside, when hedges or walls allowed, onto the grassy verges or else to cut through pastures or fields not yet spring-plowed. All of that slowed their going so that it was nigh to mid-afternoon before they came around and down a steep curve of the road toward a village and into sight, at its near end, of a bridge with the water running high under it and a clutter of village men and a few women at both ends, some of the men knee-deep in water among the bridge timbers along the bank, everyone else standing above, calling suggestions down at them.

In immediate distress, Lady Blaunche exclaimed, “Jack!” and he answered as quickly, “I’ll find out, my lady,” and rode forward while the rest of them drew rein. Dame Claire leaned to say something quietly—and probably quieting— to Lady Blaunche who gave her only a curt nod in reply without looking away from Jack while he talked briefly with some of the men on the bank below; calling down impatiently at him when he reined his horse around to come back, “Well?”

‘They say we can cross, no fear, my lady,“ Jack called back.

From the rear Mistress Avys cried out, “Are they sure or are they just saying it?”

‘If they weren’t sure, they wouldn’t say it,“ Lady Blaunche said, heeling her horse forward.

‘But how can they be sure?“ Mistress Avys insisted.

‘Because they are,“ Lady Blaunche returned impatiently.

Still holding her horse where it was, Mistress Avys protested, “They’re not the ones crossing it!”

‘Nor will we be if you go on sniveling,“ Lady Blaunche snapped. ”It’s safe enough if they say it is. Come on.“

Directly ordered, Mistress Avys came, making small, unhappy sounds until, just short of the bridge, Lady Blaunche drew rein, looked back at her and said, “If you’re all that afraid, come ride with me but be quick about it.”

Frevisse did not see why riding with Lady Blaunche would make the crossing any safer but she kept the thought to herself while they resorted themselves, Mistress Avys riding forward to join Lady Blaunche, Katherine swinging her horse around to Mistress Dionisia’s side, Dame Claire drawing back to ride beside Frevisse. The men waited with the patience of men who have no choice in a matter, Jack saying when it was done, “We’ll cross two at a time, please you, my lady?”