Maid Marian Read Free Page B

was very strange, for after this incident I stayed in my room a day or two until the bruising on my face had gone. And when I stirred without again I found that every lady my age was brimming with news of Queen Eleanor. The queen, it seemed, wished to interview each young lady who was not yet wed, for it was her responsibility to make marriage recommendations to the king.
    As Lady Clarice explained it to me, if a landed vassal of the king bore no sons, the king could take his eldest daughter to give in marriage to whomever he chose. As she spoke I understood at last how it was that I lived where I did. My parents had died, as I now knew, and I was left as their only child. Since my father’s lands by rights came to me, the king had the power to use me and my lands to make alliances with others of his nobles. This was how I came to wed Hugh and so young. The king desired to make Hugh’s parents pleased with him, so he gave them me and all of my lands to be part of their family from that day forward.
    The queen flourished in these sorts of decisions, and it was for that reason she chose to come among the young ladies to see which of us added beauty or wit to the value of our hills and furlongs. I felt certain she would not visit me and so did not worry myself, for ever since our last encounter I was quite in dread of Queen Eleanor. But I was already wed to Hugh, I told myself, so did not warrant her attention.

    N URSE AND I WERE SITTING alone the next afternoon when the door flew open to admit the queen. We both were flustered, but Nurse caught the whip end of the queen’s eye, for she scurried about in a noisy way that bothered Lady Eleanor. At last Nurse left, waving at me bravely as she went, then closed the door behind her.
    “Well, Lady Marian. I trust you know me by now as the queen, not as your mother?”
    I blushed deeply and clenched my fists, wishing with my whole being that she had not chosen to mention that.
    “Yes, my lady.” I glanced at her face, saw the disdain in her brilliant blue eyes, and felt my heart curdle between my ribs. But then I looked to her pale brows, to the place on her temples where gray met gold, and thought I saw the shadow of long-faded beauty which gave me heart.
    “Very well then. And do you know why I am come to see you today?”
    “No, my lady.”
    “I am conducting discussions with every young lady, surely you have heard that?”
    Her tone of condescension was so great that I struggled to defend myself.
    “Yes, my lady, but I understood that you were speaking only with marriageable young ladies. I am already married and so did not expect to . . . have the honor of speaking with you.”
    She smiled here for the first time. “Well spoken, child. To tell the truth, I came to see what you’ve become. It is always worthwhile for me to know my ladies a little better.”
    I thought of her years in Salisbury, closed off from the rest of the world, and wondered how I could rightly be called “her” lady. But I said nothing.
    She carried on as she had before and began to quiz me about my studies, to ask what I read and if I enjoyed it, to see what I knew of the world. As she questioned me I began for the first time to see gaps in my education and was ashamed to feel as backward as I did. She had just asked me how I got on with the nobles in my home castle, and I was replying that I did not go among them much, when Nurse bobbed in, searching for her best stitching needle.
    “My apologies, my lady,” she gasped, falling over herself in a curtsy, “but I’ve misplaced me needle.” As she spoke she seemed to realize the error she’d made in entering and looked at me with desperation. I leapt to my feet and snatched my own needle from out of my stitchery, pressing it gently into her hand. She bobbed again and rushed for the door, somehow managing to create more noise from five steps than a herd of twice as many sheep.
    The queen made an exasperated noise and turned back to