Gifts of the Queen Read Free

and some will use love to do you harm. And one you will love but fear he does not love you. And because of the hatred of three men you shall do us a service so great, we shall throw off the Norman yoke. But what follows after will not depend on you.'
    Her list of—prophecies, I suppose I should now call them, daunted me. I would not let her know it. I threw back my head and squared my shoulders under the woolen cloak. The mist had condensed upon it in great drops, even the reins were black and slippery with wet and the rain had beaded upon her hair.
    'And is there no more than this?' I asked, although my voice trembled despite myself.
    'Only this,' she said, and for the first time, there was anger, cold and stern, in her voice. 'Death and grief are within your power. Use your hold on them carefully. Beware the malice of womenfolk.'
    'And is there no hope anywhere?' I cried, afraid of something I could not see, but glimpsed at darkly, far-off.
    She said, 'Men will lay down their lives for you. Be comforted. They will do so willingly. Trust the impulse of your own heart. And one day, you shall come safely home.'
    The men at the entrance to the stone cried out, or perhaps now I was suddenly able to hear them.
    'Comeback, Lady Ann, come back,'I heard their captain shout.
    'That one,' she said and she pointed to him on his gray horse. 'Come back, he says. Long will he wish it for himself.'
    'And shall I bring you the golden chain?' I said, nudging my pony away from her, for the coldness in her voice was like ice. 'Tomorrow, if you will tell me where.'
    'No,' she said, 'you will not bring it to me although one day I shall claim it. But not tomorrow nor tomorrow's morrow will you come up here again.'
    The captain had forced his horse through the gap at last, and lashing it, reached over the side to grasp my bridle with his other hand. With whip and spur, he forced the frightened beast, almost dragging me underfoot.
    'This is no place for you,' he cried, his Norman voice a trumpet blast. 'Away from this ring of death.'
    'It is you who have spoken the word,' she said, standing up very tall. 'And on your lips is death recorded, not on mine.'
    As she spoke, the animals stopped their struggle, turned meekly to one side. We jostled through the gap in the stones; the other men, as if freed from whatever had held them there, swung round, roweling their horses down the narrow path, moving into a gallop on the level ground.
    I shouted the words, 'Tomorrow then?' over my shoulder, but the mist had come down, the circle of stones was hidden, everything blurred and faded away.
    We came to the open fields, the village beneath the castle walls, in a thunder of hooves, fear driving at our heels. Well, she spoke the truth in this. I never went up there the next day. On the morrow's morning was my brother dead; murdered, if the correct name be given, and within two days my father, Falk of Cambray, had followed him; of grief and loss he died. I left Cambray of sea and moors and came to the castle of Sedgemont, as ward to my overlord. Lord Raoul, who but a boy himself, had recently inherited those lands from his grandfather. The handsome captain of the guard was lost in one of those many battles far away and never ever came back to Cambray. And many weary years passed until I returned.
    And it was true that since that meeting my life had not been an easy one. My brother and father had died; even my castle of Cambray had been lost when a Celtic force had taken it, and other enemies had coveted it too and tried to kill me for my little lands. And true it was that many men had died for me. That they did so willingly had not made their deaths easier for me to bear. And although I had never thought to marry with an earl, Lord Raoul was indeed a great lord, lord of many lands and titles when I knew him first, but landless when finally we were wed, a month ago at the English court. For after my father's death, those wars,