Winter Song

Winter Song Read Free

Book: Winter Song Read Free
Author: Roberta Gellis
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oversee his wife’s.
    “You know,” Alphonse said suddenly, “I begin to like this
marriage of yours much better. It will be most excellent to hold the lands
directly from the king of England. If you marry a daughter of one of the Gascon
houses, I would be bound to the policy of that house. This way, we will be able
to make our own alliances freely as we like.” He paused and bit his lip. “If
this could be done, I would have no objections to the marriage…no…I would not.
But can it be done?”
    “I think so—that is, if I return quickly enough. The
situation between the brothers, King Henry and Earl Richard, is very good, or
was when I left England. That means that Henry will do whatever Richard asks,
and Richard will do what Alys asks. No, that is unfair. Richard will see the
value of having me as Henry’s vassal. What is more, Eleanor will exert her full
powers of persuasion for this. She will see the advantages therein, and the
king loves her dearly.”
    “The advantages should be plain enough for Henry to see for
himself,” Alphonse remarked, surprised.
    “Yes, but the king is not always governed by reason. If he
should be put out of temper by a quarrel with his brother, he will seek to
spite his brother’s friend, Sir William, by denying what Sir William’s daughter
desires. I will need to be careful how I approach the subject, but yes, I think
I can arrange a Gascon dower for Alys.”
    “Of what value?” Alphonse asked.
    Raymond beckoned a manservant over. “Go ask for Arnald in
the masters-at-arms’ quarters, and tell him to bring me the parchment boxes he
carried. Speak slowly. His French is of the north, but I warn you that if you
use a saucy tone he will knock you endwise.” Then Raymond turned to his father.
“Alys has written out the whole thing, what is hers and what more her father could
give her. I think we may depend on something very handsome from Cornwall, also.
He dotes on her. Call one of the scribes, Father, and let us see where it would
be best for the lands to lie.”
     
    Lady Jeannette had obeyed her son both times before she realized
he had twice sent her away. The first time she had told herself he was tired
and did not realize that his tone of voice was unkind and disrespectful. She
would scold him for it lovingly, and he would say he was sorry. The second time
she had also responded instinctively, taking three or four steps before she
understood she had been sent from the room like a wayward child. Her gasp and
clutch at her heart had gained no more response than a smile and a nod.
Alphonse had been staring at Raymond and paid her no attention either, and when
she had tottered feebly from the hall, clinging to Jeanine’s arm, Raymond had
turned his back.
    In the solar, Lady Jeannette now had time to collect her
thoughts and consider how she had been hurt and slighted. Her firstborn son,
the light of her eyes, had driven her away. He was cruel and unnatural. All his
life she had striven to smooth the path before his feet, to spare him the
smallest hurt or unhappiness, but he had always been ungrateful, rejecting the
toys she ordered for him, the musical instruments and fine garments, in favor
of swords and hunting bows, horses, and armor.
    Raymond had always seemed to prefer his tutor’s company,
even when that horrid man had knocked him down and bruised him in practice
combat, and when his father had sent him away to the household of the king of
Navarre, he had not complained but had gone willingly. She, on the contrary,
had begged and pleaded that he be sent to his grandfather, Raymond-Berenger,
where she knew he would be given special privileges and looked after tenderly.
Although Alphonse had agreed after a while, Raymond had not, insisting he was
happy in the court of Navarre.
    Ungrateful, she thought. Raymond had never cared that she
might grieve or worry about him. And this last escapade, disappearing for six
months without a word and sending that cruel letter to say

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